Speaker Session - Emily Hilliard: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia

Name: Speaker Session - Emily Hilliard: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia
Start: 2025-09-09T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-09T20:30:00-04:00
Location: 101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, United States, Virginia 24201

Schedule

Tue Sep 09 2025 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

101 Country Music Way, Bristol, VA, United States, Virginia 24201 | Bristol, VA

Join us on Tuesday, September 9 for a Speaker Session with Emily Hilliard. In this Speaker Session, folklorist Emily Hillard talks about the future-focused and collaborative approach to cultural work she explores in her book, Making our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia. From diverse examples such as the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike, non-professional women songwriters, hot dogs, and the tradition of independent pro-wrestling, Hilliard paints a picture of folklore as a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation and creates a framework that helps us understand our past and shape our future.
Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: In-person at the Birthplace of Country Music, Performance Theatre and streamed on Radio Bristol’s YouTube Channel
Cost: Free and open to the public
REGISTER TO ATTEND IN PERSON: https://www.tixr.com/groups/bcm/events/speaker-session-emily-hillard-138037?_gl=1*1kgcv87*_gcl_au*MjA3MDI5MDQwMy4xNzQ1MjQyMTcy
Emily Hilliard is a Folklorist at Berea College and the former West Virginia State Folklorist and Founding Director of the West Virginia Folklife Program. Her book, Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia (UNC Press, 2022) was named a finalist for the 2022 Weatherford Award in nonfiction for books “best illuminating the challenges, personalities, and unique qualities of the Appalachian South.” She is also the co-founder and co-owner of the feminist record label SPINSTER. Find more of her work at emilyehilliard.com.