Morgantown Magazine - October/November 2015 by Morgantown Magazine

A NEW TAXI IN TOWN We may be well on our way to enjoying a second taxi service.

BACKYARD PRISON Take a look at Greenbag Road’s federal minimum security facility.

RISING STARS

Meet the sharp talent behind Morgantown’s growing arts scene.

tures n e v d A l Fal around n tow Morgan

volume 5

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issue 1

PUBLISHED BY

New South Media, Inc.

709 Beechurst Avenue, Suite 14A, Morgantown, WV 26505 1116 Smith Street, Suite 211, Charleston, WV 25301 304.413.0104 • morgantownmag.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Nikki Bowman, nikki@newsouthmediainc.com EDITOR

Katie Griffith, katie@newsouthmediainc.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Pam Kasey, pam@newsouthmediainc.com DESIGNER

Becky Moore, becky@newsouthmediainc.com OPERATIONS MANAGER

Sarah Shaffer, sarah@newsouthmediainc.com WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Katie Willard, katherine@newsouthmediainc.com STAFF WRITER

Mikenna Pierotti, mikenna@newsouthmediainc.com PHOTOGRAPHER

Carla Witt Ford, carla@newsouthmediainc.com INTERNS

Jake Jarvis, Jennifer Skinner ADVERTISING & MARKETING MANAGER

Bekah Call, bekah@newsouthmediainc.com CONTRIBUTORS

Andrew Barnes, Miriah Hamrick

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MORGA NTOW N is published by New South Media, Inc. Copyright: New South Media, Inc. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. © N EW SOU T H M EDI A, I NC. A LL R IGH TS R ESERV ED

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

EDITOR’S NOTE

hen Morgantown’s leaves change colors, bright against a moody sky, when that first day of crisp autumn air arrives, when locals pull out the copper kettles to begin mixing apple butter—that’s when I know I’m home. Fall in Morgantown is a time both energetic and calming. On weekends I sit outside surrounded by mums, a hot drink in hand, and listen to the roar of Mountaineer Field in the distance, or get up early to amble to the farmers’ market and then hop in the car for a lazy fall color drive. On weekdays the bustle of school and work are in full swing, but we always take a few moments to enjoy the splendor of Woodburn Circle in season or an afternoon break for favorite fall-themed beverages from the closest coffee shop. That’s what it was like creating this issue, too. August and September are our company’s most hectic deadline months, yet we managed to find the time to enjoy the things that make living here so great: a roadtrip up State Route 7 (page 47), a snack or two from local businesses (page 19), discovering secret

prisons we hardly knew about (page 50), and, my personal favorite, meeting a handful of Morgantown’s incredibly talented artists. “Rising Stars,” (page 67) written by Mikenna Pierotti, photographed by Carla Witt Ford, and designed by Becky Moore, was as fun to create as it is to look at. Each of these artists, from ceramicist Kurt Teeter to wood-carver Bryn Perrott to mixed media wizard Michael Loop, has remarkable talent. Their approachable demeanors and the laidback ways they explain their processes make looking at those final pieces all the more interesting. You’ll see many of these people around town—or at least their work. We first came across Lauren Adams’ paintings at Table 9. Jamie Lester is already well known for designing the West Virginia quarter and for the Jerry West statue sitting outside the WVU Coliseum, but he still took the time to paint for a local charity art show, “Board With Art,” now on display at Atomic Grill. Each of the stories in our October/November issue offers a little something we’re sure you didn’t already know. Fall’s the time to explore our state, its people, and their talents, so get reading. The season only lasts so long.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Miriah Hamrick Like most Appalachians, Miriah Hamrick loves a good story, especially a true one. A graduate of WVU, she’s worked as a journalist in West Virginia and North Carolina. She currently lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she is earning her master’s degree in secondary education and teaching in a local high school. When she isn’t writing or teaching, Miriah enjoys reading, cooking, and singing karaoke.

Andrew Barnes Andrew S. Barnes is the interim director for development at the WVU Extension Service. When he isn’t traveling across West Virginia or fundraising for 4-H he keeps himself busy with writing, playing trivia, and learning new languages. He has been a contributor for Morgantown, Social Work Today, and The Dominion Post and maintains a blog at asbarnes.com.

Letters to the Editor Good News for Greenmont Wonderful, wonderful news! I’ve been thinking recently that this area needs a good revitalization, and the plans that have been described have been exactly what I have been thinking about for so long! It’s time to take this area back and make it a wonderful place to live again. Alex Stout on Reclaiming Lower Greenmont” from the August/ September 2015 issue

K ATIE GR IFFITH,

Editor

Time for the BOM ballot! Don’t forget to vote for the Best of Morgantown (page 15). We invite you to nominate everything from the best fine dining to the best drycleaner in a first round of voting open through November 10.

Featured Contributors

One Year Later It’s one of your favorite stories: “Underground Morgantown” written by Pam Kasey in our October/ November 2014 issue took you deep into the underbelly of our city to dig out its secrets. Read the full story at bit.ly/1QKV3n5

I can remember the air raid sirens, the blackout curtains, the underground tunnels. My grandmother owned Swindler Flower Center (later called Mountaineer Flower Center) in the big green building at the top of High Street. The bomb shelters and the tunnels were under that part of Wesley Methodist Church and the store. There are many people still in the area that can tell you the truth and more about those shelters. There is still a lot to be told about Morgantown and the tunnels. Terry Lee Lash on Underground Morgantown”

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015

CARLA WITT FORD

In This Issue

Backyard Prison

Fall Adventures in Morgantown

Rising Stars

Morgantown’s federal prison could again be a pioneer of correctional models.

Explore everything our area has to offer in West Virginia’s most glorious season.

Meet a few of the faces of Morgantown’s growing arts scene.

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015

In This Issue 47

36 This Matters 14 Try This Local salon Expressions in Hair offers a line of quality, natural hair care products. 18 Shop This One local woman brings the pleasures of Turkey to Morgantown twice a year. And don’t forget Small Business Saturday. 19

Eat This 00Bagel in Westover offers a variety of fall-themed breakfast treats, plus Morgantown Brewing Company has started canning. Check out its new designs!

20 Try This Greenmont readies for a new neighbor—this one serves coffee.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

21 Who’s This A Morgantown native launches her career with the NBC Page Program. 24 Consider This Explore one of the great mysteries of space with WVU physicist Maura McLaughlin. 26 Read This A poetic novel examines the tensions in West Virginia’s relationship with the land. 28 Hear This A young writer is enlivening Morgantown’s literary scene with a reimagined public reading series. 30 What’s This Twenty-first century taxi service may be on its way to town. 34 Support This Local nonprofit Caritas House improves the lives of people facing HIV and homelessness.

Departments 6 Editor’s Note 6 Scoreboard 3 WVU’s national boxing champ seeks another title and a team legacy. 39 Dish It Out The Greeks on Beechurst Avenue serves up authentic Mediterranean flavor. 44 The U A trove of botanical knowledge lies within the WVU Herbarium. 47 Across County Lines Take State Route 7 high into Kingwood this fall for a colorful drive.

ON THE COVER Designer Becky Moore spent an afternoon with pumpkins to come up with this gourd-geous squash.

3715 Swallowtail $ 665,000

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$ 660,000 Elegant Greystone on the Cheat living on 2.68+/-Acres and over 4,100 sf living space. Master suite on the main, 4 BR on the 2nd floor, butler’s pantry, 3 car garage, screened in back porch, zoned HVAC. MLS# 10094222

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304-594-0115 2800 Cranberry Square - Morgantown WV

morgantownrealestate.com

$ 950,000 Exquisite custom designed home, on 1.633 +/- acres, features over 7,000+/- sq.ft. multi level living. 5 BR’s, 6.5 BA’s, vaulted ceilings, skylights, floor to ceiling stone fireplace, full wet bar with built ins and area for entertaining with wine cellar with copper ceilings. Flagstone foyer and hardwood thru out first several levels. Beautifully landscaped grounds, 4 car garage, multiple decks & balconies, just the beginning of amenities this home has to offer. Lake access, reserved docking, pool & tennis courts. MLS# 10091301

EAT / LOVE / WEAR / SHOP / WATCH / KNOW / HEAR / READ / DO / WHO / WHAT

A Cheerful Commute Making the daily commute to and from the Beechurst PRT is a bit livelier now, thanks to members of WVU Art Movement, a new student organization dedicated to beautifying campus. These students recently completed a gold and blue mural adorned with abstract flowers, ocean waves, and a geometric star with the goal of creating a positive vibe and relieving stress for students heading to and from class at the station.

JENNIFER SKINNER

SEPTEMBER 2015

GET IN THE SPIRIT!

THE LARGEST PUMPKIN PIE

Morgantown Community Kitchen serves a free lunch to anyone in need each weekday. Volunteer times are 9 a.m.â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1 p.m. Call Mary Yocco, kitchen manager, at 304.292.3785 on weekday mornings for more information.

ever baked was in 2010 at New Bremen Pumpkinfest in New Bremen, Ohio. It weighed 3,699 pounds.

COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING Wesley UMC will celebrate Thanksgiving with a free community-wide dinner Thursday, November 26. Everyone from students to seniors to the homeless community are welcome. To volunteer contact karen.kelley.king@gmail.com or call 304.282.8478.

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS

The organic shampoo and conditioner come in two sizes and both are multi-functional. After testing each product, Robin discovered the shampoo doubles as a gentle, effective face and body wash and the conditioner serves as a great makeup remover and light moisturizer. “With those two bottles, I have almost every product I need,” Robin says. The line also features a trio of styling products, all free of abrasive ingredients. Damp hair dries faster and frizz-free when blow-dried using Rob’s organic smoothing crème. The bubblegum-scented gum paste is a versatile product, helping clients achieve a look that’s messy or polished. “You can use it to tame down frizzies, or you can use it to spike hair TRYTHIS up,” Rob says. To set a style, an organic hairspray offers, light, medium, and strong holds when applied in layers. Formulated with vitamin E, the spray moisturizes without Quality ingredients make all the difference in one local hair and body care line. leaving any residue in the hair. All products, excluding the gum paste, feature a unisex white citrus ➼ ROB SANZI HAS MADE HIS CAREER did, and what he would put in it or take scent that manifests slightly differently in out,” says his wife, Robin, who works at in hair, but he’s always thought like an each product. Expressions in Hair as an aesthetician. engineer. Precise and detail-oriented, he The Sanzi Hair Care line is now “After seeing this for so long, I told him wants to know why and how things work. sold in salons across the country, from he needed to create his own products.” As a kid, he sat at the breakfast table and California and Montana to Maryland With his wife’s encouragement, studied the lists of ingredients on the backs and Massachusetts, and Rob says the Rob began working with a lab in 2005 of his favorite boxes of cereal. Later, after momentum isn’t slowing. A few new to develop a salon-quality, color-safe he traded his business and engineering products, including a body wash, are shampoo free of sulfates and parabens. classes at the University of Pittsburgh almost ready for release, and by early next After years in development, the product for an education in cutting and styling year, all products will be clothed in new Rob envisioned arrived on the salon’s hair, Rob found a fit for his interests by labels as part of a rebranding effort. Both working as an educator for companies like shelves in 2010. A matching conditioner Rob and Robin agree it’s been a long and followed a year later and, today, Sanzi Paul Mitchell and abba, whose products demanding journey since Rob set off to Hair Care offers a full line of vegan, he shared with stylists at classes and trade create his own shampoo ten years ago, mostly organic products that deliver shows across the country. “There was but it’s a rewarding one they don’t plan wow-worthy results. always a fascination with ingredients,” to end any time soon. Rob’s products rely on a trifecta Rob says. “What are in products? What of alternative ingredients, including makes some products work better than The full Sanzi Hair Care line is available multi-fruit acid complex, a collection of others? It’s the ingredients.” at Expressions in Hair, open Tuesdays, botanical extracts, and PRODEW 500, a Rob brought the same curiosity and Thursdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., moisturizing blend of amino acids. “We attention to detail to the shampoos, contry to do more with fewer ingredients. You and Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to ditioners, and styling products he used on don’t need 40 or 50 ingredients in a product 3 p.m. The salon is closed Sundays clients at Expressions in Hair, his family like this. You can keep it minimalistic and and Mondays. salon in Morgantown’s Suburban Plaza. still give the consumer the best benefit for “For every product line we had in the their hair and skin,” Rob says. salon, he knew every ingredient, what it written by MIRIAH HAMRICK 14

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

COURTESY OF ROB SANZI

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SHOPTHIS

A Turkish Bazaar in Morgantown ➼ LINDA HALL NEVER EXPECTED to become an international trading mogul, but the Morgantown native and retired schoolteacher is exactly that. Through fate— and a little bit of smooth talking—Linda has made a name for herself: the Turkey Lady. For 15 years she has traveled each year to the ancient land between the Black and Mediterranean seas, walking the country’s market streets with eyes peeled for deals. Linda wants to share her love of the country with the people back home, so she buys freshwater pearls, hand-painted ceramics, and silk scarves in bulk and ships them back to the states to stock the biannual bazaar now synonymous with her name. 18

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

But the first time Linda visited Turkey, the country was in turmoil. It was 1999 and, just weeks before she and her sister were scheduled to arrive for a vacation, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook the country. Thousands died and tens of thousands more were left injured. Airlines offered the sisters refunds for their tickets, but they declined. “Back then, you could take three suitcases on the plane at 70 pounds,” Linda says. “We packed them with all kinds of stuff.” Taking as few creature comforts as possible, they loaded each of their suitcases with supplies to donate to a Turkish elementary school. Linda, a schoolteacher at the time, saw the students’

smiling faces and fell in love. “When you see two eight-year-old boys high-fiving over a pencil,” she says, “it’s just heartbreaking.” When it was time to leave, she bought herself a souvenir scarf and a few pieces of jewelry to take home. Friends loved them. “Other teachers would say, ‘Bring me back one of those the next time you go.’” So she did. And then another person needed that string of pearls, and someone else salivated over that scarf, and more people just had to have that necklace. After a few years the whole thing became too much for one woman to manage out of a living room. Now she lines the tables of a conference room at Euro-Suites Hotel twice a year and invites all of Morgantown to look over her Turkish goodies. Today when she visits Turkey, she still takes school supplies, stuffed animals, and heaps of candy to that same Turkish school, items purchased with the proceeds from her bazaar. “I’ve got a little family over there,” she says. “That’s what’s important.” The bazaar returns to Euro-Suites (501 Chestnut Ridge Road) November 9 to November 11, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on November 12 through 5 p.m. The event has a $1 admission fee benefiting Empty Bowls Monongalia. written by jake jarvis

COURTESY OF LINDA HALL

THIS MATTERS

THIS MATTERS EATTHIS

A Bagel for the Season

00Bagel in Westover is offering fall-themed bagels. Try the Apple Crisp, Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry, or Complete Protein with pumpkin seeds. Owner and Baker Emily SmithZimmerman doesn’t have a storefront but takes special orders large and small. facebook.com/00bagel

