CENTER NEWS SUMMER 1994 • VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 3

American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress EDITOR'S NOTES

Federal Cylinder Project Legacies Tel: 202 707-1740 Folklore is resilient; itworks in many Board of Trustees ways to keep tradition going. Occa­ sionally a little institutional help is Juris Ubans, Chair, Maine useful, however, as in the several Robert Malir, Jr., Vice-chair , Kansas cases described in this issue of Folklife Nina Archabal, Minnesota Center News. Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; Norvus Miller died on May 1, Washington, D.C. 1994. But the sixteen musicians in Carolyn Hecker, Maine the Kings of Harmony band he di­ Judith McCulloh, Illinois rected for seventeen years include The American Folklife Center Ex Officio Members two of his sons, who carry on the was created in 1976 by the U.S. Con­ James H. Billington, family musical tradition. Children gress to "preserve and present Librarian of Congress growing up in the House of Prayer, American folklife" through pro­ Robert McCormick Adams, Susan Levitas reports, "were encour­ grams of research, documentation, Secretan1 of the Smithsonian Institution aged to pick up instruments and sit archival preservation, reference ser­ Jane Alexander, Chairman, in with older bands." Many learn to vice, live performance, exhibition, play by "observation, imitation, and publication, and training. The Cen­ National Endowment for the Arts ter incorporates the Archive of Folk Sheldon Hackney, Chairman, inundation," elements in the pro­ Culture, which was established in National Endowment for the Humanities cess of traditional learning. the Music Division of the Library of Alan Jabbour, Director, RalphRinzlerdiedonJuly2, 1994. Congress in 1928, and is now one of American Folklife Center But the Festival of AmericanFolklife the largest collections of ethno­ on the National Mall he helped to establish in 1967 continues to attract graphic material from the United FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS States and around the world. thousands of tourists each summer, James Hardin, Editor providing pleasure, instruction, and David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor insight into the diversity of Ameri­ Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Review Administration can cultural life. John Biggs, Library of Congress Paterson, New Jersey, is said to Alan Jabbour, Director Graphics Unit, Designer Timothy Lloyd, Acting Deputy Director be the first planned industrial center Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant continued on page 11 Stephanie Parks, Clerk Folklife Center News publishes ar­ ticles on the programs and activities Camila Bryce-Laporte, of the American Folklife Center, as Program Coordinator well as other articles on traditional FOLKLINE Jennifer A. Cutting, expressive culture. Itis available free For timely information on the field Program Coordinator of charge from the Library of Con­ of folklore and fo lklife, including Acquisitions gress, American Folklife Center, training and professional opportu­ Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Washington, D.C. 20540-8100. The nities and news items of national Processing text of issues of Folklife Center News interest, a taped announcement is Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist from Spring 1992 to the present are available around the clock, except Catherine Hiebert Kerst, available on LC MARVEL, the Li­ during the hours of 9 A.M. until American Memory Project brary of Congress's Internet Gopher noon (eastern time) each Monday, server. LC MARVEL is available Programs when it is updated. Folkline is a through your local Gopher server. Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist joint project of the American Or you may connect directly Folklife Center and the American Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist through Telnet to marvel.loc.gov, Folklore Society. Dial: David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist and then login as marvel. From the Publications main menu, choose "Research and 202 707-2000 James Hardin, Editor Reference," then "Reading Rooms," Public Events then "American Folklife Center," then "Publications," then "Folklife Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Cover: Paterson mill worker uses a ma­ Center News." Folklife Center News Reference chine to make special punched cards does not publish announcements Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian that, when laced together, will be used to from other institutions or reviews of Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist program a complicated pattern for fabric books from publishers other than woven on a Jacquard loom, ca. 1930. As Administrative Office the Library of Congress. Readers he works, he refers to a designer's pat­ Tel: 202 707-6590 who would like to comment on Cen­ tern, printed on "punch paper," mounted Fax: 202 707-2076 ter activities or newsletter articles in front of him. The design shown here 1s Reference Service may address their remarks to the an inverted image of the Great Falls on Tel: 202 707-5510 editor. the Passaic River, and the small bridge above them, in Paterson. Courtesy of The Paterson Museum

2 Folklife Center News American Folklife Center Documents Occupational Culture in Paterson, New Jersey

Young girls transfer "hard silk" from skeins onto bobbins at a Paterson "throwing" mill, ca. 1900. In mills of this kind, raw silk fibers were made into thread for weaving and sewing. Courtesy of The Paterson Museum

