#4: Appalachian Green Parks Project

The prompt for this blog was to write about some aspect of Ohio University or Athens history and why it’s significant or worth chronicling. The first thing to pop into my head was the Appalachian Green Parks Project.

It’s a little hard to describe what this was, but it existed from 1973-76. The reason I know of it is because my mom, dad, and many of the friends they still keep in contact with today were a part of it. According to my parents’ website, the Green Parks Project was a group that “performed traditional Appalachian folk songs and dialogue based on the culture and history of the region in Ohio State Parks,” jointly founded by the School of Theater and the Ohio Valley Summer Theater.

Well, okay, so it’s a bunch of Appalachian performers. Those happen a lot around here, right? So why is this significant?

The Green Parks Project performed in 18 of Ohio's state parks to thousands of audience members at a time. An online article regarding the Green Parks Project’s relatively recent reunion states that “during the summers of 1973 and 1974, the group performed to more than 21,000 Ohioans in state parks alone.” On top of that, they were invited by Ohio congressional members to perform in Washington DC. There’s an hour long documentary, music albums, radio shows, etc. It’s difficult to find some of these things today, and the members have long since gone their separate ways. But there was a reunion in 2007, over 30 years later, in which many of the original members and some friends got back together and performed once again. Thanks to this you can get much of the Appalachian Green Parks Projects’ music on a CD album.

Today you may be hard-pressed to find anyone in Athens who has any idea what you're talking about when you say "Appalachian Green Parks Project." But anyone who was around 30-40 years ago may remember, and fans do still exist. I believe this project is is a good example of how strong the arts are as a part of the Appalachian culture in and around Ohio University.

Unfortunately I don’t currently have access to the documentary, but here’s a clip of the band my dad and two other members of the project formed after the Green Parks Project disbanded. This is from 1977, and they're playing one of the songs they wrote & performed in the Appalachian Green Parks Project.

References: 

http://charlieandcelia.com/

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-444-ovst-brings-back-70s-appalachian-music-parks-heritage-project.html