Dr. Harvard Ayers of Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, stopped in Monday, December 7th, after attending the latest anti-MTR protest, this time headlined by RFK Jr. in front of the WV DEP Building in Kanawha City. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and
Archeology at Appalachian State U..Most importantly, he is the archeologist who recently did a lot of hard work showing that serious science stilll needs to be done to explore the history of Blair Mountain. We visited for several hours, talking about our mutual struggle to save Blair Mountain from being demolished, and I of course discussed my lifetime of watching films about coal mining.
Harvard Ayers setting up his tape recorder
I explained to him that despite my 31 years of promoting all films about WV, Appalachia, and coal mine history, I have apparently hardly made a dent in the minds of people in the state and region. We discussed the making of one of his favorite films, “Matewan,” and the four years I spent helping Sayles make the film. We discussed why I left Minneapolis to work in the coal fields of West Virginia, telling him that like my friend Ken Hechler, I genuinely wanted to help the people of the state – and get a job!
I told him about “Misery in the Borinage,” a film I had recently written about, calling it possibly still the greatest film about coal miners and their families. Even experts like Dr. Ayers have not had time to watch all of the great films about coal mining, and that includes me. But “Misery” is so powerful, so devastating, that anyone who sees it will never forget it.
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