Honoring lost miners 10 years after Upper Big Branch blast

Judy Jones Peterson looks at a photo of her brother, who
died in the mine explosion. (NPR photo by Howard Berkes)

Ten years ago yesterday, 29 coal miners lost their lives during an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia. An episode of West Virginia Public Broadcasting's "Inside Appalachia" remembers those who died and explores how the families, artists and communities have memorialized those lost. Click here to the episode.

The episode features an interview with husband and wife playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, who wrote a play about the disaster called "Coal Country."

Blank and Jensen drew on hours of interviews and court testimony for inspiration, Jeff Young reports for Ohio Valley ReSource. The play opened to critical acclaim at The Public Theater in New York City on March 3, but was postponed after two weeks because of the pandemic.

Blank and Jensen, who live in Brooklyn, New York, said they had a hard time getting family members to return their calls when they first became interested in writing a play, but had a much easier time after they began traveling to Charleston and having long visits with the families, Young reports. Jensen, who grew up in the rural Midwest, said he could relate to the mining families, and both say they hope the play will help urban audiences better understand life in coal country.

Though "Coal Country" isn't a musical, country rock singer Steve Earle wrote songs for it that he performs as accompaniment. "Earle sits on stage with a guitar or banjo and listens intently to the actors, then adds a song that might echo a characters’ loss or hint at deeper themes. Jensen described his role as akin to a Greek chorus of one," Young reports.

On April 5, Earle gave a livestreamed performance of the songs online, which you can listen to here.