Raleigh; July 31, 2008. Kennedy was a retired clerk
of court in Wake County Superior Court. He practiced law in Raleigh and served as a magistrate and
judge in Wake County’s Small Claims Court. In 2002,
he was appointed director of the Administrative
Office of the Courts. After retiring from the court
system, he became a jazz trombonist and performed with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Hobex, the
Dick Gable All Stars and the N.C. Pops Orchestra.
At UNC, he was in the Marching Band. Steven
Douglas Provence (’ 75 ABJO), 54, of Stuarts Draft,
Va.; July 11, 2008. Provence developed holograms,
or 3-D laser photography, for some of the early Atari
home video games. He founded his own company
and produced holograms for advertising and security
applications. He produced large-format holograms
that still are used in wrapping paper. Holograms he
created in the late 1970s and ’80s are part of an
MIT Museum collection. In 2004, he produced a
documentary of ramp festivals (spring harvest cele-
70s
brations of a strong wild onion) in the
Appalachians.
’ 76 M. Ann Anderson (’ 76 AB, ’ 81 JD) of
Pilot Mountain has been elected to the
N.C. Bar Association board of governors. Anderson is in private practice. Dr. Kenneth Edward Hollingsworth (’ 76 AB, ’ 80 MD) of
Wyoming, Del., has been named an anesthesiologist with Bay Anesthesia Associates in Dover, Del.
Delving Into Appalachia’s Artistic Heart, Hardships
When Art Menius III ’ 77 says he loves the can Folk Music and Dance Alliance and presi- the civil rights movement,”
South, he is not talking about air-condi- dent of The Folk Alliance, where he continues to he says. “North Carolina
tioned insurance companies, tall bank buildings serve on the board of directors. was rife with symbols of profile
or expansive corporate campuses. The former You might say Menius is his own worst segregation; one of the
history major means the South that stretches enemy, a successful promoter who laments the most ludicrous and sad
back in time, people and places that survive by loss of “truly indigenous events” where fiddlers things I remember is the bench in front of the
passing hard-won knowledge from one genera- pass tunes from bow to bow instead of posting old Wake County Courthouse where there was a
tion to the next, the South of history and Statue of Liberty with whites- and col-folklore. It’s a South where a person can ored-only drinking fountains beside it.” At
take a job deep in the coal country of UNC, he says, “in 1973, we still thought
Appalachia and be excited and amazed of it as a very political time. I am not sure
by the wealth of the cultural activities I realized that the ’60s were over!”
around him. In his job at Appalshop, Menius gets
Menius, who also earned a master’s to jump into artistic endeavors while deal-degree in history from UNC in 1982, ing with issues that face managers of
made that choice in July 2007 when he other nonprofit organizations. “I have to
became director of Appalshop. Based in master the issues that confront filmmak-Whitesburg, Ky., the 39-year-old ers and theater, along with the problems
Appalachian arts and media center pro- of a rural nonprofit with fewer financial
duces everything from CDs to documen- options. Only 1 percent of national arts
tary films, storytelling, plays and live funding goes to rural areas, even though
radio. It is a change for Menius, who had that’s where 20 percent of Americans
spent the previous decade handling mar- live.” Menius said diversity guidelines for
keting and sponsorship for MerleFest, the much of available funding also pose a
annual music festival hosted by Doc Wat- challenge. “Here in Letcher County, the
son in memory of his son, Merle. During population is 98 percent Caucasian. So
Menius’ tenure, the festival grew to a how do you have a racially diverse board
four-day event with some 10 music that also represents the local population?
stages and 80,000 visitors, raising more Appalachia can look like a white suburb
than $1 million for Wilkes Community on paper, but a suburb with an average
College in Wilkesboro. per capita income of only $20,000.”
Despite that success, Menius is more At Appalshop’s annual Seedtime on
interested in tradition than mass appeal. the Cumberland festival in June, it was
Among his favorite musicians is Elder clear that the organization is crossing
Frank Newsome, a coal miner’s son and Art Menius III ’ 77 combines his interest in traditional arts with social boundaries. While a group of women
Baptist minister who sings emotional issues as director of Appalshop in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. from nearby Cowan Creek told stories
hymns in a raw, soulful style he has about growing up in Appalachia, young
passed on to friend Ralph Stanley. “I’m a strict film and audio documentary crews from
definitionalist about bluegrass,” Menius says, Indonesia shared films with a community
coining the category for himself, “which is a media group from a small border town outside
specific and narrow musical form that includes Laredo, Texas. Both groups watched a film
musicians like Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Bill about the impact of coal mining on nearby
Monroe and IIIrd Tyme Out.” Wise County, Va., and tried to make sense of
Menius has spent a long time sorting out his the sweep of global economics on their local
ideas. Since 1983, he has published more than communities. A project called Thousand Kites
500 pieces on roots music in Bluegrass Unlim- addressed the issue of the prison industry and
ited, The News & Observer, The Independent the work it provides for people in rural towns
Weekly and a host of other publications. He dependent on a tough policy of incarceration in
also has served as an advocate for the music. the cities.
SUSAN SIMONE
In 1985, he helped form the International Blue- “The social vision of Appalshop is the glue
grass Music Association, serving as executive that holds all the disparate parts together,”
director from 1985 to 1990. Menius saw the Menius says, sitting in a handmade wooden
evolution of bluegrass from the narrow interest rocker looking out at the festival. “It is a shared
of aficionados to getting radio airplay world- vision for Appalachia.” And possibly for the
wide. In 1991, he delved into the broader world world.
of folk music as manager of the North Ameri-
them on MySpace. But Menius is also a realist
with a political sensibility. With Appalshop, he
says he responds to “the work and the social
mission,” to the artistic heart and the economic
hardships of the people in coal mining country.
“Everything negative seems to start here,”
Menius the historian says. “The Depression
started in Appalachia in the 1920s. In the
1950s, the decline in deep mining and the
move to surface mining forced people to leave
this area. The population of Letcher County has
dropped from 50,000 to 20,000.”
The academic side of the documentary
world that Appalshop serves also suits Menius.
His first job was as an interpretations specialist
helping researchers in the North Carolina state
archives. He likes to tell his own story set
beside big events. “Growing up, I witnessed the
centennial of the Civil War simultaneous with
