July 2019: Why I STAY in Appalachia by Sav Miles

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Why I STAY in Appalachia by Sav Miles  Originally posted on OurFuture.org Why would you ever go back?” “Why don’t you move to Los Angeles, or come out to Denver?” “Have you at least considered Birmingham?” Whenever I told someone, be it a stranger or someone much closer to me, that after graduating from college I was planning to move back to my hometown of Gadsden, Alabama, these are the questions I faced. Even people who saw me spend my entire undergraduate career studying inequality in the rural South, even folks who had read my senior thesis – a model for community organizing in my hometown – could not understand why I would actually go back to put that knowledge to practice. And over the last six months of living back home, I can’t say that I don’t ever question that decision, too. Exactly zero of my 1600 peers from Harvard’s Class of 2018 moved to Alabama after graduating. Most of my friends from high school either left to find work elsewhere or are locked up in multiple low-wage jobs. Every time a college buddy tells me about the latest function on a New York City rooftop, with every new vegan café I try in my siblings’ respective cities and every queer couple on my Instagram feed looking proud and protected in their urban bubble, I wonder if I should have abandoned my dreams of making my home a better place and moved to a place that was better made for me. Yet like any piece of clothing worth a damn, there are pockets of people across Alabama and Appalachia that remind me where I fit. Last month I got to attend the Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) Summer Institute, a gathering of young leaders, creators, and organizers across Appalachia dedicated to supporting one another in building inclusive and sustainable communities where we can and want to stay. In between midnight swims in a starry lake, Appalachian love ballads, and meals of stuffed homegrown poblanos and fresh mint soda, we wrote ourselves into a people’s history of the region. We gathered as queer people, trans people, and people of color. We shared our stories and songs and skills and learned to love this land that doesn’t always love us back. We found common ground not just in the space we shared, but in the challenges we experienced and in the liberation we envisioned. I cried the whole way home. I was a kid again: leaving summer camp, unsure of the fate of my newfound faraway friendships. I cried for the childhood camping trips and bluegrass festivals that took me from the north Alabama foothills through those curvy roads and rocky rivers of Central Appalachia. Every time I rounded a bend and saw the setting sun’s rays spread out across those mountains, I cried for how they – and their people – have been so repeatedly dishonored. I cried over the harshest reality of growing older–realizing how the purest joys of my childhood have been tainted by corporate control, political partisanship, and liberal elitism. At STAY I didn’t have to prove to anyone – not even myself – why I chose to come home. I found solidarity, strength, and understanding in the people who know that living here isn’t a sacrifice, but a source of power. And even though we’re now separated by hills and hollers and highways, I am starting to see that power all around me. It bubbles up in the spring that fuels my favorite swimming hole. It’s drawn from the roots of my great-great grandfather’s fig tree. It’s flowing through the pipes of my $400/month two-bedroom. I hear it interwoven in the Southern drawls and Spanish dialects at the Trade Day flea market, in the banjo and guitar licks of Bluegrass Thursdays in my dad’s basement, in the silent acknowledgment at Walmart between another queer and myself (the “gay gaze,” I like to say). Above all, I see that power in the leaders and members of Hometown Action and other groups in the People’s Action network. Much like the folks at STAY, we are determined to make small towns and rural communities happier, healthier, and more inclusive places to live. I thank the heavens every day that I get to serve as Hometown Action’s Appalachian Region Lead Organizer, and I’m ready to fight like hell with anyone who wants to make this place somewhere we can and want to stay. Sav Miles is a 2019-2020 recipient of the Priscilla Chan STRIDE Postgraduate Public Service Fellowship, which they will use to support work in Gadsden and across North Alabama as Appalachian Region Lead Organizer for Hometown Action, part of the People’s Action national network of grassroots groups.  A Word from STAY Project Staff & Steering Committee Dear STAY Project family, We hope your summer is treating you well! Last month, over 50 young people from across Appalachia gathered in Southwest Virginia for STAY's annual Summer Institute. It was a beautiful weekend and we are so grateful to everyone who showed up and created such powerful and welcoming space. We want to say a special thank you to Appalachian Voices, Highlander, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and Sierra Club for sponsoring this year's summer institute and to Becca & Joe with Pollinator Produce Partners for keeping us well fed all weekend long! Stay tuned for exciting things coming up this fall like the Black, Appalachian, Young, and Rising Gathering which will be November 8th-10th (location to be announced soon)! kinship & solidarity, The STAY Project staff & steering committee We have a membership call on Sunday, August 18th at 7:00pm! Register for the call at bit.ly/staymembercall to talk about what's been going on since the STAY Summer Institute and what we have coming up next!    A Gathering for led by and for Black Appalachian Youth coming this November 8th-10th 2019! Click here to find out more about this gathering! There is a $10,000 goal to cover the event and to pay the Black youth who are doing the work to make it happen. STAY is asking you to invest in this important work by making a donation today.  Donate to support Black Futures in Appalachia Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form! Regional Happenings Last week some of our STAY folks went over to the blockade in Cumberland, KY to support the miners who have blocked a train carrying coal that the miners have not been paid for mining from leaving. On July 1st Blackjewel Mining declared bankruptcy and withdrew paychecks from the workers’ accounts, pulling the rug out from under the miners and their families. Coal bosses have gotten away with stealing from workers for too long and we’re not gonna stand for it! There are STAY folks on site supporting the miners and their families with maintaining the blockade -they are often paying out of pocket to buy items that are necessary to keep blocking the railroad track. You can support this effort too! They are accepting donations through Venmo @shittyitalianguy  or on Paypal motomiya_jun@hotmail.com or Cashapp $blackjewelminers Photo:Lou Murrey Southern Connected Communities Project has opened a Cyber Cafe in the Clearfork Valley! Need to print something? Have research to do?  Want to scroll the internet? Need to submit an application? Have a paper to write? Come see us at Clearfork Community Institute (the old Eagan School) Free services available; Scan, copy, print, and laptops Staff available for basic computer assistance  Coffee, lattes, cappuccino and snacks will be sold Beginning August 6, 2019 hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays  9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call 423-784-0095 for more information Be a STAY Project Member! Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form. If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information. Come be a part of the movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia! When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us! Donate to the STAY Project! Share Tweet Forward Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*