The “We Protect Us: A West Virginia Art Movement Summit” event is from 1-5pm at the West Edge Factory (1040 Vernon St) on Saturday, May 6th.
Here is our interview with organizers Mariah Clay and Baleigh Epperly:
Erika: Please introduce yourselves…
Mariah: Hello, I’m Mariah
Baleigh: Hi, y’all. It’s Bailey. And we’re organizing a West Virginia Movement Art Summit. This upcoming Saturday, May 6 from 1-5pm at West Edge Factory in Huntington, West Virginia. And we’re organizing it with a group called POWHR. They’re a coalition that stands for-
M: Protect Our Water Heritage Rights, and you can follow them on social media to stay up to date on the #stopMVP movement, which is the “Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline.”
E: Cool, so, this is going to be arts and environmental sustainability combined into one community awesome event. What motivated you to want to put this event together?
M: I think we wanted to create a safe space for young adults to learn about climate justice in our own communities in a way that’s unique. What would you say?
B: That’s really good. I would definitely agree with that. And just, you know, founding Holler Space Magazine, the whole reason I wanted to do that was to uplift local artists and also people that are somewhat radical. So, folks who are into environmental justice, things like radical zine making- which we will have a workshop for, for free at the event! So, it aligns with my passion through Holler Space, but also, as an individual activist, you know, I’ve been involved in the Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline movement for years now, along with other things and so that’s what inspires me like just to bring both worlds together of the local art scene, and the solidarity of just protecting the beauty that is West Virginia, and all of Appalachia. So, that’s definitely what called me to action to want to work with POWHR to organize this event.
E: Is there anything else going on with current environmental activism or POWHR specifically that you want to touch on?
B: POWHR has been I feel like really building a lot of momentum. I heard about POWHR years ago. That’s another reason why I really wanted to help organize this event is I know a lot of folks that I know a lot of my friends don’t know a lot of these environmental justice groups that I have come to learn about because I’ve had the time to. So, to be able to share that is really cool. But POWHR has been building this sort of momentum for the past year now. Definitely longer but I’ve noticed that they’ve done a lot of in-person events in the last year. They had a movement art summit in Blacksburg, Virginia, that Mariah was able to go to. That has inspired this in a large way. And they’re also having trainings, they do a lot of sort of canvassing like going to DC and talking to our legislature. That’s what we were there in DC to do. A lot of folks got to directly speak to their representatives and POWHR just does a really good job of bringing a bunch of other orgs to one place to build that solidarity and just compatibility in the fight that is environmental justice.
E: This sounds like a great event to gather together and learn but also create some new fun stuff. Could you tell me about some of the activities and vendors you’re planning to have at the event?
M: Yeah, so we’ll have poster painting with Artivism. That’ll be a cool activity for everyone to participate in no matter your artistic level. We will also have radical zine creation with Porch Beers Press.
B: Yes, local zine maker here in Huntington. And we’ll have an art exhibit as well. So, Artivism Virginia that Mariah mentioned, they’ll be doing the poster making which I’m really excited about to see folks painting- but they’ll also have some of their work they’ve created at past events maybe and just that they’ve created as a group. So we’ll have murals there so like a little art exhibit. I heard that someone is crafting and Hellbender
M: That may or may not be gigantic.
B: That may or may not. We can’t say you just have to come and see. But yeah, we’ll have a ton of performers too. So we’ll have spoken word, speeches, two rappers, someone that’s going to do acoustic stuff, and a dancer. Oh, did you just mentioned food?
M: We will also have food catered by a local chef, chef KD, made with local ingredients. There will be lots of vegan options as well.
B: Super excited about that. And Leah will be there if y’all know @nomleah then you know, and she’s about to be selling some of her food too. So lots of art vendors selling their cool wares and some informational organizations too. Can you think of a few informational organizations that will be there?
M: Yeah, so Indigenous Environmental Network will be there. We’ll also have organizations that are local to us like our future West Virginia and citizen actions group, as well as ACLU WV. There’s gonna be a lot of information and resources for folks there.
B: And it’s all free, except for stuff that artists are selling, of course. That’s what I would want to highlight the most from this and if POWHR is able to fund this, which we’re just so grateful for, and for them to want to fund our community and help us have an event like this. It’s been amazing just for them to ask us to come in, “hey, organize an event in your own community.” And so that’s just been a real joy and it’s it feels good to highlight mutual aid and community and just free resources and free fun stuff too.
E: Well, I’m excited. I can’t wait. I’m definitely gonna bring some stuff to the Eco-Swap. There’s a lot of stuff to bring down… Is there anything else that we should know about this event?
B: Yeah, I would like to highlight the Eco-Swap. We have such a long list of activities that are going on so that definitely slipped my mind- but the Eco-Swap is going to be amazing! They’ve done this once before. So it’ll be their second time organizing this and it’s going to be like an assembly line basically of stuff that you can walk up and trade. You can bring something that you don’t want any more that you can come trade for something new. So, lots of fun stuff! Um, anything else? … Just that it’s at West Edge.
E: Alright! We’ll see ya at West Edge.
B: Hope to see you there!
“We Protect Us: A West Virginia Movement Art Summit will take place May 6, 2023 from 1-5pm at West Edge in Huntington, WV. The event is geared towards inspiring young adults to join the environmental justice movement but will be family friendly and enjoyable to people of all ages. Activities may include an eco-swap, collaborative mural painting, spoken word, zine making, and more. We want the event to be an open and safe space for people to come learn about environmental and climate justice and have a community space to process how injustice impacts their communities.”
Full list of activities for the May 6th 1-5pm West Virginia Movement Art Summit at West Edge Factory in Huntington, WV:
Everything is free (aside from artists vending) to highlight the power of mutual aid & community.
Eco Swap (bring stuff to trade!)
Zine Making (@porchbeerszine)
Food by local chef w/ local ingredients (lots of vegan options) @jonseysdnd
Poster painting @artivism_virginia
Art exhibit with murals & sculpture
Performances (starting at 3pm)
rap by @geonovah and @awfulinternational
poetry and speech by @cgoodwoman and @raj.sta
dance by @sebrenacorinne
acoustic by @artivism_virginia
tons of informational booths
tons of art vendors