By David A Taylor Park Service (Philadelphia). It is one riched sense of local historic and of several projects underway in cultural resources for residents and A team of researchers from the Paterson, Perth Amboy, and Tren­ visitors. But "Working in Paterson" American Folklife Center has begun ton, New Jersey, that derive from will consider living culture, and par­ a four-month study of occupational the 1992 federal Urban History Ini­ ticularly the ways community life culture in Paterson, New Jersey, the tiative (UHi). These projects are con­ and values are shaped by work. nation's first planned industrial area. cerned primarily with assessing, The Urban History Initiative was The Center is conducting the stabilizing, and restoring historic sponsored in Congress by U.S. study, called "Working in Paterson," buildings and other structures in Senator FrankR. Lautenberg(D-New in conjunction with the Mid-Atlan­ order to revitalize deteriorating busi­ Jersey), a native of Paterson. Sen­ tic Regional Office of the National ness districts and provide an en- ator Lautenberg wrote the UHi Summer 1994 3 legislation "to spark interest in New Jersey's rich urban history that can helpspurthe economic revitalization of our cities today." The senator says that he is "delighted that the American Folklife Center will be lending its considerable resources and expertise to illuminating Paterson's past through an examination of labor and industry's contribution to community life and family values. This will be anessential part of the UHi legislation, to help make New Jersey's cities the economic and cultural jewels they were in the past."

aterson's historic district in­ cludes the site of the first at­ tempt in the United States to Pharness the power of a major river-the Passaic-for industrial purposes. Well-known figures in the nation's history were involved in that endeavor, including Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, who was the leading advo­ cate; and Pierre L'Enfant, the engi­ neer-architect of Washington, D.C., who was commissioned to lay out the town and design the hydraulic system that powered the mills (al­ though he did not carry out the com­ mission). Paterson came into promi­ nence as a manufacturing center in the nineteen thcentury, whenits mills produced textiles, machinery, Colt revolvers, and locomotives. By 1870, Statue of Alexander Hamilton gazing at the Passaic Fal ls, Paterson, Paterson was the leading producer New Jersey. Photo by David Taylor of silk in the United States. Today, many of the mill buildings, where "Even during the Revolution Hamilton had been impressed by the silk and other products were manu­ site of the Great Falls of the Passaic. His fertile imagination factured, still stand. envisioned a great manufacturing center, a great Federal City, to The American Folklife Center­ supply the needs of the co untry. Here was water- power to turn the which has engaged in many studies mi ll wheels and the navigable river to carry manufactured goods to of regional, ethnic, and occupational the market centers: a national manufactory." culture throughout the nation-be­ From Paterson, book II, section II, by William Carlos Williams gan field research in Paterson inJune 1994. Four cultural specialists have been engaged to work on the project, assess the form and function of vari­ order to inform members of the com­ under the direction of Center folklor­ ous occupational traditions, and pho­ munity about the conclusions of the ist David Taylor, to discover the tograph a variety of workers and project; an illustrated booklet, writ­ meaning of work as seen through the work-related events. ten for a general audience, that will eyes of active and retired Paterson Four principal products of the illuminate central issues concerning workers: folklorist and Paterson na­ study are planned: a report for the work in Paterson; and an archival tive Tom Carroll; documentary pho­ National Park Service that will dis­ collection consisting of taped inter­ tographer Martha Cooper; folklorist cuss field research findings and make views, photographs, researchers' Susan Levitas; and folklorist Bob recommendations for specific publi­ fieldnotes, and other documentary McCarl. The researchers will inter­ cations, exhibitions, curriculum ma­ material collected. The collection view retired workers who labored in terials, and other programs andprod­ will be preserved at the Library of the textile and other important local ucts the Park Service and cultural Congress (a duplicate will be created industries, interview contemporary institutions in Paterson can use to for the Park Service which will, in workers in a number of occupations, enhance knowledge of the city's his­ turn, transfer it to a repository in document continuity and change in tory and culture; a public event, in Paterson). selected places of work in the city, Paterson, that will be organized in