SHOPTHIS

Small Business Saturday Returns ➼ AFTER CELEBRATING THE SEASON WITH A FEAST on Thanksgiving this year, stay warm and cozy inside with friends and family while everyone else heads out for Black Friday mayhem. Good deals will continue on Saturday when Morgantown’s local businesses participate in Small Business Saturday—a less frantic, more downtown-friendly shopping holiday. The event, now in its fifth year, began as a way to capture some of the energy of major shopping days like Black Friday and redirect it toward local businesses. Organizers hope this year’s event breaks last year’s one-day record of $30,000 spent at local businesses. “It’s a lot for one day,” says Barbara Watkins, event coordinator and assistant director of Main Street Morgantown. In addition to discounts and promotions offered by individual businesses, to be announced as the event nears, keep an eye out for the $5 promotional discount cards offering extra shopping incentives. The cards will be sold by Main Street Morgantown closer to the holiday. And this year every customer who spends more than $25 at local businesses during the promotion may enter for the chance to win one of four Apple iPads. Simply take your receipts from participating stores to Arts Monongahela before 5 p.m. that day. Small Business Saturday returns on November 28 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

DRINKTHIS

Beer! In a Can! Morgantown Brewing Company (1291 University Avenue), is canning some of its most popular libations. Look for these great designs in nearby supermarkets, beer and wine stores, or Morgantown Brewing itself.

written by JAKE JARVIS | photographed by CARLA WITT FORD

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS

TRYTHIS

A Neighborhood Perk One part coffee shop, one part convenience store, South Perk Market comes to Greenmont. ➼ WHETHER YOU NEED COFFEE or organic soap, the area’s newest coffee shop and convenience store may soon become the go-to place around South Park and Greenmont. Expected to open in October on Kingwood Street—taking over the location of the former Mountaineer Hydroponics store—South Perk Market exudes a vintage modern atmosphere of faux pressed-in ceilings, bronze lighting fixtures, and funky paint colors to reflect the eclectic vibe of Morgantown artisans, whose art pieces will be showcased on its walls. Manager and co-owner Sarah Hoblitzell says she hopes the space will become a gathering place for neighbors of all ages. 20

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Larger groups could order a whole French press or a teapot to share at a table, while others drop by to purchase favorite hot drink products including bulk coffee, organic loose-leaf tea, teapots, and coffee grinders. “We’re trying to offer as many locally made and natural products as possible,” Sarah says. “It’s so dependent on what the neighborhood wants. Our stock will be fluid and flexible for the first good bit.” For now a few of those offerings will include naturally grown Colombian coffee, espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos, tea, and snacks like sandwiches, wraps, bagels, pastries, and vegan options. Since

South Perk Market is technically zoned as a convenience store, it will also have basic groceries like health care and hygiene products, dry pastas, sauces, and cheeses, plus pottery and jewelry—all distributed by small businesses in the Morgantown vicinity. Sarah plans to open the shop in the morning as people are heading to work, close in the afternoon, and open again in the early evening while folks are going home. She also hopes to host art shows, open mic nights, and musical acts. “We’ll have classes like essential oils classes, local mom groups, study groups, weekly or biweekly tea parties, and kids’ book readings,” Sarah says. “Lots of people have come by saying how excited they are, which makes me incredibly excited about doing it.” South Perk Market’s planned opening will take place mid-October at 258 Kingwood Street. written by JENNIFER SKINNER photographed by CARLA WITT FORD

WHO’STHIS

Turning the Page

COURTESY OF NBC

A Morgantown native gets a strong start for her career in the Page Program at NBC.

➼ WHAT ARE THE CHANCES A KID FROM MORGANTOWN gets to work with comedian Steve Martin and professional basketball player LeBron James before her career even starts? With a combination of pluck and luck, Melissa Wells has done just that. Melissa played varsity basketball at Morgantown High School, where she became interested in journalism. “I like to hear stories and tell stories—I think storytelling is an undervalued art,” she says. She admired Ohio State University’s campus once on a basketball tournament road trip and decided to attend its journalism program. Experiences there opened her eyes—like the time she and fellow students reported on the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. “We snuck into the Olympic Village and I hung out with LeBron James,” she says. “That time in London changed my views on journalism, people, what I wanted to do in my life.” As she neared graduation, Melissa applied to the NBCUniversal Page Program: a highly competitive careerdevelopment program that rotates recent graduates through NBC’s sprawling news and entertainment organization. She was accepted and entered the program in August 2014. “The Page Program gives you entry-level experience on everything the industry has to offer, without having to commit to any one thing at the very beginning of your career,” she says. “It’s kind of a grind because you’re always on call. And while you’re rotating through the different areas, you can interview for jobs and people can recruit you, so you’re kind of always in the interview process.” But among other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, she got to work Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary in February 2015. And it paid off: In March, Melissa accepted a position as a marketing coordinator with NBC Sports. She’s part of the team preparing to cover the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Other projects include Sunday Night Football and NASCAR. “NASCAR just became part of NBC again for the first time in 10 or 12 years,” she says. “We’re trying to reshape it as a more desirable sport for people to watch. It’s been an amazing opportunity to develop a sport from the ground up.” written by PAM KASEY MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS

SHOPTHIS

Small Gestures, Big Difference An emphasis on customer service sets downtown’s Animal House apart. ➼ IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LITTLE things at Animal House on High Street. Inside the store, the cages lining the walls host a variety of cuddly creatures like sugar gliders, prairie dogs, chinchillas, and hedgehogs as well as lizards, snakes, and birds. But more striking than the size of the creatures is the way visitors to the store are treated, humans and animals alike. The staff at Animal House delivers on details typically overlooked, procuring a chair for elderly patrons or 22

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

warmly ushering inside a kid who arrives at closing time. Abandoned animals receive the same thoughtful treatment. Students can surrender pets, no questions asked, although space constraints require the staff to refuse dogs and accept cats in emergency situations only. The store cares for the animals until they find new homes. Owner Cathy Cutlip attributes this unique approach to the passion of the staff, who are all unpaid volunteers. “Our volunteers are so caring

and so loving,” she says. “The people who work here want to be here. People wouldn’t volunteer if they didn’t care.” At Animal House, every customer is encouraged to make an informed decision when buying a pet. Kids and university students who know enough about the care of the animal they want to take home are rewarded with a 10 percent discount. Child or adult, when a customer comes to the store in search of a pet, especially an exotic pet, the staff makes sure prospective owners are matched with animals appropriate for their lifestyles. A lot of teenagers want sugar gliders, Cathy explains, but she reminds customers they are high maintenance, expensive, and live as long as 14 years. Bunnies, too, are more of a commitment than many people realize. “We teach everybody about the animals before they buy them. We make sure everybody leaves here just a little smarter about animals.” written by MIRIAH HAMRICK photographed by CARLA WITT FORD

CONSIDERTHIS

A Ripple in Space interview by katie griffith

WVU physicist Maura McLaughlin has spent much of her career researching a phenomenon hypothesized a century ago. Using the Green Bank Telescope and dead stars, she and her team are searching for an undetected facet of general relativity. GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Gravitational waves, something Einstein predicted way back in 1915, are ripples in space-time. This space we’re sitting in isn’t static. All the particles in our bodies are moving in and out because of these waves, but no one has actually detected that it’s happening. There are many objects in the universe we can’t see, things like black holes, that emit gravitational waves.

THIS MATTERS PULSARS IN SPACE

t ic

Rotation Axis

n t io ia Ra d

SCIENCE IN WEST VIRGINIA West Virginia receives very little federal funding for science compared to most other states. The GBT is important for getting kids in the state interested in STEM and keeping our worldwide science presence. Astronomy is a gateway science—kids love it. They’re fascinated by it. It gets them interested in science, engineering, and math, and some of those kids will go on to do the practical things that people want to see. They’ll go on to med school and cure cancer; some will go to engineering school and build zero-emission cars that operate on solar cells. They’ll do useful things.

d el t ic

Be n

t io ia Ra d

We use two telescopes for the project—the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico—to observe about 50 pulsars. The GBT is the largest telescope in the U.S. and the second largest in the world, stretching 100 meters across. It’s funded by the National Science Foundation, and yet the NSF is building several very expensive new telescopes so it needs to decommission and defund older telescopes. The GBT is not that old though. It came online in the early 2000s, and it’s still very, very capable. There’s no telescope in the world that can do what the GBT can do, and it offers an amazing opportunity for WVU students. There’s nothing like going down to Green Bank, seeing the telescope, and talking to the engineers who maintain it. We also have a big program with high school students who are using the GBT to look for new pulsars, and we’d lose all that, too. The amount of money needed to keep this telescope open is about $10 million a year. If everyone in the U.S. put a penny into this telescope, it could stay open.

A THREATENED TREASURE IN WEST VIRGINIA

Pulsars are the remnants of massive stars that exploded in supernovas. When a star reaches the end of its life and runs out of fuel, inner bits of the star collapse in and the outer bits fly off. The core that collapses inward is a very special kind of object. It’s made of fundamental particles like neutrons and protons and electrons, and it’s very, very dense—pulsars weigh more than the sun and they’d fit inside Morgantown. They rotate very rapidly and have high magnetic fields, beaming pulses of radio emissions along their north and south magnetic poles—that’s why they’re called pulsars. Their rotation periods are incredibly stable, so if you observe one of these with a radio telescope, you can hear that it’s like a clock. It’s kind of like someone has gone out and put these very accurate clocks in space for us. We’re trying to use these pulsars to detect gravitational waves. We’re measuring the pulsars’ very precise radio emissions, and we’re searching for very tiny perturbations in emission arrival times due to these passing gravitational waves. If we are successful, we would be the first team to detect gravitational waves, and we can use this pulsar array as a telescope itself to measure gravitational wave signals from all over the universe.

PULSARS

General relativity is the foundation for our complete understanding of gravity. ” MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS They tore sweetness out of that rough unlikely place. They wrestled it down and made it give. Blessed by it again, and again, and again. By Theodore Roosevelt’s second term, the timber logged out of West Virginia could reach the moon and back twice over.” HONEY FROM THE LION

I was seeing was all secondor third-generation growth. What I was looking at wasn’t the state as it has always been. That was a big shock.” What had the old West Virginia looked like? What would Matt’s beloved forests have felt like, shaded in hemlock groves taller than church steeples? And what sort of people eked out a living anchored to the crumbling mountainsides READTHIS and switchback dirt roads of the logging days? Unable to shake this fascination with the past, Matt devoured books about logging and labor history from a young age. “I wasn’t reading it for Matthew Neill Null’s new book explores the novel at the time. I was reading it out of interest. But the inherent tensions in West Virginia’s when I started writing, it sort historic relationship with the land. of bubbled up.” By the time Matt joined the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa when ➼ MATTHEW NEILL NULL HAS deep he was 24, his ideas had coalesced. roots here. He can trace his heritage What took shape is a novel that balances through a collage of West Virginia counties—from Marion to Nicholas to Wetzel. on the edge of truth and beauty, a story that shifts the focus from the land barons Born in Summersville, his memories are laced with campfire smoke, gleaming fish and industry giants of the era to the dirty masses scrambling to make ends meet with scales, and the echo of a hunting rifle the labor of their hands. Matt says the class through the forest. And as you might struggle in West Virginia hasn’t changed expect, these are the images he conjured much, but the setting has. “The world is up when he finally sat down to write his changing so rapidly and moving so quickly first novel, Honey from the Lion, a story away from a rural lifestyle. One hundred that had brewed in his mind since he was years ago, 75 percent of people lived in the 19, now published by Lookout Books. “The landscape here is important to me,” country. That’s totally flipped now,” he says. “I was cognitive from a young age that he says. “One of the things that inspired the world that created me was on its way out. the book was the time I spent as a child Fewer people are living that way of life, and in the forest. I assumed then that West a lot of our history is being lost, especially Virginia’s landscape was as it had always the history of working class people and farm been.” But he learned, as a young adult, that he was wrong. Most of the state’s for- people. This is my bid to preserve a small part of that vanishing world.” ests had been clear-cut by 1920. “What

Beauty and Brutality

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Settled in the sawdust and sweat of the Cheat River Paper & Pulp Company’s Blackpine logging camp in the early 20th century, Matt’s characters are the men and women who live close to the bone—the sawyers, peddlers, and laborers whose muscle and spirit both built the state and irrevocably transformed it. And his language, though image-rich and arresting on its own, doesn’t shy away from describing the misery and magic of the setting in equal measure. “I write lyrical prose and I care a lot about the texture of words and the sound of language. But you still have to perform a kind of writing that is truthful. You want to pay tribute to everything that happened.” Rather than glossing over the harsh reality of West Virginia in the early 1900s, Matt carves out flesh and blood characters—like protagonist Cur Greathouse—and sets them on a collision course with the novel’s biggest issues. A forbidden love affair in Cur’s past bars him from home, political and economic disenchantment manifests in bloody revolution, and loyalties are tested as a brotherhood of sawyers confront the industrial engine that holds them down—all set against the vivid, heartrending backdrop of miles upon miles of ancient forests felled for profit. “That is the paradox,” Matt says. “We all live here and love the land. But almost all of us in the state have either been involved in extractive industries or have served them. It’s hard to make a living otherwise. As West Virginians we live more closely with the landscape than most people in modern America, but at the same time we are heavily involved in disassembling it. The tension there has always been in the ambivalence, in the beauty and brutality.” matthewneillnull.com written by MIKENNA PIEROTTI

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS

The Black Bear Club HEARTHIS

A new reading series in Morgantown is reimagining the public literary event. 28

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

➼ IF THE IDEA OF A NEW FORM of literary entertainment coming to Morgantown isn’t enough to put you on the edge of your seat, Howard Parsons, creator of the new Black Bear Club reading series, can sympathize. “There’s just this stigma that they’re boring,” he says. You know the stereotype—a stuffy room, a nervous writer standing awkwardly in front of a podium, an audience sitting stiff-backed in banquet hall chairs. “Library clapping, finger snapping, black berets.” He laughs. “I refuse to let mine be like that—boring, dry, and stuffy. My treatment is more like a rock show than anything else.” Howard knows a thing or two about both the literary world and the entertainment world. He currently teaches creative writing workshops at the Monongalia Arts Center and manages local band GoodWolf. He earned his MFA from The New School in New York City and spent years there attending many of the Big Apple’s best— and worst—examples of reading series while in graduate school. He’s also watched close friends create their own successful reading series and podcasts, titled drDoctor, in Brooklyn, New York. Now, Howard has come home to Morgantown, the city of his birth, to start one of his own using a similar model. The club has already held two highly successful readings featuring local and award-winning writers like Jim Harms, Jesse Kalvitis, and Rebecca Thomas. And a third is planned for November 6, featuring West Virginia writer and American Book Award-winner Denise Giardina, author of The Unquiet Earth and Storming Heaven. Both novels are set in West Virginia’s early 20th century coal country and grapple with themes ranging from forbidden love to labor feuds in the coal camps. Howard is beyond excited to see how much the reading series has grown in such a short time, as well as the distinction it brings to Morgantown’s literary community. “I was inspired to do this here because there wasn’t much like it around here. There are a few poetry open mics in Morgantown and Lewisburg but not a lot of options that were well-organized and regularly occurring,” he says. The Black Bear Club blueprint is simple, though Howard admits he’s still working out a few details. Much like a rock show, he says the formula is a mixture of atmosphere and timing. For the atmosphere, he’s recently settled on music haven 123 Pleasant Street. “The bar environment is probably the most immediately disarming for everyone. And

