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Home , Alexis Kochan, Bess Lomax Hawes, Chervona, Incondicional, Public folklore, Supporting character

Fall–Winter 2010 Volume 36: 3–4

The Journal of New York

Ukrainian Folk Singing in NYC

Hindu Home Altars

Mexican Immigrant Creative Writers

National Heritage Award Winner

Remembering From the Director

Since the found- a student-only conference. There are prec- Mano,” readers will enjoy fresh prose pieces ing of the New York edents for this format, also. In commenting and in English and Spanish from a Folklore Society, the on the 1950 meeting, then-president Moritz recently published anthology, produced by organization has pro- Jagendorf wrote, “Another ‘new’ at the Mexican cultural nonprofit Mano a Mano, vided two consistent Rochester meeting was the suggestion to the New York Writers Coalition, and a group benefits of member- have an annual contest among students of of New York’s newest Spanish-language ship: receipt of a New York State colleges and universities for writers. Musician, discophile, and Irish- published journal— the best paper on New York State folklore. American music researcher Ted McGraw since 2000, Voices— The winner will receive fifty dollars, and his presents a preliminary report and asks Voices and at least one annual meeting. or her paper will be read before the mem- readers for assistance in documenting the In the early years, the annual meeting bers.” (It is unclear whether this suggestion fascinating history of twentieth-century took place jointly with the annual gathering was implemented!) button made by Italian craftsmen of the New York Historical Association, The 2010 meeting was held at New York and sold to the Irish market in New York. the organization from which the New York University, in conjunction with NYU’s Latin Puja Sahney leads us into Hindu homes in Folklore Society originated. The society’s American and Latino studies departments. the New York metropolitan area to explore chapter also conducted an While the meeting did not offer a monetary structure, meaning, and change in domestic additional midwinter meeting that highlighted prize, many graduate students delivered altar traditions. folklore activities within this urban core. The papers on the of “Latino Folk Cul- We remember, too, our most brilliant elders first New York Folklore Society meetings ture and Expressive Traditions.” In keeping and inspiring mentors in folk arts. Folklorist focused on papers presented by scholars with our own traditions, the conference Mick Moloney shares a portrait of one of this from New York State, with musical and other also included food, music, and opportuni- year’s winners of the National Endowment performances: and Frank War- ties for conversation among colleagues. We for the Arts National Heritage Award, Irish ner performed at early New York Folklore thank those of you who joined us in New flute master Mike Rafferty. Robert Baron, Society meetings, and an early meeting in York City—and we hope to see even more director of the New York State Council on Rochester included music by a local Ukrainian members next year. the Arts Folk Arts Program, offers a personal chorus. In the first ten years of the society, Ellen McHale, Ph.D., Executive Director remembrance of the pioneering contribu- meetings were frequently in Cooperstown, New York Folklore Society tions of Bess Lomax Hawes to the field of but meetings were also held in Ticonderoga, [email protected] folklore in New York State and beyond. Rochester, and Elmira in an effort to extend www.nyfolklore.org Also in this issue, Voices welcomes Nancy the reach of the New York Folklore Society Solomon, folklorist and executive director and to fulfill its statewide mission. From the Editor of Long Island Traditions in Port Washing- The general format of the annual meet- This issue of Voices ton, New York, whose new column, View ing has consistently remained the same, celebrates New York’s from the Waterfront, focuses on maritime albeit with a stronger stress on experiencing cultural diversity across folklife, the environment, and vernacular a region in more recent years. Meetings in a wide variety of genres architecture. As always, we remind readers the past fifteen years have incorporated an of folklife and . that Voices is only as strong as the many Erie Canal boat ride (Seneca Falls, 1997), a Ukrainian-American voices and perspectives you lend us through guided walk through a Hudson Valley orchard singer and educator your contributions. Please keep your articles, (Clinton Corners, 1996), and an opportunity Nadia Tarnawsky describes her experience reviews, photos, artwork, and ideas coming to drive at a NASCAR-sanctioned racetrack of exchanging songs with Ukrainian se- our way. (Watkins Glen, 2004). niors at the Self-Reliance Association of Eileen Condon At this year’s annual meeting, held on American Senior Center in Acquisitions Editor November 20, the New York Folklore New York City’s East Village. In “Voces New York Folklore Society Society decided to launch a new initiative: con Eco: A Sample of Writing from Mano a [email protected]

“From a distance little communities seem homogeneous, even bland, but from the inside, they feel diverse and exciting.” –Henry Glassie, Irish Folk History: Tales from the North (1982) VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Contents Fall–Winter 2010

3 Features 3 Singing at the East Village Ukrainian Senior Center: A Reflection by Nadia Tarnawsky 7 Nadia Tarnawsky: A Ukrainian-American Singer’s Journey by Eileen Condon and Nadia Tarnawsky 12 The Mighty Raff: 2010 National Heritage Award Winner 26 by Mick Moloney 15 Voces con Eco: A Sample of Writing from Mano a Mano Collected and edited by Luz Aguirre Introduced by Emily Socolov and Mary Ellen Sanger 31 Button Accordions: A Call for Information by Ted McGraw 36 Folk Arts Champion: Bess Lomax Hawes, 1921–2009 by Robert Baron 39 Hindu Domestic Mandirs: Home Temples in Greater New York by Puja Sahney

Departments and Columns 31 10 Upstate by Varick A. Chittenden 11 Downstate by Steve Zeitlin 14 Still Going Strong by Paul Margolis 26 Artist Profile by Lisa Overholser 30 by John Thorn 35 Songs by Dan Milner 38 Good Spirits by Libby Tucker 45 View from the Waterfront by Nancy Solomon Cover: Ukrainian Women’s Voices singers Willa Roberts (left) and Maria Sonevytsky (back) serenade Ukrainian 46 Reviews seniors and others with village songs at the Ukrainian , June 2010. 39 Photo: Eileen Condon (CTMD)

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 1 1 NYFS Gathering for Latino Artists The first of three gatherings for Latino like-minded individuals who are presenting artists was held on October 24, 2010, in and preserving Latino cultural arts. cooperation with Long Island Traditions Future gatherings will take place in Fall–Winter 2010 · Volume 36: 3–4 in Port Washington. Delegates from as Batavia (March 19, 2011) and Amsterdam Acquisitions Editor Eileen Condon far away as Attica, New York, attended (May 14, 2011). See the back cover for Managing Editor Sheryl A. Englund to compare experiences and connect with details. Design Mary Beth Malmsheimer Printer Eastwood Litho

Editorial Board Varick Chittenden, Lydia Fish, José Gomez-Davidson, Nancy Groce, Lee Haring, Bruce Jackson, Christopher Mulé, Libby Tucker, Kay Turner, Dan Ward, Steve Zeitlin

Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is published twice a year by the New York Folklore Society, Inc. 133 Jay Street P.O. Box 764 Schenectady, NY 12301

New York Folklore Society, Inc. Executive Director Ellen McHale Web Administrator Patti Mason Voice (518) 346-7008 Fax (518) 346-6617 Web Site www.nyfolklore.org

Board of Directors Julia Gutiérez-Rivera and Juan Gutiérez of Los Pleneros de la 21, a bomba and plena President Gabrielle Hamilton performance group from New York City, demonstrate how they engage school-age children through music and dance. Photo: Nancy Solomon, Long Island Traditions Vice President Elena Martínez Past President Paul Mercer Secretary-Treasurer Delcy Ziac Fox Pauline Adema, Jean Crandall, Karyl Eaglefeathers, Ellen Fladger, Jan Hanvik, Alice Lai, Jessica Schein, Joseph Sciorra, Libby Tucker, Thomas van Buren

There is more than one way to Advertisers: To inquire, please call the NYFS support the New York Folklore Society (518) 346-7008 or fax (518) 346-6617. during this holiday season!

Here’s how you can help: Voices is available in Braille and recorded versions. Call the NYFS at (518) 346-7008. • Send a tax-deductible donation directly to the New York Folklore Society. Your dollars will support our many programs, including the Latino artists’ gatherings, The New York Folklore Society is committed to the annual student conference, and Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. providing services with integrity, in a manner that conveys respect for the dignity of the individuals and • Plan to spend your holiday shopping dollars at the NYFS gallery, either online or communities the NYFS serves, as well as for their in person. We have CDs, books, and handmade objects—all made in New York cultures, including ethnic, religious, occupational, and regional traditions. State and sold by consignment. Find us online at www.nyfolklore.org or come to The programs and activities of the New York Folk- our gallery at 133 Jay Street, Schenectady. Members receive a 10 percent discount. lore Society, and the publication of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, are made possible in part by funds • Purchase items online by going through www.ShopforMuseums.com or through from the New York State Council on the Arts. www.Goodshop.com. Both of these platforms work with major brand retailers, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is indexed in with a portion of your purchase price going to a nonprofit of your Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Music Index and choice. You can stipulate that a percentage of your purchases will go abstracted in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. to the New York Folklore Society. Reprints of articles and items from Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore are available from the NYFS. Call We appreciate your support! (518) 346-7008 or fax (518) 346-6617. ISSN 0361-204X © 2010 by The New York Folklore Society, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Singing at the East Village Ukrainian Senior Center: A Reflection BY NADIA TARNAWSKY

hen people leave their homeland, I came to Ukrainian folk singing because they had been asked to bring the songs of W often they can take very few physical of my parents. Both were very active their youth. The first participants began to items with them—limited amounts of members of the Ukrainian community trickle in after lunch. Some had forgotten clothing, only the most prized possessions— in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was an active songs, but others came with song sheets in but they can bring a store of items held member because I was their child. At first I hand. One singer arrived with eight legal- within their memory: stories, folklore, was resistant to all of this , sized sheets of paper with song lyrics typed poems, songs. When tapped, this vein of but eventually, it was something I came to to them. At the top of the page was written, hidden or sometimes seemingly forgotten love and respect. When the Soviet Union “KOBASNIUK REUNION SING-A- remembrances brings forth many gems. I dissolved, it became easier to meet and sing LONG”! It filled me with joy to think of recently had an opportunity to experience with individuals from and other a family coming together in person and in these gems—and collect some songs— Eastern-block nations, and I welcomed song. among members of the Ukrainian diaspora these opportunities. Over the years, I have Some of the songs were well-known in New York City. studied with Ukrainian singers including canonical folk songs, like “Chorna kura” This project was spearheaded by the Nina Matvienko, Marjana Sadowska, and (“The Black Chicken”), while others were Center for Traditional Music and Dance Lilia Pavlovska; Bulgarian singers Donka composed melodies. There were a few (CTMD). CTMD was founded in 1968 Koleva and Maria Bebelekova; and Albanian songs written by the Ukrainian composer and has become one of New York’s superstar Merita Halili. I received a 2002 Volodymyr Ivasiuk. Ivasiuk was a celebrated leading organizations in nurturing and U.S. Department of Education Foreign composer of the 1970s, whose infectious preserving the traditional performing arts Language and Area Studies fellowship to music was so popular that I’d venture to say of the city’s ethnic communities. One spend ten weeks in Ukraine. I collected his compositions have become folk songs. means of this kind of preservation is the many extraordinary pieces, and since that Among those appearing in this group of Ukrainian Community Cultural Initiative time, I have had the opportunity to teach songs were “Vodohray” (“Fountain”) and project, known as Ukrainian Wave. The these songs to many, including the group of “Chervona ruta” (“Red Rue”). One singer Ukrainian Wave initiative presents aspects dedicated singers at CTMD. As the leader claimed she no longer had a voice for of traditional culture through concerts, of the fourth Ukrainian Women’s Voices singing, but I would beg to differ, for her educational programs, and recordings and series, I was asked to collect some songs voice strongly led many of the songs sung strives to bring together people from diverse from Ukrainian seniors in New York City. that afternoon. She proclaimed when she backgrounds to experience and enjoy these Funded with discretionary spending arrived, “I have songs for you,” and soon traditions. In 2008 CTMD launched the allocated by New York City councilwoman after began sharing song after song from her Ukrainian Women’s Voices series, which Rosie Mendez, the song collection took song sheet. Other singers were more timid, invites singers of Ukrainian and many other place on June 10, 2010, in the Self-Reliance but by the end of the afternoon, all had an backgrounds to learn Ukrainian village-style Association of American Ukrainians Senior opportunity to sing and share whatever they singing from masters in the artform and Center at 98 Second Avenue in the East remembered. perform these songs for the New York Village. Ukrainian seniors gather here weekly Once a good number of people had community. for fellowship and bingo, but this afternoon, arrived and names were recorded, the

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 3 Ï[fkb rjpfrb Traditional Ukrainian folk song Yikhaly kozaky Performed by the Kuban Kozak Chorus 2 & 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 1)1 [f kb rj pf rb ¶p Lj ye lj lj ve g¶l vf ye kb Uf k. 1)Yi - kha - ly ko - za - ky iz Do - nu do - do - mu pid - ma - nu - ly Ha - lyu

2)Nfq gj dtp kb Uf k. ntv yb vb k¶ cf vb ghb dz pf kb Uf k. 2)Tay po - vez - ly Ha - lyu tem - ny - my li - sa - my pry - vya - za - ly Ha - lyu

3)Hjp ,ht kbcmgj k¶ ce yf p,b hf kb [vb pe g¶l gf kb kb cjc ye 3)Roz-bre - lys' po li - su na - zby - ra - ly khmyzu pid - pa - ly - ly sos - nu

4)Uj hbnm cjc yf uj hbnm uj hbnm nfqgb kf æ rhb xbnm Uf kz rhbrjv 4)Ho - ryt' sos - na ho - ryt' ho - ryt' tay py - la - ye kry - chyt' Ha - lya kry-kom 5)Jq [nj dk¶ c¶ xe æ yt [fq njqhz ne æ f [nj lj xjr vf æ 5)Oy khto vli - si chu- ye ne - khay toy rya - tu - ye a khto do-chok ma - ye 6)F [nj lj xjr vf æ yt [fq yf e xf æ nfq ntv yj ¶ yj x¶ 6)A khto do - chok ma - ye ne - khay na - u - cha - ye tay tem - no - yi no - chi

7 j & œ ˙ œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ J 2 pf ,hf kb pcj ,j(.) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z za - bra - ly zso - bo(yu) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya

lj cjc yb rj cf(vb) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z do - sos - ny ko - sa(my) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya

jl uj hb lj yb(pe) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z od ho - ry do ny(zu) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya

rhb xbnm ghj vjd kz(æ) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z kry - chyt' pro - mov - lya(ye) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya yt [fq yf e xf(æ) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z ne - khay na - u - cha(ye) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya ue kznm yt gec rf(æ) Jq nb Uf k. Uf k. vj kj lf z hu - lyat' ne pu - ska(ye) Oy ty Ha - lyu Ha - lyu mo - lo - da - ya

13 ˙ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ g¶l vf ye kb Uf k. pf ,hf kb pcj ,j(.) pid - ma - nu - ly Ha - lyu za - bra - ly - zso - bo(yu)

ghb dz pf kb Uf k. lj cjc yb rj cf(vb) pry - vya - za - ly Ha - lyu do sos - ny ko - sa(my)

g¶l gf kb kb cjc ye jl uj hb lj yb(pe) pid - pa - ly - ly sos - nu od ho - ry do ny(zu)

rhb xbnm Uf kz rhb rjv rhb xbnm ghj vjd kz(æ) kry - chyt' Ha - lya kry - kom kry - chyt' pro - mov - lya(ye) f [nj lj xjr vf æ yt [fq yf e xf(æ) a khto do - chok ma - ye ne - khay na - u - cha(ye) nfq ntv yj ¶ yj x¶ ue kznm yt ge crf(æ) tay tem - no - yi no - chi hu - lyat' ne pu - ska(ye)

4 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Traditional Ukrainian Folk Song, as Sung by the Kuban Kozak Chorus

Yikhaly kozaky

1. Yikhaly Kozaky iz Donu dodomu Pidmanuly Halyu zabraly zsobo(yu) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya Pidmanuly Halyu zabraly zsobo(yu)

2. Tay povezly Halyu temnymy lisamy Pryvyazaly Halyu do sosny kosa(my) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya Pryvyazaly Halyu do sosny kosa(my)

3. Rozbrelys’ po lisu nazbyraly khmyzu Pidpalyly sosnu od hory do ny(zu) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya Pidpalyly sosnu od hory do ny(zu)

4. Horyt’ sosna horyt’ horyt’ tay pylaye Krychyt’ Halya krykom krychyt’ promovlya(ye) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya Krychyt’ Halya krykom krychyt’ promovlya(ye)

5. Oy khto v lisi chuye nekhay toy ryatuye A khto dochok maye nekhay naucha(ye) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya A khto dochok maye nekhay naucha(ye)

6. A khto dochok maye nekhay naucha(ye) Tay temnoyi nochi hulyat’ ne puska(ye) Oy ty Halyu, Halyu molodaya Tay temnoyi nochi hulyat’ ne puska(ye)

“The Rode Home” (Summary) The Cossacks rode home from the Don River and took Halya with them. Oh, Halya, young Halya, they took her with them. They rode into a dark forest and tied her to a pine tree. The Cossacks gathered kindling and burned the tree from the top to the bottom. As the tree burns, Halya cries out, “If anyone can hear me, please save me, and if anyone has daughters, please warn them! Warn your daughters, and never let them go out into the dark forest!”

Transliteration, transcription, and summary by Nadia Tarnawsky.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 5 Nadia Tarnawsky (arms folded, right) leads a subgroup of the Ukrainian Women’s Voices Collective in singing village-style songs for seniors at the Ukrainian Senior Center in June 2010. Senior center staff members/session organizers Irene D’Alessio and Oksana Lopatynsky confer, further right. Photo: Eileen Condon (CTMD)

afternoon began with songs sung by a few I chose the concert theme in order to were quietly sung by the keeper of the song. of the participants of the Ukrainian Women’s present some remarkable songs detailing Unfortunately, at this juncture there was not Voices Collective. The singers came from a people’s inhumanity to one another. Some an opportunity to record stories and personal variety of backgrounds and included Magda songs are intended to be lessons. One piece memoirs, but my desire to return to this group Polkowska, Julie Rozar, Cherrymae Golston, we performed at both the senior center and and continue this type of work is very strong. and Maria Sonevytsky. These singers sang a the June 12 concert (to which all the seniors There were too many songs left unsung, too few songs that they had learned as part of were invited) was “Yikhaly kozaky” (“The many stories left untold, and too many gems our vocal workshops, in preparation for our Cossacks Rode Home”), which details the left unmined. I am grateful to Ethel Raim and June 12 Ukrainian Women’s Voices concert, murder of a young woman named Halya. Eileen Condon of the Center for Traditional “Seven Deadly Sins: Traditional Songs of The melody is bouncy, fun, and virally catchy, Music and Dance and to Irene D’Alessio Good and Evil,” at New York’s Ukrainian but the topic is gruesome. It is meant to be and Oksana Lopatynsky of the Self-Reliance Museum. They also sang along with some memorable, so that adolescents can learn how Association of American Ukrainians Senior of the songs the seniors presented. The not to behave and how to keep themselves Center for organizing this event, and I hope voices had accompaniment provided by safe. It is sometimes possible to speak in that there will be future chances for these Brandon Vance, my musical collaborator and song what is often left unspoken. Despite seniors to recall and record these gorgeous a recent graduate of the Cleveland Institute the seriousness of the subject matter, the remembrances of their homeland. of Music. The pieces sung by the CTMD seniors warmly welcomed the singing, which workshop participants included “Vyjshla provided an impetus for their own sharing. Nadia Tarnawsky is a freelance per- former and teacher. She has taught at vdova” (“The Widow Emerged”), a song By the end of the afternoon, songs were the Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin from the Carpathian region about incest, and overlapping and singers from all ends of the Wallace College, and Allegheny College. “Oy, kovale” (“O, Blacksmith”), a song from room were offering up the songs of their Recent performance venues include La- Mama Experimental Theatre in New York the region about a young girl who youth. Some were known by many and had City, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the drowns her newborn. the support of multiple voices and others Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle.