4 Folklife Center News "When Can I Hear the Cylinders?": Photographs from a Trip to Ukraine

By Joseph C. Hickerson The cylinders of Ukrainian folk ethnomusicologist William (Bill) music, like those of Native Ameri­ Noll, codirector of the study center. On March 22, 1994, I traveled to cans and others that the American Travel expenses were provided by Kyiv to pursue a joint project the Folklife Center has been preserving the Renaissance Fund of the Soros American Folklife Center and the through its Archive of Folk Culture Foundation in Kyiv. Work on the Ryl's'kyi Institute of the Ukrainian and the Library's Recording Labora­ joint project has also benefitted from Academy of Sciences initiated in tory, are not merely relics of a bygone generous donations by the Maria 1992, as well as to explore additional age. These documents, once trans­ Yasinsky Murowany Foundation of acquisitions of Ukrainian folklore ferred to modern tape, can provide a Greenville, Delaware, and the Rex and music. The joint project with the dynamic link between past, present, Foundation of San Anselmo, Califor­ institute seeks to preserve an impor­ andfuture. Butis this connection only nia. I would like to thank Daria tant collection of wax cylinders of interest to archivists and scholars? Lassowsky Nebesh, an ethnomusi­ (valiky) and other formats document­ Not so for the eighteen-year-old ap­ cology gradute student at the Uni­ ing village musicians of Ukraine from prentice who wistfully asked me as I versity of Maryland, for her assis­ the first four decades of this century was leaving the village of lrpen': tance on this project as part of her (seeFolklifeCenter News,spring 1993). "When can I hear the cylinders?" internship with the Folklife Center. While in Kyiv, I spent several days at Soon, druzhe, very soon! Thanks also to Natalie A. Gawdiakof the institute's manuscript and folk­ The meetings and events for this the Library of Congress's Law Li­ lore divisions arranging for the du­ trip to Ukraine were arranged by brary for her assistance in the prepa­ plication of additional cylinders and Valentyna Borysenko, director of the ration of this article. Photographs a collection of photographs, as well manuscript department and chief ar­ were taken by Bill Noll and others as the acquisition of thirty newly chivist at the institute, and American during my nine-day stay. published monographs and ten se­ rial publications. I also surveyed their audiotape (1,700 reels) and manu­ I first visited the Ryl's'kyi Institute of Art Studies, Folklore, and Ethnology on March 24. script holdings and consulted on After presenting a number of the Center's publications and a cassette duplication of five their duplication. of the cylinders thus far duplicated at the Library of Congress, I posed with staff I later met with the director of members in the director's office. Pictured, left to right, are institute director Oleksandr the V. I. Vernadsky Central Scientific H. Kostiuk, me, Valentyna Borysenko, and three of her staff members: Tanya Loboda, Library of the Academy of Sciences Svetlana Stefanovich, and Inna Shchterbak. and the director of its Jewish divi­ sion concerning their collection of approximately 1,200 cylinders and accompanying catalogs, manu­ scripts, and photographs of Jewish folk music and folklore recorded between 1912 and 1967. In addition, I participated in (1) a field trip to the village of Irpen' to document cur­ rent practitioners of the kobzar tradi­ tion; (2) a filming for Ukrainian TV of a concert of Ukrainian and Ameri­ can folksongs in the village of Skybyntsi; and (3) a ceremony in­ augurating the opening of the ex­ panded quarters for the Center for the Study of Oral History and Culture in Kyiv and the appearance of issue number 7 of Rodovid, their ethnographic journal. I also pre­ sented lecture/concerts on Ameri­ can folksong at the Ryl's'kyi Insti­ tute and the University of Kyiv.

Summer 1994 5 Here Valentyna Borysenko and I are examining cylinders in the sound recording room of the institute's manuscript department. Approximately two-hundred of the cylinders have already been transported to the Folklife Center, where they are being copied onto tape by Recording Laboratory technical specialist John E. Howell. Approximately sixty remain to be brought over for duplication.

On March 26, I accompanied Bill Noll and video cameraman Dmytro Klochko on a field trip to lrpen', a village thirty kilometers northwest of Kyiv. Bill has been the chief liaison and facilitator in the Folklife Center's project with the Ryl's'kyi Institute. For the past several years, he has also been documenting the current musical practice derived from the bardic traditions that were all but wiped out during the Soviet purges of the 1930s. As part of this fieldwork, he is preparing three one-hour videotapes highlighting Mykola Budnyk, one of the first musicians to apprentice with a surviving blind bardic singer (kobzar), and several of the musicians who have learned from him. The audio- and videotaping is taking place at Budnyk's home, which functions as a combination work­ shop, social club, and mecca for a number of younger apprentices who are learning to make and play the bandura and /yra and to sing the dumy and psal'my (epics and religious songs) in the style of the old masters. After the recording session, I posed with a number of the musicians and apprentices, including Mykhail Khai (on my right) , Oleksandr "Smyk" Sanin (upper right), and Budnyk (far right).