There’s just this stigma that they’re boring. Library clapping, finger snapping, black berets. I refuse to let mine be like that.” HOWARD PARSONS, BLACK BEAR CLUB CREATOR

Pleasant Street has the upper bar in the window and there’s already a stage and lights and decorations. It’s just perfect.” Not to mention the great food by Atomic Grill and a full bar of drink options to wash it all down. The reading series’ timing, Howard has down to a science. “I have one person who reads poetry, one who reads nonfiction, and one who reads fiction. They each get 15 to 20 minutes. I strongly enforce that. Your attention span can’t handle much more. William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway—the greats could get up there and read for an hour and nobody would care after 20 minutes.” Between readers Howard, who also acts as an emcee, gives the audience 15- to 20-minute breaks. “That way people can hang out, ask questions, get drinks, whatever.” Of course having a few amazing writers to feature helps. For that Howard says he spends a lot of time networking and soliciting writers to read. He also brings West Virginia artists like Karri Roberts, Dylan Balliett, and Dan Davis—of Kin Ship Goods in Charleston—on board to design posters and publicity materials. That helps get the word out and acts as another outlet for the state’s growing art scene. “I’m trying to get a different artist from West Virginia to design every poster,” he says. In the future he’d like to pair readings with artists to create a dual reading and art opening. Howard has big plans for the Black Bear Club, but right now he’s focusing on fueling the energy around this brand new series—which is not only free and open to everyone but is also recorded and available as a podcast on the drDoctor website. He says even with the new format, it’s still a challenge getting writers and audiences to commit to an evening of literary entertainment. But one of his biggest motivations is seeing the community’s understanding of a reading series change for the better—on both sides of the proverbial, and thankfully absent, podium. “I’ve done readings in the stuffy way, myself. It can be kind of terrifying as a writer, standing up in front of a bunch of people in ties. So this model—it’s good for the writers and it’s good for the listeners.” Don’t miss the next meeting of the Black Bear Club featuring the award-winning author Denise Giardina, November 6, 2015, at 123 Pleasant Street. Socializing starts at 6 p.m. Readings start at 7 p.m. facebook.com/blackbearclubwv, drdoctordrdoctor.com

written by MIKENNA PIEROTTI art by DAN DAVIS MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Hail This WHAT’STHIS

21st century taxi service is gearing up in Morgantown.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

➼ RUNNING A TAXICAB COMPANY isn’t easy. Good drivers and dispatchers are hard to come by, for one thing, according to Robert King, owner of Morgantown’s longtime single cab provider, Yellow Cab. Riders add in extra stops, putting drivers behind on their next pickups. Traffic, storms, maintenance—it can be a tough business. But Andrew Vecchio thinks he can handle it. He wants to open a second cab company in Morgantown, and he applied in January 2015 for approval from the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC), which regulates utilities, communications, and some other services in the state. A Morgantown native and a 2012 graduate of WVU, Andrew experienced efficient, professional cab service when he

traveled to other states for work in the oil and gas industry. “I was staying in hotels and, if I wanted to go out and have dinner, I could call a cab and they were extremely fast.” He’d heard criticisms of the cab service in his hometown and decided to look into offering an alternative. When he organized Motown Taxi as a business and, as part of a licensing process, asked the community for feedback, he got an earful. “I once waited four hours for a cab and called them every 20 minutes for them to tell me one would be there in six minutes every time,” wrote one respondent to Motown Taxi’s Facebook survey about Yellow Cab’s service. “There are never enough cabs and on the weekend it is nearly impossible to get a cab unless you’re downtown,” wrote another. Motown Taxi accumulated hundreds

COURTESY OF ANDREW VECCHIO

THIS MATTERS

Residents per Taxi, 2014

The best number of taxicabs for a community depends on everything from transportation alternatives to personal income to community work and recreational culture. But among the seven most populous counties in the state, active, well-off Monongalia County has among the most people per cab. 8,000

15% to 20%

is a reasonable tip these days, and never less than $1, plus a couple dollars for any help with bags or other special service.

6,000

4,000

2,000

LOVE YOUR CABBIE

Raleigh County

Harrison County

Cabell County

Kanawha Monongalia County County

Wood County

Berkeley County

Source: Public Service Commission of West Virginia, U.S. Census Bureau

of similar comments, many of them vehement, describing hours-long wait times, aging cars, and rude behavior by drivers and dispatchers. Robert, the owner of Yellow Cab, did not return calls for this story. But as Motown Taxi’s proposal progressed with the PSC earlier this year, he made his case in public testimony. Although he didn’t address complaints about the condition of cabs, which are on average more than 10 years old, according to PSC information, or poor customer service, he did say wait times can be long for multiple reasons, including riders who end up taking drivers to different places than they told dispatch they wanted to go. Yellow Cab provides adequate service, he argued, supplying several longtime satisfied customers as witnesses. Morgantown can’t support a second cab company, Robert also contended. His own company makes no profit, he said. Other major cities in the state are served by single cab companies, he noted, and Morgantown is particularly challenging because its population shrinks by half when students leave town. It has to be noted that, with Yellow Cab running just 16 cars this year, one fewer than in

2014, Monongalia County has among the highest resident-per-cab ratios of the state’s more populated counties. Andrew thinks Morgantown would choose cabs more often if a second cab company could offer reasonable wait times and accurate time estimates. Reasonable Waits, Better Estimates A lot of life’s pleasures have gotten even better with the Internet, and taxi service is definitely one of them. App technology and GPS mapping have taken dispatch from guesswork to precision. Motown Taxi plans to use T Dispatch, a web-based fleet management system tailor-made for riders, dispatchers, and drivers alike. Riders will be able to “hail” cabs directly through a smartphone app that estimates wait times, travel times, and fares, and can also store customer profiles with payment information. Riders can note special needs in the app, like vision impairment or a need for wheelchair access, and can schedule cabs in advance. They can also book a cab with Motown Taxi online or by phone, if they prefer. From the company’s viewpoint, dispatch will be efficient. “Say a customer calls or uses the app or schedules a taxi on our

website,” Andrew says. “The request pops up in a queue box. All the dispatcher needs to do is drag that to an empty cab on their screen.” Cabs will have their own screens and apps. “The driver will get the notification with the pickup and drop-off locations, and the software will figure out the fastest way to get there, accounting for traffic, road closures, and accidents.” At drop-off, customers will have the option of paying and tipping directly from credit or debit card information stored in the app—fast and convenient for both rider and driver. Andrew’s target wait times: 10 minutes during the day and up to 30 minutes during peak hours. Still Waiting ... Although the PSC judge who heard the case concluded in July that Morgantown can in fact support a second cab company and recommended that the commission approve Motown Taxi for operation, we’ll have to wait a little longer: Yellow Cab filed in protest and that process is still playing out. But Andrew hopes to have six cabs on the road some time in October—2016 Ford Transit passenger wagons, one of which will be wheelchair accessible—and to add another two vehicles every few months for as long as demand supports it. He’s working on agreements to set up cabstands at the Morgantown Municipal Airport, the Morgantown Mall, Euro-Suites Hotel, and downtown. Once his cabs are on the road, Andrew invites riders to search their app stores for “Motown Taxi,” download the app, and hail a cab. facebook.com/motowntaxi written by PAM KASEY MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Happy Feet WHAT’STHIS

Old-time music and dance warms up for a big moment in Morgantown this fall. ➼ THE MARILLA RECREATION Center isn’t much more than a big empty room—four long walls and a big expanse of hardwood floor. But on the second Saturday of every month, the place is filled with dozens of shuffling, stomping, laughing, and whooping people, all dancing together to old-time music. That’s when FOOTMAD, the Morgantown Friends of Old Time Music and Dance, holds its monthly contra dance. This October the musical bash will take place on a grander scale when FOOTMAD hosts an even bigger, fourday celebration of the genre. What this group does in the Marilla Center every month is called participatory dance—square dancing and contra dancing both fall under that umbrella. “When we say it’s participatory it just means 32

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

whoever happens to walk into the door can immediately engage in the activity in a satisfying way,” says Nils Fredland of the Country Dance and Song Society—the premier organization for participatory music and dance in the United States— based in Massachusetts. “Nobody has any prior knowledge of what the dance is going to be and the moves are really designed so that someone walking in off the street, as long as they’re willing to dive in and do something they’re unfamiliar with, can figure it out as they go.” There’s participatory music too, which works pretty much the same way, only with song. Morgantown has had an active participatory dance and music scene since at least the middle of the 1970s when FOOTMAD was founded, though the dances are deeply rooted in West Virginia

culture. And for more than 30 years, FOOTMAD has been bringing all kinds of people—university students, townies, newbies, old-timers, you name it—out to dance together. “Our dances are really family dances,” says Marianne O’Doherty, a dance caller who has been involved with FOOTMAD for years. “We have people anywhere from 8 to 88, and they all end up dancing and mingling together.” Because Morgantown is such a transient city, the group of people at these dances is always changing. “We feel like we’re kind of an incubator for people to get exposed to this kind of music and dance,” Marianne says. “So many people do come do it with us and then they leave for other places where we hope they stay involved in it.” In that spirit, FOOTMAD is hosting a celebration of old-time music and dance this fall, October 21 through 25. The event, which they’re calling “four days of joy,” is one of seven events the Country Dance and Song Society is throwing as part of a nationwide tour to celebrate its centennial this year. Morgantown will host nationally renowned experts in country dance and song. “It’s an opportunity to have big names in the industry come to our town, to have them give us an infusion of their

COURTESY OF FOOTMAD

THIS MATTERS

COURTESY OF FOOTMAD

enthusiasm and their talents,” Marianne says. “Hopefully our community will embrace that, and it will take Morgantown to another level as far as people being involved in the old-time music and dance scene.” The event will include workshops in dance, singing, band performances, and calling (as in calling out the moves that a big group of dancers do. It’s a dynamic and highly individualized art.), plus a few big community contra dances, a jam session, and a potluck. It costs $55 for the weekend, but scholarships are available. Marianne urges anyone who is interested in taking a class but concerned about the cost to contact FOOTMAD. “We know that price could be high for some people, and we will work with them,” she says. It’s all in the spirit of spreading the fun. There’s a lot of talk about joy in the world of participatory dance and song—so much that it’s almost a cliché. “I always say I’m not going to talk about joy when I talk about this stuff, but it’s unavoidable because it’s so palpable when people are in a room and they’re dancing together,” Nils says. His favorite dances are the ones with a lot of beginners. “I get to see the lights going on over their heads,” he says. “I get to show people a different way to engage with the community, and it creates magic.” It’s that kind of joy that FOOTMAD has been bringing to Morgantown for the last four decades, and that country dance and song lovers hope this big celebration will help promote in the future. “You just can’t help but smile while you’re dancing to this music in an atmosphere of total inclusion and acceptance,” Marianne says. “That’s why we want to do this.” 304.296.4954, morgantowndance.com written by SHAY MAUNZ MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS MATTERS

Simple Changes SUPPORTTHIS

Local nonprofit Caritas House improves the lives of people facing HIV, AIDS, and homelessness.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

➼ WHEN MARK LOZIER WAS diagnosed with AIDS in 1994, he weighed 68 pounds. Doctors told Mark, only 23 years old, he had no more than a day to live. The disease, typically observed as a late-stage complication of HIV, had developed unusually quickly. Mark’s family rallied around him, including his godmother Sharon Wood. Sharon worked as a nurse in the hospital treating Mark, but handling his diagnosis was disturbing new territory. “Even with 20 years of experience, I knew nothing about HIV and AIDS and I did not know how to help him,” Sharon says. “I promised him I would find out how to help people like him and do what I could to make an impact in the HIV/AIDS community.” Mark fought the disease for another few years, but ultimately succumbed. Sharon fulfilled her promise to Mark, moving to Morgantown in 1997 to work with health care organizations and charities,

THIS MATTERS

It takes about 90 days before those folks start sleeping at night and staying awake during the day—to get back on what we consider a social schedule.” SHARON WOOD, CARITAS HOUSE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

including Caritas House, a nonprofit founded in 1994 by a group of volunteers providing assistance for individuals and families affected by the disease. Today, Sharon helms Caritas House as its executive director, a position she’s held since 2006. Advances in treatment ensure better prognoses than the one Mark faced 20 years ago, but testing positive for HIV or AIDS is still a life-altering experience. One of three groups in the state focused on improving the lives of people with HIV and AIDS, Caritas House steps in to make the experience less confusing and overwhelming. A small staff of five, bolstered by thousands of hours of volunteer time, connects people across North Central West Virginia with support and proper medical care. Treating the disease can pose a significant financial burden, and through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Caritas House helps people with HIV or AIDS make their rent, mortgage, and utility payments. An emergency shelter in South Park offers a place to stay, whether overnight while visiting specialists at Ruby Memorial Hospital or for extended stays when people experience homelessness after diagnosis.

Colligo House Soon after its founding, the organization discovered that many people living with HIV or AIDS find themselves without

homes after diagnosis. Some lose their jobs due to discrimination or deteriorating health, while the cost of treatment triggers financial instability for others. Helping people with HIV or AIDS find secure housing led Caritas House to find ways to improve the lives of all people facing homelessness. Colligo House, a supportive housing unit where chronically homeless people are empowered with the support and skills necessary to live independent lives, has been at capacity since its doors opened in September 2007. Since then, nearly 30 people have overcome homelessness at Colligo House, located next to the Caritas House offices on Scott Avenue. Colligo House workers develop specialized plans for each resident, outlining strategies for getting proper medical care from lead doctors and for obtaining incomes. Many residents arrive without basic necessities like glasses, dentures, or even shoes, so the first step is outfitting them with resources they need day to day. Even though they have a place to stay and food to eat, many residents remain in survival mode for months after they arrive. “It takes about 90 days before those folks start sleeping at night and staying awake during the day—to get back on what we consider a social schedule, where you take a shower and make meals every day. Where you do your laundry once a week,” Sharon says. At that point, volunteers help residents prepare to live alone and find jobs. “I have volunteers who teach residents how to cook, clean, prepare a budget, read, drive a car, study for the GED,” Sharon says. When residents move out, usually two or three years later, the goal is that they leave as productive members of society. Colligo House is slowly improving the lives of local displaced people, but annual counts of Morgantown’s homeless population, performed by Caritas House, reveal approximately 75 people are still without a place to call home. Many stay downtown, where the most resources are available, and Sharon is intimately aware of their daily struggles. She worries about where they use the bathroom from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day, when the public restroom on the rail-trail closes. She wonders where they get a drink of water after access to the water fountain in the Public Safety Building closes off at 5 p.m. on weekdays. She hopes they find something to eat between meals served by local churches and nonprofits.

