Huey Perry

Friday 11:00 AM

Huey Perry,  born in Gilbert WV,  was a high-school history teacher in Mingo County, W.Va., anticipating another summer selling cars in 1965 when he applied to run the county's new community-action program.

He got the job, and his experiences led him to write a book many cite as the best personal account of the war on poverty. In "They'll Cut Off Your Project," he described the beginnings of social change.

"The early years was the real exciting time," he says. "From '65 to '70, we had a lot of autonomy with the poverty programs. We were constantly at war with the local politicians, trying to maintain the integrity of the program and create some kind of democracy. It was tiring on everyone but also one of the most exciting things I've ever done."

Perry summed up the early years: "We had some small victories, and then there was a tendency to let down. In some ways, things look bleaker now. The only way you can really fight poverty is to give people the power, and no politicians are willing to take the risk."

From this and other experiences, Huey wrote and edited several political books as well as Blaze Starr: My Life, as told to Huey Perry, which was made into the movie Blaze, starring Paul Newman.

Today, Perry lives  on a farm near Huntington, W.Va., and continues to manage and preserve a downtown Huntington landmark, The West Virginia Building.

His talk at the Appalachian Film Festival will revolve around his experiences making the movie “Blaze” and his vision of the future of Appalachian Film.