Dardanelle Post Office Mural.

Photo by Author.

Next week’s “The Seed and the Story” column will focus on the WPA mural in the historic Post Office in Dardanelle.

I’d love to hear what intrigues you about the mural.  Ever wondered who made it?  What inspired it?  What are your own thoughts on the artwork?

Let’s talk.

If you want to see a complete list of murals around the state, click on the link below.

WPA Art in Arkansas click here.

The Seed and the Story for July 27, 2011: Learning from Rain Barrels.

Some of my tomatoes from earlier in the season. They're wishing I'd set up the rain barrel in March.

“The Seed and the Story” column appears every other week in the The Post Dispatch, Arkansas’s oldest, weekly newspaper.  Beginning this coming week the column will also appear as a syndicate in the Courier, the Russellville, Arkansas newspaper which covers the river valley area.

Want to support local media? If you live in Yell County you can get a subscription to the Post Dispatch for only 16.00 a year.  If local media is important to you please considering supporting it!  Your support really does matter. Let them know if you enjoy “The Seed and the Story!”

I was so excited last week when it began to rain. I ran outside to make sure our rain barrel was strategically placed underneath the roof’s eve. Sadly, it only rained enough to dampen the bottom of the barrel.  I was thankful for even that small bit, of course.  But I keep thinking back to the early spring not long after we moved to Little Rock.  It rained so much a fast-moving creek formed in our backyard. Properties down the hill were waterlogged for weeks.  Successful conservation takes forethought and a wiliness to harness every opportunity, and, unfortunately, we felt so overwhelmed with unpacking we didn’t set up the rain barrel when it would have been most beneficial.

A few years ago my husband and I challenged ourselves to greatly reduce spending and waste in our home.  Jokingly calling it the Martin-Moats Frugal Green Initiative, we set out to grow more, buy less and local, and reuse everything we could. We’ve moved toward a life that feels more sustainable for our family and the planet, but clearly we still have a ways to go.

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“Growing Up Near Arkansas Nuclear One” on KUAF’s Ozarks at Large.

As part of my ongoing research into the oral history of Arkansas Nuclear One and how it informs the cultural landscape of the river valley, I produced this radio piece for KUAF’s Ozarks at Large Program detailing some of my own memories of growing up with the plant.  This piece expands upon the Post Dispatch column.

Commentary: Growing Up Near the Nuclear Plant by Boiled Down Juice

If you’d like to keep up with the programing on Ozarks at Large be sure and follow them on facebook.

Ozarks at Large is produced by member-supported KUAF, 91.3 FM out of Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Don’t forget to support public radio!

Friday Video for July 22, 2011: A Book About Zilphia Horton.

Taken from NYfolklore.org

Thanks to a friend who works for Highlander Research and Education Center, I found out that writer and roots music scholar Kim Ruehl is writing a book about organizer, activist,  folksong collector, and Paris, Arkansas native,  Zilphea Horton.   Using the grassroots fundraising method of KickStarter, Ruehl has already reached her financial goal needed to research and write the book and is now in the research phase of her work.  As part of her Kickstarter campaign she created this video, which provides an overview of Zilphia’s work and Ruehl’s research goals.

I can not wait to get my hands on the published copy of this book.  For years I’ve been fascinated with Zilphia Horton, the wife of Highlander Folk School founder Myles Horton.   Reading about Myles Horton and the founding of the Highlander Folk School was a turning point in my life as a folklorist. His writings, along with the current work of the school, have greatly influenced our vision for the McElroy House: Center for Folklife, Oral History and Community Action.

Reading Myle’s Horton’s autobiography, The Long Haul, I was surprised to learn Zilphia Horton was raised not too far from where the McElroy House is located.  I began to wonder, what led her to organize workers in the Paris, Arkansas mines?  What fostered her drive to resist injustice?  How did she come to love folk music?  In short, how did her upbringing in Paris, Arkansas influence the woman she became?   According to this video by Kim Ruehl, pretty soon the aswers to these questions will be available, and I am beyond excited.

If you’d like to read more about Zilphia Horton, Julia Schmidt-Pirro and Karen M. McCurdy wrote an excellent article about both Horton and Ruth Crawford Seeger entitled, “Employing Music in the Cause of Social Justice,” published in the 2005 edition of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore.