Here I am enjoying a midday meal on March 27 at the apartment of Bill and his wife, Lidiia "Leda" Lykhach. Leda is an anthropologist who edits and publishes Rodovid, volume 6 of which featured an article on the cylinder project and an interview with me. Bill and Leda are codirectors of the Center for the Study of Oral History and Cu lture.

Later that day Bill and Leda took me to several historic sites, including Babi (Babin) Yar. The monu­ ment there commemorates the martyrdom of the hundred-thousand Jews and others who were slaugh­ tered at this ravine by the Nazis during World War II. 6 Folklife Center News On March 29, we traveled over two hours to the west of Kyiv to the village of Skybyntsi. There approximately 150 residents assembled in their cultural center to witness a filming by a Ukrainian TV crew of interviews and perfor­ mances by a group of ten village women, singer Nina Matvienko, and myself. In this photo they are singing (and I am humming) one of their songs. On my right is Kateryna Bozhko, a director from Ukrainian TV; on my immediate left are Matvienko and Borysenko.

On March 30, I visited the Jewish department of the Institute of Manuscripts of the Vemadsky Library, where I examined a collection and catalog of 1,200 cylinders of Jewish folk music and narrative. This collection was amassed by folklorist Moshe Beregovski and his students beginning in 1927. It includes over 600 cylinders made during two expeditions conducted in 1912 and 1913 by Shlomo Ansky, assisted by lulii Engel, Solomon "Sergei" ludovin, and Zinoii Kiselgof. I am pictured here with department director Irina Sergeeva and staff members Ludmila Sholochova (who is doing a dissertation on the collection), Yohanan Petrovsky, and Elena Galtchenko.

On March 31 , I met with Oleksii S. Onyschenko, director of the Vemadsky Library, to discuss the possibilities of setting up a recording laboratory at their library or finding other means of transferring their cylinders onto tape. Here I pose with Onyschenko and Sergeeva under the watchful eye of V. l. Vernadsky.

During my sojourn in Ukraine, I stayed at the home of Valentyna Borysenko and her son, Myroslav "Slava," and enjoyed their gracious hospitality. Slava acted as a splendid guide and interpreter. Here we are about to have my farewell lunch at their home on March 31 . Thank you, Valentyna and Slava!

Summer 1994 7 Kings of Harmony Brings Jubilant Music to "God's White House"

The Kings of Harmony gospel brass band at the United House of Prayer, Washington, D.C., during regular Sunday service. Far left is Norvus Miller. Photo by Nick Spitzer

By Susan Levitas United House of Prayer for All Music and "shouting"-a form of People, and it has been enlivening ecstatic worship in which congre­ The Kings of Harmony played at the services there for thirty-four years. gants "catch" the spirit, and then Library of Congress on July 21, 1994. The Kings of Harmony is one of shake, run, or jump in place, spin The concert was dedicated to the loving several hundred gospel brass bands and speak in tongues-were central memory of the group's leader, Norvus at the more than one hundred thirty­ to worship services. All manner of Miller, who died on May 1. five United Houses of Prayer nation­ musical instruments are used, as wide. The gospel brass band tradi­ Daddy Grace interpreted Psalm 150 One of the enduring images of "offi­ tion is unique to this denomination. literally: "Praise ye the Lord. Praise cial" Washington, D.C., is a parade It was introduced into services by Him with the sound of the trumpet. marching down Pennsylvania Av­ charismatic church founder Bishop Praise Him with psaltery and harp. enue past the White House, with Charles M. "Sweet Daddy" Grace, a Praise Him with timbrel and dance. several military-style brass bands native of the Cape Verde Islands who Praise Him with stringed instru­ belting out patriotic standards. For was known for his healing powers ments and organs. Praise ye the members of the United House of and his exotic appearance, including Lord." Prayer for All People, however, gos­ four-inch fingernails painted red, From the 1920s onward, as the pel brass bands make jubilant music white, and blue, and long curly hair. church spread rapidly throughout in a neighborhood located some dis­ Grace was a patent medicine sales­ the South, Grace used brass instru­ tance from the presidential mansion. man and chicken factory worker who ments as the centerpiece of his all­ The Kings of Harmony is the pre­ established his first congregation in day-all-night services. In the early miere brass band at "God's White 1919 in West Wareham, Massachu­ days, bands were comprised of six House," in northwest Washington, setts, with an emphasis on the direct, male musicians playing some com­ the headquarters church of the physical experience of the spirit. bination of trombone, trumpet, sax,

