The Brown Bag Green Book series continues on Wednesday, October 28th, at 12 p.m. in the East Tennessee History Center Auditorium, 601 S. Gay Street, with Pat Hudson, Director of the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF), and Dawn Coppock, Legislative Director of LEAF, leading a discussion of Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal by Silas House and Jason Howard. The series, sponsored by Knox County Public Library and the City of Knoxville, invites the public to join the conversation, even if they haven't read the book.
"This book is directly relevant for all Tennesseans," Hudson says. "We are at a crossroads - we have a choice. In Kentucky and West Virginia, so many mountains have been lost forever, but we can still decide to protect our mountains."
"The main body of Something's Rising is a collection of chapters, each telling the story of Appalachians, some activists and some who are rarely in the media, but who are experiencing the devastating effect of mountaintop removal," Hudson says. "The introduction is so well written that I recommend it as a good start for someone who has no idea about why people in Appalachia are so upset about the practice of mountain top removal."
Hudson and Coppock co-founded LEAF in opposition to mountaintop removal in honor of friend Kathy Lindquist, a passionate environmentalist and an active member of Knoxville's Church of the Savior United Church of Christ. LEAF's mission is to bring the issue of mountaintop removal to the attention of East Tennessee's Christian communities and encourage them to address the environmental destruction and economic injustice this practice inflicts on the land and people of Appalachia.
The series continues on November 18 with Dr. James McIntyre, Superintendent of Knox County Schools, leading a discussion of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Then on December 2, Dr. Bill Shiell, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, will lead a discussion of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell.
For more information, please call Emily Ellis at 215-8763 or Erin Burns at 215-2065 or check
www.knoxlib.org.