Impossible to Imagine

PHOTO BY PATRICK J. MITCHELL

BY TINA V. BRYSON

Frank X Walker grew up in public housing in Danville, Kentucky, just one county removed from what is considered Appalachia. The tributary where his grandparents swam growing up was the county line. But his humble beginnings were no obstacle or excuse for allowing others to define him.

“I don’t believe I had any concept of Appalachia or if I even used the term until college,” said Walker, whose fiction professor at the University of Kentucky, Gurney Norman, introduced him to the Appalachia he would come to know and love. “Because there were poor white children in the projects, with even less than we had, I became more aware of the tremendous divide between my well-to-do classmates and my circle of friends in the projects.”

In 2013, Walker became Kentucky’s first AfricanAmerican poet laureate, and the youngest Kentuckian to be given that honor. He coined the term Affrilachia in the early nineties because the perception of Appalachia was so narrow that it didn’t include people of color. The word spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region’s African-American culture and history.

“I knew plenty of people of color who lived and worked in the region and had been there for generations,” said Walker, a professor in the Department of English at the University of Kentucky; and editor and publisher of PLUCK!, a Journal of Affrilachian Art & Culture. “Even the dictionary definition of Appalachian at the time limited membership to white residents of the Appalachian mountains.”

He was dismayed at the stereotype of the region. “It was so narrow that it made it impossible to imagine or see Jesse Owens, Nina Simone, John Henry, Nikki Giovanni, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Carter G. Woodson, Roberta Flack, Bessie Smith, August Wilson and countless others in the same space reserved for Snuffy Smith and Lil’ Abner,” he said. “If they could imagine it, it would easily destroy every caricature and stereotype of the region forever.”

Walker continues his work to dispel stereotypes and contribute to a different imagining of the region. “I’d like to think my work and the work of my associates in the Affrilachian Poets forces people inside and outside the region to rethink their preconceptions of Appalachia and change the narrative. I have been pleased with the number of protests that have occurred in support of Black Lives Matter in the region, particularly in so many small towns including Danville.”

Political unrest that has gripped the nation has also found its way to Appalachia as well. “I hope that when people can see their children, their children’s children, neighbors, and respected community members standing with the few people of color who also live there, I hope that everyone will find the capacity to step back and think about which side they will be seen standing on when the history is written of this moment in America,” Walker noted.

As COVID-19 has ravaged many communities of color in urban areas, Walker hopes that communities like where he grew up will fare better. “I hope the black communities in the region have used our relative isolation as a plus and are not suffering to the degree that people of color in urban areas clearly are.”

Always an educator, Walker understands there is still work to be done. “I wish so many people didn’t buy the caricature of the region. I wish they knew as much about Harlan, Kentucky as they did Birmingham, Alabama. To black youth growing up in Appalachia, I’d like to say to them, if you don’t have access to the internet get to the library and learn how rich the region really is. Make sure your and your family’s stories get told regardless of the medium. Use your voice. Refuse to be rendered invisible.”

Donate to support children, their families, and seniors in need in Appalachia.

Christianapp.org/MtSpiritGive