View this email in your browser
Memory Rising: April 2025
In this month’s edition:
- Watersheds: Critical Moments for Archives and the Environment (Atlanta event)
- No Time For Fear: the New Deal History podcast
- Mini Consulting Sessions
- Upcoming Grant Deadlines/Advocacy Needs
- This Month’s Recommendations
Hello friends and colleagues. It’s difficult to know what to say these days with everything going on. For now, I’m drawing on the Quaker notion of “way will open,” which is basically a form of “trust the process,” and trying to have faith that what we’re experiencing won’t last forever. I know I’m not the only one going through hard times right now. Hang in there, we need each other. -Eira
(A photo I took of Mendenhall Glacier during a recent trip to Alaska. Folks around Juneau said the glacier used to go as far up to the current visitor’s center. Newsletter content assistance provided by [Jess Farrell](https://facilitator-jess.github.io/RedstartWorks/about/).)
# Watersheds: Critical Moments for Archives and the Environment
Join me in Atlanta at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library for “Watersheds: Critical Moments for Archives and the Environment,” a seminar hosted by the Rose Library Sustainability Committee on Earth Day! The event is taking place on Tuesday, April 22, 10am - 3:30pm EST, [register here](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/watersheds-critical-moments-for-archives-and-the-environment-tickets-1245248394469?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl).
In a keynote, I will explore lessons for our future from past infrastructure projects resulting in community displacement, and the role of archives in understanding changes to the landscape. Then there will be a reading group and a workshop to develop a documentation strategy that coordinates archival collection efforts to preserve the story of environmental sustainability organizations, actions, and issues in and around Atlanta.
The keynote and reading group are open to the public, and the workshop is open to cultural heritage workers from Georgia libraries, museums, galleries, archives, and likeminded institutions.
# No Time For Fear: the New Deal History podcast
No Time For Fear is my podcast about the New Deal. The first season is called POWER, and focuses on the New Deal’s rural electrification projects.
How did the Tennessee Valley Authority acquire the land to build the reservoirs and dams for electrification? Through a complicated process of land purchase and eminent domain. Public accounts of the TVA’s work often gloss over the complexity of the relocation project. But thanks to the government employees who documented cases and the National Archives who preserved them, we have records that tell the stories of tenant farmers’ diverse experiences. In this episode on the Human Toll of Infrastructure, we look at experiences of defiance, praise, distrust, and ambivalence from people who were affected by the TVA’s relocation project.
[Check out the show and notes here](https://notimeforfear.net/episodes-notes-power-the-human-toll-of-infrastructure/), and [support](https://notimeforfear.net/support/) the podcast further if you can!
# Get My Take in a Mini Consulting Session
Are you thinking about a climate change and archives-related project and not sure about the best way to move forward and make it real? Would you like to draw on my experience and prior work without the overhead of a long-term engagement?
Sign up for a one-hour consulting session! I’ll chat with you about your idea, problem, or project, and share some resources with you after the call.
Spots open up in May. [Sign up here](https://memory-rising.hecticshare.com/public/memory-rising-consulting-session) to reserve your session today!
# Upcoming Grant Deadlines/Advocacy Needs
Several grant programs that I track for this newsletter have been defunded. This will have grave effects on archives and humanities programs across the country. My heart goes out to all of the federal employees who have been put on leave or terminated from federal funding agencies. Your work is so important, and know that our profession stands in solidarity with you.
**Take Action. **Call your Senators and your US Representative on the phone and tell them how IMLS or NEH funding has directly affected you, your future, or your colleagues.
- Tell them how you have benefited from federal grant funding.
- Tell them how your community has benefited from federal grant funding.
- Some legislators have “Share your Federal Funding Story” forms open. Check your legislators’ websites to see if they are asking for comments, and share your story there after you call.
- If you or your organization has received a termination notice,[ COSLA (IMLS only)](https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IMLS-Cancellations),[ AAM (IMLS and NEH)](https://form.jotform.com/250924415963057), and[ American Association for State and Local History (IMLS, NEH, and NPS)](https://aaslh.org/send-aaslh-your-grant-cancellation-letters/) are collecting and sharing information about the national impact.
**Talking point tips:**
- The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) provides[ a guide and resources](https://www.aam-us.org/2025/01/28/impact-of-executive-orders-and-pause-on-disbursement-of-federal-funds/) to help connect with your elected officials.
- Look for op-eds that have been published in your state’s major newspaper(s) by your state humanities council or library board, and consider using their messaging and statistics.
- Your state library board may have information on how the defunding of IMLS and NEH are affecting your state on their website. If not, you can search award databases to estimate the impact on your state based on previous funding years. Filter by state to see all grants for your state. Filter by year to see the most recent data. Then calculate the total funding that your state received from the agency.[Search IMLS grant awards database](https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded-grants)[Search NEH grant awards database](https://apps.neh.gov/publicquery/)
- The Society of American Archivists (SAA) has a 2017 Issue Brief on [Federal Grant Funding for Archives](http://www2.archivists.org/statements/issue-brief-federal-grant-funding-for-archives) and [Federal Funding Impact Stories](https://archivesaware.archivists.org/impactstories/) from 2017.
## Remaining Funding Opportunities:
### Friends Historical Association
The Friends Historical Association’s [Project Grants](https://www.quakerhistory.org/grants) fund work that promotes the stories of Quakers from historically marginalized groups or from beyond traditional Quaker centers. Due May 31, 2025.
# This Month’s Recommendations
💸 [What happens if climate adaptation goes private?](https://susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/what-happens-if-climate-adaptation?r=sx43&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true) - Susan Crawford’s Moving Day newsletter is an incredible resource for understanding climate adaptation policy tools. She’s been writing more about municipal bond markets, which are a big part of how local governments are able to build resilient infrastructure, but these bond markets are increasingly vulnerable.
💔[At least 1,200 grants canceled as NEH cuts target humanities across U.S.](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/least-1-200-grants-canceled-013810826.html) - A recap of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) cuts.
💔[Hundreds of Museum and Library Grants Terminated Overnight](https://hyperallergic.com/1002518/hundreds-of-museum-and-library-grants-terminated-overnight/) - A recap of Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) cuts.
(full disclosure: I am currently connected to multiple projects that have received IMLS termination notices. This is a bleak timeline, y’all.)
*Copyright (C) 2024 . All rights reserved.*
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|END:IF|*
Our mailing address is:
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS|**|END:IF|*
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can <a href=""><span style="font-size: 12px">update your preferences</span></a> or <a href=""><span style="font-size: 12px">unsubscribe</span></a>
