Concert Release leads to grant

Aurora Lights' Concert Release of Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home raises enough money to award first grant

Non-profit organization Aurora Lights celebrated the release of its long-awaited compilation CD, Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home Sunday August 23, 2009 at a benefit concert on the Capitol Grounds in Charleston, WV.

Headlining the concert was the Morgantown based band, The Halftime String Band. Andrew McKnight, Osha and Samples with special guest Matt Parsons and the Nashville based band The Lonetones. Coal River Valley residents spoke between the bands and told of how their lives have been changed because of mountaintop removal.

The combination of profits from the CD as well as the benefit concert has raised enough money to cover production costs and allow for the first grant to be given. All proceeds from the album will be used for grants and other educational and charitable purposes consistent with Aurora Lights’ mission to raise awareness of the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining.

This first grant was given to support the community kitchen in Rock Creek, WV. This volunteer kitchen feeds activists and community members living in the Coal River Valley working to end mountaintop removal. The grant provided 3 meals a day for up to 40 people for 12 days. "This grant helped put food on the table for hungry volunteers," said Dr. Robert Slusarenko, a full time volunteer cook.

The first CD, Moving Mountains, which was released under Falling Mountain Music, raised more than $6,000 for local grassroots work. "The first CD was birthed with the idea that music could help inspire people to stand together through the hard times. What surprised me was how often the music and interviews were used in presentations and for outreach," Still Moving Mountains producer, Jen Osha, says. "I realized that Still Moving Mountains had to go further to provide people with a way to move from inspiration to education to action."

A unique combination of music, visuals, and community involvement, "Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home" unleashes the passion and urgency empowering the coalfield justice movement in Appalachia at this critical time. Still Moving Mountains combines interviews with local residents impacted by mountaintop removal with a mixture of local and well-known artists: Kathy Mattea, Del McCoury, Blue Highway, Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers, Great American Taxi, and Andrew McKnight. The CD goes hand in hand with Journey Up Coal River, a multimedia website featuring interviews, photographs, maps, and lesson plans centered around the Coal River Valley in southern West Virginia.

The concert was sponsored by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Appalachian Community Fund. Bob Kincaid of Head on Radio Network and Coal River Mountain Watch provided a free online broadcast of the concert.

Still Moving Mountains will be released digitally through ThirtyTigers on September 22. To order a copy of the CD, to learn more about the issues, or to download lesson plans for use in the classroom, please go to www.JourneyUpCoalRiver.org.

 

Watch coalfield residents speak about the impacts of the album and MTR:

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