Sarah Bryan
@considerjeoffry.bsky.social
Folklorist and writer specializing in the cultural heritage of the American South. Collector of 78 rpm records and old photos. Fiddler and banjo player. Researching folk gravestone art, Southern pottery history, ghost stories. Catscatscatscatscatscats
The one in my yard in NC, giving me the side-eye after I put a fence around the tomato plants.
May 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
The one in my yard in NC, giving me the side-eye after I put a fence around the tomato plants.
Thank you for standing Strom on his head. We love you here in the Carolinas!
April 2, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Thank you for standing Strom on his head. We love you here in the Carolinas!
Yes in NC. Also taking everything out of my Amazon cart and sourcing it from independent/local retailers.
February 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Yes in NC. Also taking everything out of my Amazon cart and sourcing it from independent/local retailers.
But the what-ifs are more plausible now than ever.
We’re already losing sleep…but we can put those hours of middle-of-the-night anxiety to good use. Let’s talk about this. Pass it on.
We’re already losing sleep…but we can put those hours of middle-of-the-night anxiety to good use. Let’s talk about this. Pass it on.
February 4, 2025 at 12:29 AM
But the what-ifs are more plausible now than ever.
We’re already losing sleep…but we can put those hours of middle-of-the-night anxiety to good use. Let’s talk about this. Pass it on.
We’re already losing sleep…but we can put those hours of middle-of-the-night anxiety to good use. Let’s talk about this. Pass it on.
We're in a period of American history when our entire cultural infrastructure may possibly be changed forever. Maybe it'll all be fine -- maybe a few years will go by and all these materials that we care about will be safe and sound right where they've always been.
February 4, 2025 at 12:29 AM
We're in a period of American history when our entire cultural infrastructure may possibly be changed forever. Maybe it'll all be fine -- maybe a few years will go by and all these materials that we care about will be safe and sound right where they've always been.
“. . . can you bear it? All the lost plays of the Athenians! Two hundred at least by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides — thousands of poems — Artistotle’s own library . . . How can we sleep for grief?”
February 4, 2025 at 12:29 AM
“. . . can you bear it? All the lost plays of the Athenians! Two hundred at least by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides — thousands of poems — Artistotle’s own library . . . How can we sleep for grief?”
I’m often haunted by the words of the character Thomasina, a teenager in the early 19th century in Tom Stoppard’s play “Arcadia,” when she learns from her tutor about the burning of the ancient library at Alexandria in 48 BC...
February 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
I’m often haunted by the words of the character Thomasina, a teenager in the early 19th century in Tom Stoppard’s play “Arcadia,” when she learns from her tutor about the burning of the ancient library at Alexandria in 48 BC...
Of course, there’s more data out there than a million people working for a million years could back up – and for that reason I understand that this may sound at first like a crazy idea. But if we protect even the tiniest portion of it, at least we’ll have saved that much.
February 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Of course, there’s more data out there than a million people working for a million years could back up – and for that reason I understand that this may sound at first like a crazy idea. But if we protect even the tiniest portion of it, at least we’ll have saved that much.
If we organize our action plan and prioritize most endangered collections, subject areas, media forms, etc., and if enough of us are willing to spend even an hour or two a week downloading material and creating back-ups, we could end up saving critical parts of our heritage for future generations.
February 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
If we organize our action plan and prioritize most endangered collections, subject areas, media forms, etc., and if enough of us are willing to spend even an hour or two a week downloading material and creating back-ups, we could end up saving critical parts of our heritage for future generations.
Who will join me in starting a community to build a grassroots back-up system for such cultural data?
February 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Who will join me in starting a community to build a grassroots back-up system for such cultural data?
Music, films, manuscripts, books, historical documentation…so much of what we depend on having access to – and passing down to future generations – is only as safe as the institutions that provide them to us.
February 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Music, films, manuscripts, books, historical documentation…so much of what we depend on having access to – and passing down to future generations – is only as safe as the institutions that provide them to us.
...but when Musk and DOGE start taking aim at federal cultural entities, and if we lose the infrastructure of federal granting to cultural nonprofits, then an incalculable amount of our heritage is in serious danger.
February 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
...but when Musk and DOGE start taking aim at federal cultural entities, and if we lose the infrastructure of federal granting to cultural nonprofits, then an incalculable amount of our heritage is in serious danger.
A traditional music recording or a rare historical manuscript may not seem a likely target for ideologically motivated data-purging...
February 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
A traditional music recording or a rare historical manuscript may not seem a likely target for ideologically motivated data-purging...
...that are being targeted for ideological reasons, in case the data disappear (not only from websites but maybe even from the servers that store them to begin with). *Is it time for people who care about cultural heritage to start doing the same thing with cultural materials?* ...
February 4, 2025 at 12:26 AM
...that are being targeted for ideological reasons, in case the data disappear (not only from websites but maybe even from the servers that store them to begin with). *Is it time for people who care about cultural heritage to start doing the same thing with cultural materials?* ...
From the current vantage point of the early weeks of the new administration, it’s becoming apparent that a great deal of research and data is in danger of being lost. Scientists and medical folks are banding together to download information from government websites...
February 4, 2025 at 12:26 AM
From the current vantage point of the early weeks of the new administration, it’s becoming apparent that a great deal of research and data is in danger of being lost. Scientists and medical folks are banding together to download information from government websites...
I’d initially planned a year in goblin mode, but somehow a berserker year fits my mood even better.
December 27, 2024 at 7:45 PM
I’d initially planned a year in goblin mode, but somehow a berserker year fits my mood even better.