OurStoryBridge Shares Stories Collected from AFS Members and 2025 Annual Meeting Attendees

At the 2025 Annual Meeting AFS hosted OurStoryBridge Inc., the 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit that supports the collecting and free sharing of digital short-form oral histories using community crowdsourcing and curation in a “Listening Room” for story collection for their new project, OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment. This non-partisan project documents the current circumstances in the United States that are deeply impacting Americans and others around the world. Attendees shared their brief oral histories, now posted as “miniplayers” on www.ourstorybridgelistens.org, and provided AFS with those and other stories collected from AFS members for us to use to share current concerns in our profession.

The stories people shared offer a range of perspectives on the current circumstances in the U.S. The narratives offer insight into the lives of individuals, from young professionals to those with established careers in folklore and other types of culture work. Some focus primarily on workplace and professional lives, some touch on people’s creative lives and aspirations.

Folklorist Kait Glasswell shares part of her recent experiences with the organization she works for, and the brief story below examines ideas about advocacy for arts and folklife funding.