Below is a snippt of the article, but you can read the entire piece by clicking here.

Horton was a pioneer at Highlander in the use of folk music as a tool of political mobilization. She adapted songs to serve in the political struggles—both labor and civil rights—of the mid—twentieth century. Of the many examples of her adaptations of the folk music heritage, one stands out as a powerful demonstration of her success: the transformation of the song “We Shall Overcome.” Originally an old Baptist hymn, “I Will Be All Right,” the song came to Highlander from the picket lines of the 1945 American Tobacco Company strike by the South Carolina CIO Food and Tobacco Workers Union in Charleston (Glen 1996, 177).

The lyrics of the song had already undergone many changes. In the era of slavery, the line of text was “The Lord will see us through.” This was altered by southern workers after World War II to “The union will see us through,” “We will win this fight,” and “We’re on to victory.” Horton saw a broader potential for the music, and in discussion with the Charleston strikers, planned new verses for the song to appeal to people other than unionized workers fighting for their rights (Austin 1991, 51). Horton continued to adapt the song’s text to suit the occasion. In 1947 she taught the song to Pete Seeger, who changed “will” (the original verb) to “shall” and added some new verses, including, “We shall end Jim Crow/ We shall live in peace/ All the world around” (Glen 1996, 177). Martin Luther King, Jr., first heard the song when Pete Seeger performed it at Highlander’s 25th anniversary celebration. In the 1960s Guy Carawan, who succeeded Horton as music director of the Highlander Folk School after her untimely death in April 1956, added other verses and further adapted the lyrics (Austin 1991, 51).

In her work at the Highlander Folk School, Horton made it a point not only to transform the songs she encountered, but also to preserve them…She was exposed to a variety of song traditions, including mountain folk music, American labor songs, international songs of political struggle, and Southern spirituals. She notated and published songs in a Highlander Songbook (Austin 1991, 49) and in a songbook entitledLabor Songs published in 1939 (Cohen 2002, 60)….

“The Future of Nuclear Power” on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Three Mile Island Bradley Bower/AP photo. Taken from NPR.

As part of ongoing research documenting the oral histories of Arkansas Nuclear One, I’ve been famzierlizing myself with some of the national discussions concerning nuclear power. If you’d like to read my recent column about this research go here.

The March 31, 2011 Fresh Air interview with journalist Matthew Wald provides an excellent overview of both the history and future of nuclear power in the United States.   Wald addresses the rebranding of nuclear power as a green energy source, the debates over Yucca Mountain and the long-term storage of nuclear waste, and how discussions of plant safety have changed in the wake of the Fukushima tragedy:

“”Essentially, when you reach the Fukushima Dai-ichi stage, the question is, ‘Are you prepared for things you haven’t predicted?’ And the answer is, ‘How can you tell?’ ” he says. “We’re certainly prepared for some things we haven’t predicted, but [we're not sure] what it is we’re preparing for.”

You can find the story and listen online by clicking here.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the interview.

Friday Video for July 15, 2011: “Tell Our Daughters” by besmilr brigham

From the United States of Poetry

This week’s friday video features the late Arkansas and Mississippi poet besmilr brigham reading her poem, “Tell Our Daughters.”   This video is taken from the PBS series  The United States of Poetry.

Click here to watch the video.

Taken from C. L. Bledsoe via the Arkansas Encyclopedia:

After a flurry of publishing in the 1960s and 1970s, Brigham dropped from the eyes of the publishing world and lived in relative obscurity with her husband in Horatio (Sevier County).Though she lived in Arkansas for many decades, she considered herself a Mississippi writer. In 1993, Brigham was rediscovered by C. D. Wright for Wright’s Lost Roads Projectand was included in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting documentary United States of Poetry, which included Brigham and her son-in-law, poet Keith Wilson. Wright described Brigham and her husband as “the last free people. They hadn’t been broken by the life they had chosen, which was itinerant and subsistent. They treated their life like an adventure and her work like a staple, like beans.” Wright also described the Brighams as having about thirty cats and storing poetry books in old, broken appliances in their shed. Read the entire entry by clicking here.