Expanding the Mission To fill the gaps between services available to the homeless, Caritas House has distributed hundreds of emergency personal assistance kits, or EPAKS, for the last three years to ease their burdens. Suitcases on wheels, the EPAKS contain more than 80 items necessary for surviving outdoors, including tents, sleeping bags, and basic toiletries and hygiene items. Many of the items in the EPAKS are donated, allowing the organization to put each one together for about $100. Recipients have told Caritas House about the difference those items made. “We have testimonials from folks who were literally sleeping under bridges without any protection above or beneath themselves,” Sharon says. The organization’s latest big project marks another expansion in its mission, this time to offer affordable housing for people with low incomes. Novus House, an apartment complex with eight single-occupant units on Scott Avenue, welcomed its first six residents on July 15, 2015. Within two weeks, the building was full. Sharon says Monongalia County offers very few affordable housing options, a need her organization seeks to address. The apartments are available for people earning paychecks 50 to 80 percent below the federal poverty line. “I get referrals every day and we maintain a waiting list,” Sharon says. She attributes the organization’s ability to successfully juggle its interconnected missions to the work of volunteers. Whether they work directly with residents at Colligo House or simply mow the grass around the Caritas House complex, all contributions make the workload manageable for the small staff. And the days are full of moments that make it all worth it, Sharon says—like when a new resident of Colligo House is hungry and realizes she can make herself lunch, or when a longtime resident buys a vehicle and takes himself to a doctor’s appointment. “It’s the simple things,” she says. “That’s how you keep going every day. You don’t think about the negative things. You turn the negatives into positives.” For more information about volunteering or donating money, goods, or services to Caritas House, call 304.985.0021 or visit caritashouse.com. written by MIRIAH HAMRICK MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

SCOREBOARD

A Second Swing

WVU’s national boxing champion Dan Gibson seeks another title and a team legacy.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

aniel Gibson stares across the boxing ring at his opponent. Under the glaring lights and the raucous cheers from the crowd, he is unfazed. He’s spent months training: pushups, sit-ups, slide-steps and pivots, countless punches landed and almost as many taken, hundreds of miles run while shadowboxing. A bell signals the start of the fight and Dan steps out to begin his assault. He gets in close and lands a hard left hook. Then another, and another. His opponent falls back as Dan dodges his swings and overwhelms him with speed, keeping up the attack with more jabs through the three two-minute rounds. It was a dominating performance, one that earned Dan a United States Boxing Association (USBA) national championship belt at Sunrise, Florida

SCOREBOARD Dan Gibson became the first male WVU boxer to bring home a national championship in decades when he defeated a U.S. Naval Academy opponent in April 2015.

in April 2015. “Feeling light and feeling quick—I never fought with my hands as I did in that tournament,” Dan recalls. “I felt untouchable.” The then-165-pound WVU junior, a Spanish major, won the bout in a unanimous decision giving him the USBA championship belt for his weight class. In taking home the title, Dan made WVU history by winning the first boxing national title for a male WVU boxer since Sam Littlepage in 1938. His win stirred conversation all night among boxing enthusiasts in attendance. One could only wonder, what’s next for this national champion? Four months later, a cadence of padded gloves against punching bags echoes across the large Hazel and J.W. Ruby Community Center at Mylan Park just outside Morgantown, where, every Monday through Thursday night, the WVU Boxing Club gathers to train and

prepare. Shouts of encouragement from sparring partners follow each landed punch. Dan stands before a group of WVU students new to the sport, coaching them through the basics of a slide-step. Despite his fame, Dan is an unassuming figure. Only months removed from winning his title, it isn’t immediately obvious he is the club’s star. He speaks slowly and thoughtfully. His golden WVU shirt hides his powerful arms. WVU Boxing Club Coach Brandon Lial, also Dan’s mentor, describes him as modest but unflappable. “Dan doesn’t get nervous. He’s not cocky but he is confident.” This is a pivotal year for Dan and the Boxing Club, Brandon says. Entering his senior year, Dan has the opportunity to earn a second title. He also has to prepare the team for his eventual graduation by finding new club members who can take on the workload of being a

club president or team captain. Dan knows it’s a demanding task. As club president himself this year, in addition to competing, he has to recruit, plan club travel, manage its budget, and play the role of coach for new boxers. “It’s big for him,” Brandon says. “Not only for the accolades in the ring but as club president and the leader of what we’re doing.” The WVU Boxing Club is in the midst of an impressive three-year run in which national champions have emerged from its ranks. Prior to Dan’s win earlier this year, the club had two women, Jen Morales and Shannon Reilly, win in their weight classes in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Dan, as the president for the club, has made it a mission to groom a successor and champion to continue this unprecedented streak for the club. “I think about that almost more than my own training,” Dan says. MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

SCOREBOARD As Dan enters his 2015-16 season, he looks forward to winning another title. His hopes go as high as the 2020 Olympic Games.

An Athlete in Search of a Sport Dan has grown more and more confident since his first day of boxing practice several years ago. At his first practice, he was raw. He had never trained as a boxer or thrown a punch in the ring. He had tried other sports, like soccer and basketball, but never excelled. When he tried his hand at mixed martial arts, something clicked. “I wasn’t always tough,” Dan says. “I got into street fights when I was younger—a couple went my way and a couple didn’t. Then I do MMA and my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament and I win two silver medals.” The wins prompted him to go a step farther and sign up for the Boxing Club at WVU when he arrived on campus in August 2012. In those first few months, Dan proved to be a hard worker. He kept showing up to practice even as other club recruits dropped off. He took tough hits and would get back up. When Dan and his fellow new recruits strapped on the gloves for the first time, they did three rounds of sparring with Assistant Coach Cameron Price. Brandon calls it “the grind,” a test in which would-be boxers realize what he calls the “suck factor” of the sport. Dan held his own when others couldn’t. “He gave me three good rounds,” Cameron says. “We look for the people who stand 38

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

out and he definitely did.” That season, Dan began his boxing career with an unexpected winning streak. “We knew we had a champ in Dan when he reeled off six wins in a row in his first season,” Brandon says. Dan went 7-2 that year. The surprising early success also encouraged him to set his sights on a national title. Since then, consistent preparation of body and mind has been Dan’s winning formula. It’s the same quality he admires in boxing greats like Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali and martial artists like Bruce Lee. The training is just a matter of habit. “If I’m having a tough day and I skip practice, I’m going to have a tougher day. No matter what kind of day I’m having, I make it in if it’s practice day,” Dan says. “If I’m having a bad day, we get down to business. We get the gloves on, we get some punches throwing, and I’m good after that. Nothing bothers me.” If one day his legs tell him not to run, he’s at the park doing push-ups and pullups. Other days he’s out running and shadowboxing. “If you’re unprepared in other sports you lose on the scoreboard. If you’re unprepared for boxing, you’re going to get beat up. You’ve got to take care of yourself, even if it’s on your own time,” Dan says. “I take it as it comes and

stay within myself.” He is in the middle of his senior season with a 19-11 record. An Athlete on the Rise Even as Dan is putting all of his energy into training for a shot at another belt, building his boxing team with Coach Lial, and serving as an ambassador for the sport as a student representative for the National Collegiate Boxing Association, he’s looking past graduation in May 2016—setting his sights high, as high as the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. “Maybe that’ll be my year,” he muses. It’s a long road: He’ll have to cut his weight to 154 pounds. He’ll need a lot more training. And he’ll have to fight in national tournaments and a number of Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. “Just rack up some more fights, more experience,” he says. “Just take it one fight at a time. I have an end goal.” Until then, the young fighter will take a swing at another national USBA championship in 2016 representing the WVU Boxing Club while the boxing world keeps an eye on this determined champ.

written by ANDREW BARNES photographed by ROGER YU

DISH IT OUT

A Thing T Like Pride The Greeks serves up authentic Mediterranean flavor with a side of familial love.

here’s a word in Greek that’s difficult to translate into English. Nikoletta Kalogeropoulos struggles to put a finger on it as we sit at a table in her family’s restaurant on the ground floor of the Beech View Place apartment complex on Beechurst Avenue. The word is important to her because it describes an aspect of Morgantown that initially drew many of her family members here to open their business, aptly called The Greeks. “People here really love their city. They have this emotion—I don’t MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

DISH IT OUT

Chef Dimitri Kolettis sou n ds it out

A GREEK PRONUNCIATION GUIDE Gyro (YEER-oh) a pita sandwich with roasted meat, veggies, sauces, and sometimes fries. Tzatziki (zat-ZEE-key) a yogurt sauce mixed with cucumber, garlic, and spices, often served with grilled meats Souvlaki (Soo-VLAH-key) meat grilled on a skewer. Baklava (bahk-lah-VAH) a dessert made with layers of filo dough, nuts, spices, and honey. Pastitsio (Pas-TEET-see-oh) a baked noodle dish with ground meat and béchamel sauce. Moussaka (moo-sah-KAH) a baked dish commonly made with eggplant or potato.

know how to say it in English,” she says. They love their sports teams, their local businesses, their events. “They take pride in all of it,” she says. It’s like patriotism or town pride—but much deeper. Her husband’s aunt, Anastasia, speaks up from a seat beside her. “In Greece we are like that, too. We love our country,” she says. As the two women mull over how to describe this ephemeral quality, the smells of coffee, thyme honey, and tangy yogurt waft into the crisp, blue and white dining space from the kitchen, where the restaurant’s coowner and chef, Dimitri Kolettis, Nikoletta’s cousin by marriage, gets ready for the day. He tells me that the scents of cooking, especially the gyro meat heating up on vertical rotisseries behind the counter, often draw the student population right down from the apartments above the diner. Sure enough, even though it’s not quite 11 a.m., when the restaurant opens, a few young men speaking a foreign language 40

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

push through the door. They belly up to the counter to order fresh crepes and hot coffee. Chef Dimitri politely directs them to the other side of the restaurant, the café side overlooking Beech View Place’s quiet courtyard, as he heats up the grill. “A lot of Middle Eastern students in town really enjoy the food here. It reminds them of home,” he says. Meanwhile, Nikoletta and Anastasia have given up the search for the right word. In the end the translation isn’t important, but the emotion behind it is. The pride the people of Morgantown have in their city is what gives Nikoletta, her husband—also named Dimitri—and his cousin the chef such high hopes for the business. It’s why quite a few of both Nikoletta’s and the Dimitris’ family members chose Morgantown to put down roots. Some are newly arrived from Greece, like Chef Dimitri’s young sister Savvina, now in high school. Others, like

Nikoletta, were in this country and moved to Morgantown for its proximity to metropolitan areas like Pittsburgh, where Nikoletta’s mother, Anna Saker, has lived and worked for many years. “We rolled the dice and now we’re here,” Chef Dimitri says. “And the plan is to stay.” For the chef, especially, opening the restaurant was the culmination of a lifelong passion. He was born in Greece and, after spending the first 10 years of his life in Florida, grew up on the island of Kalymnos in the southeastern Aegean Sea. It was there he fell in love with the flavors of his native country and decided to attend culinary school. He later went on to work at a few five-star hotels in Greece, but the white-tablecloth world didn’t appeal to him. “I did it, but I didn’t have a real passion,” he says. What he did have a passion for was the small, common eateries of popular Greek culture. “They call them souvlatzidika.

DISH IT OUT

I like to see the students come in and learn something about a new culture. It reminds me of my time in culinary school.” DIMITRI KOLETTIS, CHEF AT THE GREEKS

It’s like a burger place in the states,” he says. But Greece had many such places and few opportunities for the young chef to strike out on his own. “The situation was very difficult over there, so I decided to move back to the U.S. and do what I have to,” he says. Together with his cousin Dimitri, the soon-to-be Chef Dimitri worked in the U.S. as a bridge painter. But the job took both Dimitris away from their families, including Nikoletta, for months at a time. So when Nikoletta’s mother introduced the cousins to friends who were planning to build in Morgantown, near Anna’s home in Pittsburgh, a light bulb blinked on. “We were eating Thanksgiving at Anna’s house and she told us they were building these student apartments and underneath would be rental spaces. She said, ‘You guys should do a Greek place there’,” Chef Dimitri says. “My cousin looked at me and I looked at him. Then I told him, ‘Don’t worry about anything. I know what we’re going to do.’” Together the Dimitris and Nikoletta saved money and, with the help of Anna—a fourth co-owner of the business—opened The Greeks in 2014 with a full menu of flavorful dishes. From gyros stuffed with meats, fries, and creamy sauces like tzatziki

Owned by four family members, The Greeks restaurant on Beechurst Avenue is becoming a fixture in the community with an appearance at the West Virginia Wine and Jazz Festival and a new agreement with WVU to allow students to purchase food with university ID cards. Chef Dimitri Kolettis makes everything from sweet and savory crepes to gyros stuffed with meats, fries, and feta to light and sweet baklava drizzled with honey.

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

DISH IT OUT

or terokafteri, a spicy cheese, as well as staples of Greek cuisine like pastitsio, a baked dish similar to lasagna, this little diner has brought authentic Greek cuisine to Morgantown’s Sunnyside neighborhood in a whole new way. And don’t forget dessert. Chef Dimitri makes a baklava so light and sweet, stuffed with nuts and drizzled with the famous thyme honey of Kalymnos, even his mother, Anastasia, a cook in her own right, gushes about it. “I taught him how to make it. But now his is better than mine,” she says. Not only are the staples of modern college dining flying out the door—the gyros, the salads, and the fresh-made hummus served with warm pita bread— but the less well-known, at least among Americans, flavors of Greek culture are gaining popularity as well. Nikoletta says the moussaka, a baked casserole-type dish, as well as the pastitsio, spanakopita, and even homemade rice pudding have more fans among the student population every 42

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

day. “There are still people in Morgantown who really don’t know what Greek cuisine is,” Chef Dimitri says. “But eventually they give us a shot. And they always come back.” Having celebrated their restaurant’s one-year anniversary in September 2015, the Dimitris and their families are working hard to keep momentum going. The cousins work seven days a week. They open each morning at 11 a.m. and serve food until 10 p.m. on weekdays and as late as 1 a.m. on weekends. “It isn’t easy. If it weren’t for Dimitri and me working here every day, we wouldn’t have made it,” the chef says. They want to become an even bigger part of the community by attending events like the West Virginia Wine & Jazz Festival held each September outside Morgantown. They’ve also been in talks with Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont to bring culinary students into the restaurant to work and learn about Greek cuisine, and they have a new agreement

with WVU to allow The Greeks students to purchase 331 Beechurst Avenue meals at The Greeks 304.284.0055 using their student thegreekswv.com IDs. “I like to see the students come in and learn something about a new culture. It reminds me of my time in culinary school,” Chef Dimitri says. From sister Savvina, who’s happy to jump behind the counter and make crepes, to Nikoletta doing paperwork and handling phones, to Anna, who comes down from Pittsburgh to help out every weekend, to Anastasia, who travels to Kalymnos to gather herbs from the mountains for tea and to purchase honey for baklava, everyone is putting heart and soul into the effort. “My pay is getting to see the boys doing better and better in their lives,” Anastasia says proudly. “That’s all we want.” written by MIKENNA PIEROTTI photographed by CARLA WITT FORD