8 Folklife Center News piano, drums, tambourine, and tional gospel whose purpose is to older bands. Norvus Miller recalled washboard, anddrawing on the jazz edifyand glorify the Lord." As presi­ those early days: influences of the day. Repertoire in­ dent of the Kings of Harmony for cluded hymns, rearrangements of seventeen years, he traveled thou­ I started back, I guess I was about earlier spirituals, and eventually sands of miles with the group to play six years old, and I blew pipes, gospel tunes. The instruments for services across the country, often you know the water pipes. My played the parts of voices, and ar­ driving all night in order to be at the father had the water pipes. I put rangements were modeled after next location. The current group is them together-they had the little quartets and small vocal ensembles. composed of sixteen musicians in­ fittings-and I started blowing No singing accompanied the songs; cluding two of Miller's sons, who the pipes.My father did construc­ rather, the music was considered a play first andsecond lead trombones. tion. Back in those times, things conduit for the spirit to come through Instruments include three lead trom­ were a little rough, but my par­ the church and into the bodies of its bones (with two playing at a time), ents decided they should buy congregants. The intensity and new­ two sets of "run" horns-two trom­ me a trumpet. ness of the music and DaddyGrace's bones playing harmony parts, back­ services prompted one South Caro­ ground trombones that simulate the To this day, it is common to see lina community to sue the church as body of the choir, sousaphone, bari­ toddlers at services holding plastic a public nuisance. In ordering the tone horn, and a percussion section toy trombones, and children of church to close, the State Supreme with bass drum, snare drum, and six or more blowing on their first Court wrote: cymbals. The instrumental "voices" real horns. are arranged in three- and four-part Like many African American sa­ the evidence showed that there is harmonies with the lead horns play­ cred music traditions, brass band dancing carried onin the church, ing on top of the run horns. The music from the United House of weird noises and music, shout­ music builds slowly through each Prayer has reached audiences be­ ing, stamping of the feet, un­ song to a sustained crescendo known yond the church. In recent years, earthly sounds, use of drums, as "thundering," with lead players groups have been featured at con- trombones, horns and scrubbing boards.

Despite this setback, the music and the church took hold with several dozen churches located today in the Carolinas.

y the 1960s, trombones be­ came the instrument of choice for House of Prayer Bbands, and groups were expanded to create a fuller, more multi-layered sound in the vein of large gospel choirs. The Kings of Harmony was formed during this period and Norvus Miller emerged as the group's leader. Miller, the late George Holland, leader of the Happyland Band from Newport News, Virginia, and Eddie Babb, leader of the Sons of Thunder band from Harlem, came to be seen as the most exemplary trombonists in the Purcell "Rob" Miller at the Library of Con­ Norvus Miller Jr. at the Library of Con­ church, each with his own sound. gress, July 21. Photo by Yusef El-Amin gress, July 21. Photo by Yusef El-Amin These men are referred to as "the three stars in the Kingdom," and their bands are called "copy bands," improvising and blowing with great cert series and folk festivals from because all other groups model intensity. Miller said his style was Lowell, Massachusetts, to New Or­ themselves after one of their styles. influenced by jazz, rhythm and blues, leans. In these settings, bands tend A recent program entitled "Legend and country music. to emphasize their skill and virtuos­ of Leaders," organized by members As with most House of Prayer ity in order to reach and inspire a of God's White House and a congre­ bands, members of the Kings of diverse crowd. gation in Charlotte, North Carolina, Harmony learned to play by obser­ honored these three men for their vation, imitation, and inundation. Susan Levitas is an independent folk­ contributions to the church and its As youngsters growing up in the lorist based in Washington, D.C. music. House of Prayer, they heard the Norvus "Butch Littlejohn" Miller music often and were encouraged to described this music as "inspira­ pick-up instruments and sit in with