A collection of besmilr’s poems entitled  Run Through Rock : Selected Short Poems of  besmilr brigham was published posthumously by poet C.D. Wright.  That book is still in print and can be found online.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to write an article and produce a radio piece about besmilr, which featured interviews with her daughter Heloise Wilson.  Alongside the interview, the Aux Arc Review published a handful of some of brigham’s unpublished poems submitted by her daughter.  To my knowledge that publication is no longer in print.  However, if you’re interested in obtaining a copy I’d be happy to get one to you.

The Seed and the Story for July 13, 2011: Nuclear Plant as Physical and Cultural Landscape

Taken from the Entergy webpage.

Originally published in The Post Dispatch.

Landscape is a fundamental to who we are as a community.  Some of the places that come to mind for me are Mount Nebo, the Dardanelle Rock, the mountains that surround the valleys in Chickelah, and the Arkansas River that forms the boundary line between Pope and Yell Counties. These natural landmarks, members of larger ecosystems that are the bedrock of our life here, are community members in their own right. They are part of who we are, make up of the beauty of this place, and will outlive all of us and our grandchildren.

For better or worse, landscape can also include human inventions, and in recent years there’s something else I’ve come to recognize as a key component of our landscape: Arkansas Nuclear One. Whether I’m driving up I-40 or crossing the river bridge into Dardanelle, the cooling towers of the nuclear plant cut a clear outline against the sky.  Only the mountains are taller.

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Friday Video/Weekend Information: Freedom Riders Discuss 50th Anniversary of Protest Movement and Civil Rights Symposium.

Taken from event website: www.lrfreedomriders.org

This week’s Friday video is a short interview with Freedom Riders Joan Mulholland and Helen Singleton.   Click here to watch the video on youtube.

Produced by PBS Newshour, you can read more about this video by clicking here.

This week’s video focuses on the national Freedom Rides, but this weekend in Arkansas you can also learn more about the Freedom Rides here in our state.

If you have not already heard tomorrow the UALR Department of History and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will present In Action: The Civil Rights Symposium from 9:00 AM-6:00 PM.  From the event’s webpage:

The symposium will focus on the members of the Arkansas Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (ARSNCC) who led sit-in demonstrations at segregated local business in downtown Little Rock during the 1960s. The activists later referred to themselves as “Arsnick.”

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The Seed and the Story for June 29th, 2011: Garden Conversations.

Hollyhock in my garden.

This piece was originally published in the Post Dispatch.  If you like this piece and want to see more like it, please be sure and support the local paper. And be sure and let them know you enjoy the Seed and the Story!

If you’re like me, you can’t keep your hands out of the garden when it is going strong. Plump tomatoes, bright peppers and the heaviest watermelons call your name from the yard. I’ve already helped myself to the basil, dill, and rosemary, and just about every morning I take a few moments to go tend to the beautiful hollyhocks, zinnias, snapdragons, daisies, and yarrow all glowing so brightly in the morning sun. The combined smells, tastes and sites in my garden make it an irresistible place to spend solitary time.   I love my garden for its beauty, its practicality, and its window into a world of mystery. It feeds our family, it offers a glimpse into the never-ending cycles of birth and death, and it lends an element of wonder to my days. It also provides a few moments of silence and space for contemplation, a tiny sliver of solitude in an otherwise busy, loud, and hectic life.

But there’s another reason I love my garden. I feel a special connection to those plants that’s largely hard to describe, but mostly comes down to this: almost all the plants in my garden either came from, or were inspired by, someone else.

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Three Great Events This Saturday!: Juneteenth celebration, an urban homesteading workshop, and a poultry swap.

There’s a lot of great stuff happening tomorrow in Little Rock!   And the great thing is that all the separate events are spaced throughout the day so if you wanted to you can make it to all three!  That’s going to be our goal, so we hope to see you there!   And they’re all free or super cheap!

1. The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center will be having a Juneteenth Celebration from 12:00-7:00 PM.  Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending slavery in the United States.

There will be music by Zinse Agginie and the drum ballet,  Bongo Willie, (check out a video of his music on youtube),  and the Gloryland Pastor’s Choir, as well as oral histories,  theatre,  hair braiding, and more.

The Center will also be setting up thirty minute oral history sessions throughout the day.  For more information, call

501-683-3593 or bryan.mcdade@arkansasheritage.org

Check out this event link on facebook for more information or click on the flyer to the left for all the details.

Want to know more about Juneteenth and celebrations in other areas?  Go here to learn more.

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