Grant to fuel Appalachian history initiative
Virginia Tech has been awarded a $5 million Mellon Foundation grant to support Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia, an initiative to document, reinterpret, display, and amplify histories and experiences that highlight collective struggles in Appalachian communities, especially those stories that have been hidden, silenced, denied, or excluded.
The renewal brings the foundation’s support of the initiative to $8 million and will extend work beyond the initial nine projects made possible by a $3 million grant in 2022. The renewal also will enable additional community engagement and partnership and will fund the creation of 10 to 12 new monuments under the banner Monuments Across Appalachian Places.
The grant is part of the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project.
Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV) is led by Virginia Tech faculty Emily Satterwhite and Katrina Powell, scholars committed to recognizing people too long denied a voice.
“This award reflects the amazing work done by the MAAV team and the community members leading these projects,” said Powell, Alumni Distinguished Professor and senior research fellow in the university's Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies. “It’s an honor to research with communities and to support their efforts in telling their community histories. We’re excited to move to this next phase.”
With greater listening power, Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia will be able to continue the important work of providing validation and a stronger sense of identity to pockets of the community that have felt unseen and unheard.
“If people don’t have pride in themselves and their communities, they don’t fight for themselves,” said Satterwhite, director of the Appalachian Studies program within the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, drawing from the words of sociologist Cynthia Duncan. “Through MAAV we have seen that when stigmatized communities work together to commemorate suppressed histories they foster pride and strengthen regionwide networks of solidarity.”
The success of the initiative as a champion of regional histories enhances Virginia Tech’s visibility in the Appalachian region and its role as a partner with Appalachian communities.
“This spectacular award is like hitting the Powerball in the humanities,” said Laura Belmonte, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. “Katy and Emily have assembled a world-class team for the MAAV project, one that has succeeded beyond our wildest expectations in creating unique and powerful work with partners across the commonwealth. I am truly elated that the Mellon Foundation’s extraordinary generosity will allow MAAV to expand its geographic scope and to continue elevating unsung facets of the rich and complex histories of Appalachian communities.”
Since the initiative's launch in 2023, the project has shed light on nine pieces of history manifested in a variety of forms, from traditional monuments, such as statues, to public art, a living botanical garden, and a festival. These include the most recent monument, Raising the Shade, which honors 70 African American men from Franklin County, Virginia, who served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War.
The monument, a 14-foot bronze statue, was unveiled Jan. 18 outside of First Baptist Church in Rocky Mount. It is one of the few monuments in the country and the first in Virginia to specifically recognize these soldiers, many of whom were born into slavery and fought for the Union and their own freedom — yet whose stories have remained in the shadows.
“MAAV established strong support and camaraderie with our project,” said Glenna Moore, spokeswoman for Raising the Shade. “We felt safe and protected with their guidance, which was always there whenever we needed it. The expertise of Virginia Tech's faculty and staff was also extended to us, and it was crucial to our project, from planning difficult community conversations with trauma-informed techniques, to research partnerships with students and support when we, as a group, felt anxious and overwhelmed.”
Developing new monuments
Idea generation for the new group of monuments will occur during six commemorate workshops and a Conjure Lab series hosted for Appalachian grassroots organizations, educators, artists, and community leaders.
Applications for the first of six commemorate workshops are due March 24. These events, which will focus on community-generated, trauma-informed approaches to commemoration, will transform how Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia engages with the community. Locations will include Appalachian sites — in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia — where the Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia team hopes to identify new stewards of important and moving undertold histories. The formal call for new monument proposals will be announced later this year, and applications will be due on Oct 15.
At the workshops, four in-person and two online, attendees will be introduced to Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia and its existing monuments and hear testimonials and advice from current collaborators. Through breakout sessions focused on training, writing, and planning and permitting for new monuments, participants will leave the workshops with basic application materials and resources that they can use and distribute as they cultivate their own strategies for increasing the visibility of shadowed histories and struggles.
The Conjure Lab is a pilot project that will begin with a history deserving of commemoration and then work to identify a team of community members and partners to realize their vision for how best to honor that history. Like the workshops, the lab will lean on arts-based methods and deep community participation to create not just monuments, but entire movements to amplify regional histories, strengthen community power, and catalyze social transformation.
“MAAV is more than a conduit for creating physical tributes to unearthed histories,” said Powell. “It is also very much a research-driven initiative based on extensive community engagement and participation.”
On April 29, from 5 to 9 p.m., the nine initial projects will be highlighted in a culminating celebration anchored by a series of short films at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg. The films were produced by Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia's videographer, Matthew Pickett.