Summer 1994 9 The Lasting Contributions of Ralph Rinzler

By Alan Jabbour ship from Europe by Pennsylvanian people, but to one or two people in Don Yoder. But though the concept their home or car. Informality-that RalphRinzler, who passed away this Yoder espoused was culturally en­ is, cultivation of a style that seems summer, made a lasting contribu­ compassing, in practice European informal-has become an American tion to American civilization in the scholars had come to see folklife as hallmark. latter decades of the twentieth cen­ material culture and customary be­ In the genre of the folk festival, it tury. What follows are some havior, as opposed to the oral forms was critical to the success of the en­ thoughts on his contribution. of folklore. In America, the tilt of the terprise to imbue the event with a Ralph was centrally responsible term folklife toward material culture style that conveys and symbolizes for the evolution of the "folk festi­ never occurred; instead, we see the intimacy of vernacular culture, val" into a major form for American folklife as encompassing both oral and that fosters a sense of intimacy cultural celebration and interaction. and material expression. A case can with vernacular culture. The Festival Folk festivals preceded him, of be made that the growing use of of American Folklife was enor­ course; the term can be traced back folklife in America to embrace all tra­ mously successful in this symbolic at least to the 1930s. But we have him ditional cultural forms is accounted task. In dozens of ways, the festival to thank for a refinement and so­ for, not by conceptual developments made visitors feel a personal bond phistication of the concept that en­ within the academy, but by the Fes­ with the people and traditions they abled it to flower, proliferate, and tival of American Folklife and all the encountered. Principally, it seized communicate effectively in a gen­ public programs inspired by it. uponand greatly elaborated the idea eration characterized by sophistica­ The Festival of American Folklife of "workshops"-an organizational tion in technology and performance had, I believe, a profound impact on concept that implies a working-to­ standards. America. A host of state and regional gether style that blurs the lines be­ Folklorists are acutely aware that festivals were inspired by it, and it tween presenters and audience, and most true folk festivals do not use trained a legion of young cultural a sense of events-in-the-making the term folk to describe themselves. specialists who, as time passed, rather than finished presentations. Since they are normally culturally fanned out around the country car­ The techniques of the intimate style specific, they are likely to be named rying with them its memories and its may not have been wholly invented by reference to the occasion or artis­ lessons. Occasionally it went on the by the festival, but the festival un­ tic tradition they commemorate: St. road itself, re-presenting compo­ questionably contributed both to the Joseph's Day, Oldtime Fiddlers nents of the Mall edition at regional development of the style and to its Convention, Fourth of July, Mardis sites. But though many profession­ diffusion throughout the country in Gras, Blessing of the Fleet, Syrian als urged the festival staff to pursue the hands of a sophisticated younger Picnic, or Juneteenth. What we came local and regional "feedback" more generation for whom the style was a to call "folk festivals" were in fact a energetically, in the final analysis generational trademark. Most of us multicultural and intercultural form the festival achieved more local and in the field are so imbued with these devised to bring together, present, regional impact simply by being it­ stylistic practices that we take them and share the salient traditions of self on the Mall than it ever achieved for granted, but the techniques of more than one culture. These festi­ by targeting communities for feed­ the intimate style are part of our vals were self-consciously grassroots back. Festivals-as Archibald repertory only because the festival in content and style, yet they sought MacLeish said of poems-"should helped us invent and refine them as to share cultural expression across not mean but be." The essence of symbolic tools for public communi­ social and cultural lines. Such festi­ this festival has been as a national cation. Many helped, but ultimately vals called for a term that was not symbol on the National Mall. the credit is due to Ralph. culturally specific, so folk festival it One of the hallmarks of the festi­ was. val is its development of what might alph's other great accom­ No doubt Ralph was conscious of be called the intimate public style in plishment, I believe, was in this complex history of the folk festi­ America. Most nations, including seeking out and finding val genre. In 1967 he named the our own, have a formal or ceremo­ R ways to spotlight extraor­ Smithsonian Institution's new fes ti­ nial style for large public events. dinary artists and art forms within val on the National Mall the Festival Part of the special genius of twenti­ grassroots culture. Here his milieu of American Folklife. The name care­ eth-century American culture has was less the public sector and more fully avoids calling the event a folk been its knack for making the capa­ the private sector world of record festival, and instead characterizes it cious seem intimate and the formal companies, promoters, and the like. as a festival of folklife. He was con­ seem colloquial. Our public media The festival called for enormous or­ scious, too, of the resonances of the are particularly fond of the intimate ganizational talents; one must assert term folklife, which had been intro­ style, having come to realize that one's vision, yet allow for the cre­ duced to American folklore scholar­ they are speaking not to millions of ativity of others, the demands of in-

