In my folklore work, I’ve been exploring ways to reignite public folklore’s engagement with labor, so I was particularly excited when a rep from the National Rural Letter Carrier’s Association (the rural letter carriers union) reached out to me a few months ago after reading my Jacobin piece on the potential impact of US Postal Service privatization on rural communities.
As a result of that conversation, I’ll be participating in two NRLCA events next week in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the USPS, in Jefferson County, West Virginia, where Rural Free Delivery delivery was born 129 years ago.
On Thursday 7/24, colleagues at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Iowa Historical Society, and I will be presenting on the history and contemporary iteration of rural mail at the Shepherdstown Opera House. On Friday 7/25, I’ll be moderating a panel on the vital role of rural mail carriers in their communities with two West Virginia rural mail carriers, policy experts, and the president of the NRLCA Don Maston at Shepherd University’s Byrd Center.
You can find more info and register to attend in-person or online here: https://www.protectpostalworkers.com/usps-250th-anniversary-event-registration
Long live the USPS!
Harvard Folklore Symposium: Appalachia Betwixt & Between
Looking forward to learning from colleagues and presenting at Harvard Folklore & Mythology's Symposium this weekend! I'll be speaking on how expressive culture (aka folklore) was used by public educators during the 2018-2019 West Virginia Educators' Strike to bolster worker power, teach the public, and forge a new reality, and how those lessons still resonate today.
Thank you to Sarah Craycraft for the invitation and organizing work!
Learn more here
Rural Free Delivery Collection Now Available via the Library of Congress
I'm pleased to share that my 2021 Archie Green Fellowship Occupational Folklife project Rural Free Delivery: Mail Carriers in Central Appalachia is now accessible via the Library of Congress.
The project documents the value of rural carriers to their communities and includes interviews with 25 rural mail carriers and clerks in Appalachian regions of Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio, as well as photos of rural post offices.
There are also some choice videos of retired rural mail carrier, guitar maker, and National Heritage Fellow Wayne Henderson jamming with current rural carrier Brian Grim, and Merle Haggard's guitarist Redd Volkaert (I found that many rural mail carriers are also musicians).
Read more about the project in this interview on the American Folklife Center blog.
Smithsonian Postal Museum Research Conversation: Rural Free Delivery
On May 31, 2023, I look forward to presenting a research conversation at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in D.C. on my American Folklife Center Archie Green Fellowship project "Rural Free Delivery: Mail Carriers in Central Appalachia."
This occupational folklife project documents the expressive culture and experiences of 25 rural mail carriers and clerks (formerly known as postmasters) in the upper mountain South (VA, WV, KY, OH, NC), the region which birthed the country’s first rural free delivery route in 1896. Rural Free Delivery focuses in particular on the function rural postal workers serve as important resources in their community, as well as how their place of work—rural post offices—are invaluable community hubs in remote areas. Additionally, the project explores how long-time rural carriers have witnessed changes in their work (namely increased monitoring and technological advances), community, and landscape, across their career.
DC folks are welcome to attend in person by RSVPing to Susan Smith at NPMResearchChair@si.edu and others can join via Zoom here.
West Virginia Folklife Collection Now Online Via WVU Libraries
I'm so thrilled that the West Virginia Folklife Program's digital archives collection, The West Virginia Folklife Collection, is now accessible online to the general public and available for research via WVU Libraries at https://wvfolklife.lib.wvu.edu/.
The original, ongoing collection consists of over 2,500 items and constitutes a significant part of our work in folklife fieldwork and programs since November 2015.
Those items include unique primary source material such as field-recorded interviews and other audio recordings, transcriptions, photo and video documentation, ephemera, and some material objects documenting the vernacular culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive culture of contemporary tradition bearers, folk and traditional artists, and cultural communities across West Virginia.
Collection highlights include documentation of the 2018 WV Teachers' Strike, UFCW Local 400 Kroger workers during COVID, the Scotts Run Museum and Trail community, foodways and community celebrations in the Swiss community of Helvetia, Summers County collector Jim Costa’s collection of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, and participants in the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program.
Learn more via the West Virginia Folklife Program