from Irwin Venick: There was a large gathering of family and friends to remember and honor J.W. last night. Taylor led off the gathering after echoes of a recording of Nature’s Lamentation sung by Billy Christoper faded. Taylor shared that J.W., as we all know, was passionate in his beliefs about what needed to be …
Gillian McCuistion, a technician with the archive project, draws on parallels between SHC community organizing of the 1960s and 70s and the community-driven nature of their partnership with the Southern Historical Collection today. Follow this link for access to the full-length panel discussion with the Websters. Recorded December 2022.
John Davis reflects on the Coalition’s work planting community activist seeds and frames the archive project as an opportunity to assemble the record of organizing efforts that grew out of them. Follow this link for access to the full-length panel discussion with the Websters. Recorded December 2022.
Jack Beckford offers insight into the role the Student Health Coalition Legacy Fund has played in uncovering and supporting ongoing work on issues in Appalachia related to the SHC’s activism in the 1960s and 70s. He lists Appalshop, the Highlander Center, the St. Charles Clinic, and John Gaventa’s research into land ownership as just a …
Jack Beckford on the Student Health Coalition Legacy Fund Read More »
Margaret Ecker describes a “fringe benefit” of the archive project as it pertains to the collective memory restoration of community stories, such as those belonging to Howard and Fay Elliot of St. Charles, Va., J.W. and Kate Bradley, Maureen O’Connell, and others whose legacy of activism will (hopefully) now reach a wider public audience. Follow …
John Davis reflects on the process of being involved in the archive project, noting the joy of collectively rediscovering the Coalition narrative and the challenge of packaging it according to over-arching themes and other common threads. Biff Hollingsworth adds that, in addition to themes, the concept of tendrils (or ripples of the SHC work, such …
The role of themes and tendrils in packaging the Coalition narrative Read More »
Biff Hollingsworth, Collecting and Public Programming Archivist with the Southern Historical Collection, elaborates on early institutional reluctance to undertake such a non-traditional and labor-intensive archive project. He emphasizes their myriad of considerations, all of which ultimately positioned this partnership as an opportunity to better define guiding principles around community-driven archives. Champion among these was learning …
John Davis reflects on early hesitations and reluctance among some Coalitioners to participate in the archive project. Follow this link for access to the full-length panel discussion with the Websters. Recorded December 2022.
Biff Hollingsworth, Collecting and Public Programming Archivist with the Southern Historical Collection, delineates more of the timeline at the start of UNC’s partnership with the Student Health Coalition. Margaret Ecker recounts their first phone call in early 2013, a conversation which significantly influenced discussions of project plans moving forward at a Coalition gathering just a …
The first phone call: Biff Hollingsworth connects with Margaret Ecker Read More »
Jack Beckford notes that prior to any official connection with the Southern Historical Collection, Margaret Ecker and Lark Hayes had decided to make a documentary film about the Coalition story–an initiative born from energy at the 2012 Landon House reunion (among other previous gatherings). Margaret further describes this early iteration of memory restoration and preservation, …
On the archive project’s first iteration: a documentary film Read More »
