Six Black Appalachian artists could receive $5,000 fellowships to fund their storytelling projects highlighting the Black Appalachian experience in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina through art, music or writing.
Three nonprofits — South Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts and the National Association of Black Storytellers — created the Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship to support and empower southern artists.
“Not only is it the geography and their demographics, but is it their way of life, it's their language, it's their work, it's their family connection. It's the stories of survival,” said fellowship project manager Karen Abdul-Malik.
Andrew Baskin received the 2023 fellowship for Kentucky.
“I would see storytelling as any medium that you use to communicate someone else's or your own life experiences,” Baskin said. “ I would see a preacher, especially in the Black church, I think they're storytellers. So musicians, they're storytellers….Some people use drums. It's not limited.”
Applicants must be at least 21 and a current resident or someone with strong familial ties to counties designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The judges panel will select one awardee in each state. The 2025-2026 fellows will attend the 43rd Annual “In the Tradition…” National Association of Black Storytellers Festival and Conference in Atlanta in November.
Baskin said the fellowship gives a voice to marginalized Appalachians.
“When many people talk about Appalachia, they are talking about white [people],” Baskin said. “Black storytellers make sure that the stories of African Americans who live in the region, that their stories are visible. We've always been here. And even though people may ignore us, we have those stories, we have those lived experiences.”
Baskin taught African and African American Studies at Berea College, Simmons College and Kentucky State University. He said he completed the fellowship while on sabbatical.
He was born and raised in Alcoa, Tennessee, a company town created by the Aluminum Company of America, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers.
Baskin told the story of Dorothy Mitchell Kincaid, whose family was one of the first Black families to come to Alcoa during the Great Migration. She also founded a media organization to share stories of Black Appalachians from Alcoa.
Baskin, his wife and daughter wrote a 50-page biography about Mitchell Kincaid’s life in the segregated South and her journey through higher education and the judicial system. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, and Baskin said her story and that of Alcoa lives on.
“By telling Dorothy's story, to a great degree, that was telling my story,” he said.
Baskin’s family gave the proceeds from book sales to a nonprofit organization Kincaid founded that helped disadvantaged Appalachians and their families.
Applications for the 2025 fellowship are open until Aug. 11 at 11:59 EST.