6 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Nadia Tarnawsky: A Ukrainian-American Singer’s Journey

Compiled by Eileen Condon from autobiographical notes provided by Nadia Tarnawsky

ometime in the mid-1970s, a Ukrainian her daughter, Nadia, sitting in the middle of vinyl records of Ukrainian . S mother was walking through a grocery of a nearby aisle, surrounded by books and How fortunate also that they had such a keen store in Cleveland. The toddler at her side happily singing away. desire to maintain Ukrainian culture within spied a rack of books and lingered as the As Nadia wrote in an autobiography she our home. My mother taught me how to em- mother continued on. A few minutes later, provided to the Center for Traditional Music broider and how to draw (Ukrainian Easter the sounds of a Ukrainian and Dance, “Music has always been a part eggs). My father spoke to me exclusively in could be heard, drifting from another aisle. of my family’s life. My parents both sing and Ukrainian, often to my frustration, but now “Where is that kid?” the mother wondered in adore Ukrainian folk music, and how fortu- to my great relief. And, of course, when desperation. Luckily, Mrs. Tarnawsky found nate for me that they had a large collection a school of [Ukrainian harp-]

Nadia and senior center members discover they know several songs’ verses in common. Photo: Eileen Condon (CTMD)

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 7 A Senior Center member (foreground, left) shares a folk song from memory. Others brought family song sheets and songbooks along. Photo: Eileen Condon (CTMD)

opened in Cleveland in 1983, they signed to which she would keep journeying, first as as an ensemble. It was an unparalleled experi- me up as one of the first students.” a student, next as an assistant instructor, and ence.” Nadia studied Western on finally as a full-fledged faculty member. Julian eventually asked Nadia if she would the piano and before she attended her Here Nadia first met New Jersey–based follow Lilia in leading the women’s ensemble first bandura camp in 1984, an experience singer Lilia Pavlovsky. “Lilia was intensely at Emlenton. Nadia served in this capacity that, she confesses, she didn’t enjoy. “It was interested in Ukrainian women’s polyphonic for three years, beginning in 1994. By this my first time away from home, and everyone singing, and that’s what she taught in Em- point, Ukraine had become an independent was considerably older than I was. The one lenton. She was there for three consecutive nation. “This was something I never expect- good thing was that it was where I first met years, and in that time, the women’s ensem- ed to see in my lifetime. . . . When the Iron Julian Kytasty [director of the New York ble flourished under her direction. You must Curtain dropped, the opportunities to work Bandura Ensemble]. We met again at camp understand that this is an amazing thing. The with musicians from Ukraine abounded, and in 1988. This was a much better experience bandura is a chronically male instrument. I took advantage of everything I could.” for me, and it set me on a path.” The All Boys can have a decent singing voice, get Nadia first traveled to Ukraine in 1992 as Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church facility good at playing the instrument, and go on part of a project sponsored by the Ukrainian in Emlenton, Pennyslvania, has been the to sing with the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. National Association (UNA) for teaching home of the Kobzarska Sich Bandura Camp Girls can sing really well, play the instrument English as a second language. She taught since 1988. Nestled in the Allegheny moun- well, and . . . yes, and what? For those years, English for four weeks in , spend- tains on the banks of the river, as Nadia those girls could work with Lilia and get an ing weekends in the nearby village of Bed- describes it, the camp was a pilgrimage site opportunity to sing powerful music together rykivtsi, where she visited family members

8 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore and sang songs with women in the village. 2002. She accompanied University of L’viv fly back and forth to New York City to Nadia traveled a second time to Ukraine in professor Ivan Denysiuk on an expedition nurture Ukrainian Women’s Voices. She has 1995 with her brother and her father—the to northwestern Polissia, collecting folklore performed and recorded with Quire Cleve- first time her father had returned since child- about rusalky (river mermaids) along with land, Apollo’s Fire, and a small Ukrainian hood. wedding songs, songs of lamentation, and folk-fusion ensemble The Ancestors. The Nadia attended Case Western Reserve other folk songs. She finished graduate latter group includes excellent Ukrainian University (CWRU) in Cleveland, which course work and then returned to Ukraine and non-Ukrainian folk musicians, such as has a joint music program with the Cleve- to work with Mariana Sadowska. Alexander Fedoriouk and Brandon Vance, land Institute of Music. There she started “I had the opportunity to see Mariana two-time open U.S. National Scottish Fiddle working with actors and began learning to on her occasional stateside visits, but now Champion. Alex and Brandon joined forces use her voice for the stage. As her career we were in Ukraine together. We rented a with Nadia and Ukrainian Women’s Voices continued to develop in music and theater, car and drove to Kriachkivka. She had to in June 2010 to present the group’s concert, she returned for more intensive fieldwork go on to another village, but I ended up “Seven Deadly Sins: Traditional Songs of in Ukraine. Nadia began to perform early staying in Kriachkivka for a few days. I had Good and Evil,” at the Ukrainian Museum music at CWRU, as well. As a student in 1995 seen some of the singers in this village on a in New York’s East Village. and 1996, Nadia organized the Workshop documentary called Oi u poli drevo, but I was The Center for Traditional Music and for Women’s Voices, an opportunity for not prepared to hear them sing in person. Dance thanks Nadia for leading the lovely women to work with Ukrainian-Canadian The sound of their voices completely over- singing session for seniors at the Self-Reli- singer Alexis Kochan to learn Ukrainian folk whelmed me.” ance Association of American Ukrainians music. She stayed with Halyna Popko, the leader Senior Center, and we wish her well on Nadia fell seriously ill in 1999. While of the group, and filled notebook after note- her recent move to Seattle, where she will recovering, she engaged in intense personal book with lyrics and notes on Kriachkivka explore—and enrich—the West Coast tradi- reflection, reading and translating Ukrainian harmonies. “At one point Halyna said, ‘It’s tional and classical music scene, continuing poetry, especially the work of Oleksander so hard to sing it without the other voices her musical collaborations with Brandon Oles. “One day, as I was sitting [in the there. These songs need a group of people Vance. Nadia assures us that she will be Cleveland Clinic] in my hospital gown, to sing them.’ They are not songs I can sing back to New York to work with Ukrainian waiting for the next round of tests, I began alone—I need the women of this ensemble Women’s Voices next season, no matter how to think about legacy, how I wanted to be [Ukrainian Women’s Voices] to sing them, great the distance. remembered. At that point I determined just as Halyna needed them.” Eileen Condon is acquisitions editor of that I wanted to create a project that would Nadia continued to teach at the Cleveland Voices and project director at the Center allow me to do what I love—sing Ukrainian Institute of Music through July 2010. Since for Traditional Music and Dance in New York City. folk music—with my closest friends and 2008 she has somehow found the time to colleagues.” Upon her recovery, Nadia asked a friend, dancer Natalie Kapeluck of Pittsburgh, to NYFS Mentoring Grants join her in creating a theater piece that told a story through modern dance, using Ukrai- The New York Folklore Society is pleased to offer grant funds through nian folk music and poetry for its story line. our Mentoring and Professional Development Program. Other fine Ukrainian immigrant musicians and choreographers joined in, including The grant program facilitates the acquisition of knowledge or skills in player Alexander Fedoriouk. By traditional arts through short-term and ongoing consultancies, folk artist 2000 Nadia and friends had created their mentoring, and professional development exchanges. Short-term technical own production company, presenting mu- assistance may also be provided to organizations, folklorists, and com- sical theater based on munity scholars who are documenting and presenting New York State and folk songs to American and Canadian folklore and folk arts. . While teaching music and simultaneously Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. While funding is not guaran- pursuing a master’s degree in music history teed, the NYFS is happy to answer any questions or to provide assistance and ethnomusicology at Cleveland State as needed during the application process. If you wish to discuss a project, University, Nadia received a fellowship please contact Lisa Overholser at [email protected] or (518) 346-7008. that paid for another journey to Ukraine in

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 9 e

t The New Obit BY Varick A. Chittenden a He loved golf, spearmint leaf candy, , family member or someone from the funeral delight. Part of her daily routine included , laughter, the company of good home. The effect has been noticeable. crossword puzzles and , more recently, st friends, a good story, and a well-mixed Putting aside my twitching blue pencil left completing the “jumble.” Without a stinger. He was a kind, patient, loving doubt, watching and cheering on the from over thirty years of teaching writing, man who dedicated his life to his family New York Yankees gave her the most

up and helping others. the part that interests me most is the frequent pleasure. –Michael, 69, Sackets Harbor inclusion of “special interests” or “favorite things to do.” For months now, I’ve collected The obituary for a 27-year-old man killed in These days, I often find myself picking examples of the “new obituary” from several a motorcycle accident is quite telling: up the local morning newspaper, skimming local sources. Here are a few. the headlines, and then going directly to the Charlotte, 72, “enjoyed spending time with Jordan was a unique person and a good obituary page. I like to think my habit comes her family, gardening, crossword puzzles, father and friend. He enjoyed spending time with his family, whether it was a from living in one place for so long and know- reading the New York Times, preparing Hun- camping trip or kite flying with his kids. garian dishes, and traveling. Fay, 71, “loved ing—or knowing of—lots of people. I don’t He took pleasure in just about any out- like to think that it’s because of my age! An to build anything, and there was nothing that door activity: from hunting and fishing old axiom among journalists is that the obit he couldn’t build when he put his mind to to boating, water skiing, snowmobiling, page is among the most read in the entire it.” Irene, 89, “enjoyed square dancing with downhill skiing, dirt bike riding, and newspaper, before sports, stock market news, the Seaway Squares, sewing, and quilting.” off roading with his truck “that went one year without a dent,” spoke Jessica. comic strips, and advice columns. Vernon, 80, “enjoyed music, playing , “He was a motor head,” says his brother hunting, fishing, and his cat Tip-it.” Barry, In recent years, however, I’ve been notic- Jason. Jordan and Jason both found fun ing some interesting changes in the content 54, “enjoyed hunting, fishing, and was an avid and entertainment in fireworks, mostly of local obituaries. Unlike the New York Jeff Gordon NASCAR fan.” Harrison, 84, when they were lighting the fuse instead Times and other major city newspapers that “had a continuous garage sale at his house, of observing. Those who knew and publish only the obituaries of people whose although it was more for meeting people than loved Jordan will remember him as an extremist who liked to have a fun time. lives and accomplishments the editors deem it was to sell items. He loved his dog Missy.” He will be greatly missed. newsworthy, our small-town papers have long Francis, 72, “enjoyed woodworking, garden- included the passing of everyone in their ing, and caring for his three pet turtles.” Mary Jones, a bereavement counselor for coverage area. The standard format included Paul, 90, “enjoyed fishing, hunting, golf, and our local hospice, likes it this way. She says, the deceased’s birthplace and parents’ names, manhattans with his numerous good friends.” “We live in a death-denying culture. In grief- education, marriage, work experience and Jo, 61, “was a devoted mother, grandmother, stricken moments after their loved one dies, employers, survivors, and funeral and burial sister, and aunt, who was loved by many. . . . It family members express how they think of arrangements. was common knowledge among family not to him or her, want to remember their loss, John B. Johnson Jr., third-generation call at 7:30 when Jeopardy was on.” Maria, 95, and want to talk about him or her.” As a publisher and editor of the family-owned “loved the Sacred Heart, Saint Anthony, Saint folklorist, I like it too. It makes the life three- Watertown Daily Times, says that for a long Jude, Saint Elizabeth Seton, and Dexter [her dimensional, a hint of how interesting the time, their paper adhered to “strict profes- hometown]. . . . She loved gardening, dancing, person was, even in their love for the simplest sional standards” for obituaries, because bowling, knitting, her family and friends, and things. It can be the stuff of stories told by they believe they are creating a historical the Lawrence Welk Show.” family and friends for generations to come. record. That sometimes meant also including Some seem more like eulogies, like this one Although I’m not planning anything soon, facts that families didn’t want, like divorces, for a farm woman who died at 82: this makes me think about how I’d like to be criminal records, or suicides. But with severe remembered. How about you? While residing on the farm in Malone, belt-tightening during the recent economic Ellen was always known to have a big, downturn, the paper started to charge by beautiful, and bountiful garden. Once Varick A. Chittenden is professor emeritus the inch for obituaries and death notices, the ground was worked up in the of humanities at the a practice common at most other papers spring, [it] was planted, maintained, and State University of New York in Canton and The for some time. According to Johnson, that harvested by Ellen. She instilled strong Christian values in her children. Ellen TAUNY Center project now means that the deceased’s survivors can director for Traditional enjoyed square dancing and bowling. Arts in Upstate New include (almost) anything they want in the In later years, watching the birds at the York. Photo: Martha text. The notices are now usually written by a feeder or on the birdbath gave her special Cooper

10 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore The People’s City Report Card BY STEVE ZEITLIN

For a while, I’ve wanted to give a People’s TROUBLING 8. Street Parades. Robert De Vito, who Hall of Fame Award to the casting director of 3. Community Gardens. New York City outfits most of the city’s parade floats at Bond Law and Order. That’s not just because I’m a Community Gardens Coalition is campaign- Parade Floats in Clifton, New Jersey, said that hopeless addict. In addition to the gritty stars, ing against a new set of rules for community parades are still thriving in New York, though the casting always features that man putting gardens that eliminates the legislative language with fewer floats, as a result of the economy. boxes in a van or the secretary in a doctor’s of- that protects them and makes it easier for the But he also pointed me toward a series of fice, nailing the cast of characters that populate gardens to be sold to developers. articles about the recent city crackdown on this remarkable city. Every episode mixes the 4. Arts in the Schools. For many low- and parades. As Andy Newman wrote in the wealthy lawyers, socialites, and art collectors middle-income New Yorkers, access to the arts Times, “Everyone may love a parade, but… with the landlords, cops, and working men begins in the schools. Reorganization of the the department notified parade organizers and women trying to make ends meet. The Department of Education eliminated Project throughout the city…that starting April 1, magic is in the mix. Arts, which guaranteed that a certain amount their processions must cover 25 percent less Most New Yorkers recognize—and even of school funding would be spent on arts distance and may no longer exceed five hours the tourists know—that the heart of New education. The city gave principals discretion in duration. York is not at the Met or Lincoln Center, but on how to spend their funds, and then rated 9. Places that Matter. Coney is such an im- in the hustle and bustle, the cacophonous mix them principally on their schools’ math and portant release valve for New York City that it of ethnic groups, social classes, and the arts. English language test scores. This change, deserves a category of its own. We are thrilled At a time when the mayor and Chancellor Joel along with budget cuts, has decimated arts that New York’s State Historic Preservation Klein are hell-bent on testing students, we at education in the schools. Office has declared Coney Island’s amuse- City Lore decided to grade the city on what is 5. Drumming Circles and Ethnic Cele- ment district eligible for listing in the State being done to preserve the grassroots creativity brations in the Parks. As a result of a brawl and National Registers of Historic Places. that makes this city unique, endlessly interest- in the park unrelated to the drumming, the The new Luna Park, on land the city bought ing, and forever replenished by the immigrant wonderful weekly Haitian drumming circle back from Thor Equities, was a wonderful tides and the diverse accents, foodways, and on Sundays in Prospect Park has been shut addition to Coney this summer. Thor appears customs they bring. down indefinitely by the police. to have begun demolition work, however, on Coney Island’s Henderson Music Hall on PRAISEWORTHY MIXED Surf Avenue, one of the few remnants of 1. Religious Tolerance and Respect. We 6. Street Performers. I and my fellow historic Coney. applaud Mayor Bloomberg for taking a coura- advocate Susie Tanenbaum were pleased that 10. Ethnic Social Clubs. No news is geous stand on the Islamic Center at Ground the new Chief of Transit Bureau, Ray Diaz, good news. Zero. On August 3 he stated, “We would be allowed us to address the transit police com- Overall, the Bloomberg administration untrue to the best part of ourselves—and who manders and that he is sympathetic to street has improved on the record of the Giuliani we are as New Yorkers and Americans—if performers rights. However, we are still receiv- administration for supporting New York’s we said ‘no’ to a mosque in Lower Manhat- ing about one call a week from performers grassroots cultural life. Nonetheless, admin-

tan.” This year, the New York City Council who have been thrown out of Washington istrators seem intent on creating an upscale, do also passed a resolution adding Eid Ul-Adha, Square, Union Square, and Times Square. tourist-friendly city, without recognizing that marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to 7. Street Vendors. A conversation with street parades and performers and places like Mecca, and Eid Ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor historic Coney Island are part of what attracts wnst as official school holidays, along with the Project run by the Urban Justice Center, re- visitors, makes the city distinctive—and live- Christian and Jewish celebrations. vealed that a few years ago the city increased able. The magic is in the mix. 2. Open Markets. According to foodways fines for vendors operating in the wrong places consultant Makale Faber, GrowNYC, a city from $250 to $1,000. On the other hand, agency, has done commendable work opening Mayor Bloomberg and British Prime Minister Steve Zeitlin is the new markets and expanding existing ones. She David Cameron did share a hot dog from a founding director of City Lore in New York City. mentioned that many more of the city’s mar- stand outside of Madison Square Garden a

kets are doing well according to the “protein recently, and the city is now offering permits t factor,” which suggests that markets are stable allowing fresh fruits and vegetables to be sold e when meat, fish, and cheese are sold in them. in a number of additional neighborhoods.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 11 The Mighty Raff: 2010 National Heritage Award Winner

BY MICK MOLONEY

n September 2010, Mike Rafferty—or, Mike was born in 1926, the fourth of as one of the finest flute players in the re- I as we like to call him, “The Mighty seven children, in the village of Larraga in gion. His nickname was “Barrel,” given to Raff ”—received the National Heritage Ballinakill Parish, East Galway. This was an him because he could get such a great Award, the highest honor bestowed by the area known nationally for its great music, from the flute, and eventually “Barrels” government on the nation’s and particularly for its fiddlers and flute became the nickname of the whole family. traditional artists. Quite simply, no one players. When he was seven, he began tin At that time young men and women deserves it more. Mike has become a truly whistle lessons with an uncle and, at age typically completed their formal schooling legendary figure in the long, distinguished twelve, picked up the flute. His main mentor at fourteen. This part of the rural west of history of in America. was his father, who was recognized locally Ireland had been hard hit economically since

Traditional flute player Mike Rafferty received the NEA’s National Heritage Award this fall. Photo: Tom Pich, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts.

