Mountain News & World Report

An act of marking one’s pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social, activity… that is the formal definition of a celebration. As we know, sometimes the need for having a celebration precedes the cause. In this episode of Mountain News & World Report, we are looking at – Reasons to Celebrate. Our show begins in Harlan County, where Benny Becker met George Ella Lyon, a native East Kentuckian, who is currently serving as the state’s poet laureate. Her works spans many genres including poetry, novel, picture books, and children’s literature. For our next segment, we visit the small towns nestled along the banks of the Clinch River in Virginia. WMMT Contributor Rich Kirby takes us there to note the celebration of the Clinch River Valley Initiative. A coalition of public and private groups sought to have a patchwork of land spread across 130 miles of the Clinch River declared as a state park in spite of its unconventional layout to help the area realize its potent