THE U

Library of Life

The WVU Herbarium’s trove of organic knowledge and history is going digital. 44

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

THE U

ne of the largest, most important repositories of knowledge in West Virginia contains few books. One part museum, one part library, this collection holds no artwork, no dinosaur bones, and not a single manuscript—unless you count the shelves upon shelves of dried leaves, pressed flowers, and preserved seeds as works of art. Donna Ford-Werntz, curator of this strange and beautiful assortment collectively called the WVU Herbarium, certainly does. “We are very much like a museum or a library. We have a lot of valuable items in our holdings, and we are all about pure, basic research,” she says. Although a stack of dried plants might not seem valuable to modern scientific research, you’d be surprised. Herbaria like this one have existed since the 1500s and together form a basis for research into biological diversity, evolution, genomic studies, and climate change. Crucially, each plant contained within an herbarium generally includes a label of where, when, and by whom it was found, creating a trail of information from present day back hundreds of years into botanical history. The one at WVU—established in the 19th century and now the largest in the state with nearly 200,000 plants—is secreted away behind the industrial brick and patinaed copper façade of WVU’s Life Sciences Building. The WVU Herbarium includes shelves of flowering plants and drawers of seeds in the basement, a large sample of lichens and bryophytes like mosses bristling in cabinets upstairs, more than 25,000 color photographic slides, and a stack of preserved wood and bark specimens. It even has some space in a rooftop conservatory. And all exist as a resource for scientists, students, and the general public. It’s in the basement, under the flicker of a few fluorescent lights, where Donna, co-curator Susan Studlar, a few students, and volunteers work to keep the dried plants preserved and organized. Make an appointment to view the collection and Donna will be happy to show you every stem and seed, starting in the central workroom, where staff and volunteers glue dried plants to acid-free paper. Donna says she gets plants both from local sources, like the West Virginia Native Plants Society, and from around the world. The university even has a long-standing agreement with Japan and has many specimens from that country in

its collection. Once received, each plant destined for the collection is frozen to kill pests and specially dried before being filed away. Adjacent to the workroom the herbarium proper contains compact library shelving packed full of voucher specimens in color-coded folders—everything from spidery annual bluegrass, dried a dusky gray, to poison hemlock with its umbrellas of pure white flowers. Despite its impressive size, until recently the herbarium was somewhat limited. If a scientist studying the effects of climate change on flora in Barbour County wanted a list of everything that grows in that area, Donna says in the past that scientist would have had to visit

the herbarium in person and go through each individual paper folder. But thanks to recent funding, the label information attached to every West Virginia specimen has now been entered into a searchable database and is available online. “So I can tell you everything that grows in Barbour County. I can tell you everything Earl L. Core collected. I can tell you everything that was growing in July. Whatever you want, we can search on all that.” The herbarium is also participating in a National Science Foundation-funded project to photograph and digitize its plant collections from West Virginia and the Southeastern United States. Student workers will barcode and photograph MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THE U

At the WVU Herbarium researchers like Donna FordWerntz collect and digitize information about thousands of plant species from across the world.

each specimen and make those images available online. Soon, scientists and the general public will be able to find both images and crucial data about all the plant species in West Virginia—as well as other states—online. For scientists wanting to search the collection, digitizing even a portion of the specimens will be a huge leap forward. Donna says shipping physical specimens to other institutions for study is expensive and dangerous. Plants can be lost, damaged, or destroyed. But when this digitization project is completed, a scientist in Zimbabwe could call up an example of native West Virginia elderberry and find out precisely where it grows and when it blooms, as well as theorize how the plant’s range might be changing. Donna says she plans to photograph and barcode every plant from the 12 southeastern states included in the project. International specimens and those from states outside the Southeastern United States will be photographed and digitized as well in the years ahead. But that’s only half the project. Although the West Virginia specimen labels are already available online, the next step will be transcribing each of the remaining labels from the United States and other countries—some handwritten and dating back to the 1800s—and entering them into the database. Such an undertaking could take years more than the funding will allow, so Donna is calling on volunteers. “We are going to have digital pictures on the web available for anyone to look at. And we are going to ask our citizen scientists to bring up those images in the comfort of their homes, zoom in on those labels, and type them in for us,” she says. Still, just a quick perusal of the herbarium’s holdings is a learning experience. Donna says putting this vast repository of information online will not only open the world of botanical study to every scientist, child, and layperson with Internet access, it will also serve to water the already fertile field of research into important questions about life on our shared planet. “We need to get all this out there because of the essential research that derives from it,” she says. “Until you have that baseline data you can’t do anything because you don’t even know what questions to ask.” biology.wvu.edu/facilities/herbarium written by MIKENNA PIEROTTI photographed by CARLA WITT FORD

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

ACROSS COUNTY LINES

Drive W Route 7 This twisting highway takes drivers high into Preston County’s Allegheny Highlands, with stunning fall color, valley vistas, and West Virginia history everywhere you turn.

written and photographed by KATIE GRIFFITH

est Virginia Route 7 stretches a total of 103 miles, connecting Morgantown with the Ohio line at New Martinsville and with the Maryland state border at Corinth. Along the stretch, particularly the climb from Morgantown to Kingwood, day-trippers wind through a handful of towns whose splendors come to life in the fall colors of October. You likely know these towns. Kingwood is not an unfamiliar place, and in fall, after the bustle of the annual Buckwheat Festival has passed, there’s no particular reason to go—except that it’s lovely this time of year. Route 7 East is a lazy drive, one perfect for a weekend conversation with friends or a solitary adventure with only an autumnal soundtrack as company. Morgantown lies 900 feet above sea level and by the time you’ve finished this drive, lined with fields of goldenrod, massive boulders, and the twisting path of Deckers Creek and the rail-trail, you’ll be standing twice as high in the mountains. MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

ACROSS COUNTY LINES

Get Out of Town Leaving Sabraton you’ll first hit the unincorporated former mining community of Richard. It’s easy to drive right through this old coal camp, but keep your eyes peeled for the remnants of King Coal. Though the Richard mine closed in the 1950s, company houses, some painted in cheerful greens and pinks, still line the road. From there the highway steadily gains in elevation. Tiny communities pepper the roadside. They seem to sprout from nowhere, but despite their small size these communities boast deep roots: A clapboard church built in the 1900s today serves as a storage shed, though its arched windows are perfectly preserved. Stop off at a shoulder and scrabble down hill for magnificent views of the Deckers Creek canyon, a favorite area for summertime swimming and bouldering. But remember to be respectful. These areas are largely private property.

Deckers Creek Rail-Trail Much of your drive up Route 7 parallels the Deckers Creek Rail-Trail, which passes through Masontown on its way to Reedsville. Here, if you choose to bike instead of drive, you’ll pass secluded forests to an abandoned row of coke ovens including the Elkins Coal and Coke Building in Masontown. On the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia’s list of most endangered properties in the state, the building is on its way to becoming a stop for cyclists along the trail.

Early in your drive you’ll pass the limestone quarries, the starting point for the trucks rumbling through Morgantown day and night. The bright colors of fall dull along the roads at the site, where dust coats the leaves.

Masontown 13 miles, elevation 1,275 feet

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ACROSS COUNTY LINES

Reedsville

Side trip

16 miles, elevation 1,818 feet Situated at the intersection of state routes 7 and 92, Reedsville is an idyllic place to pass a fall afternoon—you hardly need to go farther to have the experience of Route 7. Grab a coffee and a slice of cake at the café at Modern Homestead (41 S Robert Stone Way, 304.864.4333), a recently rebranded iteration of the 30-year-old family business formerly known as Tathams, and peruse the pumpkins and fall flowers and trinkets for sale in the greenhouse. Wander down Robert Stone Way to explore this picturesque highland town. The brick of the Reedsville United Methodist Church enjoys a beautiful backdrop for photos among the autumn leaves, and it’s hard not to spend a few minutes exploring the outside of the brick ruins directly across from Modern Homestead. If you’re planning a night’s stay, check to see if rooms are available at the beautifully renovated Modern Homestead Guest House featuring three fully equipped guest suites.

Get back in the car and cruise down 92 for a mile or so to visit the historic New Deal town of Arthurdale—a pet project of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt—formed as a cooperative to help displaced miners find their economic footing. Tours of the community, which reverted to private hands in the mid20th century, are available.

Kingwood 304.329.6750). Locals and visitors love this Mexican place in Kingwood. If you’re looking for something a little more downhome, check out Monroe’s Deli Style Eatery (110 East Main Street, 304.329.3354) is known for a comfy atmosphere, large portions, decent prices, and a huge selection of desserts.

NIKKI BOWMAN

24 miles, elevation 1,862 feet The Preston County seat, Kingwood is an old town tucked in the Allegheny Highlands. Head downtown into the Kingwood Historic District for a glimpse of the wealth that founded this town: The Dr. Rudisell House, the Preston County Courthouse, the Kingwood National Bank Building, or the James Clark McGrew House. Grab a bite at Rosemary’s Thyme (121 East High Street,

NIKKI BOWMAN

Terra Alta and beyond 32+ miles, elevation 2,559 feet Drive past Kingwood and you’re well on your way into the wilds of Preston County, and it’s not far to the Maryland border near Oakland. Venture off Route 7 to explore the Cheat River in Albright, visit the highlands of Terra Alta and Alpine Lake Resort, or head south to Cathedral State Park.

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

THIS IS NO COUNTRY CLUB Morgantown’s federal prison pioneered today’s standard model of prison management. Some say the town and prison could pioneer again.

WRITTEN BY PAM KASEY 50

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

igh concrete walls—that may be your picture of a prison. Towers, searchlights, guards with guns, and coils of menacing razor wire. But that’s just one kind of federal lockup. Prisons are classified, roughly speaking, by the number and type of fence that surround them. No fence means, obviously, minimum security. Two fences can be low security or, if they have electronic detection, medium. The sharp-shooter-guarded walls of movie fame surround only high security prisons, also known as penitentiaries. That may be why so many people in town say, “There’s a prison here?” when the topic of the minimum security federal correctional institute (FCI) on Greenbag Road comes up. FCI Morgantown was a well-known source of pride in the community in its early years. But over the decades the fenceless, even bucolic facility situated between the Morgantown Utility Board, Bluegrass Village trailer park, and a community garden has come to be regarded more like a country club with mysterious members than a place for paying one’s debt to society. As an agency that maintains walls and fences, the federal Bureau of Prisons isn’t in the business of openness: Our request for a tour and an interview with the warden were refused. But the prison is also a significant employer in town, so we sought out some people who know it from the inside.

EARLY DAYS

“The fear of crime is perhaps the greatest fear we know today.” A young Senator Ted Kennedy spoke those words in Morgantown in December 1968. He knew about fear of crime. His elder brother John was five years dead, assassinated. And he’d eulogized his brother Robert just six months earlier—also assassinated. Kennedy was in town to dedicate the Robert F. Kennedy Youth Center juvenile detention facility—the original incarnation of the Morgantown FCI. West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd was on hand, and he later recalled that Kennedy’s voice quivered with emotion as he spoke of his brothers and their love for West Virginia. “The opening of an institution like this one is much more than tribute to one man or one agency,” Kennedy said of the facility. “It is a living symbol of our refusal to surrender to fear.” That “refusal to surrender” referenced a new hope. The Kennedy Youth Center was the first federal facility designed specifically to test an innovative model of detention. Prisons traditionally had been large, some of them vast, institutions of punitive incarceration, highly centralized and bureaucratic. Unnecessary communication between guards and inmates was discouraged. That model fostered a prison culture of rule-breaking and violence. The experimental “unit management” model took a more humane approach, grouping inmates into units of perhaps 50 to 200 managed by multidisciplinary teams, with staff made available and approachable to meet inmate needs like religious services, training, and counseling and rehabilitation. The decentralized structure proved to raise morale among inmates and staff, greatly reducing violence and program costs and better preparing inmates for re-entry into society. Today, unit management is practiced throughout the Bureau of Prisons and in most states as well as in other countries. Within a decade after it opened, the center transitioned from youth offenders to men. “By the time I got there the major innovation it had stimulated, unit management, had spread to most other prisons,” says Margaret Hambrick, who served as warden in the late 1970s at what had come to be known as both the Kennedy Center and FCI Morgantown, as part of her career with the Bureau

I would try to go to sleep by 10:30 or 11. It was difficult because the mattresses are quite thin, and there aren’t any sound barriers—there’s a lot of talking, a lot of noise.” Courtney Stadd, former inmate

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of Prisons. “But it still was seen as one of the most innovative places, having had an impact on the way prisons were run all across the country.” A native West Virginian and a WVU alum, Margaret kept a pretty high profile in the community. “It’s a minimum security prison so the inmates were usually first-time offenders and usually in for less serious offenses,” she says. These were often the kinds of financial crimes we refer to as “white collar”: embezzlement, fraud. They included other crimes, too, like drug dealing, as long as the offenses were non-violent. “But, without a fence, we had occasional walkaways, and we needed to ensure the community knew that the kinds of folks we were housing were generally not a threat. I recall being successful at that.” FCI Morgantown is not, and was not, Orange is the New Black, says retired U.S. Public Health Service Captain Don Sauter, who served as chief dentist at FCI Morgantown from 1978 to 1986 and as the Bureau of Prisons Mid-Atlantic regional dental consultant based there from 1993 to 2000. “It’s more like a college campus, where people are dressed in khakis. Some take classes; everyone’s encouraged to get a GED (high school equivalency degree). They work cutting grass and in food service. The facility is really run by inmates, and staff supervise.” Depending on the prison and the dentist, inmates get better access to dental care than the average population, Don says. “Other than at a dental school, a person can’t just walk into a private office on any given day and be seen, but these guys could.” Services are the most basic— extractions and fillings, no crowns or implants—but for some inmates it’s the best care they’ve ever had. Don sometimes had inmates as dental assistants. “Some of these guys were coke dealers and things like that. You talk about somebody with a good memory—they don’t write stuff down. These guys were unbelievable dental assistants. Smartest I’ve ever had.” Back then, Don says, staff members were law enforcement first, no matter their subspecialty. He was trained in hand-to-hand combat and in the use of weapons and was expected to run to emergencies like the rest of prison staff. “It was like Rambo-dentist,” he laughs. Today, he says, members of the Public Health Service serve a less active law enforcement role. All through those early years, Morgantown was very aware of and familiar with Kennedy Center, and the relationship was close. Interns from WVU worked at the prison, and inmates took courses on campus and could also do work-release laboring and landscaping jobs in the community. Staff were hired from the community and were highly competent and well respected, Margaret says. They were proud, Don remembers. “They were very dedicated to the place, and the state. The Kennedy Center had changed the paradigm of incarceration. We had optimism. So it was a nice feeling.” U.S. prison population was steady at about 25,000 through the middle 1900s. “The Bureau of Prisons was a 52

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

MORGANTOWN FCI BY THE NUMBERS

1,300 170

inmate capacity

community members employed

2015 2015

2015 2016

2015 2017

JAN

JUL

JAN

JUL

JAN

JUL

2015 2018

2015 2019

JAN

JUL

JAN

JUL

month

average sentence

It’s

1 of 7

minimum security facilities in the Bureau of Prisons’ 100-plus-prison network.

5 headcounts a day 6 on weekends

Inmates have a

300-minute call limit per month, at a rate of 5¢ per minute.

80% of inmates are in for drug offenses, by unofficial estimates, and 20% for white-collar crimes.

Sources: FCI Morgantown, reports of former staff and inmates

SOME ITEMS AVAILABLE IN THE COMMISSARY

Inmates are allowed to go to the commissary one day per week. No more than five inmates are allowed in the commissary lobby at one time. There’s a $300 monthly spending limit.

