In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard shares her story of growing up in Appalachian Kentucky—the economic struggles, trauma, and ever-present sexism along with the loving care of her close-knit rural community. These complex people shaped Howard’s sense of justice and solidarity, and taught her about the inextricable bonds working-class people share, despite our differences. But her childhood also left her with emotional wounds that threatened to destroy the life she built for herself. While healing her wounds is deeply personal, there’s no separating it from the people and place that made her.

Appalachia is often framed as a place to escape from, where people are hateful, lazy, and bring tragedy upon themselves. But in her quest to understand her home and her people, Howard uncovers the powerful history of white Appalachians fighting alongside Black and Brown people, pushing back against billionaires who gain power by using racism to divide them. Appalachia, she realizes, has not only been hit hard; it is the place to wage a freedom struggle.

Too many of us are denied the basic necessities of life: somewhere decent to live, good food to eat, health care that doesn’t break the bank, jobs that don’t kill us. As Howard reminds us, we haven’t got a chance—unless we organize.

In the midst of divisive rhetoric, violent repression, and grifters writing elegies, may this story be a song.

**This in person event will be live-streamed through Haymarket Books. Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event.

We ask that all in-person attendees wear masks in the event space during the program for the health and well-being of the speaker and other guests. We will have a reception afterwards with light refreshments and books available for purchase.**
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Beth Howard is the Cultural Strategist for Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), the largest national organization bringing white people into the fight for racial and economic justice. She grew up in a rural white working-class community in Eastern Kentucky and has organized in the American South for two decades, primarily in her beloved home state of Kentucky.

Beth has been a lead organizer on campaigns to raise the minimum wage and restore voting rights. She's also engaged white working-class Southerners on successful electoral campaigns, including ones that defeated an abortion ban ballot initiative in the 2022 Kentucky midterms and reelected Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear in 2023—and ran a rural field office in the 2020 Georgia runoff election.

Beth is the creator of the viral narrative campaign Rednecks for Black Lives, and has been featured on the NBC News National Day of Racial Healing special, Matter of Fact’s Listening Tour with Soledad O’Brian, NPR’s Here and Now, Now This News, in the book Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections, the New York Times, and The Boston Globe. Beth lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Song for a Hard-Hit People is her first book. You can find her on Substack at Working Class Love Notes and online at bethhowardky.com.

Eric Kerl is a writer, designer, photographer, and organizer based in Chicago. Kerl has written for Rewire News, 100 Days in Appalachia, Tempest, International Socialist Review, and others. As a co-founder of Rampant magazine, he examined the intersections of race and class in the US South.

He was the final apprentice admitted to the title of journeyman in Cincinnati Typographical Union #3. Kerl finished a second journeymanship in the printers’ union, with an expertise in letterpress, gravure, intaglio, and offset lithography. Since 2001, he has worked as a master printer in newspaper, magazine, poster, and book publishing.

Raised in rural Kentucky, he is interested in the stories of Southern Appalachia, culture at the margins, race-making, and rebellious people’s movements.

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This event is co-sponsored by SURJ and Haymarket Books, and is part of the Haymarket Presents speakers series. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.