Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, WFDD — an NPR public radio station in Winston-Salem — and App State faculty hosted a Hurricane Helene Listening Day event in Blowing Rock Saturday. 

This event was open to the public, allowing anyone affected by Helene to share personal stories broadcasted across the state. Various news organizations partnered with BRAHM to circulate the recordings, including North Carolina’s state magazine, Our State. 

Community members were greeted in the foyer and taken into individual recording booths where they were interviewed by App State faculty. BRAHM partnered with Belk Library and Information Common’s oral history program to create a list of interview questions to ask attendees during the recordings.

WFDD partnered with BRAHM to promote the event and also circulate the stories on their station. Selections from these interviews will air in the coming weeks throughout 32 North Carolina counties on stations 88.5, covering the Piedmont area, and 100.1, which covers the High Country.

Rachel Thomas, the marketing and events manager for WFDD, explained after the hurricane, stronger wiring and a generator was added to Boone’s translator. These protective measures were taken to prevent signal loss to ensure people stay safe and informed.

“People’s stories are important, and it’s very therapeutic for them to tell what happened. We’ve had a number of folks in our listening area tell us that we were the only sources of news for them during the immediate aftermath of Helene because internet was down,” Thomas said.

Stories from BRAHM’s Listening Day will also be added into App State’s Hurricane Helene Archive. Beth Davison, who created the archive in collaboration with App State faculty, interviewed participants. 

“Since we live in this digital age, we can really document what happened so people can learn and memories can be persevered. I was thinking we need to archive this,” Davison said. 

Documentaries “We Begin Again at 9:30” by Davison and “Inundation” by Tom Hansell were shown following the interview sessions. Both of these films showcased Helene’s impact on rural Appalachian communities.

Staff at BRAHM hosted the Listening Day event near September 27, the one-year anniversary of Helene, to give community members a platform to share their personal stories. Willard Watson III is BRAHM’s program and outreach director and the organizer of the Listening Day event. 

“Our hope is that people will find comfort in sharing their stories and they’ll feel supported through sharing as well. And through having their voice heard, people who feel like they haven’t or been forgotten will feel some comfort in telling their stories,” Watson III said.

ArtsAVL, who sponsored the event, also supported the museum with their Hurricane Helene Business Relief Grant. BRAHM lost their tourist season by staying closed to focus on recovery after Helene. ArtsAVL helped with the financial loss and allowed the museum to hold expressive arts therapy and writing classes to youth and community members.

“Our grant from AVL provided us with $20,000 and helped with our hurricane recovery. It has allowed us to do things to support our community,” Watson III said.

BRAHM does many oral and artisan projects documenting and persevering the history of Blowing Rock both in their walls and online. Audio clips from the interviews will be added to their Blowing Rock History Exhibit, a permanent gallery in the museum that features local history within the community. 

“We want a way to bring in these more current events into the history of our town because this was a huge historic marker for our community.” Watson III said.

Caleb Hignite, a local ethnomusicologist and photographer, gave an interview during the event and shared stories he has collected after documenting the reconstruction process after Helene. He is interested in this type of study because of his family’s Appalachian history, spanning over ten to eleven generations. 

“I fell in love with this region and moved back up to Western North Carolina to reclaim my heritage for myself. And to dedicate my life to not only educating as many people as I can about the music and the history of this region, but also in wake of the hurricane to advocate for those that needed help and assistance,” Hignite said.

In the future, BRAHM will also be partnering with Story Corps, a non-profit organization and national platform for oral history storytelling. From Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, anyone will have the opportunity to sign up online for a digital interview. Afterward, their stories will be sent to the Library of Congress’ folklore division.