12 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore the mid-nineteenth century. Employment guished group of musicians who appeared from strength to strength since his retire- possibilities were severely limited, and there in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1976 ment. He continues to astonish his fellow were few opportunities for young men like as part of the ’s musicians and afficionados by his level of Mike. celebration of the American Bicentennial. technical skill, which has not diminished He worked sporadically as a farmhand From that point on, he widened his musical in the slightest with the passing years. and also did construction work for the horizons and started to make a name for Last year Mike Rafferty recorded a beau- Land Commission, but in order to advance himself, first with the touring group The tiful album, The New Broom, with his great himself in life, he had to do what thousands Green Fields of America, and then at scores friend and fellow New Jersey resident, fid- from East Galway had done before him— of concerts and festivals all over the country. dler Willie Kelly, and Mary’s husband Donal emigrate to America. He ended up in New He recorded on two compilation albums Clancy, who accompanied on guitar and bou- York and later in New Jersey, and with the issued by Rounder Records in the late 1970s: zouki. It makes absolutely delightful listening. help of friends already established in their Irish Traditional Music from the Eastern United In America and in Ireland, Mike’s fame new home, Mike worked at a variety of jobs, States and The Light through the Leaves. He has grown within the ranks of traditional including gardening and loading supermar- was also featured on a Shanachie album musicians of all ages. He is unanimously ket trucks. He also on occasion took on a named Fathers and Daughters, where he per- seen as the “real deal,” representing a kind second job as a bartender. He married and formed with his daughter, Mary Rafferty. of timeless center in the venerable musical began to raise a family of five children with Mike was extremely gratified and de- tradition he so proudly espouses. And it’s not his wife, Teresa. lighted when Mary—entirely of her own just his musicality that makes him so beloved. These duties left little time for music, volition—took up the music and became a He is a gentleman to the core—gracious, and Mike practically abandoned the flute fine player on the tin whistle, flute, and ac- good-humored, and good-natured, and for close to ten years. Then various musical cordion. After Mike retired from his super- willing to help anyone who comes his way. friends from East Galway based in New market job in 1989, he began to make more He truly is the Mighty Raff. York, such as Jack and Charlie Coen and and more appearances with Mary. They were Sean McGlynn, encouraged him to start a grand combination. Mary had learned playing again. He switched for a while to most of her music from her father, and the the silver flute and gradually recovered fit was perfect. They made three recordings Mick Moloney is Global Distinguished his technique and built his repertoire. together—The Dangerous Reel, The Old Fire- Professor of Irish Studies and Music at New York University. He has recorded I first met Mike in 1975 and was im- side Music, and The Road to Ballinakill—with and produced more than sixty albums of pressed by his beautiful, unhurried, lyrical Mike now back on the wooden flute, and traditional music and advised on festivals and concerts all over the United States. playing and the subtle swing to the music each one is a gem filled with beautiful tunes Mick also served as the artistic director which has been indelibly associated with the played with gentle understated virtuosity, for several major arts tours, including The Green Fields of America, an ensemble of East Galway style since the early twentieth very much rooted in the East Galway style. Irish musicians, singers, and dancers that century. Mike had learned the tunes and Mike put out his first solo album at has toured the country several times. In 1999, he too received the National Heritage stylistic nuances by ear, like almost all of the age of seventy-eight, which he aptly Award from the National Endowment the traditional musicians of his generation. titled Speed 78 (2004). It is great stuff. for the Arts—the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United By then he had most decisively regained In fact his playing on all these albums States. his musical skills and was part of the distin- demonstrates that his music has has gone

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Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 13 Midwife BY PAUL MARGOLIS O NG From the time before recorded history, there because she would try to talk to doctors on education, not only for the woman, but also have been women whose role it was to help behalf of expectant women, but “the doctors for her family. mothers safely deliver their babies into the did whatever they pleased” and ignored her. During the era of immigration into the world. The earliest recorded references to Then Barbara met a midwife who was also United States in the late nineteenth and early midwives and their work appear on Egyptian teaching women how to be Lamaze instruc- twentieth centuries, midwives often brought papyrus scrolls dating back to 1500–1900 B.C. tors, and by the end of the week’s work- their skills from overseas and worked in im- The modern term midwife derives from two shop, she had decided to become a midwife migrant communities. By the 1920s, however, Old English words —“mid” and “wyf ”— herself. She went to nursing school at the doctors had largely forced the midwives out that combine to mean “with woman.” University of Texas and became a registered of work. Doctors could offer “modern” Barbara Sellars has been a midwife for more nurse, which at the time was the traditional medical techniques and anesthesia; they had than three decades. She was led into a career first step in the training of midwives. She powerful professional organizations and were in this ancient field by her own experience then earned a midwifery degree from Yale associated with hospitals. They accused mid- in childbirth in the late 1960s, when, as she in 1979. When she graduated from the Yale wives of being untrained and dirty and had STILL G O ING STR said, “Nobody felt the need to educate young midwifery program, Barbara went to work laws passed to prevent them from delivering women”—and she believed it shouldn’t be at North Central Bronx Hospital. It was one babies. The result was a rise in the mortality that way. She had been treated impersonally of the first hospitals in the New York City of infants and mothers, especially in areas by the medical and hospital staffs during the public health-care system where midwives did where there were few doctors. birth of her first daughter in 1968. When the majority of deliveries. Despite these threats to the profession, the she was expecting her second daughter, a Barbara has a practice, CBS Midwifery on first midwife school was established in the neighbor mentioned the Lamaze method of lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, that she United States in the mid-1930s. Midwifery re- childbirth. Barbara took a six-week Lamaze shares with another midwife. CBS Midwifery mains far more common in Europe and much class and tried to educate herself more about was founded by two midwives. Barbara joined of the rest of the world than in the United pregnancy and birth, but “there wasn’t much the practice in 1985, then later bought out the States. In many other countries, most births out there.” founders. are assisted by a midwife. In this country, poor The birth of her second daughter was more Barbara is associated with Saint Luke’s– women were more likely to rely on midwives, satisfying, thanks to her Lamaze training, so Roosevelt Hospital in midtown Manhattan. but by the 1960s, middle-class women began Barbara decided to become a Lamaze teacher New York State law requires that midwives to ask why they couldn’t have the option of herself. She became disillusioned, however, have written practice agreements with a doc- a midwife’s care. Private midwife practices tor who can be available began in New York City in 1968. Currently, as a backup, in case of midwifery qualifying programs are offered in complications or if sur- New York City at SUNY Downstate Medi- gery is needed. Out of cal Center, Columbia University, and several all the births at the Birth- other schools in the area, and there are five ing Center at Roosevelt thousand midwives in New York State alone. Hospital, where Barbara Barbara Sellars is part of a continuum of has privileges, she esti- women’s health care that goes back to Egyp- mates that only about tian times and before. She is the practitioner 30 percent need more of an ancient profession that has survived intensive medical inter- into modern times and is continuing to gain vention than a midwife in popularity and respect. can provide. Midwives accept insurance, just as doctors do, for de- Paul Margolis is a pho- tographer, writer, and livering babies and for educator who lives in prenatal care. Midwives’ New York City. Examples of his work can be seen services include more on his web site, than just delivering ba- www.paulmargolis.com. Barbara Sellars examines patient Anel Williams. Photo courtesy of Barbara Sellars. bies. They also provide health counseling and

14 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore A SampleVoces of Writing con from Eco:Mano a Mano

COLLECTED AND EDITED BY LUZ AGUIRRE INTRODUCED BY EMILY SOCOLOV AND MARY ELLEN SANGER

Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders has hosted a weekly gathering of writers—mostly Mexican immigrants—for the past two years, a shared project with the New York Writers Coalition. Mary Ellen Sanger fa- cilitates the group. The group recently produced a chapbook, Voces con Eco: Writing from Mano a Mano, which was launched through the Mexican Cultural Institute, a project sponsor, at the Mexican Consulate in New York last May. The book collects poetry and prose writings of sixteen writers and is available through Mano a Mano, the New York Writers Coalition, and Amazon.com.

Begun in 2000 as a project of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, Mano a Mano is an independent, New York–based nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating Mexican culture in the United States and promoting the understanding of Mexican traditions among immigrants, artists, educators, and the general public. Mano a Mano is proud to present a sampling of the works of five writers published in Voces con Eco. We encourage you to pur- chase the book and support the work of creative artists in our immigrant communities. Writers in the New York area who wish to become part of this active community of writers should contact Mano a Mano at (212) 587-3070 or [email protected].

As the executive director of Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Mano a Mano is dedicated to celebrating Mexican culture, an Without Borders, I have watched the Creative Writing Workshop endless font of expressive tradition. Artists are at the center of for Mexican Immigrant Writers grow over the past two years. As everything we do, and we view the arts as a bridge of communication we finish our workday on Mondays at Mano a Mano, the doorbell across cultures and a path to personal and social integration. Thus begins to ring at intervals: the writers arrive! Sloughing off the far, more than forty people have passed through our writers’ prodigious stresses of their city lives, they enter a transformed workshop: authors of many ages and experience levels, from New space of collective creativity. The expectation and camaraderie of York City, Westchester County, and New Jersey. Nothing moves the assembling group is thrilling. me more in my work than to pass a new face coming through the Presiding over the writers is the luminous Maria Elena (Mary door as I depart for home on Monday evening. When that fledgling Ellen Sanger). The joy she brings to the work and her unparalleled writer asks me, ¿Es aquí donde escriben? (Is this where they come capacity to catalyze creativity in all the writers is an inspiration. to write?), my heart fills with delight. Epitomizing the philosophy of the New York Writers Coalition, May the door to expression always remain open. ¡Qué vivan los the workshop she leads is a space of unconditional support and escritores! acceptance: a haven that is sweet and sometimes savory. While psychologists may talk of Monday Syndrome as something to —Emily Socolov, Executive Director be overcome, here at Mano a Mano, “Los Lunes”—the Monday Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders people, as they call themselves on their blog—have turned that dread on its head: the week starts out with anticipation.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 15 “Onion, Castaway, Moon.” they will include the scent of frying onions experience, as having a safe platform where Write. in a mother’s kitchen and the pale gold sliver one can be heard helps writers develop Each week, the writers at the Mano of moon that munched at the Empire State confidence in their own voices. a Mano Creative Writing Workshop for Building on the way to work. The diversity At the blog (loslunes.wordpress.com) Mexican Immigrant Writers start with an of reactions to a single phrase echoes where group members can post their work, a idea such as this. They can use it or not— the diversity of responses to their lives in “word cloud” collects the themes and shows change it, use part of it, or none of it. New York City. Through poetry, in prose, that they have taken on everything from They can write on what the idea stirs up or with humor, as , as treatise on love or hope and mythology to silence and love. what it means to them literally. The writers cautionary tale, the stories told by these The city and the country seem to have equal choose their approach. The only thing that is writers are as varied as their experiences. airtime, as both immigrants and U.S.-born consistent is that each writer finds, through In that room on that night, they are all writers remember (or invent) a nostalgic the of putting pen to paper, a personal writers. Outside they are mothers, nurses, Mexico, Nicaragua, or El Salvador. thread to unravel, sometimes unmasking lawyers, pedicab operators, kitchen help, These pieces, excerpted from Voces con possibilities from the most unlikely of and art restorers. Having previously written Eco: Writing from Mano a Mano—published phrases. And nobody sits idle. Even the is not a prerequisite for participating in in 2010 by the New York Writers Coalition, newest writers around the table quickly tune the group. Currently the group has both with the support of Mano a Mano and the into the uncommon freedom to create, and practiced writers and writers who are just Mexican Cultural Institute—show a diversity they begin, often with no idea where they discovering their voices. The writing system of style, points of view, approach, and voice. will end. used by the New York Writers Coalition They show the diversity that is New York It’s a familiar dynamic for this mostly is based on the belief that everyone has a City, and the originality that each person immigrant group. They are discovering their voice, and given the proper space, time, and brings to this city’s story as they open their own creativity as they open roads—now respect, the voices will emerge. The writers own stories . . . now with their pens. with their pens. The stories tonight will not not only write as a group, but also read —Mary Ellen Sanger, Workshop Leader likely be strictly about onions or moons, but their fresh work to each other—a powerful New York Writers Coalition

Participants in the Creative Writing Workshop for Mexican Immigrant Writers, 2009. From left: Mariel Escalante, Tatiana Mendoza, Rosio Ramos, Alberto Bremermann, Mary Ellen Sanger, Luz Aguirre, Raúl Hurtado, Flavio Tochimani, Abelardo Durán, María Cruz, and Luis Ángel Ortega. Photo: Mariel Escalante

16 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Evil Eyes Luz Aguirre

You can see evil in people’s eyes. It is like a flash; you can see darkness even in the lightest eyes. Every day I see him and he sees me. Somewhere in this city, he has something to do; it ties him to a schedule to which he is a slave. In the beginning, I started moving more and more to the cars in the front and to the ones in the back, but it did not work. When I turn, he is there, ghostly. Whenever I scan the narrow train cars, I fall into his watchful eyes. He may be in the car I am in, or one or two further back, but his gaze always tortures and enslaves me. I avoid his gaze but it is heavy, pervasive. I have the feeling that if I move, I will die. In the corners of my brain, I cannot find a reason for this unstable thought. When he arrives at his destination I sense it, the trepidation vanishes. I turn, I look for him, but he is not there. In this space, which I own and he violates, he no longer exists, and I can move again freely though the world. It is strange; with time, it has become an event I need in my daily life.

Ojos Malvados Luz Aguirre

Puedes ver la maldad en los ojos de las personas. Es como un destello, hasta en los ojos más claros puedes ver obscuridad. Todos los días; lo veo y me ve. En algún punto de esta ciudad, tiene algo que hacer que lo ata a un horario al que es esclavo. Al principio me fui moviendo más y más; a los vagones de enfrente, o a los vagones de atrás, pero no funcionó. Cuando volteo; ahí está, fantasmal. Siempre que escaneo los angostos vagones, caigo en su mirada acechante. Puede estar en el vagón en el que estoy, o uno o dos más allá, pero su mirada siempre me tortura, y esclaviza. Evito su mirada pero me pesa, es penetrante. Tengo la sensación de que si me muevo de lugar; moriré. En las esquinas de mi cerebro no encuentro argumento para este inestable pensamiento. Cuando llega a su destino; lo siento, el temor se desvanece. Volteo, lo busco y ya no está. En este espacio, el que me pertenece y el viola, ya no existe, y me puedo mover por el mundo nuevamente con libertad. Es raro, con el tiempo se ha vuelto un evento que necesito en mi diario vivir.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 17 Birth: First Encounter with My Father Leonardo Anzures Ruíz Trans. Luz Aguirre

It is midnight, and like every night, everything seems you!” You draw near, quietly, and watch me. I do not see you to be at peace. Images float through my mind and I feel but I feel you; I note your smell and your breath. I complain calm, somewhat nostalgic. I think of the whole production, a bit, as if to greet you. And at the door your father, my everything that happens or has happened, I think of my fate, grandfather, weeps at seeing you again being a father, again of God’s blessings, of my faults and mistakes, my triumphs being a man. and tribulations, in everything that occurs in life. I have made After this , a memory crossed my mind, and I think plenty of laps with these ideas. I have always wanted to write it is the first real memory I recall. I see you one morning something special, something other than formulated words, waving goodbye to my mother. She sleepily welcomes a adorned with poem or verse, something that speaks about kiss. I, sleepy as well, lie on the floor on a mat and look at us, when we met, something that will say everything about you, as you smile nervously. You tell my mother, “Take care everything, without hurting either of us. It is very difficult, of the kids. I’ll come back later.” My mother answers, “Go I almost cannot see the lines of my notebook, my tears blur with care.” And for five years I did not see you, five years my vision; like your age dulls your eyes. Do not think that I that every night, all nights, my mother held me, hugging me, write because I’m resentful . . . no. It is necessary for us to perhaps to protect herself, and bear your absence, perhaps be at peace. I want to imagine the day I was born. to protect me. I imagine you: you are getting rid of the weeds on your Already six years old, and with my imagination sharp as land. The year is 1979, midday, plenty of sunshine, your the tip of a needle, I saw you coming up the paved road machete on your belt, wearing a hat. You lightly kick the with two suitcases at your side, with your well-shined shoes playful dog between your feet to leave you alone to conclude and your fashionable hair. It is almost dusk, when the sun your day’s work. You seem a little worn out, but focused kisses the mountains, when animals climb trees, and when on what’s happening in the room of the adobe house. My the light of the fireflies begins to flash in the ravine. That is mother is in labor, my grandmothers are nervous, cheering the way I see you coming, and stretching out your arms you her. The midwife is unyielding, accustomed to all this. Cries yell, “Hey kid, come here!” I was playing on the ground with of pain and tears, sweat and blood. I let out a cry, I breathe, some stones, stones that were my cars or motorcycles, or my I breathe and cry. My grandfather hears me from the yard, horses. I get up suddenly, run to embrace you, ignoring the anxiously waiting for me while weaving a chair with broken gravel which digs at my callused feet. You leave your bags on legs. He hears my cry and crosses himself. He thanks the the ground, lifting me all the way overhead with your strong heavens that I’m alive. My grandmother comes out yelling arms. You whirl me around, then I see myself flying, flying “He has arrived . . . It’s a boy!” Then my grandfather yells in circles I see your smiling face that says you love me, you to you, “Come, hurry up, you have a baby! You have a son!” are happy to see me, and nothing else matters. You forget your fatigue and run to meet me. The dog But you were on the other side of the world, as my follows you, and you hurry your . The wind blows your grandfather would say, in that place known as El Norte. He hat, but you do not care. You run to see me. Before entering, showed me the only contact you had with us, an envelope the midwife clouds you in rosemary smoke, according to her full of postage stamps, a letter, where you apologize and say to remove the bad spirits and bad air. Finally you enter the how much you miss us, but it is a sacrifice for us to have a room, but you cannot see me because it’s dark. You blink better life, so that we could have it all. I didn’t have you close, and the first thing you see is my mother smiling, her black but if you were, I’d tell you that close to you I had it all. hair, wet with sweat. You look at her side and there I am. The midwife congratulates you and tells you, “In the field To my father who, like every human in the world, stumbled and fell, the birds are dancing, thrushes, because you have someone but was able to get up and move on. This is one of the values that I who will plant with you, you have someone to accompany learned from him.

18 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore El Parto: Primer Encuentro con Mi Padre Leonardo Anzures Ruíz

Es media noche y como todas las noches, parece estar Me quejo un poquito, como saludándote. Y en la puerta tu todo tranquilo. En mi mente pasan varias imágenes y mis padre, mi abuelo, que llora por verte a ti otra vez siendo sentimientos calmados, a veces nostálgicos. Pienso en todo el padre, otra vez siendo hombre. sistema, en todo lo que ocurre o ha ocurrido, en mi suerte, en Después de esta fantasía; en mi mente cruza un recuerdo, la bendición de Dios, en mis faltas y errores, en mis triunfos y creo que es la primera memoria grabada. Te veo una y caídas, en todo lo que se presenta en la vida. Le he dado madrugada despidiéndote de mi madre. Ella adormitada te muchas vueltas a mis ideas, siempre he querido escribir algo recibe un beso, yo también adormitado, acostado en el suelo especial, algo que no sean palabras formuladas adornadas sobre un petate te miro, y tú, nervioso, sonríes. Le dices a mi de poemas o versos, algo que hable de nosotros, de cuando madre “ahí cuidas de los niños, yo luego regreso.” Mi madre en esta vida nos reunimos, algo que diga de todo, pero que te contesta “te vas con cuidado.” Y luego cinco años no te no nos hiera ni uno ni otro, es muy difícil, casi no veo los vi, cinco años que cada noche; todas las noches, mi madre renglones de mi libreta, mis lagrimas empañan mi vista así se apretaba a mí abrazándome, no sé si para protegerse ella como la edad opaca tu mirada. No creas que todo lo que y soportar tu ausencia o era para protegerme a mí. voy a escribir es porque estoy resentido . . . no. Es necesario Ya con seis años encima, y con la imaginación en la para estar tranquilos, quiero imaginarme de cuando nací. punta de una aguja, te veía llegar subiendo por esa calzada Te imagino, tú quitando la mala hierba de tu sembrado, empedrada, con dos maletas a los lados, con tus zapatos año de 1979, medio día, mucho sol, tu machete en el cinto y bien boleados y con tu peinado a la moda. Casi al atardecer, sombrero, el perro entre tus pies juguetón le das una liviana cuando el sol besa la montaña, cuando los animales se suben patada para que te deje tranquilo a terminar tu jornada. Te a los árboles, y cuando la luz de las luciérnagas empieza a veo un poco fatigado, pero atento de lo que está pasando en parpadear en el barranco, así te veía llegar, y extendiendo el cuarto de la casa hecho de puro adobe. Mi mamá en pleno tus brazos me gritas “¡hey muchacho ven acá!”. Mientras parto, mis abuelas nerviosas; a mi madre echando porras. La yo jugando en el suelo con la tierra, con unas piedras, que partera firme acostumbrada a todo aquello. Gritos de dolor imagino son carros, o motocicletas, o que son mis caballos, y llanto, sudor y sangre. Suelto el llanto, respiro y grito. Mi me levanto bruscamente y corro a abrazarte, sin importarme abuelo me escucha, que en el patio ansioso me esperaba la grava que se clava en mis pies llenos de callos. Dejas tus mientras tejía una silla de patas quebradas. Escucha mi llanto maletas en el piso, me levantas hasta lo más alto, con tus y se persigna. Agradece al cielo porque estoy con vida. Sale brazos fuertes. Luego me das vueltas, entonces me veo volar, mi abuela gritando “¡ya nació . . . nació hombre!” Entonces volando en círculos veo tú cara sonriente; que me dices que desde ahí, mi abuelo te grita “¡ven apúrate, es un niño, es me quieres, que estás feliz de verme, y no me importa más. un hombre!” Pero tú estabas en el otro lado del mundo. Así le decía mi Se te olvida el cansancio y corres para verme. El perro abuelo, a ese lugar conocido como el Norte. Me mostraba te sigue y tú aceleras el trote. El viento vuela tu sombrero, el único contacto que tenías con nosotros, un sobre con pero no te importa. Tú corres adelante para verme. Antes muchos sellos postales, una carta, donde te disculpabas de entrar, la partera te fumiga con humo de romero, según y decías lo mucho que nos extrañabas, pero que era un ella para quitar todas las malas vibras y el mal aire. Por fin sacrificio; para poder darnos un cambio de vida, para tenerlo entras al cuarto, pero no puedes verme porque está obscuro. todo. No te tenía cerca pero si lo estuvieras, te diría que junto Parpadeas y lo primero que ves es a mi madre sonriente. Su a ti lo tenía todo. pelo, negro, mojado de sudor. Miras al costado y ahí estoy yo, te felicita la partera y te dice “¡en el campo están bailando A mi padre que como todo humano en el mundo, se tropezó y cayó, los pájaros, los tordos, pues ya tienes quién va a sembrar, pero supo levantarse y seguir adelante; y, ese es uno de los valores que ya tienes quién te va acompañar!” Te acercas delicado y me me enseñó. ves. Yo no te veo pero te siento, apercibo tu olor y tu aliento.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 19 My America! Betsy Lainez Trans. Luz Aguirre

You saw me arrive, You showed me the calm you carry in your veins. and the same smile left your red lips. You showed me hierarchy, with which you were born. And you gave me open pastures to run. I admired the environment, the immensity of your structure, My America, and seeing me with those huge eyes, I reflected myself in the vastness of your sky-blue eyes. resembling pieces of heaven, Now I have to leave. you wanted to say: But not before I thank you, and tell you, you are not the only one, neither the first, nor the last. I am returned or carried by magnetism, where my umbilical cord is. Without asking, or wanting, It is not a lack of appreciation, you would have become that adoptive mother, but the call of my spirit, self-sacrificing, and dedicated. which brings me and shows me the exploration, and the origin of my being. You have provided, and lend me your children’s toys. You showed me your gardens, you showed me your America, America. hospitals, I admire you, your mountains, your rivers, your lakes. I respect you and I love you.

