Books

In progress project: 

       A book-length manuscript about the Green Grass Cloggers

Youth-oriented project: 

       Alfred the Possum: On the Road with the Green Grass Cloggers.  Greenville, North Carolina: Pilcrow, Possum & Persimmon, 2015.  88 p.  36 illustrations.

             Written by Leanne E. Smith & Illustrated by Madalyn McLeod. 

      * Visit the Alfred the Possum page for ordering information. 

East Carolina University: Off the Record.  College Prowler.  2007. 2nd edition: 2008.  174 p.

Some Newer Miscellaneous Articles

Pieces for the North Carolina Folklife Institute’s blog NC Food:

“Beyond the Music: Feeding the Merlefest Masses for Community Causes.” September 16, 2016. 

“Finding Festival Food in Vanceboro.” May 27, 2016.

“Livermush Monday at the Grocery Basket & Grill in Ferguson, NC.”  January 22, 2016.  

“Feasting at the 10th Annual Oyster Roast and Shrimp Steam at the Ocracoke Seafood Company.”  January 8, 2016.

“Pat Franklin’s Mama’s Banana Pudding.”  September 18, 2015. 

“Waxing Fig-Tastic: The 2nd Annual August Fig Festival on Ocracoke Island.”  September 4, 2015.

“A Blueberry Ramble in Burgaw.”  June 26, 2015. 

“‘Chowder Taster’--Touring a Clam Chowder Cook-Off at the Ocracoke

          Community Center.”  April 10, 2015. 

            - Excerpted in the Ocracoke Observer.  April 15, 2015.

“‘A Martin County Thing’--Chicken Mull.”  October 31, 2014.

“Cousins, A Few Times Removed: Eighty Years of Team Clogging’s Family Tree.” Country Dance + Song Online. [journal of the Country Dance & Song Society] Volume 1 (April 2016).

North Carolina Folklore Journal. 

“‘All it needs now is eatin’—Fish Stew and the Washington’s Day Fox Hunt at Albertson, NC.”  NCFJ 60.1-2 (2013): 64-84.

“Green Grass Cloggers: Folk Dance Group.”  (NC Folklore Society Community Traditions Award citation)  NCFJ 59.2 (Fall/Winter 2012): 26-35. 

“Alex and Elizabeth Albright: Owners of R.A. Fountain General Store.”  (NC Folklore Society Brown-Hudson Award citation)  NCFJ 59.2 (Fall/Winter 2012): 4-9.    

Encyclopedia Virginia.  2010. Entries on Annie Dillard,  Marshall Fishwick, Emily Tapscott Clark (related blog entry), and The Reviewer

“Head-to-Toe: Deliberate Dressing and Accentuated Accessories in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Revelation,’ ‘A Late Encounter with the Enemy,’ and ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge.’” Flannery O’Connor Review. Vol. 6 (2008): 40-55.

A brief illustrated history of the Green Grass Cloggers: here on GGC website

Profiles in Pirate’s Revenge (for the nonprofit Bath High School Preservation).  Bath, NC. 

“Rolling Ahead.” June 2012: 2+.  About Gene Roberts, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist. 

“Three Buccaneers: Marti Buchanan, Jim Cox, and Susan Modlin.”

      April 2009: 2-3.

“Nelda Karen Gaylord Ormond: Go-Getter and Volunteer Motivator.”

      July 2008: 2.

“Doris Wallace Eakes: Cultivator of Opportunity.” May 2007: 2-3. 

Staff Writer/Photographer.  2006. 

For a local news weekly, I produced 4-6 articles and several photographs for each week’s issue on a range of topics including historic building deterioration/restoration, literary readings, concerts, theater productions, community events, City Council activity, city government-related presentations/events, and ECU-related functions. 

Theses

“Green Grass Cloggers: Selected Stories of Out-of-Square Youth, 1971-1978, Union Grove to Carnegie Hall.”  Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction.  Goucher College.  Baltimore, MD.   219 p.  Mentors: Jacob Levenson, Leslie Rubinkowski, Laura Wexler, Diana Hume George.

“Elemental Identity: Feminine, Masculine, and Inter-gender Relationships with Water in Bodies of Water, Dreaming in Cuban, and Bless Me, Ultima.”  Master of Arts in English.  East Carolina University.  Greenville, NC.  88 p. Thesis committee: Luke Whisnant, Peter Makuck, James W. Kirkland.

Some Dance-Related Presentations

Appalachian Studies Association. “Off the Mountain: Bascom Lamar Lunsford in Eastern North Carolina.” Co-presented with Rodney C. Sutton.  39th Annual ASA Conference.  Shepherdstown University.  Shepherdstown, WV.  March 18-20, 2016.

Appalachian Studies Association.  Organized Panel: “International Flatfootprint: Watauga County’s Willard Watson and Robert Dotson, and their Influence on the Green Grass Cloggers.”  36th Annual ASA Conference.  Appalachian State University.  Boone, NC.  March 22-24, 2013. Presentations:  I. Leanne E. Smith: “Through a Cultural Window: The Intergenerational Friendship Between Oldtimers Willard Watson and Robert Dotson and the Young Green Grass Cloggers” | II. Rodney C. Sutton: “The Walking Step: The Legacy of Robert Dotson” | III. Conversations with Guests: Phil Jamison, Robert Dotson, etc.

North Carolina Folklore Society.  Presentation: “Green Grass Cloggers: Squared-Up Counterculture Kids & the (Re)Making of a Culture.”  Panel: Identity & Resilience.  99th Annual NCFS Meeting/Conference.  East Carolina University.  Greenville, NC.  March 31, 2012.