4 AAA batteries

$2.20

Watermelon licorice

$1.95

Cough drops

$0.90

Sewing kit

$1.95

Peanut butter crackers

$0.55

Combination lock

$6.50

Bic razors, 10 pack

$2.25

Yellow legal pad

$1.60

Liquid laundry detergent

$5.45

VO5 shampoo

$1.60

sleepy sort of mom-and-pop organization from before I started and clear into the late ’80s, when federal mandatory minimum sentencing hit,” Don says. “Then there was an explosion of inmates because, not only did they arrest a bunch more people, with the ‘war on drugs’ or other reasons, but they kept them longer.” FCI Morgantown added capacity and became more insular, as did other prisons, and narrowed its relationship with the surrounding community.

THESE DAYS

Here’s the routine on the inside today. “I would get up for breakfast after the morning count, anywhere from 5 to 5:30ish, sometimes a little later,” recounts Courtney Stadd, who

was an inmate at the Morgantown FCI from 2011 to 2013 on a charge of defrauding the government. Today he’s a business management consultant in Bethesda, Maryland, based on his earlier career background in the aerospace industry. Courtney’s unit was a large room of about 80 inmates in bunks stacked two high. “After breakfast I’d go back to the unit and make sure my bed was properly organized and any extraneous items were properly put away in the event of some inspection—we were limited in the number of books we could have, and so forth.” After breakfast, inmates spend parts of their days doing scheduled jobs. One of Courtney’s jobs was a morning shift of chores like cleaning floors and washing windows. Jobs pay up to about $20 a month, which can be spent at the commissary. “After that job was done, which didn’t take a whole lot of time, I would go to the library.” Making use of his aerospace background, Courtney taught a course on space science for other inmates, and he spent mornings preparing that. After lunch, he often spent afternoons in the career resource center— he eventually helped reorganize the center and taught interview skills. Other inmates spent free time getting treatment for substance abuse, taking classes, lifting weights, or playing sports like horseshoes, bocce ball, or basketball. Back to the unit for the 4 p.m. head count, mail call, and call to dinner. After dinner, Courtney lined up for his chance at a computer to read and send emails. Then, after more time at the library, he’d get back to the unit for 9 p.m. count. “I wasn’t a television watcher so after that I normally would talk to some of the folks and then I’d spend a lot of time reading. I would try to go to sleep by 10:30 or 11. It was difficult because the mattresses are quite thin, and there aren’t any sound barriers— there’s a lot of talking, a lot of noise.” Nighttime counts took place at midnight and 3 a.m. Most Saturdays, Courtney’s wife visited from Bethesda. “She would get there in the latter part of the morning and we’d be together until about 3, and occasionally a family member or friend would visit. That was also a great opportunity to interact with other inmates’ families.” With offenses that range from drug dealing to insider trading, inmates have widely varying backgrounds and there is some cliquishness. Fights, though, are rare, Courtney says. Those who fight or break rules can end up in solitary confinement. What Margaret calls “walkaways” are rare, too—Courtney could think of just one from his time at the prison. The reason may be in part that inmates at FCI Morgantown have less than a decade left on their sentences, some far less. Better to tough it out than to live life on the lam.

INSIDE-OUT

Morgantown FCI’s insularity may be changing, if Jeri Kirby’s experience is any indication. Assistant professor of criminal justice at Fairmont State University and instructor of criminology at WVU, Jeri has taught a course since fall 2010 as part of Temple University’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Her semesterlong course takes 15 students to the Morgantown prison or the Hazelton prison complex in nearby Preston County once a week MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

HIGH-PROFILE INMATES PAST AND PRESENT Former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney was incarcerated for corruption related to the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Anti-Vietnam War activist David Fine who, with others, bombed a building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, killing one person, was at one time placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Former Wall Street lawyer Matthew Kluger spent time at the Morgantown FCI for insider trading. Former Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Patrick Cannon, was an inmate on charges of corruption, having accepted bribes that included cash and airline tickets. Gary May, a former superintendent at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine where a 2010 explosion killed 29 men, spent time for conspiracy contributing dangerous conditions.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

to meet with 15 inmates for an exploration of issues of re-entry into society. Backgrounds of participants at the Morgantown prison range from those finishing or holding GEDs to some with PhDs, but every student and inmate who takes the course reads scholarly articles and writes papers that include 15-page research papers. By breaching the boundary between inside and outside, the Inside-Out course blurs other boundaries as well—for example, the mental walls participants have between themselves and people they assume are very different from themselves. “Students get a totally new perspective on the incarceration system and the men and women inside,” Jeri says. “They always say, ‘They’re not that different from me. They’re just individuals that got caught doing something.’” Inmates have a similar experience. “They say it’s humanizing—the college students aren’t as intimidating as they thought they would be.” It also blurs the boundary between theory and practice. Students get to see the practical application of criminal justice theory in the prisons, while inmates get to learn some of the theory behind what they’re experiencing. Inmates get practical information, too. “One man thought it was going to be easy getting out, and didn’t think he would face a lot of issues. But we talk in the class about things you wouldn’t think of:

A satellite view of the FCI Morgantown campus.

GOOGLE MAPS

effects on families, anger from people you care about, acceptance back into the neighborhood, acceptance back into your profession.” He realized he might have more to deal with than he’d anticipated, she says. In cooperation with prison staff, Jeri has sometimes hosted inmates for talks on the WVU campus. “One man had about a 24-year sentence. It was the first time he’d been out in like 19 years. It was the most exciting thing for him. He’s recently out and he credits a lot of his ability to reconnect with society to Inside-Out.” Alumni of the program who have been discharged go back and help teach the course, and they also support each other on the outside, she says. Courtney took the Inside-Out course and found it hopeful, in contrast with a decades-old doctrine of “nothing works” that he says biased a generation of prison officials against rehabilitation. “During the Inside-Out course I began to realize that some of these young people from WVU will in fact be the future leaders in the Bureau of Prisons and other law enforcement agencies,” he says. “They seemed to be more focused on education, on rehabilitation, on helping inmates deal with whatever put them in prison and also helping them with re-entry.”

AN OPPORTUNITY

Re-entry is the new future of the Bureau of Prisons, in Jeri’s view. “My theory is, you help inmates while they’re in, or you

take the risk that you could be their victims later,” she says. “Morgantown FCI is exemplary—the staff work hard at it. They really want to focus on that because 97 percent of everyone inside there gets back out.” She’d like to see the community engage with the prison more actively, the way it used to: business owners going in to review inmates’ resumes and help them with interview skills, for example, and more work-release programs out in the community. “These are not crazed, violent offenders,” she says. “They’re more than their worst mistakes and they have a lot to offer.” Courtney agrees. “I think there’s more benefit than not from more active dialog and partnership,” he says. “The extent to which the institution and the community can prepare particularly the young people for alternative career paths, everybody benefits from that.” He recalls a talk the warden of the Hazelton prison gave once. “He had brought some inmates and he said, ‘They’re going to be your neighbors one day. So we all have a responsibility to do the best we can to ensure a successful re-entry.’” Morgantown could be at the front of that, Courtney says. “It could be a wonderful test bed for pursuing courses like Inside-Out and more robust job fairs, and partnerships with the staff to allow inmates who are on the verge of re-entry to get a sense of what it’s like to walk back among society,” he says. “Morgantown could become the leading pilot for how to successfully transition inmates back into society at large.” MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

From scenic drives to enjoy Octoberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s autumn color to inspiring ideas for Halloween to November activities that jumpstart the holiday spirit, we have tons of activities to keep your fall full of fun.

Written by Katie Griffith

Festival Fun When the lazy blanket of summertime lifts, West Virginia celebrates its most glorious season.

Festivals Worth the Drive Autumn Glory Festival 1 hour Deep Creek, Maryland, October 7–11 This five-day celebration of autumn offers parades, concerts, band competitions, art exhibits, antique and craft shows, and much more. In its 48 years of festivities this festival and nearby Oakland, Maryland, have become international destinations for fall color. visitdeepcreek.com

Fort Ligonier Days 1.5 hours Ligonier, Pennsylvania, October 9–11 Autumn and history combine at this annual three-day festival in Pennsylvania commemorating a French and Indian War battle at Fort Ligonier. Between battle reenactments visitors enjoy parades, more than 150 craft booths, food vendors, live entertainment and more. ligonier.com

SHUTTERSTOCK

Balloons over Morgantown!

October 23–25 For years, every autumn, swaths of fabric in every hue of the rainbow would drift across the Morgantown skyline—bright lollipops against cotton candy clouds. Adults and children alike gathered for the Mountaineer Balloon Festival, picking favorites, clamoring for rides, and walking through the fiery roar of Night Glow—an event that brought pilots and balloons to terra firma for an evening of tethered fire and colorful light. But all that went away after 2009, when Morgantown’s last balloon festival packed up and left town. Ever since, residents have yearned for the event’s return and, this year, hopes have been answered—albeit with a lighter version. Across three days Morgantown will enjoy the floating presence of more than a dozen balloons. Flying overhead during University Motors’ Balloons over Morgantown! event, which replaces a full Mountaineer Balloon Festival planned for 2015 that was canceled in August due to logistical concerns, the balloons will arrive on Friday,

October 23. More flights are expected through the weekend. ummbf.com

Mountaineer Week

October 30–November 8 An annual celebration of Mountaineer heritage, Mountaineer Week is also the perfect time to fill up on kettle corn and apple butter and get started on those holiday shopping lists. Each year thousands flock to the WVU campus for fiddle contests, an arts and crafts fair, dancing, food, and more. mountaineerweek.wvu.edu

Motown Throwdown

Oct. 31 In mid-fall, for the past eight years, downtown Morgantown has hosted what organizers call the illest pre-season ski and snowboard competition around. Presented by Pathfinder, the competition features a ramp of snow in the middle of High Street, plenty of professional and amateur tricksters, musical acts, and event sponsors like Oakley and Skullcandy. facebook.com/ MotownThrowdownWVU

36th Annual Bridge Day 2.5 hours, Fayetteville, October 17 It’s the most adrenaline-filled day of the year: Bridge Day. Join thousands of walkers, BASE jumpers, and rappellers in Fayetteville for the annual celebration of the 3,000-foot, steel arch New River Gorge Bridge. officialbridgeday.com

20th Annual Bramwell Oktoberfest 4 hours, Bramwell, October 10 Micro- and home-brewers of state and regional acclaim vie for top titles in this competition event. Go for the beer and stay for the live musical entertainment featuring traditional folk, blues, bluegrass, and alternative artists. bramwelloktoberfest.com

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

CARLA WITT FORD

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

A Colorful Drive Summertime road trips have nothing on their autumnal cousins. Get out there and enjoy the color from the winding roads West Virginia is so famous for.

45 miles This Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece is best viewed in autumn when the stone of the home’s façade blends deeply into the surrounding foliage. Make reservations well in advance—this one’s a top tourist spot.

Deep Creek Lake, Maryland

Fallingwater, Pennsylvania

50 miles A sparkling lake reflects the deep blue sky of autumn and tall trees crowned in fiery reds, yellows, and oranges. Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, Maryland—a winter playground of ski resorts and ice fishing and a summertime oasis of boating—offers plenty to do in fall, from hiking and biking to festivals and fairs.

Lewis County

Predicted Fall Color Peak Times Late September

Mid October

Early October

Late October

Bruceton Mills

20 miles Head to Coopers Rock State Forest for the area’s most sweeping views and hike any number of trails—we’re partial to Ravens Rock and the area known as Rock City—or just go for a country drive in the highlands of Preston County.

Kingwood

source: wvstateparks.com/fallmap.html

24 miles We can’t get enough of State Route 7 (see page 47), a drive that takes you through Reedsville, veering northeast of Arthurdale, to Kingwood and on to Terra Alta. Pack a picnic, a few friends, and a camera and enjoy the fall scenery all around.

60 miles In Lewis County dramatic landscapes give way to dramatic history against a canvas of color—from the pioneer setting of Jackson’s Mill to the melancholy of the TransAllegheny Lunatic Asylum, a rolling vista of autumn spreads forth.

Bethany

70 miles Sharp curves skirt steep drops on the Allegheny Plateau. A bucolic view of farmland pokes through the trees now and again. If you’re too busy with the view, you may pass Bethany altogether—but this one’s not to be missed. Tour the Gothic arches of Bethany College and the final resting place of its founder for a fall trip steeped in old West Virginia.

Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods

95 miles High in the Potomac Highlands you’ll feel that you’re miles farther north. The reds are most intense, blanketing the ground and the trees. This one’s a weekend trip, but it’s a weekend to remember. MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Are you 15 or younger?

Unfortunately, no.

Yes! Getting pumped for a wild night?

Put on your best face paint, grab a pillow case, and go trick or treating! No matter what they say, Halloween was meant for you!

SO READY!

Are you legally an adult?

All legal here!

I prefer my evenings tame and domesticated.

Stay home and hand out candy to adorable children.

No. I hate children.

Well ...

Party time! Well ... Yes! Are you a host? I prefer to be entertained.

Host/ess with the Most/ess, they call me.

Stop by Pinterest and get started on your drinks and HORROR D’OEUVRES.

Withhold your urges to TP the neighborhood and host a scary movie party instead.

Be a grouch and sit in the dark eating the candy you should be giving to adorable children.

How twisted is your sense of fun?

Pretty twisted. Zombie ones?

I think bunnies and kittens are fun!

No. Head to Halloween parties hosted by local businesses. We’re excited for the Wild Zero Studios haunted bash at 9 p.m.!

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

People-watch. Halloween was practically made for it.

Yes!

Get your spook on at the Rich Farms Fright Farm in Pennsylvania or head south for the Halloween Ghost Hunt at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston.

