The Whippoorwill Festival was founded in the Spring of 2011 by Dave Cooper, a former mechanical engineer who spent 20 years working in industry, mostly designing and maintaining machinery. He became involved/radicalized in the anti-mountaintop removal campaign after meeting Larry Gibson, the "Keeper of the Mountains" from Kayford Mountain, West Virginia.
Dave became involved in the mountaintop removal campaign first as an Organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, in Huntington WV, followed by 8 years on the road touring America on the speaking tour that he founded. The Mountaintop Removal Road Show had over 800 speaking and radio gigs in 26 states. The Road Show was funded almost entirely by small donations and honorariums.
The Mountaintop Removal Road Show reached community and civic groups, religious organizations and environmental groups, but most speaking gigs were on college campuses. This outreach work contributed to a burst of organizing energy in the coalfields in 2004 following the death of a small boy, Jeremy Davidson, who was crushed while sleeping in his bed by a boulder from a mountaintop removal mine in southwest Virginia.
This tragedy was the impetus for Mountain Justice, and he became a founding member in 2004. Mountain Justice is a multi-state non-violent direct action campaign that helped bring national attention to the mountaintop removal issue, and pressured former Massey Energy CEO and coal baron Don Blankenship. Mountain Justice had its roots in Earth First! and anarchist philosophies.
The Whippoorwill Festival was greatly inspired by Dave's trips to the Firefly Gathering in Asheville, NC, and the Florida Earth Skills gathering, which continue today. Dave was also influenced by the non-heirarchal anarchist philosophies of Earth First! and Mountain Justice, and he found Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods to be a profound call to all adults who care about the future of our planet to get children back playing in the woods and creek and trees.
Dave became involved in the mountaintop removal campaign first as an Organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, in Huntington WV, followed by 8 years on the road touring America on the speaking tour that he founded. The Mountaintop Removal Road Show had over 800 speaking and radio gigs in 26 states. The Road Show was funded almost entirely by small donations and honorariums.
The Mountaintop Removal Road Show reached community and civic groups, religious organizations and environmental groups, but most speaking gigs were on college campuses. This outreach work contributed to a burst of organizing energy in the coalfields in 2004 following the death of a small boy, Jeremy Davidson, who was crushed while sleeping in his bed by a boulder from a mountaintop removal mine in southwest Virginia.
This tragedy was the impetus for Mountain Justice, and he became a founding member in 2004. Mountain Justice is a multi-state non-violent direct action campaign that helped bring national attention to the mountaintop removal issue, and pressured former Massey Energy CEO and coal baron Don Blankenship. Mountain Justice had its roots in Earth First! and anarchist philosophies.
The Whippoorwill Festival was greatly inspired by Dave's trips to the Firefly Gathering in Asheville, NC, and the Florida Earth Skills gathering, which continue today. Dave was also influenced by the non-heirarchal anarchist philosophies of Earth First! and Mountain Justice, and he found Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods to be a profound call to all adults who care about the future of our planet to get children back playing in the woods and creek and trees.
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The Whippoorwill Festival - Skills for Earth Friendly Living
April 25-27, Carlisle KY
April 25-27, Carlisle KY