You taught me your laws and discipline. The rest of my life is not enough to let you know: You let me rest on your land, Thank you for your ru-ru-llos, You were self-sacrificing, gentle, and tender. when I was just a child, and when you taught me to walk upright. Now, now, your daughter that came to seek you My America. and without words I’m leaving, but I leave knowing that you exist, requested to be adopted, and always will, without laws, without lawyers, without manuscripts, because you are the plentiful, the vast, without midwives, and you are the woman who never gets tired and without birth pains. and always has for everyone who comes to your pastures, You let me attach to your skirts, that never sleeps and you covered me with your shadow. but is always passive.

You protected me with your immense mountains and America, America ridges, I love you. you quenched my thirst with the vastness and the coarseness of your rivers.

20 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ¡América Mía! Betsy Laínez

Llegar me viste, Y me enseñaste la calma que llevas en tus venas. y esa sonrisa de siempre se escapó de tus labios rojos. Y me enseñaste jerarquía, con la que tú naciste. Y me distes los potreros abiertos para poder correr. Admiré el ambiente, la inmensidad de tu estructura, América Mía, y al verme con esos ojos inmensos, que pude verme ante la inmensidad de tus ojos azules, que parecen pedazos de cielo, como el cielo. me quisiste decir: En estos momentos tengo que partir. no eres la única, ni la primera, ni la última. Pero no sin antes agradecerte y decirte, que soy regresada o llevada por el magnetismo, Sin pedirlo, ni quererlo, donde esta mi cordón umbilical. te habrías convertido en esa madre adoptiva, no es falta de agradecimiento, abnegada, y dedicada. si no el llamado de mi espíritu, que me lleva y me enseña la búsqueda, Me proporcionaste y me prestaste los juguetes de tus y el origen de mi ser. hijos. Me enseñaste tus jardines, me enseñaste tus hospitales, América, América, tus montañas, tus ríos, tus lagos. que tanto te admiro, que tanto te respeto y que tanto te amo. Me enseñaste tus leyes, y me enseñaste disciplina. No me alcanzaría el resto de mi vida, para poder decirte: Me dejaste descansar sobre tus tierras, que cuanto agradezco tus ru-ru-llos, fuiste abnegable, suave y tierna. cuando apenas era una criatura, y cuando me enseñaste a caminar erecta. Ahora, ahora, esta tu hija que te llegó a buscar, América Mía. y que sin palabras, me voy, pero me voy sabiendo que existes, te pidió que la adoptaras, y que existirás siempre, sin leyes, ni abogados, ni manuscritos, sin parteras, porque eres la abundante, la inmensa, y sin dolores del parir. y eres esa mujer que nunca se cansa y siempre tiene para todo aquel que llega a sus potreros, Me dejaste apegarme a tus faldas que nunca duerme, y me cubriste con tu sombra. pero siempre esta pasiva.

Me protegiste con tus inmensas montañas y cordilleras, América, América me saciaste la sed, con la inmensidad Te amo. y la bastedad de tus ríos.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 21 My Little Honey Eyes Claudia Urey Trans. Miguel Ángel Ángeles

Some years ago I found my Little Honey Eyes, then after a few months I lost him. I suffered, but not so much, because I always had the hope of finding him anew.

Incredibly, one day I found him, I found him! I couldn’t believe it! He was even more beautiful than the first time I saw him.

Oh my God! How beautiful he was! My happiness was so great, so great that it didn’t fit in my body. Just only to think that I might lose him again caused an unexpected and inexplicable sadness, and only at that moment did I realize, Oh my God! I realized that I loved him and needed him at my side.

From that day, as soon as I awake, I give thanks to God for making possible his return. Return? I don’t know if one day he left, I don’t know if one day I lost him, or worse even, O my God! I don’t know if one day I had him with me. I don’t know if one day he felt my presence and my silent love. Could he have heard my internal voice that called to him in shouts and howls that I released every day, every night that I didn’t feel him near me?

My Little Honey Eyes, my Little Honey Eyes, come, I need you. I want to know where you are. I want to know if you’re okay. Are they treating you well? Are you happy? Do you not miss me? Can you live without my pampering and attention? How do you do it? Because I can’t manage it, nor do I want to live without your pampering, without your little honey eyes looking at me profoundly with that gaze so tender, so clear, so transparent, begging me: want me, love me, here I am solely for you . . .

And his tail, Oh my God! His tail! How he moved it to and fro when he heard my voice, no matter how far away I was, he reacted with his little tail straight up when he heard my voice, Oh my God! How happy it made me to feel that . . .

His barks, oh my goodness! His barks were like poems whispering in my ear: you make me happy, you give me peace, by your side I feel safe, loved, complete. Don’t leave me, even though sometimes I act badly, keep me, don’t abandon me, give me that unconditional love that only you can give to me. Please don’t leave me, don’t leave me, because without you I feel lost.

Oh my goodness! Now my Little Honey Eyes is very sad, and I don’t know how to console him. I give him all I have, I feed him my caresses, with my pampering and my love, and even then his little honey eyes still look very sad. I don’t want to think it, but I should. Does he no longer feel happy with me? Will he abandon me? Oh my goodness! Would he do it? Would he leave me again in the dark? In the uncertainty? In my desperation? In my sadness? Oh my goodness! I don’t want that. I don’t want it.

Please, please, my God, I’m desperate for someone to help me to learn to cure the sadness of my Little Honey Eyes. What must I do to keep him with his little honey eyes full of happiness by my side, I don’t want him to die . . . that sentiment that unites us and will unite us in all of our future lives. My dog, my dog, my Little Honey Eyes, my Little Honey Eyes I love you . . . I need you so much. Don’t abandon me, because without you I will die.

22 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Mis Ojitos de Miel Claudia Urey

Algunos años atrás, me encontré con mis Ojitos de Miel, luego pasado unos meses lo perdí. Sufrí pero no tanto porque siempre tuve la esperanza de reencontrarlo nuevamente.

Un día prodigiosamente me lo encontré, ¡¡¡Me lo encontré!!! ¡¡¡No podía creerlo!!! Estaba más lindo que cuando lo vi por vez primera.

¡Oh Dios mío! ¡Qué lindo que estaba! Mi alegría era tan grande, tan grande que no cabía en mi cuerpo. Solo pensar que lo perdería nuevamente, me provocaba una tristeza inesperada e inexplicable y solo en ese momento me di cuenta, ¡Oh Dios mío!, me di cuenta . . . de cuánto lo amaba, y lo necesitaba a mi lado.

Desde ese día, todos los dias cuando me levanto, le doy gracias a Dios, por haber hecho posible su regreso. ¿Regreso? No sé si algún día se fue, no sé si algún día lo perdí, o peor aún, ¡Oh Dios mío! No sé si algún día lo tuve conmigo. No sé si algún día sintió mi presencia y mi amor silencioso. Habrá escuchado mi voz interna que lo llamaba a gritos o ladridos que yo daba cada día, cada noche que no lo sentía conmigo:

Mis Ojitos de Miel, mis Ojitos de Miel, ven te necesito. Quiero saber dónde estás. Quiero saber si estás bien. ¿Te están tratando bien? ¿Sos feliz? ¿No me extrañas? ¿Puedes vivir sin mis mimos y mis atenciones? ¿Cómo lo haces? Porque yo no puedo, ni quiero vivir sin tus mimos, sin tus ojitos de miel mirándome profundamente, con esa mirada tan tierna, tan limpia, tan transparente, pidiéndome: quiéreme, ámame, mímame, cuídame, aquí estoy solo para ti . . .

Y su cola, ¡Oh mi Dios!, su colita como la giraba de un lado a otro, cuando escuchaba mi voz, por muy lejos que yo estuviera, él reaccionaba con su colita parada cuando escuchaba mi voz. ¡Oh dios mío! qué feliz me hacía sentir eso . . .

Sus ladridos, ¡Oh Dios mío! sus ladridos eran como poemas susurrándome al oído: tú me haces feliz, tú me das paz, a tu lado me siento seguro, amado y completo . . . No me dejes, aunque algunas veces me porte mal, consérvame, no me abandones, dame ese amor incondicional que solo tú me lo puedes dar. Por favor, no me dejes, no me dejes, que sin ti me siento perdido.

¡Oh Dios mío! ahora mis Ojitos de Miel está muy triste y no sé como consolarlo, le doy todo lo que poseo, lo alimento con mis caricias, con mis mimos y mi amor y aun así sus ojitos de miel se ven muy tristes. No quiero pensarlo pero debo de hacerlo. ¿Ya no se siente bien conmigo? ¿Me abandonará? ¡Oh Dios mío! ¿Lo hará? ¿Me dejará nuevamente en la oscuridad, en la incertidumbre, en mis desesperanzas, en mis tristezas? ¡Oh Dios mío! No quiero eso. No lo quiero.

Por favor, por favor ¡Dios mío!, estoy desesperada que alguien me ayude a saber cómo sanar la tristeza de mis Ojitos de Miel. ¿Qué debo de hacer para conservarlo con sus ojitos de miel llenos de felicidad a mi lado?, no quiero que se muera… ese sentimiento que nos une y que nos unirá en todas nuestras vidas futuras. Mi perro, mi perro, mis Ojitos de Miel, mis Ojitos de Miel cuánto te amo . . . cuánto te necesito. No me abandones que yo sin ti me muero.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 23 I Saw Him Only Once Lo Vi Solo Una Vez Ricardo Hernández Ricardo Hernández Trans. Luz Aguirre

Barbershops bring me bad memories. Las peluquerías me traen un mal recuerdo. That’s why I keep my hair long. Es por eso que ando de pelo largo. My bad relationship with them (the barbershops) has nothing to do Mi mala relación con ellas (las peluquerías) no tiene que ver con el temor with fear of scissors or with the memory of a chopped cut done a las tijeras o a la memoria de un corte trasquilado de mal gusto. in poor taste. Verán: es que nunca conocí a mi padre, o más bien, lo vi solo una vez. You see: it is only that I never knew my father, or rather, I saw him Una tarde estando tirado de panza jugando con mis carritos, mi madre only once. me mandó llamar y me dijo: “Prepárate, tu padre va a venir para One evening while lying on my stomach playing with my cars, my llevarte a que te corten el pelo”. No supe qué pensar y me volví mother called me and said, “Get ready, your father is coming to a echar de panza al suelo. take you to cut your hair.” El timbre sonó, mama abrió la puerta y de su boca salieron tres palabras: I didn’t know what to think and turned back on my stomach. The bell “A si . . . pasa.” rang. Mom opened the door and from her mouth came three Yo seguía echado de panza en el suelo cuando de repente ante mis ojos words, “Yeah . . . come in.” un par de zapatos extraños aparecieron. Una voz ronca (extraña) I was there, still lying on my tummy on the floor, when suddenly before me saludó. Una mano extraña me ayudó a levantarme (miré su cara my eyes a pair of strange shoes appeared. A hoarse voice (strange) con el temor con el que se observa a un eclipse solar). Me subió a greeted me. A strange hand helped me up (I looked at his face un coche extraño. Nos dirigimos por calles extrañas. with the fear reserved for observing a solar eclipse). He took me Finalmente llegamos a nuestro destino: Peluquería “El Marino”. El to a strange car. We went through strange streets. sitio era muy amplio y con motivos marinos, barcos pintados en Finally we reached our destination: Barbershop “The Sailor.” The place las paredes. Recuerdo los senos de una sirena de pelos rubios que was very spacious with sea motifs, ships painted on the walls. I montaba a un caballito de mar. Recuerdo redes de pesca colgando remember a breasty blond mermaid riding a seahorse. I remember del techo. Me sentía atrapado. fish nets hanging from the ceiling. I felt trapped. Encima de una de las sillas rojas forradas de plástico permanecía un On one of those red plastic-covered chairs, a boy sat, his face like a niño sentado con semblante de prisionero de guerra humillado. humiliated prisoner of war. Un viejito de gafas gruesas y bata blanca cortaba a diestra y siniestra An old man in thick glasses and white coat was busily cutting his victim’s el cabello de su víctima como queriendo desvanecerle el alma. El hair left and right, as if to dispel his soul. The boy seemed to be niño parecía que se auto-hipnotizaba frente al espejo para evitar hypnotizing himself in the mirror to prevent such degradation. semejante degradación (es muy diferente lo que ve un niño a lo (A child sees in the mirror something very different from what que ve un adulto en un espejo). an adult sees.) El niño bajó del trono de los desdichados. El peluquero sacudió el The child came down off the throne of the wretched. The barber shook delantal con fuerza, preparándolo para su próxima víctima. Yo his apron heavily to prepare it for his next victim. I got up on the subí a la silla. Otros niños me miraban. El viejito volteó a ver a mi chair. Other kids looked at me. padre: “¿Cómo lo va a querer?” The old man turned to my father. “How do you want it?” My father Mi padre con cierta certeza exclamó, “Cortito, bonito, como exclaimed with some certainty, “Short, nice, like a young man.” hombrecito.” Before the mirror I was a spectator of my imposed transformation. I Ante el espejo fui espectador de mi transformación impuesta. Me sentí felt like a piece of property. I wanted to disappear for a moment. propiedad privada. Quise desaparecer por un momento. I set my eyes on a giant ship’s wheel on one of the walls of the Fijé mi vista en un timón gigante que yacía en una de las paredes del place. I imagined myself taking that big wheel with both hands lugar. Me imaginé tomando ese gran timón con ambas manos para and steering this ship towards my escape, with all these pirates dirigir este barco rumbo a mi escape con todos estos piratas detrás behind me talking about economics, politics, and things that do de mí hablando de economía, política y cosas que no brillaban not shine in my universe. The barber stopped cutting. He passed en mi universo. El peluquero dejó de cortar. Pasó una brocha a brush with baby powder on my neck and shoulders. “What do con talco sobre mi cuello y hombros. “¿Qué le parece?” le dijo el you think?” said the old man to my father. viejo a mi padre. He just nodded. “Like a young man, right?” Él solo asintió. “Como hombrecito ¿verdad?” We left. During the ride home, Dad gave me life lessons that to this day Salimos de allí. En el transcurso a casa, papá me dio lecciones de vida que I can’t remember. The car stopped. Mom met me at the door of hasta este día no recuerdo. El auto se detuvo. Mamá me esperaba the house. I got out of the car, and it just left. My mother touched en la puerta de la casa. Bajé del auto y este arrancó. Mi madre tocó my head as if trying to find a thorn. mi cabeza como queriendo sentir una espina.

Dedicated to the work of Alice Miller. Dedicado a la obra de Alice Miller.

24 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore About the Authors

Luz Aguirre has lived Claudia Urey is from León, Nicaragua, and has been in New York for more than in New York and New Jersey since she arrived in the United twenty years. She was born States seven years ago. She says her mother is the most in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. important person in her life. From an early age, Claudia has She is utterly in love with her worked to help those most in need. She currently works in a culture and lives it to the fullest program that gives assistance to Latino immigrants and cites in this marvelous city filled among her driving passions, justice and reading. with Mexicanidad. She has a wonderfully supportive family Luz Aguirre, 2010. Photo: and is the mother of a nine- Alejandra Regalado year-old. She has participated for a year in the workshop led by Mary Ellen Sanger at Ricardo Hernández Mano a Mano, where she also works. A contributor to the was born in autumn by San Los Lunes blog, she hopes someday to write about urgent Francisco Bay. His mother is issues, such as immigration. from Chihuahua and his father from the State of Mexico. His first childhood memories are as Leonardo Anzures Ruíz is Pueblan to his core, follows: seaweed, Candlestick forced into exile by the political, economic, and social crises Park, and Curious George books. that prevail in beautiful, wounded Mexico. He emigrated In the late ’70s, as a seven-year- to the United States bringing a backpack full of dreams, old child, he enters Mexican which has now become a suitcase full of nightmares. He territory where he realizes for works in a kitchen to pay his expenses and is an actor the first time the existence of a and writer for pleasure in the city of New York. The city wide variety of insects and fruits, closed its doors to him—but he has been able to sneak in particular bees and mangos. Ricardo Hernández, He completes all of his basic 2009. Photo: Julio Mon- underneath, if only to bring the message of his work to tero the whole community. Leo has been an active member of studies in the State of Jalisco, Mano a Mano since its early days and has performed widely sponsored by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In with La Carpa street theater throughout the city. His piece Guadalajara, he undertakes his university studies and begins “Birth” is part of a larger unpublished work, Las Memorias his intellectual and artistic formation. He comes to New de Facundo (Memories of Facundo). He is seeking a publisher for York City in 2000, where he can be found cycling through his manuscript and asks that helpful inquiries be directed the streets of Manhattan and doing yoga in the East Village. to him at [email protected]. He is a singer, , and creator of the musical group Beboluz. He can be reached at ricardohernandezramirez@ gmail.com.

Betsy Lainez is from El Salvador and has been in New York since her arrival in the United States almost thirty years ago. She credits her mother with being the pillar and inspiration of her large family of brothers and sisters. Betsy enjoys her career that gives support and Betsy Laínez. Photo: Cris- tian I. Peña, Crisma Imaging assistance to those around her.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 25 Ferenc Keresztesi: Traditional

o fil e Hungarian Wood-Carving BY LISA OVERHOLSER

When you walk onto the property of artist work dogs, they were loyal protectors, guarding chickens, goats, geese, sheep, and turkeys on Ferenc Keresztesi, one of the first clues you herds of livestock, as well as the families that the property—take up much of their time. might have that this is a Hungarian household owned them. Occasionally, noblemen were Lucky visitors might even catch a rare glimpse is the dog. Ámos, a large animal covered in given a kuvasz as a special honor. of a Transylvanian naked-neck chicken, an old thick, white fur, is a kuvasz , one of the oldest These days, Ámos provides more compan- Hungarian poultry breed that is considered to Pr Artist of all dog breeds. The kuvasz is thought to have ionship than protection to Ferenc and his wife, be extremely meaty and is not often seen in come to Hungary when nomadic Hungarian Éva, at their farm home located among the roll- North America. tribes brought the dog with them from the ing hills in the river town of West Coxsackie, These uniquely Hungarian breeds have Central Asian steppes to settle the Carpathian New York. Daily chores on the farm—tending become a subtle expression of Hungarian Basin in the ninth century. Traditionally bred as to the garden and looking after the numerous identity for Ferenc and Éva. Like the delicious jam-filled palacsinta (Hungarian pancakes) Éva makes for lunch or the occasional items of traditional Hungarian embroidery that deco- rate their household, such expressions are a conscious way for them to connect with their heritage. Ferenc’s Hungarian wood-carvings function in a similar fashion. The traditional graveposts and gates that he crafts allow him to express his identity as a Hungarian and engage with cultural history.

