Aunt Syd in her garden, Seal Harbor. The sculpture, Untitled, of my mother molded by Syd in 1970, living beneath the trees and each season for decades. “A grueling project...When I took the mold apart there was an 8” cliff on her breastbone!”
Chris Towns on his blueberry farm in Alma, GA for @nytimes Towns is one of millions of small business owners who accepted an SBA loan during the pandemic to keep his farm operating. He now hopes for policy changes in this crippling loan system to allow for reasonable payment terms to keep his farm running for his daughters and their future generations. Pandemic-era SBA loans that once helped businesses survive are now becoming a major financial strain, with rising defaults triggering aggressive federal collections exposing the long-term costs of emergency economic aid. Article by @elldeepee
Sharp & Sharp, the 4th generation seed farm in South Carolina using @openai to become more efficient in their daily tasks. The Sharp family has 75 years worth of handwritten notes and crop books referenced weekly and all uploaded, in addition to verbal recollections, to ChatGPT.
The descendants of Harris Neck for @nytimes . In 1943 at the suggestion of corrupt local politicians the thriving African American community of Harris Neck was seized by the federal government for an army airfield and was promised to be returned to landowners after the war. All of the homes, owned by formerly enslaved West Africans, were destroyed when the land was seized and later turned over to the county. The land was not returned but instead used as a race track prone to illegal gambling and prostitution by the county government before becoming a wildlife refuge in 1966. The descendants of these Gullah Geechee families have lived in the community next door their entire lives hoping to return home and asking for the land of their ancestors to finally be returned.
1. Frances Timmons, in her family’s church next to the Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge. Descendant of William Timmons, one of the largest previous land owners of Harris Neck.
2. Annette Lloyd, descendant and member of the Harris Neck Land Trust, in the cemetery where her ancestors are buried just outside of Harris Neck.
3. Inside the current Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge
4. Sisters Olive Hillery and Georgia Hill, descendants and members of the Harris Neck Land Trust, in front of Olive’s home next to Harris Neck.
5. A map showing the locations of the original families of Harris Neck.
6. Wilson Moran, descendant and member of the Harris Neck Land Trust. Wilson’s mother went into labor shortly after her entire family was displaced by the Harris Neck land seizure.
7. A collection of Wilson Moran’s family photos, including his father, a local fisherman, in the center.
8. Margaret Timmons, descendant of William Timmons, inside the headquarters of Direct Descendants of Harris Neck Community (DDHNC).
9. Ophelia Campbell Thorpe Hamilton, Grandmother to Olive and Georgia who was forced to leave Harris Neck.
10. Winston Relaford, descendant and Chairman of the Harris Neck Land Trust with his sister Annette Lloyd at the cemetery where their ancestors are buried.
11. A drawing gifted to Wilson Moran by artist Sam Beetler II of his family’s destroyed homestead in Harris Neck.