MASTER OF MOLDS

ERIC CARLSON

Eric Carlson

The Wild Zero Studios tattoo shop on Pleasant Street is full of row upon row of Sailor Jerry designs hanging on walls, skeletons spilling from display cases, and a staff of artists awaiting their next appointments. Go inside and walk upstairs, passing those rows of old-school ink, some robot paintings, and the tattoo rooms, and you’ll find a whole different art space. There’s still a mishmash of art on the walls: An oil painting of Harry the Sasquatch—think Harry and the Hendersons— hangs next to Meg Mucklebones of Legend. But it’s a studio of personal projects, and in one of those corners, one of those projects is faces. Not painted ones or tattooed ones or photographed ones. These are cast, then sculpted, then recast— human faces in unusually distorted forms. Here, Wild Zero owner Eric Carlson creates Halloween costumes of professional proportions, complete with prosthetics fitted to custom face molds. Doing makeup at such a high level is time intensive and costly. Think $200 in materials and three hours of application for a one-time-use costume. Not many people make such things, or even want them—only those who really love Halloween. People like Eric. “I start with the mold of a face,” he says, “using a material that’s basically a super-hard plaster, and then I sculpt on top of that with clay what I want the makeup to look like.” From there he pours more plaster on top of the sculpted clay to create a second mold. Put the two together, and he has a perfect starting point for makeup prosthetics—scars, wrinkles, demonic bumps and ridges—personalized to an individual’s face. “Now when you put them together there’s a space between the two and you pour the material that the prosthetic will be made of between,” he says. Then comes painting, application, and more painting. Hours go into the process, but this is a hobby for Eric, and an enjoyable one, though he’s quick to say no if he doesn’t have time. “From lifecast to sculpting, which is easily 10 hours, to moldmaking—if I was hustling I could get all that done in two weeks,” he says. “But I’d prefer to start in February, and then a month or two down the line we might have a face cast.” That’s another reason he doesn’t do this very often. Who but a lucky few know what they want to be for Halloween in February? 229 Pleasant Street, 304.413.0229, wildzerostudios.com MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

FEAR FACTORY

Bixby Studios

“Zeke,” they call the life-sized silicon man standing sentry at the door. His face permanently frozen in a macabre, blood-spattered grin, Zeke is so life-like that even his creators have been known to jump from fright when that grin suddenly appears at the flip of a light switch. At the crowded haunt-industry conventions where he stands testament to the artistry of Bixby Studios’ Adrian Larry and Chad and Sarah Sine, horror fans give him wide berth. “Creating Zeke took 15 hours, plus a week to do art finishing, which includes painting, poking the hair for the eyebrows, the wig work, the haircuts, all that stuff.” Chad proudly points out the details: the skin tone, the bushy eyebrows, the curve of an ear, the nauseatingly real texture of his nose. “We’re fortunate to all be well versed in what we do,” Chad says of the small team that crafts special effects and props like Zeke from a small detached garage in the heart of Suncrest. “We sculpt, we mold-make, we’re painters. Adrian, though, has the leg-up in makeup.” It’s Adrian whom Chad also jokingly blames for his fixation on all things ghoulish, a fixation that’s become a career of sorts for both. It began in the mid-’90s. “I started working with Pam and Dennis at the Illusive Skull,” Adrian says. “As more and more makeup got into the store—there was no place in town selling that stuff— someone had to learn to use it. It went from there.” Halloween was getting bigger, scarier, more adult. “I saw makeup effects on TV and loved them,” Chad adds. “In the infancy of the Internet there wasn’t much information, but I happened to be walking by the Illusive Skull and saw it had all these great things. I had way more questions than anyone had answers, and luckily Adrian was there and let me borrow books.” Chad later floated off to Pittsburgh to the Art Institute for a few years and then wound up at a major effects manufacturer in Ohio, until the economic downturn brought him home. “My wife and I decided we wanted to start something for ourselves and so we started Bixby Studios. We were fortunate that Adrian decided to join.” That was three years ago. Today, with more than 25 combined years of experience, the partners sell out of nearly everything they make: props for haunted houses, themed adventure parks, a movie or two. Soon they hope to expand their workspace and get into museum props, making replicas of history’s great figures. But for now the focus is on high-quality haunts and the ghastly affects you can’t get just anywhere. A necklace of ears, a row of life-like arms awaiting their paint: Welcome to Morgantown’s very own fear factory. bixbystudios.com

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

A MAKEUP MAVEN

A spider sits on Stacie Bowman’s skin, poised to jump, the shadows of its spindly legs dark against the delicate flesh of her forearm. Blood red spots, as crimson as the lipstick Stacie slips out of her purse, run along the arachnid’s back, hinting at a poisonous demeanor. “You have to work with what you have when an idea hits you,” she wrote on her Facebook page after posting a photo of the life-like bug. “And sometimes that’s just eyeliner, lipstick, and eye shadow.” With makeup, especially the form-changing styles that the local artist plays with so expertly, it doesn’t matter so much what you use, just how you use it. “It’s really the shading that matters. With the spider I deepened the shading at the closest point of a leg and as I got farther away—where the leg would be farther away—the shadow got lighter,” she says. “Before that it looked just a like a twodimensional piece. When you add the shading, it completely changes the entire thing.” Take a few minutes to click around her Facebook page, and Stacie’s skill quickly becomes obvious. As her brush strokes move up and down her face, adding layer upon layer 64

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

of color and changing amorphous blobs into precise details, you can’t help but wonder if da Vinci laid down the same base layers on the Mona Lisa’s cheekbone hundreds of years ago. “There’s no better canvas than the human face,” Stacie says. “It’s always been something that fascinated me. But it wasn’t until the popularity of YouTube how-to videos that I realized there really aren’t any limitations to what you can do on the human face.” And she’s done it all, from an intricately detailed skull to a disturbingly realistic representation of Iron Maiden mascot Eddie the Head that garnered thousands of views on her page. “You can see makeups on people that will make you crawl out of your skin, and a lot of it is done with things you wouldn’t think to put on someone’s face—gelatin, spirit gum, toilet paper—it’s crazy the things you can use,” she says. Stacie takes pride in the fact that she sticks with the basics. Powders and paint. No liquid latex for her. “Even if it is all just wax and shading and imagery, it’s still a little bit taboo and that’s what draws me to it. I just have fun with it.” facebook.com/staciebowmanmakeup

COURTESY OF STACIE BOWMAN

Stacie Bowman

America’s Fifth Season We know you know football’s here. And we know you know your favorite places to hang out, tailgate, and watch the game. But maybe you’re new in town. Maybe you don’t have your Saturday morning routine down yet. For those of you new to Mountaineer Country, here are a few tidbits to get you started.

Plan Your Tailgate

Most of Morgantown is your domain come WVU football Saturday. But not all tailgate lots are the same. To purchase parking passes visit wvugame.com.

COURTESY OF BRIAN PERSINGER/WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY

WVU Coliseum More family-oriented with RV camping, this lot has free parking and a cheap shuttle to take you to and from the game. RV parking is offered at $80 per game.

Green and Burgundy Lots Expect huge homemade feasts, lawn games, and lots of fun. It’s a bit farther from the stadium and a little less crowded, but the atmosphere is just as festive. Season and individual game passes available.

Private Lots Sprinkled throughout town, with close proximity to the stadium, private parking can be a deal—or run you a pretty penny. Most private lots are charging around $20 per game this year. Arrive early to find the best spaces.

Blue Lot The biggest spot in town to tailgate, the Blue Lot is a sea of gold and blue. This Party Central also fills up fast with season ticket holders. Between your truck bed grills and homemade corn hole games, you’ll find large catered tailgate events hosted by the area’s biggest business names.

Not sure what snacks and drinks to take to your tailgate? Visit morgantownmag.com and wvliving.com for recipe ideas.

MHS/UHS MOHAWK BOWL The stadium is full. Band members sit on the edges of their seats. From one side wave flags of blue, red, and white, and from the other side flags of gold, crimson, and black stand high. Once the Morgantown High School vs. University High School MoHawk Bowl was the biggest game of the year, held at Mountaineer Field to accommodate the incredible crowds with an incredible energy. Though the novelty has worn a bit since the days of 20,000 person crowds at WVU’s stadium, thousands still show up to watch these longtime rivals duke it out. The quintessential crosstown rivalry, the MoHawk Bowl began as a story of the haves vs. the have-nots. University High School opened in 1925 as a WVU demonstration high school, offering the area’s country folk a city education. Morgantown High School at the time was for city-proper residents only. UHS was small and relatively poor. MHS was big and richer. Early iterations of the MoHawk Bowl—named for the MHS Mohigans and the UHS Hawks—were played throughout the 20th century until an MHS winning streak ran too long. But in the 1970s, UHS became a county school. “We increased our enrollment from the growth of the Cheat Lake area and the Westover area and added a freshman class,” says UHS Athletic Director Jeff Bailey. Academic offerings increased, the wealth of student families increased, and enrollment skyrocketed. And in 1994 the MoHawk Bowl returned. “UHS has won the last two games, and two years ago we got matched up in the first round of playoffs with MHS.” The Hawks won that game, too. This is year the Mohawk Bowl takes place at UHS on October 30. Though the two schools boast similar resources now, Jeff says UHS has a tough year ahead with a young team and lots of roadblocks to conquer. MHS is ready for them. “We feel a little more confident,” says MHS AD Dan Erenrich. “We had a tough year last year, and it showed. The guys have rebounded this year and seem to have a great spirit. The UHS team is young this year, but when it comes to the MoHawk Bowl you never know for sure. These rivalries bring something out.” MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Locavore Holidays Looking to continue your locavore habits for Thanksgiving? Try the farmers’ market! The Morgantown Farmers Market Growers Association will host the Winter Blues Market every other weekend November 21 to April 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Wesley United Methodist Church on North High Street. And for that market day before Thanksgiving? “We are planning on having several vendors there who are expected to have sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, potatoes, winter squash, and, hopefully, greens and much more,” says Becky Evans, acting assistant market manager. “We are expecting to have at least one cheese producer as well as meat vendors who will bring whole turkeys, hams, and lamb along with other meats.” Check out the market website for a list of local growers. You may try contacting those vendors yourself, too. morgantownfarmers.org

When you’re out running last-minute errands on Thanksgiving morning this year, don’t be surprised if you see a turkey run by. Or a couple hundred of them. Thanksgiving 2015 marks the 4th anniversary of Morgantown Running’s annual Turkey Trot, a 5k walk/race that will take place Thanksgiving morning at the WVU Coliseum track. Last year nearly 400 showed up to burn off America’s feast before it even started. This year even more are expected—many of whom will be wearing Thanksgiving-themed paraphernalia, everything from turkey hats to feathers. “It’s a popular race,” says event organizer and Morgantown Running owner Heather Cleary. When the Morgantown event first kicked off four years ago, Heather says area runners had already been asking for one for years. “A Turkey Trot is something a lot of other towns have, but there wasn’t one here,” she says. This year’s race begins at the WVU track before heading down Mon Boulevard toward Texas Roadhouse and turning right at Sheetz. From there runners will get on the rail-trail and loop south to Morgantown Running at The Seneca Center. Race winners will each receive a turkey, while random drawings will include prizes like 66

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

shoes supplied by Morgantown Running. Registration begins at $20. A free kids’ 400-meter Turkey Sprint will take place before the race at the WVU track. This year’s event will benefit Girls on the Run and organizers will collect canned donations to benefit the Bartlett House’s homeless services. For more information and to register, visit morgantownrunning.com.

COURTESY OF MORGANTOWN RUNNING; ELIZABETH ROTH

Morgantown Turkey Trot

With its eclectic artistic community, Morgantown seems to lie on something like an ancient ley lineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a creative conduit magnetically drawing untapped talent as well as seasoned professionals to its hilly, urban landscape. These men and women bring sharp tools and sharper minds. Hands caked with clay and crusted with paint, they have the ability to see endless potential in even the most mundane materials. From woodcarving printmakers to story-telling photographers to self-proclaimed hyperactive pottersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the talent pool is wide and varied. Here are just a handful of remarkable artists from the Morgantown area.

written by Mikenna Pierotti photographed by Carla Witt Ford

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Bryn Perrott

Woodcuts, printmaking Affectionately known as DeerJerk among fans, Bryn started woodcutting when she was a teenager. After earning a college degree in printmaking, she landed a spot at Wild Zero Studios, a local art shop and tattoo parlor, where she absorbed the meticulous qualities of tattoo art. Although Bryn was never a tattoo artist herself, that world’s painstaking attention to detail bled into her work. Today Bryn’s woodcuts are known for their twisting, fluid forms. Her imagery is beautiful in its simple colors and striking in its complexity. And despite the solidity of the medium, Bryn’s pieces have an illusory degree of depth and movement—a nod to the tattoo art she fell in love with. These days you’ll no longer find her at Wild Zero—she has her own studio—but her designs appear on everything from T-shirts to CDs, and her woodcuts are so popular they don’t stick around her inventory long. “I want to do this for the rest of my life,” she says. “I want to sustain myself on art—feed myself with it and travel with it. I want to keep doing what I’m doing and just get better at it.” deerjerk.tumblr.com

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Kurt Teeter | Ceramics Few artists would classify their work as clinically hyperactive, but New Hampshire-born, Utah-raised Kurt is nothing if not honest. From his minimalist terra cotta mugs to the shifting lines and dripping glazes of his wood-fired sushi trays to his line of Drunken Dressers—ceramic furniture rendered in cartoonish colors and abstract forms—Kurt’s work is decidedly varied. Yet his art imitates his life. He started school as a math education major, but the calling wasn’t there. Kurt took time off, worked in drywall construction, and considered joining the U.S. Coast Guard. After trying a semester of art classes, he was instantly hooked and went on to get a BFA at Utah Valley University and an MFA at WVU. He studied pottery in China and Mexico. Now he’s a studio manager and resident artist at Zen Clay in Morgantown, where he also teaches ceramics classes and organizes gallery exhibits. For Kurt, pottery is an art form with an inherent personal and physical connection to the user. “Whenever I take a favorite mug out of the cupboard, it’s like drinking a cup with that artist. It’s a connection you don’t really get with any of the other arts.” kurt-teeter-ceramics.com, zenclaypottery.com

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Nic Persinger | Photography Growing up on the edge of the Monongahela National Forest, Nic drew inspiration from the mundane facets of life and, later, turned them into art. A jumble of raccoon carcasses hanging on a chain link fence or a classic car rusting in a crumbling parking lot—these were snapshots of poor, rural America. “My work has to do with home, so it is intensely personal. I love home, but it’s a depressing place sometimes, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t document that,” he says. “At the same time, it’s also insanely beautiful. I like the beauty of the contrast.” Nic’s work includes medium format color photos shot on film, rather than digitally, as well as a series in Polaroids. Despite the centrality of West Virginia to Nic’s work, he never considered his childhood among folk artists, storytellers, and mountain men all that unusual until he arrived at Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C., to study photography. These days Nic is based in Morgantown, though he’s frequently on the road taking photos for a new book project. nicpersinger.com

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Octavia Steffich | Design, painting Anything in Octavia’s life can become an inspiration for her design work. A scrap of cloth from a Depression-era dress, a wallpaper pattern reminiscent of the 1950s, an old book found in her grandmother’s house—it’s all fair game. “I get to go crazy,” she says. Crazy translates into everything from promotional materials for theatrical performances like Street Scene, inked by hand and colored in moody hues with Photoshop, to responsive web designs seen and used by thousands of WVU students. As web/graphic designer at the WVU College of Creative Arts, she has a knack for taking the most abstract ideas and transforming them into compelling, influential designs. In her free time she nurtures her creative talent with oil painting. “It’s a healthy balance. There are things I pull from the paintings I do and put into the work I do for the college and, there are things I learn at the college that influence my art.” octaviasteffich.com

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Jamie Lester

Bronze sculpture Jamie started out a painter, but wasn’t until he took an intro ceramics class at WVU that he learned what it was to really fall in love with an art form. “I was just enthralled by it. The very first time I touched the clay, it challenged me,” he says. Moving from two dimensions to three wasn’t easy, but he was motivated. “It unlocked a potential I wasn’t aware of.” Jamie later became enamored with figurative work, specifically bronze, and after college he opened Vandalia Bronze with a business partner. Now his work includes statues of New York firefighters on the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance, a life-size half-figure of Jack Fleming at the WVU Alumni Center, a portrait of George Steinbrenner at Yankee Monument Park, the West Virginia commemorative quarter, and even the statue of basketball legend Jerry West that casts its shadow in front of the WVU Coliseum. His work still begins with a drawing, but the process has become infinitely more complex. Small models give way to full-size clay figures, then wax, then ceramic and, finally, bronze. “Statues are a functional kind of artwork. They serve a purpose, but they also tell a story about who the subject was, what their mission was, and who the people who commissioned the work are,” he says. “I’m trying to redefine what a statue really is.” vandaliabronze.com