Ferenc in Transylvania For Ferenc, that engagement has meant an artistic connection with the oldest layers of Hungarian culture. Ferenc was born in 1964 in the northwestern Romanian town of Halmeu (Halmi in Hungarian). The city is located in Transylvania, a region that has always been historically complex and culturally diverse. Although the region is in Romania today, it was part of the Hungarian nation from the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the year 896 until shortly after World War I, when the Treaty of Trianon gave the region to Romania. The strong Hungarian cul- tural presence is kept alive today by traditional practitioners who have worked hard to maintain their identity. Ferenc’s father worked as a furniture maker, and it was only natural that Ferenc learned a few things from his father about the business. He learned how to work with wood, making fur- niture and also restoring it. Yet after graduating from school, it was difficult for him to advance A Székely wooden gate at a Catholic church in Campul Cetatii, Romania (Vármezö). Mo- tifs include the sun and moon (in the shaded area at the top), tulips, and birds. The three further as an ethnic Hungarian in Romania, so round holes under the overhang are pigeon roosts. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

26 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Ferenc and Éva at their wedding in Troy, New York, 2005. The wooden posts surrounding them were part of a gate carved by Ferenc. Photo courtesy of Ferenc and Éva Keresztesi. he went into the army. Even there, Ferenc real- ians, a very similar looking bird, the turul, is a The Székely claim to be direct descendants of ized he could not advance to the highest levels. mythological bird that plays an important role the Huns, although their origins are debated, He was transferred to an air force pilot training in the nation’s creation . The turul looks with some scholars claiming they are of Turkic center in Caracal, outside of Bucharest, where very much like a large eagle or falcon, and it is origin, others claiming they are of Avar ances- he was employed as a carver. He mostly worked usually translated in English to one of these try, and still others claiming that they are simply with harder materials like marble and cement, two, even though there are other words in Magyar tribes who came to the area before carving statues, monuments, models, and other Hungarian that directly translate to eagle (sas) the 896 conquest. Regardless of their origins, such items. He estimates that he carved sixty and falcon (sólyom). The turul is also thought to many Székely cultural traditions reflect the three-dimensional wall sculptures that depicted represent the Árpád clan, the first ruling clan of earliest beliefs of the pre-Christian Hungarian significant moments in military history. the Hungarian nation, and in particular, Attila tribes, including a cosmology focused around Such work laid the foundation for his great himself, the renowned Hun leader. worship of the sun, moon, and other elements interest in the artistic interpretation of history. At the time, neither Ferenc nor his Roma- of nature. This cosmology was reflected in the He also began to gain a more sophisticated un- nian superiors were fully aware of the symbol- Székely people’s material culture, in everything derstanding of the complex cultural dynamics ism. But with his interest piqued after he left from how their houses were laid out in the vil- of his homeland during his years in the army. the army, he met a fellow wood-carver who was lage to their use of the sun, moon, and other He was once assigned to work on a carving of more well-versed in the wood-carving tradi- natural symbols as motifs in their folk art. Icarus, the mythological Greek figure who fell tions of the Transylvanian region. As Ferenc to his doom after flying too close to the sun. began to study with him, he understood what a Székelykapu Ferenc eventually included a large bird with a rich legacy there was. He was particularly struck A good example can be found in the beauti- scepter and a sword in its claws. In Romania, by the cultural heritage of the Székely people, ful Székelykapu (Székely gates) of Transylvania. the coat of arms includes an eagle with a believed to be among the earliest of the settlers Gates were built as additions to village homes, scepter and sword in its claws. But for Hungar- from the East to reach the Carpathian Basin. largely with a functional purpose: to keep

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 27 the outside world out and guard the privacy consider the tulip as evidence of the eastern carvings, restoration work, and gilding, sup- of the domestic dwelling. In an agricultural origins of Hungarian tribes, since the tulip was plied with a letter of support from the Roma- economy, the gates also served to keep animals introduced to western Europe by the Turks. nian army attesting to the quality of his work. from roaming inside. Made out of local wood After picking up restoration work here When Sotheby’s closed the upstate branch, he such as oak, they were intricately carved with and there, Ferenc continued his research into moved to New York City to follow the work, symbols and sometimes painted, as well. Built Székely wood-carving traditions like those but found that big city life did not appeal to even into the twentieth century in some parts found in the Székelykapu. In 1988, he moved him. So he moved back to the Capital District, of Transylvania, highly embellished gates to Hungary, where he obtained work at the settling in Troy and picking up restoration and eventually served the secondary function of Hungarian Office of Monument Preservation, carving work wherever he could. demonstrating the household’s prosperity. The restoring churches and castles. He also paid He decided to open his own studio and motifs carved or painted into the gate often the bills by building office furniture. Ferenc gallery, where he could continue to explore included symbols like the sun and moon. Tu- moved to the United States in 2000 to work for his artistic research into Transylvanian folk art. lips were also a popular folk-art . Tulips Sotheby’s. At the time, Sotheby’s had a Capital He carved a wooden gate modeled after the are the national flower of Hungary, and many District location, and he worked there doing traditional Székely gates and displayed it in a 2002 exhibition of his work at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy. His carved gate includes some of the same motifs found in the more traditional gates, including various flowers and sun and moon images. When his future wife, Éva, came to his studio to see his work, she immediately felt a connection with the gate, and as she says, “Something in my heart spoke to me.” The gate eventually found its place at their 2005 Albany wedding.

Kopjafák Some other items in the 2002 exhibition were Ferenc’s intricately carved kopjafák (wooden graveposts). Wooden graveposts are not unique to Hungary, but as in other locations, they played an important role in traditional culture. Warriors from the Székely region often used javelins and spears in battle, and when a warrior died, he was honored with a javelin stuck into the ground to mark his grave. Typically, information about the warrior was carved into the javelin shaft by a wood-carver. Wooden grave markers were later used for others in the village, as well, with many local and regional variants coming into existence. The common element was a fairly complex semiotic system of information about the deceased, relayed in the post’s size, shape, color, arrangement, and symbols. For example, smaller posts might have represented the death of an infant, while taller ones indicated adults. Rounded tops, or flowers on the top, usually indicated a female, while pointed or crown-like tops might have indicated a male. Symbols were also employed. For example, a carved “X” Ferenc at work carving in his studio. Photo courtesy of Ferenc and Éva Keresztesi. was thought to ward off evil spirits, while the

28 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore sun symbol represented the ancient object of worship. In his book on Hungarian folk beliefs, Tekla Dömötör noted the importance of the system of communication represented by the grave- posts: “The residents of a village can always find their way about in their own cemetery, and then know what is signified by the form and color of the posts” (Dömötör 1982, 264). Es- pecially for people who may not have been able to read or write, it was a critical way to com- municate information. But in addition to the purely functional purpose, other scholars have noted that this kind of expressive system allows for remarkable individual creativity within the communally bounded form. In a 1979 article, Tünde Zentai claimed: “This interpretation of grave-signs might furthermore throw light Kopjafák (wooden graveposts) carved by Ferenc, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Photo on the way that creativity works within the courtesy of Ferenc and Éva Keresztesi. boundaries of what we call folklore. The final shape of any product of folk art is first of of purposes. On one hand, it provides a more gravepost were objects selected to represent all determined by the traditional demands of keenly aesthetic outlet that supplements his Hungarian culture in the dedication of the the community and its communicative values. everyday work as a carver and restorer. Since Magyar Millennium Park in Wellington, New Personal messages of the creative imagination 2005, he has worked for Ferenc Restoration, a Zealand, in 2003. Another recent trend has could only be allowed to come through within company that his wife and he started together. been the creation of Székelykapu for gifting this framework.” Yet he makes a clear distinction between the in sister city celebrations. woodwork he creates for work, such as the These contemporary uses of old folk forms Ferenc and Hungarian Tradition restoration work that pays the bills and even the demonstrate that function changes over time, The wooden gate and graveposts Ferenc goat milking stand he made for use on his farm, particularly with expressive forms considered carved for his 2002 exhibition are highly and the woodwork he creates as art. His Hun- to be among the oldest. For Ferenc Keresztesi, creative and aesthetic examples of older tra- garian wood-carvings are as much art as are the the traditional gates and graveposts he carves ditional forms. The graveposts are remarkable oil paintings, three-dimensional sculptures, and fulfill an important function in his life. They examples of a sub-type of columned post that other fine works that he produces. On the other are an expression of cultural identity made for is the same on all four sides. According to Fe- hand, it allows him to maintain a connection himself and for others who desire to share in renc and the research he has done, the wood to his Hungarian cultural heritage and history. the expression of that identity. itself is also a kind of symbol. Ferenc explains, Even among his artistic works, which include “Wood has a life cycle, just as a human being sculptures commissioned by local churches, References has a life cycle. We live, we grow old, and we the Székely gate and graveposts hold a special Dömötör, Tekla. 1982. Hungarian Folk Beliefs. die. Other materials like stone do not have such meaning for him. Though not Székely himself, Trans. from Hungarian by Christopher M. a life cycle; they are hard and permanent.” It he strongly identifies with these ancient cultural Hann. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó. is another example of the pre-Christian belief expressions as a Hungarian and especially as a Zentai, Tünde. 1979. The Sign-Language of system of the ancient Hungarians. Transylvanian. Hungarian Graveyards. Folklore 90.2:131–40. Ferenc has a strong affinity for ancient Indeed, in the contemporary context, these Hungarian culture—which is not surprising forms now tend to function as a kind of sym- considering that his given name was “Attila.” bol of Hungarian identity precisely because of

Although he goes by Ferenc and not Attila in their designation as very old traditional forms Lisa Overholser is staff folklorist at the everyday life, he is also sometimes referred to in Hungary. As such, they serve as identity New York Folklore Society, where she as “Attila” by friends and family because of manages the mentoring and profes- markers for those like Ferenc who wish to sional development program and his enthusiasm for these very old Hungarian maintain a connection with heritage. In some contributes to many other projects and traditional expressive forms. For him, artisti- cases, such objects can represent an entire initiatives. She holds a Ph.D. in folklore and ethnomusicology from the Univer- cally engaging with these genres serves a couple group of people. Both Székely gates and a sity of Indiana.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 29 y Bee’s Knees and Cat’s Whiskers BY JOHN THORN p l a

Miss Doherty’s assignment to her sopho- to throw his voice across the room like a I love these archaisms or vestiges, too. It’s more section of English at Richmond Hill ventriloquist. When I would toss a colloquial downright hilarious that sportswriters today High School was to write a single-page essay or slang term into an archly constructed will write, “Beckett was knocked out of the on “My Favorite Books.” My response, back sentence, my purpose was to jar, to amuse, box,” or “New York notched three runs in in 1960, was to award the palm to Heinrich and then to return, invigorated, to an exposi- its half of the inning.” Not a mother’s son Harrer’s My Seven Years in Tibet, the book tory manner. of them seems aware that we haven’t had I had most recently read; mild approba- Lately I have begun to come around, and a pitcher’s box since 1892, and we haven’t tion to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the it is my prolific e-mail habit that I have to counted runs by scoring notches into a stick Baskervilles and mysteries in general; and thank. Writing speedily and often thought- since the 1840s. short shrift to the entire genre of military lessly, I have neatly bypassed Miss Doherty’s Peter Morris convinced me that his ex- books, which I said I just “couldn’t stand.” censors—and more importantly, my own— planation for the derivation of the baseball Miss Doherty indulged my opinions and and defaulted to my own voice, my own word fan was correct: that the term was kindly graded the essay at 90, but noted in ear, and my own love of words once all the originally used in derision, as an insiders’ the margin that my chatty remark that had rage, but now quaint: swell (first appearance (players, managers, owners) dismissal of out- meant to tar-brush everyone from Martial in print, 1897), crummy (1859), nifty (1868), sider wannabes (rather recent, 1988). The idea to Marshall was “colloq.” (colloquial), and jerk (1935), groovy (1941). of ceaseless tongue-flapping being a meta- thus deficient. By way of explanation after The power of patois is that it comes from phorical fan seems right, and the controversy returning the paper to me, she added that the bottom up, without social sanction, often of fanatic versus fancy as the word’s source good writing was “elevated speech.” from special-interest subcultures (surfers, seems contrived and incongruent with the For decades I had displayed that naïve techies, druggies) or ethnic or sexual minori- class of the baseball set. Imagine and, frankly, not so hot (colloq.) essay in a ties, and always with an amusedly slant stance looking upon a crowd of several thousand frame on the wall of my study to chasten toward majority culture. Most of it vanishes people all fanning themselves: might you me and to hearten others who might pause rapidly—indeed, so rapidly that even a gen- not refer to the congregants themselves as to read it. Today it resides in a box in stor- eration later we are left to wonder what the fans? Or maybe the name comes from the age, and I have come to like Miss Doherty catch-phrase meant in the first place. The incessant chatter and debate by which true less well than I did when I was her pupil in derivation of off-color terminology was baseball devotees are known. 1960. Only in recent years have I realized the particularly amusing to trace when I was a In a similar example of synecdoche, in lasting impact of her offhand observation schoolboy, and my enduring interest in such which the name of the part is transferred that good writing is somehow more formal, sleuthing is one of the many ways in which to the whole, today a visibly athletic male more structured, more dignified than good I have proudly arrested my development. (or oddly and increasingly, and no longer talk. I became an English major in college Other men may lust after Maseratis, iPads, disparagingly, a female) is termed a jock. This and wrote stiff and stuffy, if well received, and trophy wives; I have my microfilm word derives not from a horse jockey, but papers. I became a professional writer of reader, my Harry Potter magnifying glass, from the jock strap worn to support the male sports history books, differing from my and my compact edition of the Oxford genitalia in active sport. Okay—but where peers in that my prose seemed professorial English Dictionary. For me adventure is at does “jock strap” come from? Not from the and chilly, where theirs was often imprecise all times but a step away. Although I am a racetrack, I suggest, but from Jacques Strop, yet energetic. nerd (1957; probable origin, a character in a a supporting character in Robert Macaire, an Well, folks, Miss Doherty was wrong—it Dr. Seuss book of seven years earlier, If I obscure 1830s play by Benjamin Antier. Ya turns out that the best writing is closest to Ran the Zoo), I am not singular in such pur- heard it here first. the best talk, if not the same damn thing. I suits. I have a good many friends who would could have learned this from Mark Twain, proudly describe themselves as geeks (1875!). John Thorn is the au- from Joseph Mitchell, from H. L. Mencken, One, Priscilla Astifan of Rochester, wrote thor and editor of many from Walt Whitman, and from countless to me about baseball’s nautical terms (on books, including New others who often turned fancy phrases, but deck, in the hold, around the horn), saying, “It’s York 400 (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2009). never abandoned their unique voices. But fascinating the way old references prevail He lives in Saugerties, for the longest time, I somehow thought even when the associations that initiated New York. Copyright © John Thorn. that it was a delicious subtlety for an author them are long gone”—a fine observation.

30 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Button Accordions: A Call for Information BY TED McGRAW

utton accordions made by Ital- B ian craftsmen and sold to the Irish market in New York City are the subject of a research project that grew out of a lecture I give on the McNulty family. The McNultys, based in New York, were the hottest Irish act on the East Coast from the late 1930s through the 1950s. The but- ton has always been a popular for Irish music, and Ann “Ma” McNulty—who learned to play in County Roscommon, Ireland, before she emigrated here in 1910—had five of these amazing little instruments, each tuned in a different key. We would like to know who actually made the parts and completed instruments, which accordions were made in New York City and which were imported, and how these manufacturing patterns changed across the twentieth century.

Two of the major accordion brands were Baldoni and Walters. Ma McNulty had one Baldoni, two Walters, and two Superiors. Superior was a small company run by Frank Umbriaco that made pri- marily piano accordions. My colleagues and I have only been able to locate five of their button accordions. All three of these companies had retail shops in Man- Peter, Eileen, and Ma McNulty, circa 1940. Ma is shown with one of her two Superior hattan at the following addresses: Baldoni accordions. Photo from Copley record jacket 9-610, courtesy of Tom McGrath.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 31 Bartoli Company, 60 Mulberry Street (1908); Frank Walters, 1504 3rd Avenue; and Superior Accordion Company, 205 East 116th Street (1932) and 171 East 116th Street (1938). The Iorio Company manufacturers also built some Irish ac- cordions. They were located at Bax- ter Street (1907), Prince and Broadway (1919), and the ninth floor of the Carl Fischer Building at 80th Street and 4th Av- enue (1935–47). These Irish accordions—or “boxes,” as they are commonly called—usually had ten keys or twenty notes; push (in) and pull (out) were different notes. They also had two to four bass keys, four to six sets of reeds, and elaborate engraved decorations with a harp, shamrocks, the Irish and American flags, and the player’s name all in rhinestones. Some had more sets of reeds and more buttons. The double-row instruments with nineteen or twenty-one keys started to become more popular in the 1940s. The second row is tuned a half note from the main row: for example, D/C#. This allows the player more options for variations and the ability to play easily in more than one key, with a full chromatic scale available. Many of these instruments have been photographed and documented, and others have been overhauled and are still being played today. The story of who actually built these

instruments, however, remains obscure. Bill Sullivan with his 1929 Baldoni. Bill, who emigrated from Galway and settled in Brooklyn, was a friend and contemporary of the great Peter Conlon, who owned a 1928 Baldoni. For many, the widely recorded Conlon still holds the title of best Irish single-row box player. Sullivan made only one CD late in his life, in 1988, for Sampler records. Photo courtesy of Mitzie Collins, Sampler Records, Rochester, New York.

The name “Walters” is not Italian. Who parts may have been imported, until after was Frank Walters, and why was he in the World War II, when manufacture in New Irish accordion business? It needs to be York stopped altogether, and entire instru- confirmed that some of the early (1920s ments were imported from Italy. and ’30s) boxes were built by the Iorio Similarities among Italian-made instru- Company, which manufactured mostly pi- ments and some of the Baldoni and Wal- ano accordions at its factory in New York ters accordions sold in New York suggest City. At its peak, the Iorio Company em- that some of the New York Irish button ployed about eighty workers building ac- accordions were built in the Italian facto- cordions. Some of the parts, like the reeds, ries of Moreschi and Sonola in Italy. There One of the highly decorated pre-war may have always been imported from Italy; may have been other Italian factories, as Walters boxes. Photo: Hugh O’Rourke as time went on, more and more of the well, that built instruments for one or both

32 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore A nineteen-key Baldoni accordion, circa 1950, like the one played by Jerry O’Brien of , who recorded for Copley records. Jerry was one of Joe Derrane’s teachers and made several recordings with Joe. Photo: Ted McGraw

Several of these black Baldoni pre-war boxes exist. We don’t know where they fit in the chronology or who made them. Photo: Ted McGraw

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 33 of the New York retail shops and other shops like O’Byrne DeWitt in Boston. It Submission Guidelines for also needs to be confirmed that all of the Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore Superior accordions were built in New York. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is Style a membership magazine of the New York In short, we would like to know who The journal follows The Chicago Manual of Style. Folklore Society (www.nyfolklore.org). Consult Webster’s Third International Dictionary for actually made the parts and completed in- The New York Folklore Society is a nonprofit, questions of spelling, meaning, and usage, and avoid struments, which accordions were made in statewide organization dedicated to furthering gender-specific terminology. cultural equity and cross-cultural understanding Footnotes. Endnotes and footnotes should be New York City and which were imported, through programs that nurture folk cultural expres- avoided; incorporate such information into the text. and how these manufacturing patterns sions within communities where they originate, Ancillary information may be submitted as a sidebar. share these traditions across cultural boundaries, Bibliographic citations. For citations of text changed across the twentieth century. and enhance the understanding and appreciation of from outside sources, use the author-date style It’s this story of the Italian emigrant folk culture. Through Voices the society communi- described in The Chicago Manual of Style. cates with professional folklorists and members of Language. All material must be submitted in craftsmen in New York City and their rela- related fields, traditional artists, and a general public English. Foreign-language terms (transliterated, tionships to their counterparts back home interested in folklore. where appropriate, into the Roman alphabet) should Voices is dedicated to publishing the content of be italicized and followed by a concise parenthetical in Italy that is being researched by me, folklore in the words and images of its creators and English gloss; the author bears responsibility for the Paul Groff, Hugh O’Rourke, and Peter practitioners. The journal publishes research-based correct spelling and orthographics of non-English articles, written in an accessible style, on topics words. British spellings should be Americanized. Cashman. We are all players, and two of related to traditional art and life. It also features us have done restoration work on the old stories, interviews, reminiscences, essays, folk poetry and music, photographs, and artwork drawn from Publication Process boxes. There are additional photographs Unless indicated, the New York Folklore Society people in all parts of New York State. Columns holds copyright to all material published in Voices: on my web site showing the internal parts on subjects such as photography, sound and video The Journal of New York Folklore. With the submission recording, legal and ethical issues, and the nature of of a Baldoni and a Superior: www.tedmc- of material to the editor, the author acknowledges traditional art and life appear in each issue. that he or she gives Voices sole rights to its publica- graw.com (under button accordion pages). tion, and that permission to publish it elsewhere We believe that there may be a wealth of Editorial Policy must be secured in writing from the editor. Feature articles. Articles published in Voices For the initial submission, send an e-mail attach- extant information on the companies and represent original contributions to . ment or CD (preferably prepared in Microsoft Word people involved in this industry, and we Although Voices emphasizes the folklore of New and saved as Rich Text Format). York State, the editor welcomes articles based on Copy must be double spaced, with all pages num- hope to enlist the help of Voices readers— the folklore of any area of the world. Articles on bered consecutively. To facilitate anonymous review especially those living in New York City— the theory, methodology, and geography of folklore of feature articles, the author’s name and biography are also welcome, as are purely descriptive articles in uncovering it. In addition to gathering should appear only on a separate title page. in the ethnography of folklore. In addition, Voices Tables, charts, maps, illustrations, photographs, information about the manufacture of provides a home for “orphan” tales, , and captions, and credits should follow the main text and songs, whose contributors are urged to provide these instruments, I am trying to help the be numbered consecutively. All illustrations should be contextual information. clean, sharp, and camera-ready. Photographs should be McNulty family locate Ma McNulty’s two Authors are encouraged to include short personal prints or duplicate slides (not originals) or scanned at reminiscences, anecdotes, isolated tales, narratives, Walters accordions, both labeled with the high resolution (300+ dpi) and e-mailed to the edi- songs, and other material that relates to and en- tor as jpg or tiff files. Captions and credits must be name Ann. If you can provide any infor- hances their main article. included. Written permission to publish each image Typically feature articles range from 1,000 to mation or assistance, please contact me at must be obtained by authors from the copyright 4,000 words and up to 6,000 words at the editor’s holders prior to submission of manuscripts, and the [email protected]. discretion. written permissions must accompany the manuscript Reviews and review essays. Books, recordings, (authors should keep copies). films, videos, exhibitions, concerts, and the like are Materials are acknowledged upon receipt. The selected for review in Voices for their relevance to editor and two anonymous readers review manu- Ted McGraw, a retired physicist- folklore studies or the folklore of New York State scripts submitted as articles. The review process engineer, has been host and producer and their potential interest to a wide . Per- takes several weeks. of two weekly radio programs for sons wishing to review recently published material Authors receive two complimentary copies of the thirty-five years. He performs on but- should contact the editor. Unsolicited reviews and issue in which their contribution appears and may ton accordion, teaches Irish programs proposals for reviews will be evaluated by the editor purchase additional copies at a discount. Authors in schools, and represents the Irish and by outside referees where appropriate. Follow of feature articles may purchase offprints; price community at the New York State Folk the bibliographic style in a current issue of Voices. information is available upon publication. Arts Roundtable. He has lectured on Reviews should not exceed 750 words. the digitization of recordings and has Correspondence and commentary. Short but authored numerous articles on Irish substantive reactions to or elaborations upon mate- music. A noted collector, McGraw cur- rial appearing in Voices within the previous year are Submission Deadlines rently chairs the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí welcomed. The editor may invite the author of the Éireann North American Archive com- materials being addressed to respond; both pieces Spring–Summer issue November 1 mittee. may be published together. Any subject may be Fall–Winter issue May 1 addressed or rebutted once by any correspondent. The principal criteria for publication are whether, Send submissions as Word files to Eileen in the opinion of the editor or the editorial board, Condon, Voices Editor (e-mail preferred): the comment constitutes a substantive contribution [email protected] or c/o Center for to folklore studies, and whether it will interest our Traditional Music and Dance, 32 Broadway, general readers. Suite 1314, New York, NY 10004. Letters should not exceed 500 words.

