Across the nation, more than 390,000 children rely on foster care. However, a shortage of licensed foster homes is creating a national crisis. While official foster care cases are carefully tracked, many informal examples of kinship care aren’t part of the data. For this Us & Them episode, we hear the experiences of those who’ve been part of the foster care system.
Puppet Protest Commemorates January 9th Chemical Leak
Listen
Share this Article
A protest featuring giant puppets was held in front of the Kanawha County Public Library yesterday, commemorating the January 9th chemical spill one year ago.
A local art group called the Vandalia Collective performed the ten minute puppet show in front of the Kanawha County Public Library in Charleston. The protest featured giant handmade puppets re-telling the story of the chemical leak just one year ago.
The various puppets played the characters of Mother Earth, the elements; water, fire, earth, and air, as well as puppets representing Freedom Industries, the coal company, and the chemical, MCHM.
“Puppetry is a very long-standing tradition in America and in Europe,” said Marcus Fioravante, the organizer of the event and puppeteer, “You know, you think about like Punch and Judy shows, and stuff like that. You know, it’s street art, it’s street performance, and that has existed, you know long before there was TV, and long before there was anything else, there was street art. And to me, it is a wonderful breath of life into activism, and I feel like you know, you can’t ignore a big puppet as much as you can ignore a person with a sign.”
Fioravante says the Vandalia Collective will perform the puppet show again next weekend, January 17th at 2:00pm in front of the Capitol complex in Charleston.
Across the nation, more than 390,000 children rely on foster care. However, a shortage of licensed foster homes is creating a national crisis. While official foster care cases are carefully tracked, many informal examples of kinship care aren’t part of the data. For this Us & Them episode, we hear the experiences of those who’ve been part of the foster care system.
Stock car racing’s roots run deep in Appalachia. Our twisty roads and dark hollers were home to moonshiners — and moonshine runners, who became known for their driving skills. And they became some of NASCAR’s first stars when it formed in 1948. But NASCAR’s oldest continuous racing team had nothing to do with moonshine.