DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE LITTLE GUYS

TIKTOK SCHOLAR ASHLEY CLAYBORN HIGHLIGHTS ARKANSAS’S RURAL COMMUNITIES.

When I met Ashley Clayborn, her cottage core aesthetic was complete: thrifted strawberry earrings, a loved leather crossbody and tattoos that highlight her admiration of folklore. Amongst her mushroom, floral and insect ink, Clayborn also donned The Natural State's geographic outline. A self-proclaimed Arkansas enthusiast, Clayborn has taken her love of the state’s history to a wider audience of thousands on TikTok. With the online name of feralacademic1836, Clayborn has shared stories of an iconic Budweiser silo and how the Christ of the Ozarks statue looks interestingly like a ‘90s country music star, among many other tales. Clayborn has the bug for taking people’s history straight from the people, and when she’s taking a break from the occasionally toxic environment that is TikTok, she focuses on a doctoral dissertation in rural education and on her job with the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute.

AGE: 28

HOMETOWN: Hot Springs

RECOMMENDATIONS: “Papaw Land” (2021) and “Daughter of the White River”

by Denise Parkinson

How did you get started making TikToks on Arkansas history? I just happened to be at a rally back during the summer [of 2022] for reproductive justice. I was taking videos like everyone else, and the doctor was just a very good speaker. I, on a whim, thought, “This would make a good TikTok.” I hadn’t really posted anything, and I posted just the clip of the video. I actually went to Greers Ferry the next day and didn’t have signal for most of the day. As soon as I had signal, suddenly I had like 400,000 likes and so many followers and before it was just my mom and my brothers that followed me. I was like, “Well, this is cool. As an Arkansas enthusiast, what if I started talking about Arkansas a little bit more?” It just was an excellent, serendipitous happenstance that people were all of a sudden caring at all about Arkansas history and these little bitty stories that not everyone even in Arkansas knows about.

Do you know how many of your followers are from Arkansas? I know that a lot of them are not, but a lot of them are from the American South. There were a lot of people that were like, “Solidarity from Tennessee.” There were also a lot from Virginia and West Virginia, which I thought was interesting. I do know the majority of my followers are female, and most of them are aged 25-35.

Can you talk about the importance of people being aware of these niche stories? I’m a first-generation college graduate. I come from a very rural family where a lot of times there weren't opportunities to take on a job or a project that required a lot of sitting and thinking — there was a lot of hard labor involved. But, nonetheless, they always had the best stories. My boppa [grandfather] is one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. He consumes facts and then remembers them for years. I remember being frustrated — there’s probably a lot of boppas out there that have really good stories, and nobody’s writing them down. What do we do with that? For me, it’s a personal thing. You don’t have to be the president, or a celebrity, for your story to be worth telling. It can be that your uncle painted the Budweiser can on his silo, and you know what? That’s pretty cool. People will like it. I have proof people will like it.

Where did the name feralacademic1836 come from? That came from me withdrawing from my [first] doctoral program. I think I saw something online where somebody was making the joke, “I’m not a trained poet, I’m a feral poet. I just garble words together and hope something comes out nice.” I like the idea of like, I’m not a trained academic, I’m a feral academic. I’m going to find these weird, niche stories in the middle of nowhere, including the giant Budweiser can, and I’m going to tell everybody about it. It’s not what might be considered history in the big sense, but it’s fun and it’s the people's history. I really like that grassroots kind of approach. Then 1836 is when Arkansas [gained statehood].

You have some videos talking about how you’re defending Arkansas, even though there are times when its history is sometimes disappointing. Can you talk about why you’re doing that? That goes back to my experience in Georgia. I was doing research on the best practices in public history. It was an ongoing joke among my classmates that if Arkansas ever came up, everybody looked at me. There was a lot of, “Oh, I’m sorry you’re from Arkansas. That sucks, what’s there?” Or they would make fun of how the state is pronounced or whatever. Honestly, I was a little bit spiteful. Actually, Arkansas is fantastic and also difficult at times, but I love it very much. I think the defense of it really comes from having to justify why I love it and why I want to research it.

— Mary Hennigan