10 Folklife Center News stitutional interests, the need for fund-raising and public relations, the cultural debates of academics, devo­ tees, and communities. Identifying and promoting great artistry in the private sector is a different skill, as exemplified by the great A & R (art­ ist and repertory) men of the record industry. Such a person is remem­ bered by the success of the artists sponsored, and Ralph had stunning successes in this mode: for Bill Mon­ roe, Doc Watson, Dewey Balfa, and others, Ralph made the critical dif­ ference in the development of their art and their careers. One can com­ pare his achievements to those of the great art connoisseurs, whose con­ tributions have been to identify great art heretofore unrecognized. In­ deed, Ralph's skills in this area ex­ tended into the visual arts, and a Ralph Rinzler joined Folklife Center staffers to perform at the opening ceremonies whole field of artistic expression, tra­ for the Library's James Madison Memorial Building, May 28, 1980. Left to right: ditional Southern pottery, was Joseph C. Hickerson; Rinzler; Carl Fleischhauer, now coordinator of the Library's shepherded into a new relationship American Memory Project; Alan Jabbour; and Howard W. Marshall, now a profes­ with the public thanks to Ralph's sor at the University of Missouri. Photo by John Gibbs endeavors with the Meaders family, Jugtown, and other potteries. Smithsonian Institution itself, to tating and replicating his program Out of these achievements­ which he was so devoted, has been ideas. building a great national festival, shaped by his participation in it. The Other organizations have been and identifying and sponsoring festival staff grewinto the Center for blessed by his caring for them. But great but unrecognized artists­ Folklife Programs and Intercultural the highest tribute to his accomplish­ grew Ralph's many other accom­ Studies; the larger public program­ ments is to observe that, for every plishments as a builder of institu­ ming of the Smithsonian was deeply institution that he touched directly, tions. The Folk and Traditional Arts influenced by the festival and by he touched dozens more indirectly, Program of the National Endowment Ralph's concept of public service; by the radiation of his powerful vi­ for the Arts and the American and even the museums and cura­ sion through the accomplishments Folklife Center both owe a profound tors, who began by regarding him as of others and into the larger fabric of debt to Ralph and the festival as a public relations gambit, have paid our lives as Americans. founding forces. Indeed, the him the highest compliment by imi­

EDITOR'S NOTES from page 2 During the Stalinist repressions, tion of outdoor wall paintings done thousands of village minstrels in the to commemorate young Latino and in the United States. Alexander Soviet Union were shot, arrested and African American men and women Hamilton, the first secretary of the sent to labor camps, or otherwise who died in New York City (Henry treasury, was a leading advocate for repressed. Fortunately a good por­ Holt and Company, Owl Books, pa­ exploiting the potential of the tion of the epic songs and religious per, $19.95). Joe and Marty did an region's Passaic River for industrial repertory they carried were recorded article on the same subject for the purposes. Now Sen. Frank onwax cylinders that have nowbeen Center's Folklife Annual 1990, and Lautenberg of New Jersey hopes to brought to the Library of Congress Marty is currently engaged to take stimulate an economic revival for for restoration, preservation, and photographs for the Center's project Paterson and other NewJersey cities copying. As Joe Hickerson reports, a "Working in Paterson," reported on with a new project administered by new generation eagerly awaits ac­ here. Their book is the result of a six­ the National Park Service called the cess to this great legacy from the year study of a growing urban com­ Urban History Initiative. The Folklife past. munity tradition they first noticed in Center is helping in the endeavor 1988. The artists documented inR.I.P with a study of the city's occupa­ Memorial Walls have adapted a custom from Puerto tional culture. The senator has Rico of marking the site of a violent acknowleged the Center for its role While writing these notes, I received death and employed an often vili­ in "illuminating Paterson's past in the mail a copy of a new book by fied graffiti-like style; their memo­ through an examination of labor and photographer Martha Cooper and rial walls are arresting and disturb­ industry's contribution to commu­ folklorist Joseph Sciarra, R.I.P.: Me­ ing signs of the times. nity life and family values." morial Wall Art, a striking presenta­

Summer 1994 11 After a program in a village cultural center in Ukraine, March 1994, Joe Hickerson and Valentyna Borysenko were treated to a variety of local foods and toasted with glasses of samohonka, a homemade distillation . Here the two archivists appear to be enjoying some of the latter. A photographic journal of Joe's trip to Ukraine begins on page 5.

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