Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson is the director of the folk arts program of the Hindman Settlement School. In that capacity he does music, stories, dance, and theater in the schools and the community. As folk artist he represented Appalachia at the Smithsonian Folk Festival on the National Mall. There, he performed along with artists from West Africa and Scotland tying the cultural threads that bind these cultures together in the Appalachian experience.

For the past ten years he has been putting together banjos and presentations on the history of the instrument from West Africa to colonial days to the present. This project grew out of numerous cultural exchanges across the nation- Latino culture in San Antonio, Native culture in Alaska, and Puerto Rican culture in the Bronx. Lately he has done a cultural exchange with kids from the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NYC.

A collaboration with Kentucky poet, James Still, culminated in performances for the University of Rome, Rome, Italy. Their combination of poems and songs traveled to colleges across the region from the University of Kentucky to Virginia Tech.

Mr. Wilson produces a weekly kid’s radio program for the Appalshop’s WMMT station. You can catch that program streaming live at appalshop.org.

Randy Wilson calls folk dances from Onion Blade, Ky to Puget Sound, WA. He is a regular caller at Carcassonne, the longest community dance event in Kentucky.