Tag: Appalachia

Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance by Denali Sai Nalamalapu

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance by Denali Sai Nalamalapu is the illustrated stories of six changemakers who are fighting for their communities and the planet. This debut graphic memoir focuses on the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia and the actions of six frontline resisters, while also contributing to the history of climate justice. The people interviewed in this graphic memoir paint a portrait of the diversity of people and places in Appalachia.

Denali Nalamalapu has interviewed six ordinary people who, through their own unique circumstances, have become resistors to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The MVP covers approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia with the developers hoping to expand even further in the future. Her cast includes a teacher, a single mother, a nurse, an organizer, a photographer, and a seed keeper. Each shares their motivations for joining the fight against the MVP, as well as their different methods of resistance. Standing up for what you love, fighting for what’s right, and working together as a community highlight how everyday resistance can make a difference.

Holler highlights the importance of standing up when the world would rather you stay quiet and accept what they want you to. What stuck with me were the various ways that each person chose to resist. Their paths to activism were different, but they highlight how small actions can have a large impact.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

- Ann Leave a comment

flightbehavior

Set in rural Appalachia, Flight Behavior introduces readers to fiery haired Dellaboria Turnbow, a 28-year-old mother of two and wife of sweet, but dull Cub. After getting pregnant at 17, she traded college for rural poverty — helping her in-laws on their sheep farm.  We meet Dellaboria as she makes her way toward an adulterous rendezvous, which she skips after seeing what “looked like the inside of joy” that she interprets as a sign from God.  Her vision turns out to be a sea of Monarch butterflies that arrive in rural Tennessee after changing weather patterns disturb their flight behavior.  The butterflies bring in a cast of characters — from environmental activists to scientists to tourists to journalists — that push Dellaboria to challenge her expectations of herself and those around her.

This book reads as deeply personal, with Kingsolver’s fondness for these characters only matched by the urgency in her description of possible near-future effects of climate change.  Kingsolver lives in rural Appalachia (and has a background in ecology and biology), and you can tell that she looks on her home with a mix of affection and frustration.  She writes Dellaboria and her family and friends with enough respect to make them complicated, thoughtful, intelligent, and flawed.  Readers that enjoyed Kingsolver’s other forays into family and politics in  The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle will enjoy this beautifully written novel.