Musician and A Blade of Grass Fellow Brian Harnetty has created Forest Listening Rooms, bringing together Appalachian Ohioans across the political spectrum to critically listen to the sounds of their literal "common ground," the Wayne National Forest. By creating intentional space for participants to engage in meditative practice and share stories of their relationship to the forest, the project builds community in resistance to the environmental extraction that has historically harmed the region. Explore A Blade of Grass films: www.abladeofgrass.org/fieldworks

Part of an ongoing Socially Engaged Art project, this video features a one-on-one forest listening session with Joelene Dixon, a Perry County, Ohio resident concerned about new coal strip-mining proposals in the Perry State Forest. Here, she takes Harnetty to listen to and discuss different sites of recovery slated to be mined once again, as well as poorly recovered sites that show the limitations of previous mining company mitigation efforts. This video was shot in April, 2019, in the Perry State Forest. This project was made possible by the A Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art. For more information about this project, visit: http://www.brianharnetty.com/installations-1#/forest-listening-rooms/

WILDCAT HOLLOW - March, 2019 Local children meet Brian Harnetty at Wildcat Hollow in the Wayne National Forest, Ohio, adjacent to the active Buckingham Coal Mines. They take a soundwalk together, and gather at a group of fallen mossy trees. They listen in silence together (no small feat), and immediately talk of what they heard: branches and birds, wind and voices, airplanes and industry. They then listen to music and archival recordings of children of past generations talking of mining. They finally tell their own stories, of their discoveries in the forest.