Abstract

This zine is a curation of first-hand reflections of the liminal and ghostly character of the ongoing transition away from coal by coal workers and community members across the Ohio River Valley.

This work holds in traditional open casket form, both a call to witness and finally accept that coal was never going to be king forever as well as a caution to not be too hasty to crown another. To accept this ending for what it is, rather than continue to exist in fear of loss or in opposition to transition. This is an invitation to stop for just a moment and to watch this corpse be lowered back into the earth from whence it came.