Concert for Mountain Justice - Celebration of Culture and Resistance

by: Clem Guttata

Tue Mar 13, 2007 at 07:18:17 AM EDT

Mountain Top Removal is an environmental and humanitarian disaster. Major kudos to the Danny Chiotos and the WV Student Environmental Action Coalition for their efforts. I can't wait to hear more about the Mountain Justice Spring Break.

Concert for Mountain Justice - Celebration of Culture and Resistance

The Concert for Mountain Justice will feature musicians with a history of singing for the mountains and people on Saturday, March 17th at 7 PM. This concert will feature Andrew McKnight, Elaine Purkey, Here's to the Long Haul, Keith & Joan Pitzer, and Sound Storm in WVSU's Capitol Theatre at 123 Summers St, Charleston, WV. This program is being organized as a fundraiser for Mountain Justice Spring Break and is being co-sponsored by the Student Environmental Action Coalition and the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Program.

Tickets will be sold at the door for either $5 or a larger donation which is encouraged for those who can afford it. In efforts to protect our mountains, musicians are giving inspiration to and telling stories of people who are fighting to preserve their homes in Southern West Virginia.

While many of the artists who will be performing are featured on the compilation CD Moving Mountains: Voices of Appalachia Rise Up Against Mountaintop Removal, there will also be new voices featured.

Elaine Purkey is a legend not only for her activism during the steelworker strike in Ravenswood, but also her distinctive and amazingly strong singing voice. Pete Seeger wrote that her, "songs carry on the great tradition of Ella May Wiggin of Gastonia, South Carolina, and Aunt Molly Jackson of Harlan County, Kentucky."

In the same evening, one can also hear Here's to the Long Haul, a duo of singing student energy justice organizers with an eye on stopping mountaintop removal.

Also performing that evening will be two acts on the Falling Mountain Label, Andrew McKnight and Keith & Joan Pitzer, who have performed at past Moving Mountains events including Shepherd University, Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, Blacksburg, VA, the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN and in Washington D.C at the Institute of Musical Traditions.

Each of these artists have tracks included on the Moving Mountains CD. Singer/songwriter, poet and activist Andrew McKnight contributes the lead track "Company Town" from his latest CD Turning Pages, while West Virginians Keith & Joan Pitzer from the Cheat River Valley penned "Underneath a Blackened Moon", a song inspired by a visit with Larry Gibson up on Kayford Mountain, especially for this project.

Moving Mountains was compiled by lifelong musician and activist Jen Osha, who will also be performing as part of the Morgantown based group, Sound Storm.

This concert is being organized as a part of and fundraiser for Mountain Justice Spring Break, a youth-led and solidarity based effort to stop mountaintop removal. This week includes educational workshops, celebration of Appalachian culture, and protest with Southern WV community groups. The week is being organized by the Southern Energy Network and the Student Environmental Action Coalition.

For more information on this concert, contact Daniel Chiotos at (304)886-3389 or Daniel.Chiotos@Gmail.com .

For more information about the CD, proceeds from which continue to support coalfield residents, please see www.fallingmountain.com/mtr .