Sulphur Springs Truck Patch Founder Next Guest of Arkansas Folklife Web Series

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Join host Lauren Willette and folklorist Meredith Martin-Moats from 1-2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, for the next installment of the Arkansas Folklife Web Series. Martin-Moats will discuss her journey into owning and operating a small holding in the Arkansas River Valley, her knowledge and practice of permaculture values and techniques, how climate change is affecting her daily work and more. This event is free and open to the public, and registration is required.

Willette says that she is excited for the next session because "Meredith is passionate about growing plants and community and speaks thoughtfully and intelligently about both topics."

Martin-Moats wears many hats: cultural worker, writer, radio producer, oral historian, researcher, community organizer, flower farmer and caregiver. She works to weave connections across generations and work across divides. She supports place-based work focused on a deep understanding of land and community history and conducts anti-racist, community-based research. She also strives to situate and elevate caregiving as central to community work and enjoys getting her hands in the dirt.

Martin-Moats received her Master of Arts degree in folk studies from Western Kentucky University. She is a co-founder of The McElroy House: Organization for Cultural Resources in Dardanelle and currently serves as co-director for the River Valley Adult Learning Alliance, an organization working to provide community-based literacy and multilingual resources across five rural counties in central Arkansas. She also works on the Participatory Action Research project at Highlander Research and Education Center.

She and her family operate Sulphur Springs Truck Patch, an experimental tiny farm and increasingly research-focused project in Harkey Valley, on land that was passed down from her grandfather. She lives with her family, dogs, cats, many critters and beloved donkey on what is rightfully Osage ancestral land in Yell County.

In her spare time, she enjoys learning from her children, boxing, finding snail shells and historical research that can build new futures.

Questions about the 2024 Arkansas Folklife Web Series may be directed to Willette at willette@uark.edu. Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts is a statewide program of the University of Arkansas Libraries dedicated to building cross-cultural understanding by documenting, presenting and sustaining Arkansas' living traditional arts and cultural heritage.