Kim Conner,
Rutherfordton, NC.
I always have to defend myself when people learn I am from the South. I’m a 42 year old white woman, married with kids, and I was born and raised in Upstate South Carolina. I am a first generation college graduate, as in my husband. I have an accent. I’m proud of where I’m from. And I’m tired of the “Deliverance” stereotype defining me. When I hear the strains of banjos, it makes me cringe. All the history, all the craft, all the work and culture of mountain people are wrapped up and demolished in those notes of “Dueling Banjos.”