Jonathan Parkes Allen
@jparkesallen.bsky.social
historian of the Islamicate with @openiti.bsky.social; community food forest/garden organizer with @foodforestchatt.bsky.social. ☦ Christian, father, deep time delver. 🏴 anarcho-agrarian 🌻 upholder of Gustav Landauer thought. Signal @ jparkesallen.11
Chattanooga folks, come check out this teach I'm helping facilitate next Saturday!
November 7, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Chattanooga folks, come check out this teach I'm helping facilitate next Saturday!
These are some crazy results from here in Georgia, expected the Democrats to win but not by this massive of a margin, dang
November 5, 2025 at 4:35 AM
These are some crazy results from here in Georgia, expected the Democrats to win but not by this massive of a margin, dang
🌹🌹🌹 put your hands up in the air 🌹🌹🌹
November 5, 2025 at 2:56 AM
🌹🌹🌹 put your hands up in the air 🌹🌹🌹
It's wild to think but in the conservative evangelical world in which I grew up if people saw any difference between JD Vance's Catholic faith and his wife's Hinduism it would be that the latter was less dangerous as it was not a direct attempt to destroy Christianity, how things have changed!
November 2, 2025 at 6:28 PM
It's wild to think but in the conservative evangelical world in which I grew up if people saw any difference between JD Vance's Catholic faith and his wife's Hinduism it would be that the latter was less dangerous as it was not a direct attempt to destroy Christianity, how things have changed!
Picked up a CD copy of this album- for free no less- at the Head of Sequatchie visitor center, part of the Cumberland Trail State Park, the other day and am just now getting around to listening to it, and dadgum it's so good
November 1, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Picked up a CD copy of this album- for free no less- at the Head of Sequatchie visitor center, part of the Cumberland Trail State Park, the other day and am just now getting around to listening to it, and dadgum it's so good
I spent my childhood in the magical part of East Tennessee around the northern head of the Sequatchie Valley, an area of complex karst topography, mountains, soaring sandstone bluffs, and deep caves, always a treat to drive up with the kids and revisit old stomping grounds
October 26, 2025 at 1:36 AM
I spent my childhood in the magical part of East Tennessee around the northern head of the Sequatchie Valley, an area of complex karst topography, mountains, soaring sandstone bluffs, and deep caves, always a treat to drive up with the kids and revisit old stomping grounds
Two to three thousand people turned out for the protest in Chattanooga this morning, lot of resist lib stuff but also a lot else, we had DSA contingent out, I wasn't the only one in a keffiyeh, and lots of iterations of "No King but Jesus"; my kids had a good time, loved all the funny costumes
October 18, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Two to three thousand people turned out for the protest in Chattanooga this morning, lot of resist lib stuff but also a lot else, we had DSA contingent out, I wasn't the only one in a keffiyeh, and lots of iterations of "No King but Jesus"; my kids had a good time, loved all the funny costumes
Picked this book up at Aztec Ruins National Monument a couple weeks back and started reading it the next day while hanging out in an early 18th century Navajo pueblito, just finished it this evening. Super rich and complex text, the fluidity of identity among the emergent Diné is especially striking
October 13, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Picked this book up at Aztec Ruins National Monument a couple weeks back and started reading it the next day while hanging out in an early 18th century Navajo pueblito, just finished it this evening. Super rich and complex text, the fluidity of identity among the emergent Diné is especially striking
Big ol clump of Jerusalem artichoke tubers, all from one plant, pulled up while harvesting a bucket's worth today (from a single strip of one of the Jerusalem artichoke beds, they are insanely prolific plants!)
October 13, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Big ol clump of Jerusalem artichoke tubers, all from one plant, pulled up while harvesting a bucket's worth today (from a single strip of one of the Jerusalem artichoke beds, they are insanely prolific plants!)
