FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 4, 2015
For More Information:
Glenville State College
Public Relations Department
(304) 462-4115
GLENVILLE, WV - Glenville State College Visiting Instructor of English Dr. Bob Henry Baber has had a summer filled with public appearances and good news about his written works.
First, he was notified that his long poem 'We' will be published in an upcoming edition of the Appalachian Journal. 'We' focuses on social justice in West Virginia. The Appalachian Journal is published quarterly by Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. "The Journal is extremely selective about poetry and only publishes a few per issue; and it is quite rare for them to publish 'political' poems. Consequently, I am quite excited about this news," Baber said.
Baber was also a featured poet and artist in July at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Appalachian South Folklife Center started by activist and poet Don West, who mentored Baber when he was a student and young writer at Antioch College/Appalachia in Beckley and helped form the now famous 'Soupbean Poets.' West taught there in the mid-1970s. At the conference Baber read poetry, spoke at nearby Concord University on the impact of West's life, and conducted mosaic art workshops for attendees.
Additionally this summer Baber's poem, 'Grandpa All You Bought Was the Air,' was utilized and read in the online book by Dr. Christine Ballengee-Morris of The Ohio State University. She is currently using the text in her English classes at OSU and the book is now being offered nationally to English professors. Baber's 'found' poem is taken virtually verbatim from the deed for his parent's Greenbrier County farm, from which the mineral rights were severed in 1904. Baber discovered the basis for the poem when he bought the farm from his grandmother in 1983. The poem was also used extensively by the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth organization for their fight in 1984 to end the then-legal practice of strip-mining private property for coal mining. During that period Baber read at a rally in Lexington with Wendall Berry, Gurney Norman, and George Ella Lyonâthree of Kentucky's most famous living writers. Baber was living in the Bluegrass State at the time and working at Appalshop, a multimedia film, music, and theater center based in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
Finally, on September 11, 2015 Baber will join singer/songwriter David Morris in a multimedia presentation titled 'Come All Ye Gallant Soldiers: The Songs and Poetry of War' at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ohio. Baber will serve as the master of ceremonies and narrator for the event. In addition to writing historic text, he will also read his poem 'Million Dollar Babies' based on his father's experiences when returning from the Pacific front at the end of World War II. The poem talks about his father, Troy Baber, and how he was fed by volunteers at the famous North Platte, Nebraska train station that provided warmth and provisions to every troop train that passed through it during the War. The event is sponsored by the City of Dublin, the Ohio Arts Council, and many other partners.
Dr. Baber is a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, a recipient of the National Hero Award by the National Wilderness Society for his advocating in 2006 on behalf of the expansion of the Cranberry Wilderness Area while he was the Mayor of Richwood, WV, and the author of 'Pure Orange Sunshine,' a novel based on his experiences in California in the tumultuous 1970s. Baber currently teaches speech and English at GSC.
