About

Garden in Dardanelle, Arkansas. Photo by Saira Khan

“Folklore is the Boiled Down Juice of Human Living.” Zora Neale Hurston.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

This blog is intended as a gathering space for conversations and explorations at the intersection of community traditions, community-based action, intergenerational dialog and research, human-rights based action, and folklife studies. To make it short, a place to research and discuss the intersection between sustaining community traditions and positive community-based change and action.   You will also see posts about music, food, and all the other ways humans express the art of living.  We’re not attempting to be an authoritative source on these topics but rather a gathering place and a collection of voices in the larger conversation.    

Topics include, but are not limited to, community traditions, grassroots action, concepts of home and sense of place, participatory research, the fluid roles of youth and elders within community, the arts of everyday life, regional food and gardening, immigration and small-town life, frugal green simple living, human rights education, social justice, radical innovation, the importance of storytelling, the power of music, community-based media, the intersection between small-town, rural, and urban communities, and any number of topics one might find popping up at the intersection of community tradition and social action.

Because this blog began in Kentucky and Arkansas, you’ll see many posts from those places.  But we also focus on information, writings, and ruminations regarding work happening elsewhere.   We’re interested in learning more about pretty much any where in the world where communities are channeling the traditions of the past to work toward a stronger, inclusive, more just future.  We’re all just trying to learn together.

So, regardless of where you live, we hope this blog will be useful, interactive, and a online gathering spot for related discussions. We’d love to have your voice in the mix.  Join our online discussions via facebook or contact us about contributing a post.  We’d love to hear from you!  Contact me at meredithmartin_moats@yahoo.com

Thanks so much for reading!

Sincerely,

Meredith Martin-Moats, editor.

COMING SOON:  Contributor Profiles!  

Artist Ashley Cecil with youth from Kentucky Remembers working on the Paducah Mural.

About the editor: My name is Meredith Martin-Moats, and I’m a native Arkansawyer living in Little Rock with my husband and two sons. I split my time between my Little Rock community and my hometown in Yell County, home to the slowly developing McElroy House: Organization for Folklife, Oral History, and Community Action. I obtained my Masters degree in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University in 2008.  I’ve had the privilege of working with many great people and organizations including the West Kentucky African American Heritage Center in Russellville, KY and the Kentucky Remembers Youth Oral History Project. These days I work with the McElroy House organization, do freelance writing for multiple publications and radio production for the Ozarks at Large program, teach an adjunct class, and work  for the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.  I love gardens, people, stories, mules, hats, dogs, listening to and making music, river towns, and baked goods, among other things.  I’m very thankful to get to work with so many amazing people and am continually inspired by how many folks there are out there who care about their communities and each other.