“Affrilachia: Testimonies” by Chris Aluka Berry with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam

An average oak tree& is bigger around than two people, together, can reach. That mighty tree& starts& out& with an acorn the size of a nickel,& ultimately growing to some eighty feet tall, with a& canopy& of& a hundred& feet& or more& across.& And like& the new book,& “Affrilachia” by Chris Aluka Berry (with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam),& its roots spread& wide and& wider. In 2016, “on a foggy Sunday morning in March,” Chris Aluka Berry visited the Mount Zion AME Zion Church in Cullowhee, North Carolina for the first time. The congregation was tiny; just a handful of people were there that day, but a pair of siblings stood out to him. Ann Rogers and Mae Louise Allen lived on opposite sides of town, says Berry, and neither had a driver’s license. He surmised that Church was the only time the elderly sisters were together then, but their devotion to one another was clear. As the service ended, he asked Ms. Allen if he could visit her again. Was she willing to talk about her life in the Appalachians, her parents, her town? She was, and arrangements were made but before Barry could get back to...