34 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore s o ngs

Older Singers and Old Recordings BY DAN MILNER

Last July, I spent a few days at Pinewoods voices to tell ancient and topical tales. One ago. Built around a conversation between Camp in Massachusetts in the good company of my favorite New York State recordings is an “old salt” and a “green boy,” I still find it of a number of fine singers, including three Lawrence Older’s Adirondack Songs and Bal- highly entertaining. Elementary school teach- from England: Tim Radford of Hampshire, lads, recorded by Sandy Paton in 1963 and ers should try to get a copy for their classes. and Anni Fentiman and Dave Weber, respec- reissued as Folk-Legacy CD-15. Most of its Heirloom Records’ web site is www.thecclc. tively from County Durham and Yorkshire. twenty-four tracks bear the mark of British org/heirloom_records. The Folk-Legacy site Len Graham, originally from Ireland’s County heritage, but there are three French-Canadian is www.folklegacy.com. Antrim, was there too, along with Colleen pieces as well, including a paddling song and Frank Warner, who lived at Old Brookville Cleveland from Brant Lake, New York. Col- two dance tunes. was one of the foremost figures of the leen and I had met only once before, at the Lawrence Older left school early to fol- American folk scene during the mid-twentieth annual Eisteddfod in New York City, and low the trade his family had pursued for century. Born in Alabama and raised in Ten- I was thrilled to hear how her singing had generations. In the June 1966 issue of New nessee and North Carolina, Frank, together matured in the past few years. York Folklore Quarterly, he profiled himself with his wife, Anne, collected tirelessly in Colleen is the granddaughter of Sarah as someone who preferred to work with the Northeast and elsewhere from such in- Cleveland, one of the Northeast’s most a single partner or alone rather than in a imitable folk as “Yankee” John Galusha of outstanding song carriers of the twentieth larger-scale commercial logging operation. Minerva, New York, and Lena Bourne Fish century. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on Self-sufficiency and moderation ring out in of Black Brook, New York, and East Jaffrey, New Year’s Day 1905, Sarah’s forebearers that autobiographical sketch as loudly as axe New Hampshire. were all from Ireland: Creedons and Linehans blows resound in the forest. Not surprisingly, Though the pinnacle of Frank’s visibility from County Cork, and Wiggins and Henrys the album opens with his fine rendition of may have come when he appeared in the 1957 from Ulster. Her repertoire was both broad “Once More A-Lumbering Go.” western film Run of the Arrow, starring Rod and deep and contained many rare gems—not Steiger, his truly important accomplishments that she was unique in that regard, but highly To the music of our axes, we’ll make the are his and Anne’s fieldwork—archived at noteworthy, because she amassed a collection woods resound, the ’s American Folklife And many a tall and lofty pine comes of some four hundred traditional songs and Center—samples of which are available on tumbling to the ground. , filed in her memory and backed up in At night, around our good campfire, CDs through Appleseed Recordings at www. a number of chapbooks. They included old we’ll sing while cold winds blow; appleseedmusic.com; their book, Traditional traditional ballads found in the Child collec- And we’ll range the wild woods over and American Songs; and his work on behalf of tion, British broadsides, and folk songs from once more a-lumbering go. children at the YMCA. I had the great plea- and the United States. sure of meeting Frank once, at his home on A brace of songs from the many hours And there’s a classic early vaudeville song: Long Island in 1965. He was an impressive of Sarah’s singing taped by Sandy Paton fellow and, it should be mentioned, an ac- Pat Malone forgot that he was dead. has been reissued as Ballads and Songs of the tive member and former president of the He raised up in his coffin, and he said, Upper Hudson Valley (Folk-Legacy CD-33). It “If you dare to doubt me credit, you’ll New York State Folklore Society. Our Singing contains a splendid selection from her reper- be sorry that you said it! Heritage: Folk Songs Collected and Sung by Frank toire, including “To Wear a Green Willow,” Drive on or else the corpse will break Warner (Elektra LP 153) is my favorite of often called “The Nobleman’s Wedding” in your head.” Frank’s recordings. The album’s back cover the north of Ireland; “Queen Jane” or “The bears a ringing endorsement by Carl Sand- King’s Dochter Lady Jean,” number 52 in Bill Bonyun, born in Brooklyn and a resi- burg. Impressive, indeed! the Child canon; and “Molly Bawn,” about dent of Brookhaven on Long Island, was a a young woman who changes herself into a singer and educator who used folk song as a swan in order to follow her lover, only to meet medium for teaching history. Bill established Dan Milner comes from a long line of traditional with a tragic end. This CD is an important the music department at Old Sturbridge Vil- Irish singers. A cultural recording of American traditional singing, lage, Massachusetts, and founded Heirloom geographer and former ranger in the National and every New Yorker who loves folk songs Records, which issued themed recordings Park Service, he is cur- should have a copy. such as The American Revolution, The Civil War rently teaching Storytell- ing in Song: The Sound recordings are important because through Its Songs and Ballads, and Songs of Yankee Tradition at New York they provide not just words and tunes, but Whaling. I bought a copy of Roll and Go: The University. His most recent recording is Irish Pirate Ballads articulate how traditional singers use their Shantyman’s Day Aboard a Yankee Clipper years (Smithsonian Folkways, 2009).

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 35 Folk Arts Champion: Bess Lomax Hawes, 1921–2009 BY ROBERT BARON

Bess Lomax Hawes, who decisively our folk arts programs during the formative many developed around the country, created shaped American in the late years of their development. through a grand plan conceived by Bess to twentieth century, died in Portland, , Like everyone in my generation of public support NEA-seeded programs in every on November 27, 2009, at the age of 88. folklorists, I knew Bess as a wise, loving, state arts council. It was quite challenging to All Americans are indebted to Bess for her and sometimes painfully pointed mentor. establish and institutionalize our program.

in memo ri am visionary leadership of the Folk Arts Pro- She never hesitated to give candid encour- The initial application to the NEA to fund gram of the National Endowment for the agement and criticism of our work. I spent the New York position resulted from the Arts (NEA). Her major accomplishments many hours talking with Bess during the advocacy of Martin Koenig and Ethel Raim also included directing programs at the development of the Folk Arts Program of of the Balkan Arts Center (now the Center Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, the New York State Council on the Arts for Traditional Music and Dance), coupled folk song and children’s folklore scholarship, (NYSCA) in the 1980s, getting advice—both with Bess’s behind-the-scenes work to prod and delightful singing and songwriting. New requested and unsolicited—about policy NYSCA to apply for a folk arts coordinator Yorkers had a special relationship with Bess. and program design and administration, position. As she did in many states, Bess She lived here as a young woman, and as hearing about her experiences at the NEA, kept a close eye on the NYSCA program director of the NEA Folk Arts Program, and giving her feedback about her own to see that it was maintained, and when she made possible indispensable support for granting program. Our program was one of the folk arts position was threatened with

Folklorist Bess Lomax Hawes (right) at the awards ceremony in 1993. Other honorees included bandleader “Cab” Calloway (left) and musician (center). Photo courtesy of the Archive.

36 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore elimination, she weighed in with all of her over and over again in an attic office at the Singer, songwriter, cultural leader, admin- formidable persuasive powers and inimitable Library of Congress. After traveling around istrator, teacher, and scholar, Bess was a re- authority. Europe, she enrolled at Bryn Mawr Col- markably versatile and accomplished person. Bess was masterful about countering the lege. As a student at Bryn Mawr, she visited She had a strong moral compass, remind- elitism of the arts world, which was far Manhattan for rehearsals of the CBS radio ing us through both advice and personal more pervasive at the time than it is now. program Back Where I Come From, produced example about our primary responsibilities In her extraordinary Sing it Pretty: A Memoir, by Alan Lomax and Nicholas Ray, and to the artists and communities that sustain she recounts: frequented the New York Public Library traditions. Her approach to folklore was and . She moved to New York beautifully epitomized in Step It Down: Games, The fledgling Folk Arts Program City after graduation. While living here in Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American had to wade through the usual thicket the early and mid-1940s she became a key Heritage. Written in collaboration with the of misconceptions about the folk arts. …Even at the National Endowment member of the , worked in outstanding Georgia Sea Island singer Bessie for the Arts, the most unassailable the music department of the Office of War Jones, this book related Jones’s knowledge of these was and is the widespread Information, and married fellow Almanac as a tradition bearer, a student of the tradi- notion that the singular function of Singer Baldwin “Butch” Hawes. tion, and as a dynamic force in maintaining traditional aesthetic systems is just to In 1947 Bess moved to Cambridge, Mas- local children’s folklore traditions. “Mrs. hang around for a while, being a stable sachusetts, with Butch and Corey, the first Jones,” we learn, “does not accept tradition bedrock and providing nutrients for the growth of later complexities, later of her three children, who was followed uncritically. She looks at procedures with the styles, and later inventions…. I found by Naomi and Nick. She taught music to thoughtful and analytical eye of an educator; that there was an ever-present comic adults whom she met as fellow parents at a she is concerned, ultimately, with results. For miasma hanging about the whole idea nursery school and wrote songs with fellow this reason, though she is a tradition carrier, of the folk arts—an insidious, creeping, Progressive Party members. One of these she does not hesitate to say when she thinks straw-hatted, “Oy, veh,” “Wall, I swan” songs, “Charley on the MTA,” written with the ‘old peoples’ were wrong” (1972, 5). Step déclassé stereotype…. I laid down a rule for myself and, hopefully, all who Jacqueline Steiner, was about a subway It Down was at once a pioneering work of might follow me: from this day forth passenger trapped on the train because he collaborative scholarship, a collection of an …no federal public expression, written didn’t bring enough money to pay the fare, important corpus of children’s folklore, an or verbal, should allow the folk arts… collected after exiting the transit system be- analysis of these traditions based on Bess’s to be portrayed as either comical or cause of an irritatingly complicated, recently own scholarly interests in children’s folklore, pitiful. They should be spoken of as instituted procedure. The song became a hit and a vehicle for teaching people to practice sentient, strong, and intimately keyed into the essential structures of their in its diluted Kingston Trio version in 1959. these traditions. It erased the boundaries own particular cultures. (2008, 129–30) Bess relocated to in 1952. She between academic and applied scholarship began to publish academic articles about and honored Bessie Jones as a scholar in The NEA’s National Heritage Fellow- folklore and taught at California State her own right. ships, initiated by Bess, highlight the strength University at Northridge for many years. Often when one would talk to Bess she and majesty of the nation’s best traditional In 1970 she received her M.A. degree from would take a deep breath and think for a artists. Well over twenty New Yorkers have the University of California at Berkeley, moment after a slightly audible sigh. Maybe been honored as National Heritage Fellows studying under . Her master’s you can hear my own sigh now, in sorrow since this program began in 1982, with recip- thesis was a definitive study of a song all for her passing and wistfulness at how much ients including Chuck Campbell, Rosa Elena of us have sung so many times, “Happy more there is to say about this remarkable Egipciaco, Martin Mulvihill, Konstantinos Birthday to You.” woman. Pylarinos, Sandman Sims, and Dave Tarras. Bess’s work at the Smithsonian Festival of Bess spent much time in New York at American Folklife began when she directed References the beginning of her career. Born in Austin a program on California traditions. She Hawes, Bess Lomax. 2008. Sing It Pretty: A in 1921, the daughter of and then became assistant director for programs Memoir. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Bess Bauman Brown Lomax, she grew up for the Bicentennial Smithsonian Festival Jones, Bessie, and Bess Lomax Hawes. 1972. in Texas. She studied at the University of of American Folklife, and she stayed in Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories Texas for a year when she was just fourteen Washington to direct the NEA’s Folk Arts from the Afro-American Heritage. New York: and then moved to Washington, where she Program (later renamed the Folk and Tradi- Harper & Row. worked with her father and brother Alan tional Arts Program) until her retirement in Lomax on editing Our Singing Country, listen- 1992. She was awarded the National Medal Robert Baron directs the Folk Arts Pro- ing with Alan to songs played at full volume of Arts by President in 1993. gram of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) in New York City.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 37 Digging Deep BY LIBBY TUCKER

When I was a little girl, my parents told my wondering about stupid ghosts. No matter train and subway stations, holding bright sisters and me that if we dug deep holes in how inept those spirits were, they seemed to flower arrangements and tall twig brooms. the dirt of our backyard, we might get all the have inspired the building of many bridges. On the last night of our trip, as we drove way to China. Taking this folk saying literally, “Do people still worry about ghosts?” I back to our hotel from the restaurant where we created mountains of dirt with our metal asked our Beijing guide as he led us through we had celebrated our upcoming departure, spoons. At dinnertime, when we whined the artfully constructed maze of the Forbid- we finally discovered how ghosts fit into that we didn’t want to eat our fish stew, our den City. contemporary Chinese life. I felt so tired g ood s p irits parents threatened, “We’ll send your din- “Oh, no!” he told us. “Ghosts are no that I almost missed our tour director’s quiet ner to the starving Chinese!” No Chinese problem now. But long ago, craftsmen remarks about a person he had just seen at children crawled out of our backyard hole. polished jade very carefully to keep ghosts the side of the road. We had been up late Discouraged, my sisters and I put down our away. If you wore many jade bracelets, you the night before, eating crispy starfish, eels, spoons. Instead of digging up dirt, I became could keep ghosts from choking you while scorpions on sticks, and other exotic foods. a folklorist who delves into the intricacies of you slept.” Our trip was almost over, and we had to get oral tradition. “Don’t some people still struggle with money together for tips. Would our suitcases After three decades of hearing stories choking ghosts?” I asked, remembering be too heavy? Would we— about China from my Chinese college stu- the terrible “sitting ghost” in Maxine Hong “Look,” our director said quietly. Craning dents, I finally took a trip to their homeland. Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. my neck, I saw a small fire on the sidewalk. In April, my husband and I participated in “No, they don’t!” he said firmly. Realizing An elderly woman wearing a hat leaned over a two-week tour of three cultural capitals: that I’d been asking too many questions, I the flames, lighting small pieces of paper Shanghai, Xi’an, and Beijing. None of the stopped, but others in my group asked plenty one by one. “She’s doing this because it’s members of our tour group had ever trav- of others. We were an inquisitive crowd, after 10:00 p.m.,” our director explained. eled to China before. When our tour director eager to learn as much as we could. “Between ten and midnight, ghosts of our asked how many of us had tried to dig holes A few days later, we visited part of the ancestors come out, and we burn things to to China and heard about starving children Ming tombs, where a high metal threshold give them. Do you wonder why she burns there, most of us raised our hands. “Times protected the entrance. “If you let your feet pieces of paper that look like money? This have changed,” he told us. “Now you might touch the threshold,” our Beijing guide said, is spirit money, so her ancestors can buy hear Chinese people tell kids to send their “ghosts cling to your feet, so some people things. If you want to give something to food to the starving Americans.” This neat lift their feet high.” a person you can’t see, you have it make it reversal made us think about the progress At last, recognition of ghosts! But not invisible. I will do the same for my father since Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution for long. “That was, of course, long ago,” when I can.” ended in 1976. My fellow tour-group mem- our guide told us. “Country people—not After this moving explanation, none of bers and I marveled at the array of fine like people in our city now.” As we drove us said a word. We had learned the meaning restaurants and noticed the McDonalds and back to Beijing, we saw countless high-rise of ancestors’ ghosts and did not want to KFCs springing up like kudzu in the urban apartments: some occupied, others under disturb the night’s peace with more ques- landscape. Some of them were open twenty- construction. We had learned that China tions. Sometimes you don’t need to dig deep four hours a day. had more construction cranes than any to discover what matters most. If you wait At our tour’s beginning, I expected to other country. Modernization and expansion and listen, the answer will find you in its hear ghost stories. My Chinese students seemed more important than folklore of the own good time. had told me so many! Our Shanghai guide, supernatural. however, explained that modern Chinese We understood, however, that family- people do not take ghosts seriously. “Only related customs and festivals had deep Libby Tucker teaches folklore at Bingham- superstitious people believe in stories like meaning for Chinese people. The last part of ton University. Her that,” he told us. “People from the country our tour took place on Tomb-Sweeping Day book Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American don’t know any better. See this zigzag bridge? (Qing Ming, literally “Clear Brightness”). On College Campuses Long ago, people built these bridges to this spring holiday, as on American Memo- (Jackson: University keep ghosts from following them. Ghosts rial Day, people visit their families’ graves to Press of Mississippi, 2007) investigates col- are clumsy and stupid. They get mixed up tidy things up and leave flower arrangements. lege ghost stories. Her easily.” I contemplated the zigzag bridge, We watched men and women hurry toward most recent book is Children’s Folklore: A Handbook (West- port: Greenwood, 2008).

38 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Hindu Domestic Mandirs: Home Temples in Greater New York

BY PUJA SAHNEY

indus often say that there can be dir means place of worship in Hindi, the Many in Ravens Crest work in New York H no town or city without a temple. national language of India. A mandir can City. They prefer to live in Plainsboro, Similarly, no house is complete without refer to a public building where people go to however, because they point out that it has a domestic mandir, or temple. A mandir worship, like a church, but also to domestic good schools. Plainsboro has the second enlightens the house and the minds of altars dedicated to Hindu gods that people largest community of people from India in those living in the house. In my study of place in their homes. My research is based in United States, topped only by Edison, an- the interior decoration of Hindu homes a residential community called Ravens Crest other town in New Jersey. According to the in United States, I encountered a domestic in Plainsboro, New Jersey, which is located 2000 census, Plainsboro has a population of altar in every home, decorated in bright in the New York metro area near Princeton, 20,215, with 16.97% describing themselves colors and placed in a sacred space. This New Jersey. as having Indian ancestry. Women I met in essay describes the significance, placement, Ravens Crest is a large complex of one- Ravens Crest said that, in the past ten years, and decoration of the Hindu mandir. Man- bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. the population of Indians has increased in

Mandir set up in a traditional mandap kept on a corner of the kitchen counter and lit by an electric bulb. All photos: Puja Sahney

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 39 Murtis are kept on a sinhasan (throne).

