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L Saunders

@_lsaunders_

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We Won’t Back Down | Yellow Finch Lane, Tutelo land After years of threatening to do radio, I finally took the leap. As y’all know if you’ve been following along, my work has revolved closely around the region where I grew up and the resistance from folks here to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. I was asked if wanted to try and help create a story about the past 8 years & being one who loves to bite off more than I can chew, I said “of course!”. The result is this piece. @whiting.whitney and I have been calling it a love letter, but it is also reminder of how many hands, hearts and minds have chipped away at the seemingly impossible task of stopping the fracking industry from building a pipeline through these ancient mountains. The people you’ll get to meet are some of the finest I know. I feel lucky everyday to be able to learn so much about what care really looks like, and how infinite it is in the face of so many messages about scarcity. We wanted to share the magic of the hills and hollers through the people who are fighting for them, continuing Appalachia’s long legacy of resistance. Deep thanks to the *many* people who took part in the creating, and to @thisclimatepod for offering the opportunity as well as turning some of my images from over the years into these beautiful graphics you see here. Thanks for reading, and for listening. Deeply grateful to be able to make this work in this region. With love, L by @_lsaunders_
4
4 years ago
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‘Let Them Have Water’ ; a film made for @theintercept about the longstanding legacy of aid in the Sonoran desert and the current efforts to criminalize humanitarian work on the border. Scott Warren’s first misdemeanor trial begins this coming Monday in Tucson, AZ. by @_lsaunders_
5
7 years ago
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Heartbroken to share that yet another wave of devastating floods have hit West Virginia. Lewis, Taylor and Upshur counties are facing a long road towards recovery. Here is a link to the Appalachian Mutual Aid Collective, working to directly to provide support and relief for folks on the ground. Please share & keep an eye out for other efforts that will be needed in the coming weeks & months. Keep fighting the extractive projects and industries that have led to these (now routinely) floods in our region & that directly prop up the most brutal forces elsewhere ❤️‍🩹 #wvfloodrelief #upshurcounty #lewiscountywv #wvflood by @_lsaunders_
0
3 days ago
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My heart is a Blue Ridge Mountain by @_lsaunders_
3
a month ago
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One year of Clementine (two days ago technically). This little hellian from the hills of WV all the way to the literal heels of our feet. People often tell us how handsome he is, which I quite like to hear given that she’s so perfectly rounded out our queer lil fam. Anyway- we made it out of the puppy blues and I’m loving this new chapter where I get to enjoy her without enforced naps (for both of us). HBD Gagootz!! by @_lsaunders_
9
2 months ago
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The site of Impact Plastics in Erwin Tennessee where five workers and a contractor lost their life in the floods from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall here a year ago. In April of this year the company was cleared of any wrongdoing in court, saying they exercised "reasonable diligence" for their actions as the storm arrived. They noted that it was difficult to communicate with the impacted people during their investigation due to interrupted phone service, language barriers and other challenges. This is just one site of many representing the compounding struggles of this region. In the wake of the floods, the very same communities that filled this factory worried about seeking help because of the increased attention on immigrant and undocumented individuals. A year later, these same communities face daily compounding risk by simply living their day to day lives. Since the hurricane, mutual aid networks in this region have blossomed into action. They have stared at heartbreak with refusal to stop or believe that the people here are somehow deserving of such loss. They carry on, diligently, in the face of harrowing odds and understand that their survival is connected to every parallel struggle, the world over. They have built new homes, delivered food, water, and refused the politics of disposability that surround them. My heart is with anyone wearing the heavy weight of grief after Helene, and the many others who face a life turned to rubble whether at the hand of a disaster, or the drop of a bomb. From Gaza to Appalachia, our strength is in each other and in the care of the land we inhabit. by @_lsaunders_
6
10 months ago
