'Another Appalachia' book signing slated
Jun. 16—ASHLAND — As Neema Avashia was growing up in Appalachia, she shocked people.
The Cross Lanes, West Virginia, native whose parents immigrated from India wasn't what people expected. In addition, she identifies as queer.
But she was in a perfect position to write "Another Appalachia," a book in which she discusses race, class, gender and sexuality and how her experiences in Appalachia informs her life now; it also shows an Appalachia different from the one most are familiar with and accustomed to hearing about.
"Then, around 2016, I watched as the narrative around Appalachia as a homogenous place — a place where everyone looks the same, and thinks the same, and votes the same — really got turned up loud," she said. "The narrative mainstream media was espousing about Appalachia didn't resonate with my experience at all. and I realized that if I didn't do my part to push back against that narrative, and to make my family's experience visible, nobody would ever know any different. So I started writing!"
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Avashia has taught history classes in the Boston Public Schools System for 19 years and is preparing to take on the role as coach supporting teachers and helping with curriculum design in the fall.
(606) 326-2661 — lward@dailyindependent.com