Plainsboro and especially in Ravens Crest, so I conducted a large part of my research mants whose homes I would be able to ob- as many people from India with informa- in Ravens Crest. serve. In time, I learned that there are small tion technology backgrounds have come My interest in interior decoration began parks within the community where people to the United States on temporary projects. with my adviser Henry Glassie at Indiana come in the evening with their children. At Indians in Plainsboro like living in Ravens University, who has done considerable work one such park—close to my apartment and Crest, because it is economical and offers on vernacular architecture. According to also adjacent to the community swimming good storage space. Glassie, interior decoration is increasingly pool and tennis courts—I met several wom- My husband, Suraj, and I arrived in Plains- important today because people no longer en to whom I explained my study. These boro in May 2010 from Salt Lake City, Utah. design the exterior of the houses in which women were young mothers between the Although I was pursuing a Ph.D. in folklore they live, so they turn to interior decoration ages of twenty-five and thirty-five and had at Indiana University, I moved to Salt Lake to express themselves. This is especially true been living in United States between two to City after completing coursework because for Hindu immigrants who buy—or, in the fifteen years. India is a very diverse country. Suraj was doing his Ph.D. at the Univer- case of my informants, rent—homes built It has twenty-eight states, and each state sity of Utah. We moved to Plainsboro for for an American lifestyle. Analyzing interior has its own language, food, and dress, with the summer because I wished to conduct decoration in Ravens Crest therefore offers cultural practices varying further between dissertation fieldwork on Hindu interior an opportunity to understand the life and North and South India. Hindu religious decoration in the United States, and Suraj culture of the Hindu community in the practices are mostly common to all states, had been offered a summer internship with United States. but different Hindu deities are favored in Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton. different states. For example, lord Ganesh We chose to live in Ravens Crest because it The Significance of the Hindu is favored in the central western state of has a large population of Indians, and we Mandir Maharashtra, lord Krishna in the central were able to sign a three-month lease. We did When I first began my research at Ravens western state of Gujarat, goddess Durga in not have a car during our stay in Plainsboro, Crest, I struggled to find potential infor- the northeastern state of Bengal, and lord

40 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Venkateshwara in the southern states of tos of gods; therefore, in poor households mandap’s pyramid-shaped roof with a Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. in India, one finds more tasvir than murtis. pointed top is important, as it is believed to At Ravens Crest, I met women from both All my informants were married to IT pro- attract magnetic energy. Hindu temples have North and South India. My paper is based fessionals with middle-class incomes, but in a similar pyramid shape, and the primary on religious beliefs and practices that I found many apartments I entered, I found more deity of the temple is placed under this to be common to all Hindus, regardless of pictures than murtis in the mandir. Due to roof. The magnetic energy attracted by the their home states in India. I explained to the “weight problems” on the aircraft, many roof ’s shape is believed to infuse the murti women I met that I was studying the way families had been unable to carry murtis with energy. Hindus from India decorate their homes from India, while others pointed out that Women said that another reason to house in the United States in order to understand their murtis were made of glass, and they the deities in a mandap is that it is shaped the life and culture of the community. Upon feared that they might break on such a long like a house. Just as we live in a house, a god hearing my topic, many women invited me journey. Some bought murtis from temples should also be given a house, because gods into their homes. in the United States, while others brought should have a roof over their heads. Some- Inside their homes, I observed that most them from India a few at a time, each time times houses in India come with a separate living rooms consisted of two couches set they went home for a visit. Some informants small room, usually near the kitchen, that alongside the wall facing a TV, with a coffee explained to me that they prefer murtis from can be dedicated to worship. This room, table in the middle. On one side of the room, India because they are cheaper. Also, in some about the size of a queen-sized bed, has near the kitchen, stood the family dining families, parents give murtis as wedding gifts, a shelf intended for the mandap. Women table. The walls were decorated with family so these murtis have sentimental value. Many explained that the mandir should be set up pictures, children’s artwork, or birthday party women said that they left these murtis in at a height above an average man’s chest decorations that had not been removed. In their in-laws’ mandir when they came to the when he is sitting down, so that the deity is each home, I found a domestic mandir, most United States, because they were not sure above when the devotee prays. Traditionally, commonly placed in a corner of the kitchen how long they will live abroad. In spite of Hindus always pray while sitting, not stand- or near the dining table. this uncertainty, however, others brought ing. As one of my informants said, “We do The Hindu mandir houses the idols of their murtis with them. so much work standing. We should take out various Hindu gods and goddesses, called In India, the mandir is housed in a small at least a few minutes a day to sit down with murtis, before which the family prays daily. pyramid-shaped structure called a mandap, god and pray to him peacefully.” When a family moves into a new home, the which can be made of many materials, but I discovered that more than 90 percent of first thing they do—before moving in the is most commonly wood or metal. The the homes in Ravens Crest lacked mandaps. furniture—is place a murti. This murti is often of lord Ganesh, because he is con- sidered the god of begin- nings and also the god who removes obstacles. Murtis are made of metal (often bronze) or even clay. Along with murtis, mandirs often include pictures of gods and goddesses, called tasvir in Hindi, either plastered to adjoining walls or framed and kept on stands. These murtis and tasvirs of gods and goddesses are placed on a red or orange cloth, because these colors are considered auspicious in Hinduism. Murtis are more expen- Mandir set up in a wooden cabinet placed next to the dining table. In front is the aasan, where the devotee sive than pictures and pho- may sit and pray.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 41 In their absence, some women had made help devotees concentrate on god and also of the mind with light. In the evening, the symbolic pyramid-shaped roofs out of cut keeps their clothes clean while sitting on the deepak is lit once again to light up the house, paper, but most mandirs were instead placed floor. One woman shared her belief that one’s which will soon be consumed by darkness. in small wooden cabinets, bookshelves, or prayer does not reach the deity if one does Some women said that they keep the deepak built-in wardrobes. The women said that due not sit on the mat in front of the mandir. lit all the time. As soon as it goes off, they to the recession, and also the fact that their I was therefore surprised to find that most light it again. These women explained that husbands are here working on temporary IT families had set up the mandir on top of one must not leave the god in darkness. projects without green cards, they may have bookshelves and cabinets, rather than closer Most families I observed had bought a small to return to India at any time. Consequently, to the floor. Even those who had mandaps electric light and placed it over their mandir. they did not want to purchase one of the ex- had placed them on top of bookshelves or This bulb was left lit all day long. Others pensive mandaps sold in Indian stores in the on kitchen counters. My informants wished had bought small electric lamps shaped like U.S. or shipped from India. Another reason to keep the mandir—especially the lamp— traditional Hindu diyas (clay lamps) that were for not wanting to invest in a mandap was that out of their small children’s reach, which is placed at the mandir. These electric bulbs and if the family had to leave, they would never more of a challenge in small, single-family diyas were in addition to the central deepak, want to sell their mandap, and they feared American homes than in many Indian homes. which is lit daily by the woman of the house, that any family to whom they may give it Every Hindu mandir includes a central except during her monthly period, when the may not treat it with equal respect. For this lamp called a deepak that is lit morning and deepak is lit by her husband. reason, they preferred to set up their mandirs evening, or sometimes left constantly lit. In India, where homes are commonly on shelves or in cabinets. Hindus light the deepak in the mandir in the made of concrete bricks, lighting the daily Because Hindus traditionally sit to pray, a morning as soon as they shower, and then deepak is not a problem, but in the United mandir is always set up on the floor or on a again in the evening between six and seven. States, most houses are made of wood and low shelf. In front of the mandir is placed a The morning deepak symbolizes the morning may catch fire easily. In different homes, I mat called an aasan in Hindi, on which the light that has dispelled the night’s darkness. observed that, depending on the location of devotee should sit. The aasan is believed to It is also lit to banish ignorance and darkness the mandir, people took different precautions

Mandir in a wardrobe. Aluminum is pasted to the shelf above as a safety precaution.

42 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore with lighting the deepak. In India, people use eating from utensils used by the rest of the west, so that the devotee faces east while wor- a large amount of ghee, or clarified butter, to family, using separate utensils set aside for shiping them. Some said that east, west, and keep the deepak lit longer. Due to the danger those days. When mothers or mothers-in-law north are all equally suitable, but all agreed of fire in U.S. houses, Hindus put only a small visit the United States, they often cook for the that a mandir should never face south. South amount of ghee or oil, so that by the time the duration of those days. Menstruating women is the kingdom of Yama, the god of death, devotee finishes the prayer, the deepak goes even avoid bodily touch with the rest of the so by facing the mandir southward, one is out. Some families cover the deepak with a family. The stress on shuddhta, or purity, is so welcoming death, illness, and disease into the large open glass shade, place it on a plate, or strong for some Hindus that, after a shower, house. The decision on the placement of the set it in a small bowl of water. Others paste some men and women go straight from the mandir was also influenced by whether the some aluminum foil on the shelf or wall on bathroom to the mandir with wet hair to pray family is vegetarian or eats meat and eggs. top of the deepak to prevent the smoke from in their purest state. Hindus consider meat and eggs polluting, be- spoiling the wooden shelf or wall above. In the United States, however, women live cause they involve the death of living beings. in nuclear families with their husband and In most cases I found the mandir near the Placing the Mandir in the small children for a large part of the year. kitchen or dining table. In the few instances Home Gender roles are strongly defined in these where I found the mandir away from these The placement of the mandir in the house households, and women cannot avoid enter- locations, women explained that they cook is also very important. Women I spoke with ing the kitchen to cook daily meals for their meat and eggs in the kitchen, and they do said that ideally, if means allow, Hindus families, so they make certain adjustments to not like to cook them so close to the mandir. should dedicate a separate puja (worship) the customary practices. Mandirs are placed In these cases, either a second bedroom was room to the gods, where the mandir is placed in a corner of the kitchen, and women avoid chosen or the mandir was placed in a corner and the family worships either individually or that corner, if possible. Others placed the of the living room. In some homes, the fami- as a group. As I mentioned earlier, houses mandir in the corner of their dining table lies were vegetarian, and therefore the kitchen in India sometimes come with a puja room and avoid that corner during their cycle. space posed no threat to the shuddhta or purity already built in by the architect. However, One woman previously kept her mandir in a of the mandir. When the mandir was placed adjustments can be made when such a room shelf in the passage near the bedrooms, but in a non-vegetarian kitchen, the women said is not available. The mandir should always if she needed anything from any other shelf, that one way to maintain the shuddhta is to be placed in the most pure, or shudh, room. she had to wait for her husband to get home ensure that the deepak is not lit while meat or Although these topics are not openly dis- in the evening and ask him to get it for her. eggs are cooked or else to close the mandir’s cussed in the community, Hindus generally For that reason, she bought a wooden cabinet cabinet doors. believe that sexual activity and menstruating for the mandir and placed it in a corner next women are impure. For this reason, Hindus to the dining table. Some women said that Decorating the Mandir never place the mandir in the master bed- they close the doors of their cabinet during While the placement of the mandir did not room, where a couple is sexually active. A their monthly cycle. All women said that vary much from one apartment to another, menstruating woman always avoids coming even though they cannot avoid entering the due to limited space and the apartments’ near her home’s mandir, which cannot be kitchen or cooking near their mandirs here similar layout, each woman applied her own avoided in the master bedroom where she in the United States, they do not light the personal aesthetics in her mandir’s decora- sleeps. Similarly, mandirs should never be deepak or touch any items in their mandir tion. The mandirs were usually placed high on placed in living rooms, because female guests during their cycle. In a few instances, where a bookshelf or over a cabinet, with the murtis may have their periods. families lived in two-bedroom apartments, displayed on a throne or some kind of raised In the absence of a separate puja room, women had placed the mandir in the second platform. The women said that murtis should the next best place to keep the mandir is the bedroom, often in one of the wardrobes. never be placed directly on the wooden kitchen. For Hindus, the kitchen is a shudh These rooms were their small children’s surface of a mandap or in bookshelves and space. All members of the household are bedroom, children’s playroom, husband’s cabinets. The murtis should be shown respect encouraged to enter the kitchen only after a study, or music room—in short any room, by placing them on raised platforms called bath. Women in India avoid going into the they said, that could be avoided during the sinhasans. In some cases where women did kitchen when they are menstruating. Since duration of their cycle. not have sinhasans, they had placed murtis many women in India live in extended fami- The direction that the mandir faces is on a cloth or paper, usually red. In most lies with their in-laws and sisters-in-law, they equally important. A mandir traditionally mandirs, I observed that families had placed do not need to go into the kitchen; for those faces east, where the sun god comes out. at least four to five murtis or tasvirs of dif- few days, the food is cooked and served by However, some of my Hindu informants ferent gods. One of these murtis is usually other ladies of the house. Women also avoid said that the murtis in the mandir should face the family deity that the family worships more

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 43 than others, but other gods are still welcomed go to great lengths to decorate their mandirs ness and disease, and the household will lose in the mandir. The three gods that I found and make daily offerings to the Hindu gods. considerable wealth in medical expenses. most commonly in all mandirs were Ganesh, Such daily offerings include food and flow- On Diwali, an important Hindu festival, Lakshmi, and Bal Krishna (baby Krishna). ers. Some women make daily sandpaintings Hindus perform Lakshmi puja, and clean Hindus believe that no home can exist using rice flour or chalk to honor the gods. their houses in order to welcome Lakshmi. without Ganesh, because he is the god of These drawings are called by different names They make rangooli outside their doors beginnings. He must be worshipped before all over India. In North India, they are called and hang torans on their doors. A toran is any other god. Ganesh is also the god who rangooli, and in South India, kolam. Several a garland hung from one end of the main removes obstacles, so his presence in the women said that in India they make daily door to the other. Traditionally, it was made house is considered important. Lakshmi is sandpaintings outside their main door, as of fresh mango leaves and marigold flow- also present in all mandirs, because she is well as on the floor in front of the mandir, ers—both auspicious items used in Hindu the goddess of wealth. Bal Krishna is most but in the United States, they restrict it rituals—but these days, no one has time to commonly given during weddings, as his to festivals only. American homes pose a make fresh torans. Artistic torans can be presence is believed to bless the household challenge for these paintings because they bought from shops and hung on the door to with children. Some of my informants had are often carpeted, but some women have welcome Lakshmi. Although Lakshmi puja also placed pictures of their parents and nevertheless continued the practice of mak- is performed during Diwali, everyone wants ancestors in their mandirs, to offer them the ing daily sandpaintings. Instead of making Lakshmi in their home all year long. There- same respect as gods. them on the floor, they use as a suitable fore, Hindus value keeping their homes clean The murtis are arranged in no particular platform small granite stones intended for and beautiful and display torans and rangooli order; they are simply placed wherever there crushing masalas or wooden surfaces called outside their homes as symbols of welcome is space. The women observed that mandirs chakla in Hindi, used for making chappatis. and prosperity throughout the year. grow over the years, since murtis are com- The women make these sandpaintings on a A mandir is central in every Hindu home, mon gifts exchanged during weddings and daily basis and place them on their mandir and no Hindu home is complete without festivals, and no one returns gifted murtis. before the murtis. one. When a woman gets married, she is Their mothers and mothers-in-law have Fresh flowers are also offered daily. Many given murtis and puja ki samagry (items used mandirs three times larger than their own. women I met grew these flowers in pots in for daily puja) by parents, in-laws, and Many of these older women have given mur- their patios. Every god has a different color guests in recognition of the central role she tis from their mandir to their young daugh- preference. Ganesh likes the colors red and plays in maintaining the well-being of the ters and daughters-in-law. The murtis are orange, for example, so women grow red household. Hindus believe in keeping their kept in the mandir with other items used in roses and orange marigolds for him. Se- homes clean, tidy, and well-decorated to Hindu worship, like the deepak, thal (plate), vere winters in this region pose a problem welcome goddess Lakshmi into the house, ghanti (bell), and religious books that contain for growing the flowers, so during winter, bringing wealth and prosperity. They value mantras. Depending on the space available, they buy flowers from the market. In some their religious practices and traditions and women placed these items either in front homes, the women prefer to use artificial continue them as much as possible in United of the murtis or on a shelf below. Other flowers, since fresh flowers are not easily States. However, as my research has shown, items, like ghee, cotton, haldi (turmeric), and available all year round in the United States. when these practices are not possible for kumkum (red turmeric or saffron powder) A second reason that mandirs and homes architectural or environmental reasons, or that are used to light the deepak or offered are decorated and women spend consider- due to a different lifestyle, Hindus are flex- in prayer are also kept on one of the shelves able time keeping their homes clean is be- ible in their attitudes and accommodate their below. Apart from these items that I found in cause Hindus believe that it brings wealth religious and traditional practices through all mandirs, I observed that women had also and prosperity to the house. It is believed creative means. individualized their mandirs. For example, that goddesses Lakshmi and Daridra are one woman had placed a horseshoe on one sisters. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, Puja Sahney is a Ph.D. candidate in folk- side of her mandir. She explained that a while Daridra is the goddess of poverty. lore at Indiana University in Bloomington. She lives in Salt Lake City, where she has horseshoe brings luck when nailed to the Lakshmi resides in a home that is kept clean conducted fieldwork on the ways Hindus floor of the main entryway, as is common and beautifully decorated, while Daridra re- decorate their suburban houses. She is now writing a dissertation on Hindu in India. Since it could not be nailed into sides in a home that is unclean. The belief is homes and religious practices. She is the apartment’s entryway floor, my inven- encouraged by elders to teach an important also interested in festivals and women’s rituals. Her master’s thesis at Utah State tive informant had placed it in her mandir. lesson: if one keeps a house clean and tidy, University in Logan, Utah, examined an Hindus believe that if you keep god well, it will prevent illness and disease. On the annual ritual from North India during which married women fast for a day to he will keep you well in return, so women other hand, an unclean house will attract ill- pray for the longevity of their husbands. Copyright © Puja Sahney.

44 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore VI E W FR

Place and People in Time BY NANCY SOLOMON

As I write this first column relating to for harvesting fish from ocean environment, vernacular architecture, and trap nets; a fifty-foot scow for maritime culture, it is a very hot and humid Captain Forrest Burr of Oakdale; OM TH E W July day here on Long Island. Across the and a fifty-three–foot oyster street from our office on Manhasset Bay steamer, the Standard, for the harbor are several boatyards and yacht clubs, Westerbeke Brothers’ oyster which have had a long and complicated company. During Prohibition, cultural history. Before English and Dutch the yard was a commonly used settlers came to this area, indigenous peoples site for shipping illegal liquor, as harvested clams, oysters, scallops, blue fish, were other yards on Long Island.

striped bass, and other shellfish and finfish The yard built several war- A species. They helped teach the Europeans ships for the U.S. Navy during T E RFR how to harvest these gifts from the sea, using World War II, along with modest craft made from local trees. recreational sailboats. After the Beginning in the 1800s, new companies war commercial fishing boats, created shoreline enterprises to take advan- including dragger and tong boats, tage of the fish and provide commercial were built at the yard. In 1947 O NT services to the growing river transporta- Bishop sold the yard to Eddie tion industry servicing New York and New Wayne and boat builder Stanley England. Whaling ports, such as Cold Spring Grodeski. Wayne worked on Blue Harbor, welcomed boat builders, while Pa- Point Oyster Company boats, Charlie Balsamo. Photo: Nancy Solomon tchogue encouraged ferry and steamboat Davis Park Ferry boats, Jones companies to build and maintain their ships Beach scenery barges, and dragger boats. Sadly, in 2009 the current owner removed in the protected harbor. With the develop- During the 1960s, the yard built several the historic marine railway, which trans- ment of the Long Island Railroad, a new dozen fourteen-foot rowboats for the State ported heavy wooden boats into the “barn” recreational maritime industry emerged, Park Commission that were rented to park where Charlie worked on the craft, to make transporting well-heeled New Yorkers, patrons. Edward’s son George purchased the room for a marina. While Balsamo continues including Teddy Roosevelt and Cornelius yard in 1973, selling it in 1979. The current to guide boat owners, this has meant that Vanderbilt, to marshland hotels for hunting owner is Art Volkman. larger boats can no longer be accommodated. adventures. They financed their own private The yard continues to specialize in It also means that the future of the yard is fleets, housing them at their new waterfront repairing wooden craft, due to the dedication in doubt, as craftsmen like Charlie become estates, where they lived alongside baymen, of Charlie Balsamo, who has worked at the an endangered species. Yet this yard is a sur- boat builders, and other “bay rats.” It was not yard since 1958. Beginning in the 1970s, vivor—many other historic boatyards have long before a variety of boatyards evolved, most yards stopped building wooden boats, been replaced by condominiums, restaurants, each reflecting the personality and social as fiberglass boats became popular. On Long and marinas. class of its patrons. Baymen kept and worked Island, however, there is a marked tradition In an effort to raise awareness of these on their boats along the streams and rivers, of using contemporary and historic wooden cultural sites, we invite you to write us about while yachtsmen trusted their crafts to yard craft. The yard works closely with owners, your favorite boatyard, as we prepare an managers. One such place is South Bay Boat advising and supplying hard-to-find historic exhibit for 2011. Happy yard hunting! Repair in Patchogue. materials. Among its customers are local The yard was originally founded around baymen, such as Eddie Nagle, who worked

1892 as the Bishop Boatyard by George on the bunker fishing boats in Greenport and Nancy Solomon is Bishop, a ship’s carpenter. Bishop built a also clammed in Great South Bay; wooden executive direc- tor of Long Island variety of boats, ranging from warships to boat enthusiasts; and owners of pleasure and Traditions, located oyster steamers, commercial fishing boats, cruise ships. According to patrons, “Charlie in Port Washington, rowboats, skiffs, and cruise ships. The could always do whatever you needed done. New York. She can be reached at (516) boatyard built a boat for John Doxsee of Charlie is the best in the business. Charlie 767-8803 or info@ the Deep Sea Fish Company in Islip, used always took the time out to explain things.” longislandtraditions. org.

