"In the hope that it will serve as a generous incentive for contemporary artists to forsake the canvas for the computer keyboard, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is establishing a $50,000 annual competition for Internet art, part of the museum's ambitious plans for stimulating interest in the emerging genre. The SFMOMA Webby Prize for Excellence in Online Art will go to as many as three digital artists for their overall work, not for specific projects. The cash prize, financed by an anonymous donor, will be divided among the winners. The first recipients will be announced on May 11 in San Francisco at the annual ceremony for the Webby Awards, which are billed as the Internet's version of the Oscars...." -- Matthew Mirapaul, The New York Times

• The Appalachian Studies Association encourages regional scholarship and social action, and holds an annual conference, this year's in March at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. See reprise for more extensive coverage.

• The Appalachian Writers Association provides membership services and holds an annual conference at rotating venues in five states with workshops covering fiction through song-writing presented by major Appalachian artists. See reprise for more extensive coverage.

  "We are grounded in our belief that we must be that which we strive to bring about -- a just, equitable, tolerant, 'whole' society in which members feel connected and accountable to each other and to the greater society and earth of which we are a part." -- Appalachian Women's Alliance

• The Goddess 2000 Project in Georgia seeks "to build community and empower a vision of our world that honors diversity and celebrates all people." Including men, women, children, families, tribes and spiritual groups of all sorts, the grass-roots project "is now active in 33 countries including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Portugal, the Phillipines, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, the Virgin Islands and the U.S." The project is an international call for artists, professional and amateur, to celebrate the planet's ancient and ongoing feminine spirit through creation of original graphics, sculpture, dance, and community.

  "Over two decades ago, an article by Otter Zell entitled Theagenesis: The Birth of the Goddess (Green Egg, Vol V. #40) contained the first published description of the Earth as a living Goddess. Otter's vision was based on the fact that all life in the biosphere began with a single organism, which has divided infinitely to form the incredible diversity of life that has evolved thus far. Much as a fertilized ovum divides again and again to make up the many organs of the human body, all life in the biosphere is part of a single living organism, of which we and the plants and animals are like cells and perhaps, collectively, organs." -- The Gaian Conspiracy by Anodea Judith, Church of All Worlds

• East Tennessee State University, as do most Appalachian colleges and universities, hosts numerous arts and culture activities that are either free or available for a minimal fee. The International Film Festival, held every Monday evening at the Culp Center (across from the new glass-fronted library) 7 p.m., is one example of ETSU's entertaining fare. Their quarterly "Cabaret" presents food, beverages, and variously gifted musicians performing amidst the ambiance of an unusual setting, the permanent and invitational exhibits of Reece Museum on-campus. To subscribe to ETSU's events mailing list send an e-mail message to: etsu-fsdg-request@liub.etsu-tn.edu.

  "We shall not cease from exploration
  And the end of all our exploring
  Will be to arrive where we started
  And to know the place for the first time." -- T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

• Newspaper Association of America -- Appalachian newspapers have increasingly joined the national on-line media world. NAA is an omnibus site: USA map with hotlinks by state/locality to daily and weekly journals, most of which feature area services, events and festivity schedules. Many sites offer message boards for sharing opinions/information on specific issues events, instant polling on current events, and morning e-mail to you with national and local news, including weather, sports and business. In Tennessee for example, The Knoxville News-Sentinel (KnoxNews) sets a fabulous example of exciting design and content that informs, educates and encourages lively debate, including a feature called "E-The People" for writing letters to public officials or starting petitions; The Kingsport Times-News (Kingsport.com) keeps Tri-Cities readers up-to-date, provides evolving forums for on-line discussion of issues from politics to spirituality to commerce, and enables on-line e-mailing of postcards with topical photos from the VA/TN area.

  

  "Dana is the spirit of giving and abundance that arises from within, from one's own resources and willingness to give.... Teachers who trust in the generosity of dana are a rare treasure in this world." -- SDRC

• Southern Dharma Retreat Center is "a nonprofit educational facility, welcoming a variety of spiritual paths, whose purpose is to offer meditation retreats. Our goal is to provide a comfortable gathering place, removed from the everyday distractions of life, and to create an atmosphere of quiet reflection where one can nurture a sense of peace and uncover the truths within the heart.... Southern Dharma is located in a remote mountainous area of Western North Carolina, an hour northwest of Asheville. Facilities include a meditation hall, dormitory, a private forest hermitage and primitive creekside campsites." Meditation schedules include, among others, Vipassana, Soto Zen, Kabbalah, and Tao retreats.

  graphic above: Appalachian crafts -- shop and gallery of Rick Murray's Woodturnings, Erwin, TN (423)743-8876 -- finished and drying one-of-a-kind vases, bowls and urns made from local exotic trees. Stop by and watch a bowl being made or to say "Hello"!

  ---

  "The age-old art of storytelling is being preserved through the nation’s largest museum. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington has a new partnership with Jonesborough-based Storytelling Foundation International to develop exhibits and programs. The foundation is the only organization in Tennessee and one of four in the Southeast to have such an affiliation with the Smithsonian." -- Angela Brown, AP

  
  Graphic: from Cambridge, MA Brother Blue Street Poet and Soul Theater, 1998 NSF

• Nearly abandoned to the written -- and videoed -- word, techniques of preserving oral history are incorporated now as a career path at several universities. Popular festivals of performances and prizes are scheduled with increasing frequency at venues throughout the United States, and many other countries. An organizational network, the National Storytelling Association, coordinates the promotion of education and events that celebrate the oral tradition. Tales range from the traditional to new and wildly imaginative yarns. Many racconteurs accompany their energized recitations with mime and music. Costumes range from baroque to bright to hillbilly, and an accomplished performer may be seven or seventy. Whether gathered at a streetcorner or clapping, singing, and even dancing, under a tent, crowds find entrancement in the revival of a fundamental means for communicating culture, myth and heritage. The National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough TN, is an annual three-day extravaganza of exciting performances by storytellers from around the world that celebrates the oral tradition in lively renderings of best-loved legends, folklore, and tallest tales. Begin an excursion, virtual or real-time, of Appalachia's storytelling history and scheduled events, on-line at Storyteller.net and the National Storytelling Organization .

  Graphics above: Storytellers and European recording artist Bradlee Judson Hedrick at Pig 'N Slipper Antique Mall, 1998 National Storytelling Festival.
  

  ---

  
  

  "He tried to read an elementary economics text; it bored him past endurance, it was like listening to somebody interminably recounting a long and stupid dream. He could not force himself to understand how banks functioned and so forth, because all the operations of capitalism were as meaningless to him as the rites of a primitive religion, as barbaric, as elaborate, and as unnecessary. In a human sacrifice to deity there might at least be a mistaken and terrible beauty; in the rites of the money-changers, where greed, laziness, and envy were assumed to move all men's acts, even the terrible became banal." -- Ursula Le Guin, quoted in ZNet

  ---

  
• Carroll Reece Museum, Johnson City TN, schedules regular exhibits to showcase the region's extraordinary spectrum of talent and originality in many media. While you're there, virtually or real-time, explore fascinating articles from the Museum's permanent collection which includes vintage Appalachian musical instruments, early pioneer conveyances and tools, and artfully-carved-and-finished 19th century furniture.

  graphic: Rapids and rafters near Nolichucky Campground, 1 Jones Branch Road, Erwin, TN 37650