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I spent *a lot* of 2024 in the company of nature. Weekends camping, swimming, hiking, walking just to see the way the light rose or sank. I made it a goal to create more, and made my first stained glass piece, humbled myself at the fire of a blacksmith forge & hammer, got back into watercolors, sought out artistry & ways of making outside of an industry that seems to have abandoned so much of what made me give so many years of myself to it. It was good. I sought out music, & made nourishing meals & said no when I needed to so that my yes didn’t burn me out. I planted ferns at the start of an unexpected drought (0/10🥴) but diligently continued until new growth bloomed. Clocked the metaphor. I have been desperately seeking spaces where there is kindness, generosity, grace, care. They feel hard to come by, if I’m honest. Still, I refuse to give up on trying to help create them too. The lessons of this past year have been varying illustrations of how deeply so many of us are struggling under the grief of what is to come or what has already been lost. Life has been so life-y. It has made me particularly grateful for the collaborations, friendships, creativity, softness, & courage that have been offered by so many people. I am humbled at the chance to grow another year older, knowing less and less with each passing. Cheers to all the beauty of unraveling so that there’s room for something better 🌱 by @_lsaunders_
10
2 years ago
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West Virginia makin’ & breakin’ my heart every time by @_lsaunders_
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2 years ago
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We are so excited to hear from @julieraepowers about their new book DEEP RUTS at our community of practice later this month, in conversation with @_lsaunders_. Link in the bio to register for this event on 9/24 at 7 pm on Zoom. Julie Rae Powers’ new book Deep Ruts asks what it means to be a queer person from an Appalachian family with a strong masculine history of coal mining – and to grow up in a place where those two things are incompatible. Deep Ruts shares Julie Rae’s journey of trying to find her place in the world. Julie Rae has family ties to the coal industry and Laura has a deep knowledge of the movement to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Guided by these backgrounds, Julie Rae and Laura will discuss the toll extractive industry takes on people in intimate ways. We will raffle off one copy of Deep Ruts to a random member of the virtual audience. You can purchase your own copy of Deep Ruts on Julie Rae’s website. If you buy the book before September 15, you can take 10% off with the code “papaw”. An event flyer with gray squiggles and an open book by @_lsaunders_
0
2 years ago
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Hello from the tender wilds. Hello from one of the frontlines. Hello from behind the veil of grief that the colonial hand lays over everything it touches. Hello from the forsaken turned brethren. Rock turned dust. Earth refusing its abuse one blown seam of rusted metal at a time. They’ll never admit this pipe was on hold; defeated until that veil got pulled back over these mountains again. They’ll never admit how terrified they are, but we see their hands shake while holding their cameras when we come around. Hello to the hopeful, whatever rage, despair, infinite edge comes between its (intermittent) arrival(s). All those pieces of us are what knit us back together. All the broken hearts that saw something of themselves in another, so they softened instead of turning cold. I thank you every day for such strength. Even and especially when it might wane. Hello from behind the yellow police tape the students and ones of conscience continue to push back. Years later, I am still trying to understand the camera in a world where it remains both a weapon and an insistent companion for the times that they’ll say never happened. To remind whoever cares to look that these lives were sacred, like the lands that grew them. I carry so many names with me anymore. I whisper them at the precipice, letting them know they will stay alive through so many of us, so that we may tell their tales. It feels absurd to share any of my heart for an algorithm, and for the most part I don’t anymore. But today as I stood looking over at Bent Mountain, that familiar rush of blood came to me like a lamentation on the wind. It filled the corners of me so fully I had to get it out somehow. I had to answer the echo for Doe Creek, for the Haw River, for Brush Mountain, for Gaza, for Palestine. For anyone who might find comfort here in the mess of these beautiful, stubborn, hellraising mountains. by @_lsaunders_
18
2 years ago
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Had a little friend come down the chimney in need of some assistance today. Don’t think I’ve ever had the honor of seeing a bluebird so close. Remarkable how immediately & concisely it made me think of how much we need one another. In all our beauty, in all our struggle. by @_lsaunders_
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2 years ago
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On April 28th, 2024 @virginia.tech arrested 91 people, 54 of which were students, along with members of faculty & the community after ordering a disbursement of the @vt4palestine Gaza solidarity encampment located at the Graduate Life Center on campus. Administration cited “public safety” concerns, threatening arrests multiple times throughout the day. Supporters gathered on the lawn, carrying out prayers, speeches & chants for multiple hours, despite the threat and successfully held off law enforcement by forming a circle around those in prayer. Shortly after prayers ended, the encampment was surrounded by VTPD, Blacksburg PD, and VA state police. Chants continued as arrests were made, and supporters continued to echo calls for a free Palestine. by @_lsaunders_
42
2 years ago
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