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 45 Hudson River Panorama: A Passage major themes: “natural history and environ- ribbean musical forms for songs about Mary Through Time, by Tammis K. Groft, W. ment,” “transportation,” “trade, commerce, Magdalene, I knew I had to have it. I enjoy Douglas McCombs, and Ruth Greene- and industry,” and “culture and symbol.” traditional music, and I am also interested in McNally. Albany: State University of New Largely paralleling the organization of the the topic of women such as Mary Magdalene York (Excelsior Editions), 2009. 134 pages, museum exhibit, these themes serve the and Mexico’s La Malinche, whose stories, black-and-white and color photographs, il- reader well as an introduction to many of although once powerful, tend to evolve

r e vi ws lustrations, bibliography, index, $29.95 paper. the essential events and figures in regional and transform through history in ways that history. A volume this small, however, should end up portraying them in a negative light. The Hudson River has been the focus of not be mistaken for a comprehensive history. This CD is Raquel Z. Rivera’s tribute to the hundreds of writings over the four centuries That is not the purpose of this book. Any Magdalene and an attempt to reclaim some since Henry Hudson’s failed quest for an deeper understanding of the details of this of her history and power. inland passage to Asia through the North history will require further study, and a good Rivera wears many hats: a Ph.D. in soci- American continent. Hudson River Panorama: starting point for such study would be the ology, researcher for the Center for Puerto A Passage Through Time adds to that body of texts listed in the selected bibliography. Rican Studies at Hunter College, author of literature a unique, beautifully illustrated, and Although one of the authors, Tammis the 2003 book New York Ricans from the Hip well-presented history of the great river and Groft, holds an advanced degree in folklore, Hop Zone, poet, and journalist. As a musician, its impact on the peoples of New York State. the authors clearly did not intend Hudson she is a founding member of the Puerto The Albany Institute of History and Art, River Panorama as a folklife survey. Yet there is Rican roots music group Yerbabuena and founded in 1791, is one of the longest con- much that will be of interest to any reader of the all-women group Yaya, which performs tinuously operating historical organizations Voices. The interaction between people and Dominican salves and Puerto Rican bomba. in North America and has been a prominent the Hudson’s landscape over time presents In this new endeavor she is a singer and institution in the Hudson River Valley for an opportunity to study the constant inter- songwriter fronting the group Ojos de Sofía, more than two hundred years. In anticipa- play between traditional folklife and popular which boasts an amazing roster of some of tion of the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain culture, particularly after the Erie Canal the best New York City musicians in various Quadricentennial, an international celebra- transformed the Hudson into the primary fields, including the National tion that stretched from New York City cultural conduit between the vast interior Heritage Award percussionist Juan Gutiér- up the Hudson River and through Lake of North America and the entire rest of the rez, percussionist Obanilú Allende, guitarists Champlain to the Province of , the world through the Port of New York. The Yasser Tejeda and Bryan Vargas, pianist Albany Institute devoted over three years to book’s illustrations are packed with informa- Desmar Guevara, and vocalist Sandra Garcia concentrated research on topics related to tion about Hudson Valley folkways, such as (also a former member of Yerbabuena). the Hudson River. The result was an exhibi- fishing, farmstead layout, and ice harvesting. The songs on the CD include genres from tion, a variety of accompanying educational Hudson River Panorama succeeds in drawing Puerto Rico: aguinaldo, seis, and bomba; salves programs, and the present volume, which together and presenting a number of themes from the Dominican tradition; and a Cuban serves both as the exhibit’s catalog and as a in regional history in a well-organized nar- danzón (although the piece’s percussion pat- stand-alone panoramic view of the history rative, illustrated by artifacts and artworks tern seems more related to a form called a of the Hudson through a new interpretive selected from one of the oldest and most caballo, a rhythm used throughout the region prism. The popularity of the Hudson River extraordinary museum collections in the that mimics the gait of a horse). I noticed Panorama exhibit was so great that the Al- United States. Each part of the larger Albany some of the press describes the group as bany Institute extended it an additional year. Institute project commemorating the four “Caribbean neo-roots music,” but if you This book shares with the popular exhibit hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson’s are a fan of traditional music, don’t let this a clarity of interpretation and exceptional voyage up the river is an important contri- label fool you. Rivera and Ojos de Sofía are illustrations. bution to our understanding of the Hudson bringing these traditional forms into the To find illustrations for the themes in the River through time. Hudson River Panorama: twenty-first century. These genres, like other Hudson’s history, a research team of Tam- A Passage Through Time is a beautiful book forms and expressions, are constantly in flux, mis K. Groft, W. Douglas McCombs, and that will certainly provide much enjoyment and these songs reflect a new sensibility. It Ruth Greene-McNally mined the Albany and no doubt some enlightenment to almost is exciting to see a new generation taking up Institute’s renowned collections, examining any reader. It will make a fine addition to the our folk music and reinvigorating it. At one hundreds of artifacts, artworks, and rare library of any historian or folklorist and will time, young Puerto Ricans growing up in archival documents. So extensive are the be at home on any New Yorker’s coffee table. New York City would play the Cuban conga institute’s holdings from the Hudson Valley —Daniel Franklin Ward, drums; now in the parks and casitas, they are that an immediate challenge was to estab- Erie Canal Museum playing the Puerto Rican barriles and pandere- lish interpretive criteria that would narrow tas of bomba and plena respectively, thanks selection to the most striking illustrations Las 7 Salves de La Magdalena: 7 Songs in large part to people like Juan Gutiérrez. of key events, people, and ideas that could of Praise for the Magdalene, Raquel Z. In press materials, Rivera explains her be related to broader narratives of Hudson Rivera and Ojos de Sofía. New York: 2010. interest in honoring the figure of Mary River history. Seven tracks, $14.99 CD. Magdalene on a personal level, as well as The book, which includes a foreword by exploring her as a Christian icon evolving the Albany Institute’s director Christine M. It was with great excitement that I received from a supporter of Jesus, to the “Apostle Miles and an essay by distinguished historian this new CD and listened to it. When I heard of all Apostles” and Gnostic teacher, to a John R. Stilgoe, is organized around four there was a project that used traditional Ca- repentant prostitute who with her tears and

46 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore an alabaster jar of oil washes the feet of vision of her: “Pedro lo negó, nunca ella, of transmission. The online world opens Jesus. Rivera also explains that, along with Discípulo amado, Madgalena, Judas a Jesús endless doors of possibility for exploring aguinaldos and salves, she wanted to include traicionó, Magdalena nunca lo abandonó/ new folk groups (such as bloggers) and new the songs of the Fiesta de la Cruz (Feast of Peter denied him, never she, Judas betrayed ways of conceptualizing, visualizing, and the Holy Cross). Practiced on both islands, him, Magdalene never left him.” Rivera presenting folklore. worshippers sing the rosario cantado, devotion questions the traditional interpretation that Subsequent chapters dive into specific songs to the Virgin Mary. Many of these leaves Mary Magdalene with a bad name, examples of folklore, folkloric groups, and forms are religious in nature, and some es- yet notes that a male apostle like Peter who interactions on the Internet. In “Guardians pecially are for Marian devotion. Rivera sees does Jesus wrong is nonetheless venerated. of the Living: of Missing the songs as a “parallel Marian devotion . . . A few of the songs also have lyrics that refer Women on the Internet,” Elizabeth Tucker for the other Mary, the Magdalene.” back to the number seven, echoing the CD’s explores the use of the Internet to com- The songs on this CD come from both title—perhaps in reference to the seven de- memorate missing women and facilitate sacred and secular traditions. The religious mons Jesus cast out from Mary Magdalene, sharing of information regarding their cases. song forms on this CD include the salve but again reenvisioned not as redemption for She points out how these sites in many ways (literally “hail,” or a hymn to the Virgin Mary) Mary, but in honor of her and her wisdom as follow the formula for in general, and of the Dominican Republic, drawn from the compañera of Jesus and her role as a teacher. legends about young women succumbing to Catholic invocation Salve Regina, linked to the Whether you are interested in the CD’s bad ends in particular. Her focus is not solely rosary. In the Dominican Republic salves are topic or are just a fan of Puerto Rican and on the details of the cases of missing women usually sung during velaciones, celebrations for Dominican music, you will enjoy this CD as provided by the web sites, but also on the patron saints. The aguinaldo, or Puerto Rican and have a chance to listen to the latest step communities of concerned strangers and Christmas carol, has its origins in the Christ- in our musical heritage. people who knew the victims that are cre- mas carols called villancicos, which were songs —Elena Martínez, City Lore ated by sharing information and memories. in Spain devoted to exalting the miracles of She concludes that the community building the Virgin Mary. The principal characteristic Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular around relating information and warning of the aguinaldo is a four-line (copla, or Expression in a Digital World, edited by other young women by example warrants quatrain), seven-syllable verse. Though the Trevor J. Blank. Logan, Utah: Utah Univer- further study. villancicos remained popular in Spain, it is sity Press, 2009. 272 pages, introduction, In “The End of the Internet: A Folk Re- in Puerto Rico that the Spanish hexasyllabic appendix, references, index, $24.95 paper. sponse to the Provision of Infinite Choice,” meter really took root, so Puerto Rico has Lynne S. McNeill explores the myriad this unique verse form. The Puerto Rican I would venture to guess that about thirty choices users face on the Internet, as well bomba is also included on this CD; at one seconds after the Internet was “invented,” as the differing interactions of native versus time, it too may have been a sacred form. the first folklore appeared online. Certainly non-native users of the Internet. She uses The CD opens up with the beautiful it was a short distance from the Xerox lore the work of Marc Prensky, who coined the “Nuestra Señora de Lexington,” a seis faja- of Alan Dundes and Carl Patger to the term “digital natives” for those people born rdeño, with Rivera’s tribute to La Magdalena same lore being transmitted by e-mail. As near or after 1980; digital natives are flu- in her local guise as Our Lady of Lexington the online world grows, so do the possibili- ent in computer language and practices, in Avenue. The lyrics are set to a traditional ties for creating, transmitting, studying, and comparison to those who were born before décima verse—the décima is a ten-line, octosyl- analyzing folklore, as well as for utilizing and had to adapt to digital life. She grounds labic verse originated by the Spanish court the Internet to distribute information about this in a discussion of a digital folklore poet Vicente Espinel in 1591 and prevalent more “traditional” forms of folklore. meme, the “End of the Internet”—a series throughout Latin America­—and like other Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expres- of pages that claim to be the last page of lyrics on the CD, bear allusions to the bibli- sion in a Digital World explores the folkloric the Internet—a place the user reaches when cal, historical, and mythical Mary Magdalene. aspects of the World Wide Web through a there is no more World Wide Web to explore. “Nuestra Señora de Lexington” includes, “La discussion of the ever-changing nature of The use of the forward as a method of que en nuestro beneficio con sus lágrimas folklore as lived and practiced—and the not- transmission for e-mail humor is the focus redime/She who redeems us through her so-changing nature of folklore scholarship. of “The Forward as Folklore: Studying tears.” In the Bible the repentant sinner is While folklorists are quick to recognize new E-mailed Humor,” by Russell Frank. One redeemed through tears, but here she has avenues to explore, we are not always quick of the concerns of folklorists in the digital the power to heal others with them. The last to shift our definitions to work with them. age is the method of transmission and how verse calls her the “Teacher of the apostles,” This edited volume looks at the definitions it shifts from face-to-face to something referring to the Gospel of Mary Magdalene of folklore and how they must change, given seemingly far less personal. Frank considers from the Coptic Gnostic work Pistis Sophia, the rise of the Internet and changes in hu- the topics and types of jokes that tend to where she had this role. man interaction. The book nicely mixes this be featured in forwarded humor. He com- In the second song, “Al pie de la cruz” important discussion of redefining folklore pares forwarded humor to joke web sites, (“At the Foot of the Cross”), a verse gives interaction with examples and analysis us- finding that forwarded humor more closely the traditional interpretation of her, “Ella ing that redefinition. Simon Bronner builds resembles traditional forms of joke telling. ungiá los pies del Maestro, Fiel a su Jesús, on this in the first chapter, “Digitizing and William Westerman looks at a style of vivo o muerto/She anointed the Teacher’s Visualizing Folklore,” encouraging folklorists Wikipedia contributor expression in “Epis- feet, Loyal to her Jesus, dead or alive.” But to reconsider what is considered traditional, temology, the Sociology of Knowledge, and the same song also gives an empowered not only in terms of topic but also in terms the Wikipedia User Box Controversy.” He

Fall–Winter 2010, Volume 36: 3–4 47 provides an overview of the behemoth and book as a text for a class on new avenues begins with his hardscrabble childhood, quagmire that is Wikipedia, the open-source for folkloric inquiry. I would even use it in which is reminiscent of Frank McCourt’s. encyclopedia. He then takes a closer look at an introductory class toward the end of the I think he should expand it and certainly the userboxes or personal banners used by course, after grounding students in more include more about his deceased parents and Wikipedia contributors. These appear to be “traditional” folkloric studies. brother, Liam, whom he wishes to “meet opportunities to relate to Wikipedia users’ —Elinor Levy, again one day back in Ballybunion.” Milner’s beliefs that are not necessarily relevant to Raritan Valley Community College backup musicians and singers include Tim the entry, but are deemed important by the Collins, Bob Conroy, Brian Conway, Gabriel contributor—and issues of trust and the Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs Donohue, John Doyle, the Johnson Girls (an trustworthiness of information can arise of the Sea, by Dan Milner. Washington, all-woman maritime singing group), Joanie when bias appears. D.C.: Smithsonian Folkways, 2009. Thirteen Madden, Susan McKeown, Mick Moloney, Robert Glenn Howard delves into the use tracks, $16.98 CD. and Robbie O’Connell. of the Internet as a tool in spiritual warfare The other songs on the CD are “The in “Crusading on the Vernacular Web: I came upon this CD of songs to which Ballad of O’Bruadair/Out on the Ocean,” The Folk Beliefs and Practices on Online one might want to dance a , by Irish mu- about a seventeenth-century pirate who Spiritual Warfare.” Persons who consider sician and musicologist Dan Milner, in an found his end by hanging. “Saucy Ward” is themselves spiritual warriors against those indirect way: I have been on a search for a about one John Warner, who persuaded a who do not share their interpretation of pirate shanty for my historical about ship’s crew to take up piracy. I particularly the Bible use the Internet to tell their story women pirates. This has several, one or two enjoyed “Get Up, Jack, John, Sit Down/ and to garner both sympathy and believers. of which I particularly like for my purpose, Miss Thornton’s” as a song to sing or play He discusses the potential public pitfalls of as well as others that I enjoy for their own with a child—it’s absolutely delightful and these web sites, which also single out “de- sakes. delicious. According to Milner, a New York mons” or unbelievers for attention, leading I immediately zeroed in on one whose lyricist, Edward Harrigan, composed it for to a discussion of the nature and prolifera- subject matter was most familiar: “Granu- his musical Old Lavender in 1885. tion of intolerance on the Internet. aile.” She’s Grace O’Malley, a real sixteenth- “Larry Maher’s Big Five-Gallon Jar” is The Internet as vehicle for memorializa- century pirate whose life was portrayed in about an infamous innkeeper. He reminded tion and commemoration of the dead is the the Broadway musical The Pirate Queen. It me of the mother of one of my pirates, focus of Robert Dobler’s chapter, “Ghosts wasn’t what I wanted for my book, although Moll Read, who was also an innkeeper—she in the Machine: Mourning the MySpace I liked the song. Milner’s notes indicate that offered a little prostitution on the side, as Dead.” In his discussion of the use of the “Granuaile, historically, has long been syn- well as rum. “Bold McCarthy (The City of social networking site MySpace for remem- onymous with the Irish nation.” Baltimore)” is about the Liverpool poor bering the dead—usually young adults—he­ I decided to consider some other songs for who immigrated to New York. Many of compares and contrasts these digital me- use in my novel. “The Flying Cloud” seems those who “chose” piracy were desperately morials to the roadside memorials we see a perfect choice. Sung by Dan Milner, it is downtrodden; piracy offered a less despi- all too often in our travels. His discussion a wistful ballad about the life of pirates on cable and detestable way of life. “All for Me of motion and stasis in comparing the two a ship, including a graphic description of Grog” is a more recent Irish song (around and of grief patterns is very compelling and the shackled slaves held below deck. The 1960), recorded by the great Liam Clancy. warrants further study, perhaps leading to a lyrics certainly capture the essence of pirate “Castle Gardens (Sixty Years Ago),” as Mil- good fieldwork project for students. life. The song matches the descriptions ner explains, “coincides with the working In the final chapter, “Public Folklore in I’ve encountered throughout my years of life of the Castle Garden Emigrant Landing Cyberspace,” Gregory Hansen provides a research about the exciting and sometimes Depot, the predecessor of Ellis Island.” One history of public folklore in cyberspace, bloodthirsty renegades. of the most historically interesting songs is starting with using databases to catalog A second song that I love because of its “The Lowlands Low,” an eighteenth-century information at the beginning of broader beautiful melody is “The River Lea,” about a smuggling song, as well as a “rallying cry computer use to more recent uses, such as seaman “willingly” deciding to give up life at published five years before the Easter Upris- mounting exhibits on the Internet that will sea. During the 1700s, those pirates agreeing ing.” reach more people in virtual space than in to follow the order of King George to give Dan Milner and his accompanying artists physical space. He discusses the uses and up the life of piracy and settle down on land are consummate professionals. Irish Pirate potential of the Internet for public folklor- were granted clemency; those who refused Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea is a great CD ists, both for sharing information within the were hanged. “The River Lea” is not about a just for listening. History through music also profession and with a host of other users, pirate, but it beautifully captures the conflicts makes it a good addition to the classroom. such as educators and folklore groups. The in the heart of a longtime seaman deciding —Carol London, Touro College appendix is a web resource for public folk- to resettle on the shore. lore. This CD is a collection of mostly Irish The ideas and redefinitions of folklore pirate songs, but some songs also touch on that this collection suggests are compelling, other law-defying citizens—not to men- well laid out, and presented skillfully. I would tion those who were dispossessed by the recommend this book to any folklorist think- government, or simply life. Dan Milner ing about folklore scholarship and practice has an Irish background and “grew up in in the twenty-first century. I also suggest this a singing family.” Milner’s autobiography

48 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Thank You, New York Folklore Society Supporters! The New York Folkore Society thanks the people and organizations that supported our programs and publications in 2010. Your help is essential to our work. If your local library is not listed among the institutional subscribers below, please urge it to join.

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The New York Folklore Society, Save the Dates! supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, will sponsor two gatherings for Latino artists in New York State.

March 19, 2011, at Go Art!, Batavia May 14, 2011, at Centro Civico, Amsterdam

Designed for musicians, dancers, craftspeople, and others who practice traditional art forms with their origin in any of the Spanish-speaking communities of North and South America, the gatherings will assist artists in sharing resources and experiences and provide an opportunity for future collaborations and technical assistance.

For additional information or to find out how to become a delegate, please contact Lisa Overholser at [email protected].