Our Breathitt was a multi-year community collaboration that centered on arts & culture, health, and education - the 3 pillars of focus identified by the community in Jackson (Breathitt County), Kentucky.
Album cover: Our Breathitt logo by Cas McGuffey, photos by Josh Miller and HoriZen.
Our Breathitt Album
Created through Our Breathitt - the album is inspired by the lives, stories, and heritage of people in Breathitt Co., Kentucky, and features original music and songs by artists Scott Allen, Jonathan Chapman, The Handshake Deals, and Kate Driskill.
"Working on this project taught me new ways to write songs and create music. It opened my eyes to the heart of my community and brought me to love where I am even more." - Kate Driskill
A portion of proceeds from album sales will support additional arts workshops in Breathitt County!
Read the full Our Breathitt album press release here.
![Found Poem [THE GRACE OF KENTUCKY] - Jay McCoy](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55b234e7e4b0a7f88ea102d0/1570727289631-6YO8V8V7WY7U5A8D9D7I/Jay-OB.jpg)
Our Breathitt Poetry, Essays and Plays
Artist-led writing workshops based on Appalachian heritage and traditions took place in 2018 and 2019, and were used as forums for health promotion and education with a focus on Heritage and Hope. Starting in August 2019, five collaborating writers, each with their own perspectives and ties to the county, began offering weekly columns in the Breathitt Advocate and Jackson Times-Voice informed by the workshops.
The lives, stories, and heritage of people in Breathitt Co. are inspiring new music from a series of musician-led workshops in the community. Coordinated by musician & music therapist Cheyenne Mize, including musicians and community members Scott Allen, Jonathan Chapman, The Handshake Deals (depicted above), and Kate Driskill - who led workshops with community partners including Nim Henson’s Geriatric Center, The Sapling Center- Jackson, Breathitt County High School, Breathitt County Public Library, and Breathitt County Senior Citizens Center to inspire new and original music. This new body of work will be recorded with the talents of additional Breathitt County musicians, interwoven with written narratives, and performed at the Our Breathitt Summit on October 11-12, 2019.
Graduation Embellishments: To recognize the achievements of the students of Breathitt County while celebrating the beauty surrounding the school, we created an embellishment for their graduation outfits - where each graduate could wear a section of the quilt. Quilter Shaina Naillieux, along with her mother Patricia Caudill, worked in collaboration with high school students from Breathitt County, and members of the Breathitt Homemakers Association to create the 30-foot quilt that was assembled piece by piece as graduates crossed the stage at Breathitt High School. This began a new tradition, that will continue year after year.
Believe in Breathitt Podcast
Believe in Breathitt is a podcast created by O.H. Jackson Napier, developed to document the narratives of Breathitt Countians in their own words. With nominal narration, listeners are able to hear the grievances, victories and hopes of those who live in coal country. Ben Combs speaks to the hollowing out of Breathitt County with the collapse of coal jobs in the late 80s. Josephine Macintosh, recalls working hard with her sisters in their families garden, "Hoeing taters, hanging 'baccer in britches over top our dresses". Crystal Jones-Roberts, a local media producer, expresses her pride in being from such a unique region. Seldon Short, now in Dallas, TX, reflects on the intensity of meals as an expression of love from his grandparents and the education he received in a private K-12 setting at the Kentucky Mountain Holiness Association.
These interviews provide a vantage point into a popularly misunderstood region. Stereotypes vanish as interviewees discuss their hopes and fears for the future of Breathitt. As popular media continues to push harmful caricatures, we as a nation must begin to practice deep, loving, and patient listening in order to begin healing. We must humanize those we do not understand. Napier invites listeners to begin that practice with Believe in Breathitt now.
Our Breathitt partnered with University of Kentucky Extension Service Office along with community members including Kenneth Combs, and the UK Landscape Architecture Program to conceptualize an artistically considered raised garden beds as part of the installation of a new parking lot that was already underway. The raised garden beds will feature “Cancer Prevention Cooking Garden” that will launch in Spring 2020. These beds will be utilized to grow food for the community to use in their gardening and cooking/canning classes, and would contribute to the dialog surrounding cancer prevention through cooking with and eating whole foods. Displaying these gardens on Main Street is a visual reminder to all who live there of the history of farming in the region and its relationship to the community sentiment, “food is love”.
Our Breathitt Collaborators and Partners:
Breathitt County Schools
Jackson City Independent Schools
Breathitt County Academic Boosters
Riverside Christian School
Breathitt County UK Extension Office, Kayla Watts, Reed Graham and their amazing staff
Robinson Experiment Station
Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC), Lees College Campus
Ruschelle Hamilton
Willie Griffith
Arch Sebastian
Laura Thomas, Mayor
Angie Raleigh
Steven Bowling, Director of Breathitt Co. Public Library
Clara Gabbard
Shaun and Crystal Thatcher
Jenny and Teddy Edmonds
Breathitt Advocate
Jackson Times-Voice
DIY Doc
Our Breathitt Artists:
Our Breathitt includes artists living in Breathitt County, artists with roots in Breathitt County and now living in the region, and artists from the region who have all come together to collaborate.
Rae Goodwin - Lead Artist, faculty in the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky
Pauletta Hansel
Brent Watts
Jay McCoy
Tom Eblen
Theo Edmonds
Cheyenne Mize
Scott Allen
Jonathan Chapman
Shaina Naillieux
Kate Driskill
Jackson Napier
The Handshake Deals
Kenneth Combs
Cas McGuffey
Background:
IDEAS xLab was co-founded by Theo ‘Alan’ Edmonds, who has nine generations of family history in Breathitt Co. and is excited to be working with community members in the place he calls home. Theo is now an assistant professor with University of Louisville’s School of Public Health & Information Sciences and the Director of the Center for Creative Placehealing. Co-founder and IDEAS xLab CEO Josh Miller has spent extensive time in Breathitt Co. with the Edmonds family and working with artists and community members through Our Breathitt. The lead artist of Our Breathitt is Rae Goodwin, faculty in the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky. In her travels she has met amazing people from Breathitt Co and is thrilled to be a part of such a great place. She has fallen in love with the community of generosity and kindness there.
Building on the energy and engagement from Spring 2018 with the Breathitt Co. Academic Boosters, and as part of Breathitt County School’s Literacy & Heritage Day on August 31, Our Breathitt brought together five artists to lead writing workshops with k-12 students, who were engaged to write poetry, a short film script, song lyrics and more — all rooted in hope and heritage — taught by artists including Pauletta Hansel, Theo “Alan” Edmonds, Rae Goodwin, Scott Allen, and Jay McCoy.
Engagements included Hansel working with students at Breathitt Co. High School to write their own poems, while Edmonds had students imagine and author movie-scene scenarios at LBJ Elementary School, and Allen incorporated music and singing into his lesson at Marie Roberts-Caney Elementary. You can read more about the day here.