Non-practicing attorney Jay Leutze is the author of Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail, which was published last June. He will give a lecture in Gailor Auditorium at the University of the South at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 11.
Mr. Leutze’s presentation will include a musical component in which he is accompanied by singer-songwriter David Ray. All are welcome to attend this lecture on a topic of local interest and timeliness.
Stand Up That Mountain chronicles Mr. Leutze’s work with a small Appalachian community in North Carolina to stop mountaintop mining along the Appalachian Trail. These unlikely activists, known as the “Dog Town Bunch," fought a mining company against great odds. The story is inspiring on its own, and Leutze is expected to connect his experience to greater themes of activism, community building, governance and policy.
Jay Erskine Leutze was born in Virginia in 1964. He now lives in the Southern Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. Trained as an attorney, he has become a leading voice for state and federal conservation funding for investment in public lands. He is a trustee for Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, one of the nation’s most established land trusts.
Musician David Ray currently serves as the Southern Appalachian field director for the Open Space Institute in Asheville, N.C. Mr. Ray also spent five years as the N.C. mountains program director for The Nature Conservancy.
The event is sponsored by the university’s Policy & Change Living Learning Community, the Environmental Studies Department and Sustain Sewanee.