We're very lucky to have steam locomotive excursions run a few times a year on the short line railroad through our area, including a couple hundred yards from our house (this shot is from a friend's farm a couple miles down the line), no transportation technology will probably ever be so beautiful
October 12, 2025 at 1:39 AM
We're very lucky to have steam locomotive excursions run a few times a year on the short line railroad through our area, including a couple hundred yards from our house (this shot is from a friend's farm a couple miles down the line), no transportation technology will probably ever be so beautiful
Picking peppers in the morning dew
October 11, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Picking peppers in the morning dew
Autumn flowers are just the best
October 10, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Autumn flowers are just the best
From this week's Monday Ottoman Turkish manuscript reading group: our (so far) anonymous traveler describes cutting his hair and burying it (to avoid sorcery etc) on a river bank north of Damascus, which reminds him of the quite nice barbershop haircut he got in Damascus during his sojourn there:
October 8, 2025 at 2:29 PM
From this week's Monday Ottoman Turkish manuscript reading group: our (so far) anonymous traveler describes cutting his hair and burying it (to avoid sorcery etc) on a river bank north of Damascus, which reminds him of the quite nice barbershop haircut he got in Damascus during his sojourn there:
Fantastic depiction of the Tophane Fountain- and activities around it- in Beyoğlu, built under Sultan Mahmud I in 1732, seen here as it appeared in the 1820s. Etching and aquatint with hand coloring by R.G. Reeve after a drawing (watercolor possibly) by the British artist William Page (V&A SP.443):
October 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Fantastic depiction of the Tophane Fountain- and activities around it- in Beyoğlu, built under Sultan Mahmud I in 1732, seen here as it appeared in the 1820s. Etching and aquatint with hand coloring by R.G. Reeve after a drawing (watercolor possibly) by the British artist William Page (V&A SP.443):
Fall is just starting to come to the Cumberland Plateau, you love to see it
October 5, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Fall is just starting to come to the Cumberland Plateau, you love to see it
It was an especial pleasure to get to see so many petroglyphs while hiking in New Mexico- there are Native petroglyphs and other forms of rock art/communication here in the Southern Appalachians but with a handful of exceptions they're basically inaccessible, so cool to see so many in so many places
October 3, 2025 at 6:02 PM
It was an especial pleasure to get to see so many petroglyphs while hiking in New Mexico- there are Native petroglyphs and other forms of rock art/communication here in the Southern Appalachians but with a handful of exceptions they're basically inaccessible, so cool to see so many in so many places
Chacoan stonework is just incredible, often has what I can only describe as a sense of play in the way the facing veneer was arranged, often varying from one wall to another in the same section of a great house
October 2, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Chacoan stonework is just incredible, often has what I can only describe as a sense of play in the way the facing veneer was arranged, often varying from one wall to another in the same section of a great house
I've known about and had wanted to visit Chaco Canyon for most of my life- grew up with a big National Geographic archive and subscription among other influences- but actually seeing the great houses within their landscape was just a whole other level, was not prepared for the emotional impact
October 1, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I've known about and had wanted to visit Chaco Canyon for most of my life- grew up with a big National Geographic archive and subscription among other influences- but actually seeing the great houses within their landscape was just a whole other level, was not prepared for the emotional impact
Visited a bunch of Chacoan culture sites, the main great houses and some more obscure off the beaten path places, had wanted to visit ancestral Puebloan places since I was a kid, just managed to get some in before turning forty (today)
September 29, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Visited a bunch of Chacoan culture sites, the main great houses and some more obscure off the beaten path places, had wanted to visit ancestral Puebloan places since I was a kid, just managed to get some in before turning forty (today)
Spent the last week camping in the deserts of northwest New Mexico, no computer, sporadic cell phone service, tried not to listen to the news for more than a couple minutes when I could pick up radio stations, would highly recommend
September 29, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Spent the last week camping in the deserts of northwest New Mexico, no computer, sporadic cell phone service, tried not to listen to the news for more than a couple minutes when I could pick up radio stations, would highly recommend
Preaching to the choir on here I know but here's an account of a lynching that occurred in the Mississippi town where I lived as a teenager, and which only got around to memorializing this event a couple years ago:
September 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Preaching to the choir on here I know but here's an account of a lynching that occurred in the Mississippi town where I lived as a teenager, and which only got around to memorializing this event a couple years ago:
"In spite of his advanced years, 'Old Man' Scarborough was still able to work the wooden machinery to chop, crush, roast, and cure the leaves of the yaupon holly when North Carolina naturalist H. H. Brimley interviewed him in 1905. "Scarborough, Brimley explained, was the Black owner
September 15, 2025 at 8:01 PM
"In spite of his advanced years, 'Old Man' Scarborough was still able to work the wooden machinery to chop, crush, roast, and cure the leaves of the yaupon holly when North Carolina naturalist H. H. Brimley interviewed him in 1905. "Scarborough, Brimley explained, was the Black owner
Philipp Georg Friedrich von Reck's (1710–1798) depiction and description of yaupon holly, the main source of the famed "black drink" of Native peoples of the American South; he outlines the tea-making process and avers that "the taste is better than the finest 'Keyser' tea":
September 14, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Philipp Georg Friedrich von Reck's (1710–1798) depiction and description of yaupon holly, the main source of the famed "black drink" of Native peoples of the American South; he outlines the tea-making process and avers that "the taste is better than the finest 'Keyser' tea":
I understand he's not all there, still imagine looking at all of the terrible things that have happened in the history of this country, from chattel slavery to genocide of Native peoples- and concluding that "open borders" and the existence of transgender people are "the worst," it's just... man
September 14, 2025 at 12:16 AM
I understand he's not all there, still imagine looking at all of the terrible things that have happened in the history of this country, from chattel slavery to genocide of Native peoples- and concluding that "open borders" and the existence of transgender people are "the worst," it's just... man
Headed up into Chattahoochee National Forest for a little overnighter at one of our favorite dispersed camping spots, found a new waterfall, revisited the Gennett Poplar, no internet or cell service, hard to beat
September 13, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Headed up into Chattahoochee National Forest for a little overnighter at one of our favorite dispersed camping spots, found a new waterfall, revisited the Gennett Poplar, no internet or cell service, hard to beat