Crystal Good and Black By God: Documenting Black Appalachia on Our Own Terms
By: Lamont Jack Pearley
The African American Folklorist recognizes Crystal Good this September because her work expands an important conversation about what African American folklore practice can look like.
Her work connects Black Appalachian identity, journalism, poetry, storytelling, civic participation, cultural memory, and community documentation.
It also reinforces a principle central to the work of The African American Folklorist and the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation:
Black communities must have agency in owning, defining, documenting, protecting, interpreting, and preserving our stories on our own terms.
This does not mean that every Black story must remain within Black communities or that meaningful collaborative scholarship cannot take place.
It means Black people must be recognized as cultural authorities, researchers, documentarians, archivists, journalists, folklorists, and interpreters of our own experiences.
Crystal Good and Black By God demonstrate what that principle can look like in practice.
For September's African American Folklorist of the Month, we invite our readers and listeners to learn more about Crystal Good, explore the work of Black By God, and join our conversation about Black Appalachia, Folk Reporting, the Black Press, community documentation, folklore, cultural memory, and the responsibility of telling our own stories.
Watch the Conversation
Join The African American Folklorist for our conversation with Crystal Good, founder and publisher of Black By God: The West Virginian, as we discuss Black Appalachian life, Folk Reporting, journalism, cultural preservation, and the importance of communities creating their own cultural record.
African American Folklorist of the Month — September: Crystal Good
Presented by The African American Folklorist and the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation.
Preserving the Blues People, one voice at a time.