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Lauren Adams | Painting Lauren’s inspiration is the natural world—she calls her native West Virginia a painter’s dream. “Every season brings something new to reflect on.” From her home in Fairmont, Lauren absorbs the textures of the Allegheny Plateau and turns her impressions into colorful abstractions on canvas. Her process and the vibrant, arresting final product—swaths of pigment and shapes both familiar and deeply emotional—are unique. Her work is largely acrylic and oil-based, but the addition of water adds an element of chaos. “There’s a lack of control. But you can embrace that or fight it. The nature of these materials, they remind me to let things be what they need to be.” She starts with a warm-up piece on paper then moves to her larger canvas. She paints on the floor, pouring paint out and moving it around the canvas with a series of tools until it feels and looks right. After it dries she adds another layer. “I don’t set out to recreate an image on the canvas, but it gets me thinking and going. It’s about a memory or an idea. That’s where the chance part comes into painting sometimes.” laurenadamsart.com

MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

Michael Loop mixed media

For Michael Loop, mixed media artist and museum preparator at the WVU Art Museum, creativity is about defying categorization. He is a painter and a mechanic, a sculptor and a tinkerer. Michael’s work is industrial, colorful, and steeped in Americana, with graceful aerodynamic forms reminiscent of the auto body world. He dabbles in everything from three-dimensional paintings made with canvas and Bondo, a material used to fix dents in cars, to large-scale public art rendered in steel, enamel paint, and even recycled tires. Not surprisingly, he grew up working on cars with his dad and learned construction and welding working for his brother-in-law. “I loved to paint and draw. But for some reason that ability to melt steel and make something brand new out of otherwise mundane material was really, really interesting.” He learned to sculpt with everything from stone to electricity. His work is now shown across the country and, in 2013, he earned an MFA from WVU and began working as a museum preparator as well as a teacher. “Art doesn’t have to be just one way. You can go at it from so many perspectives.” michaelloop.com

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

Your local guide to life, art, culture, & more OCT/NOV 2015

October OCTOBER 7 West Virginia Oil & Gas Expo Mylan Park, 500 Mylan Park Lane, Wed. 9 a.m.–5 p.m., wvoilandgasexpo.com This expo, which is returning for its fifth year, allows West Virginia business owners in the oil and natural gas industry to meet and network with other professionals in the same field. More than 300 vendors will attend. Free SOJA The Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street Wed., 8 p.m., 304.293.SHOW, events.wvu.edu SOJA performs at The Met in Morgantown. The band received a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album after its 2014 album Amid the Noise and Haste shot to the top of the reggae charts. $18 for WVU students, $30 for general public OCTOBER 14 An Evening With Diana Pishner Walker Morgantown Public Library, 373 Spruce Street Thurs., 6:30 p.m., morgantown.lib.wv.us Diana Pishner Walker, a Clarksburg native, will share her personal story of growing up in an Italian Catholic family as well as the two books she has authored: I Don’t Want to Sit In the Front Row Anymore and Spaghetti and Meatballs: Growing Up Italian. Free Awea Duo Guest Recital WVU Creative Arts Center, Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, Wed., 8:15 p.m. 304.293.SHOW, awea-duo.com Masahito Sugihara on the saxophone and Jennifer Brimson Cooper on the flute will perform a tribute to chamber music in their master class and recital. Free

Pumpkin Carving Party Dorsey’s Knob Park, U.S. Route 119, Sat. 2 p.m., artsmon.org Arts Monongahela will host a pumpkin carving party at Dorsey’s Knob Park, under the park shelter. Free drinks will be provided, as well as chili and nachos courtesy of Black Bear Burritos. Kids 8 and younger attend free. $10 per person over the age of 8. Price includes pumpkins and carving tools. Reserve spots in advance.

CARLA WITT FORD

OCTOBER 17

SEPTEMBER 26–OCTOBER 29 Board With Art This art show hosted by Atomic Grill boasts 28 skateboard decks, painted by 26 local artists, on display and available for purchase. Decks range in price from $60 to $300, with proceeds benefiting The Shack Neighborhood House. The art will be displayed through October 29. Free Atomic Grill, 595 Greenbag Road, 304.241.1170, facebook.com/AtomicGrill

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MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

KATIE WILLARD

OCTOBER 10 West Virginia faces Oklahoma State in its annual Homecoming game. The last time the two schools faced off, Mountaineers crushed the Cowboys. Milan Puskar Stadium, 900 Willowdale Road, Sat., TBA, wvugame.com

OCTOBER 17

OCTOBER 22–25

Oktoberfest Mylan Park, 500 Mylan Park Lane, Sat., 10 a.m.– 6 p.m., 304.291.4117, wvpublictheatre.org Grab your lederhosen for West Virginia Public Theatre’s Oktoberfest celebration. Folks 21 and older will receive a free commemorative mug to sample different types of beer, in addition to samples of an array of Bavarian foods and desserts. $5–20

Kiss Me, Kate WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Thurs.–Sat., 7:30 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m. 304.293.SHOW, theatre.wvu.edu Based on Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, the modern story Kiss Me, Kate follows the age-old battle of the sexes and features the music of Cole Porter. $30

Science Day Mountaineer Mall, 5000 Green Bag Road, Sat. 10 a.m.–1 p.m., 304.292.4646, thefunfactory.org The Children’s Discovery Museum of West Virginia hosts its annual Science Day. Children and their parents can explore the museum and interact with activities demonstrating chemistry, physics, and astronomy. $5 per child, $2 per adult

OCTOBER 23

Hemophilia Walk Waterfront Place Hotel, 2 Waterfront Place Sat., 10 a.m., 681.212.9255, wvnhf.org atichnell@homophilia.org West Virginia hosts a walk supporting the awareness and treatment of hemophilia, a rare disorder that prevents blood from clotting normally. Treating hemophilia can be costly. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the walk begins at 10 a.m. on the Caperton Trail. Participants are encouraged to raise money to donate. Free

28th Annual Mae Pumpkin Drop WVU Engineering Sciences Building, Fri., 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m., mae.statler.wvu.edu/students/ pumpkindrop.php Students compete to drop pumpkins safely from the roof of the 11-story WVU Engineering Sciences Building. The surviving pumpkins that land closest to a target on the ground will be among the winning entries. Registration limited. Reel Rock Tour The Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street, Fri. 7:30 p.m., 304.777.8288, reelrocktour.com Watch the year’s best climbing and adventure films in an energetic community atmosphere. Tickets sold at Black Bear Burritos and Pathfinder. Proceeds benefit the Coopers Rock Foundation and the WVU Climbing Club. $10 in advance, $15 at door

Southern Culture on the Skids 123 Pleasant Street, Fri., 9 p.m. 304.292.0800, 123pleasantstreet.com American rock band Southern Culture on the Skids is on the road again, and this time they’re stopping at Morgantown’s 123 Pleasant Street. $15 OCTOBER 24 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Hazel Ruby McQuain Park, 185 Garrett Street, Sat., 10 a.m., 240.727.9465, NorthCentralWVStrides@cancer.org Participate in the Making Strides of North Central West Virginia 5K to raise money for breast cancer research. Registration begins at 9 a.m. The walk starts at 10 a.m. A Celebration of A Cappella Music The Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street, Sat. 7 p.m., 304.291.4884, morgantownmet.com Award-winning a cappella Sounds of Pittsburgh Chorus is excited to perform with featured guests including The Mountainaires Barbershop Chorus, the Fancy Pants Quartet, and Sapphire Sound Quartet. $10–$15 OCTOBER 25 State Trees and Fun Facts Walk West Virginia Botanic Gardens, 1061 Tyrone Road, Sun., 2–4 p.m., wvbg.org MORGANTOWNMAG.COM

MITCHELL SCOBIE

OCTOBER 29 Bluegrass band Yonder Mountain String Band visits Morgantown to perform from its latest record, Black Sheep, featuring the conventional five-piece bluegrass lineup for the first time in the band’s 17-year history. Tickets are $18 for WVU students and $33 for the general public. Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street, Thurs., 7 p.m., 304.291.4884, morgantownmet.com

Explore the West Virginia Botanic Garden with Jon Weems, a former WVU Earl L. Core Arboretum specialist, and enjoy the advance of vivid autumnal colors. Free

Artists and artisans from across the region showcase more than 185 exhibits of Christmasthemed crafts. Families can take home personalized tree ornaments and sample Christmas candies.

OCTOBER 29 Comedy Night Monongalia Arts Center, 107 High Street Wed., 7:30 p.m., monartscenter.com Stand-up comedian Ashley Strand gives a humorous twist to touching stories. Local comedian Tawnya Drake will open. OCTOBER 31 Dance Dash Ruby Memorial Hospital Parking Lot, Sat. 2 p.m., 304.598.4346, dancedash.org The Dance Dash 5k benefits the Cure Kids Cancer Fund at the WVU Children’s Hospital. The 5k fun run and walk is not timed. Participants will learn Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance throughout the course. $10-35 OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 1 6th Annual West Virginia Arts & Crafts Christmas Spectacular Ruby Community Center at Mylan Park, Fri. & Sat., 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015

OCTOBER 31 WVU Women’s Basketball: WVU vs. Shepherd WVU Coliseum, 3450 Monongahela Boulevard Saturday, 1.800.WVU.GAME, wvugame.com The Mountaineers play Shepherd University in this home-opener exhibition game with Coke Zero Haunted Hoops.

November NOVEMBER 2 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Mon., 7:30 p.m., 304.293.SHOW pittsburghsymphony.org The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra visits WVU to perform “Igudesman and Joo: Scary Concert,” featuring Aleksey Igudesman on violin and Hyung-ki Joo on piano, in a comedic Halloween show adorned with stage makeup and costumes. $13

NOVEMBER 3 Hyena M.T. Pockets Theatre Company, 1390½ University Avenue, Tues., 8 p.m. mtpocketstheatre.com For one night only, Christian Cox and Lauren Swann tell the story of a young girl who discovers her messy past by confessing to a hyena at the zoo. $5 NOVEMBER 4 If You Love My West Virginia: West Virginia Women Songwriters and Appalachian Politics WVU Mountainlair, Rhododendron Room, Wed. 4 p.m., 304.293.2339, wmst.wvu.edu WVU’s Center for Women’s and Gender Studies will hosts assistant professor of music history Travis Stimeling’s discussion of the social, environmental, and political impact of women’s voices in Appalachian traditional music from the early 1900s. Free NOVEMBER 6 WVU Men’s Basketball: WVU vs. Glenville State WVU Coliseum, 3450 Monongahela Boulevard Fri., 7 p.m., 1.800.WVU.GAME, wvugame.com The Mountaineers take on the Glenville State College Pioneers in this exhibition game.

M.T. Pockets Theatre Company will host a show of two one-act plays: Overtones compares the refined outsides of two women and their inner, volatile emotions. The Most Massive Woman Wins features four women discussing their body images and negative experiences related to their weight. $10-15 NOVEMBER 13 West Virginia Symphony Orchestra WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Fri., 7:30 p.m., 304.293.SHOW, events.wvu.edu The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra will perform From the New World featuring selections from classical composers Byron Adams, Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin, and Antonín Dvořák. NOVEMBER 14 WVU Football: WVU vs. Texas Milan Puskar Stadium, 900 Willowdale Road Sat., wvugame.com In this season’s True Blue game, the WVU Mountaineers take on the Texas University Longhorns. NOVEMBER 19-20

GRETCHEN MOORE

The Beaux’ Stratagem WVU Creative Arts Center, Gladys G. Davis Theatre, Thurs. & Fri., 7:30 p.m. 304.293.SHOW, theatre.wvu.edu This classic comedy tells the swashbuckling tale of two manipulative men who find themselves caught between love and money. $25 NOVEMBER 20

NOVEMBER 21–22 Morgantown Dance and the Morgantown Ballet Company perform a classic seasonal favorite, The Nutcracker, telling the story of fantastical sugar plum fairies, an evil mouse king, and the love of a girl and a prince disguised as a nutcracker. The Metropolitan Theatre, 369 High Street, Sat., 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., Sun., 2:30 p.m. morgantowndance.org

World Music Concert WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Fri., 7:30 p.m., 304.293.SHOW ccarts.wvu.edu Don’t miss this WVU World Music Ensemble from the College of Creative Arts performance at the CAC.

WVU Football: WVU vs. Texas Tech Milan Puskar Stadium, 900 Willowdale Road Sat., wvugame.com The Mountaineers take on the Texas Tech University Red Raiders. The titles of Mr. and Miss Mountaineer, among others, will be awarded at halftime. $60

NOVEMBER 7

NOVEMBER 12–14

Bluegrass Concert WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Thurs., 7:30 p.m., 304.293.SHOW ccarts.wvu.edu The WVU Bluegrass Band performs at the CAC.

Overtones and The Most Massive Woman Wins M.T. Pockets Theatre Company, 1390½ University Avenue, Wed.–Fri., 8 p.m. mtpocketstheatre.com

Peppa Pig Live! WVU Creative Arts Center, Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, Fri. 6:30 p.m.,304.293.SHOW events.wvu.edu The top-rated Nick Jr. TV series will visit WVU as part of its inaugural U.S. stage tour. $25.50–55.50 NOVEMBER 28 WVU Football: WVU vs. Iowa State Milan Puskar Stadium, 900 Willowdale Road, Sat., wvugame.com In their last home game of the season, the WVU Mountaineers send off their seniors while attempting to defeat the Iowa State University Cyclones.

Send us your events! Send your events for consideration in our calendar to morgantown@newsouthmediainc.com with the subject line “Calendar.”

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THEN & NOW

WVU Band Day in the 1960s

UHS at its 2014 band spectacular

FOR MORE PHOTOS

of Morgantown’s past, check out wvhistoryonview.org

A Spectacle of Sound It doesn’t matter if you’re at a college or a high school football game, halftime is the real show—at least for members of the band. In this photo from the 1960s, high school bands from across West Virginia line WVU’s old Mountaineer Field for the school’s then-annual Band Day. Like WVU, high schools in the area have long hosted similar shows, called spectaculars. This year marked the 50th anniversary of Morgantown High School’s spectacular, and Fairmont Senior High School just celebrated its 51st. At University High School, the tradition is just beginning. Since the school’s new building first opened in 2008, UHS band parents begged Band Director Mark Palmer to start a UHS

spectacular tradition. “I kept saying, ‘Maybe next year,’” he remembers. “And then next year would get here, and I’d say, ‘Maybe next year.’” He finally delivered in 2014 with an eightband showcase. About a dozen bands turned out for this year’s showcase on September 28. The showcase at UHS is all about a love of performing, and it’s hard not to love performing there. The field sits atop a hill overlooking the Monongahela River. When the setting sun hits a certain angle and when the trumpets tune up their horns, there’s no place Mark would rather be. Then & Now is published in partnership with WVU Libraries’ West Virginia & Regional History Center. wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu

written by jake jarvis photographed by mel wright

MORGANTOWN • OCT/NOV 2015