ONLINE INFORMATION STAFF RESOURCES Administration The American Folklife Center’ s Peggy A. Bulger, Director Website provides full texts of Gene Berry, Assistant to the Director many AFC publications, informa- Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant tion about AFC projects, multi- Michael Taft, Head, Archive of Folk Culture media presentations of selected Acquisitions and Programs collections, links to Web re s o u rc e s David A. Taylor, Coordinator on ethnography, and announce- Research and Programs ments of upcoming events. The Ilana Harlow, Folklife Specialist The American Folklife Center a d d ress for the hom e page is Guha Shankar, Folklife Specialist was created in 1976 by the U.S. h t t p : / / w w w. l o c . g o v / f o l k l i f e / A n Congress to “preserve and present Processing and Cataloging index of the site’s contents is American folklife” through pro- Sarah Bradley-Leighton, grams of research, documentation, available at h t t p : / / w w w. l o c . g o v/ Processing Technician archival preservation, reference ser- f o l k l i f e/a f c i n d e x . h t m l Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist vice, live performance, exhibition, Maggie Kruesi, Cataloger publication, and training. The The Website for The Ve t e r a n s Judy Ng, Processing Technician Center incorporates the Archive of History Project p ro v i de s a n Valda Morris, Processing Technician Folk Culture, which was established o v e rviewofthe project, an online Marcia Segal, Processing Technician in the Music Division of the Library “kit” for participants re c o rding oral Nora Yeh, Archivist, Coordinator of Congress in 1928 and is now one histories of veterans, and a brief of the largest collections of ethno- Publications p resentation of some examples of g r a p h i cmaterial from the United Stephen D. Winick, Editor v i d e o -and audio-re c o rdings of vet- States and around the world. Public Events erans’ stories. The address is Theadocia Austen, Coordinator h t t p : / / w w w. l o c . g o v / v e t s Reference Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Folkline Information Ser- Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, vice is a cooperative announce- Coordinator Librarian Appointees ment program of the A m e r i c a n Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Specialist Tom Rankin, Chair, North Carolina F o l k l o re Soc ie ty and the A m e r i- Todd Harvey, Folklife Specialist Jane Beck, Vice-chair, Vermont can Folklife Center. It is available Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist Norma Cantú, Texas only on the American Folklore Audio Engineering Kojo Nnamdi, District of Columbia Society’s server: w w w. a f s n e t . o r g The service provides timely infor- Matthew Barton, Audio Engineer Congressional Appointees Jonathan Gold, Audio Technician Daniel Botkin, California mation on the field of folklore and folklife, including training and Digital Conversion Penn Fix, Washington John Barton, Specialist Mickey Hart, California p rofessional opportunities, and news items of national intere s t . Reference Service Dennis Holub, South Dakota Tel: 202 707–5510 William L. Kinney Jr., South Carolina Fax: 202 707–2076 Judith McCulloh, Emerita, Illinois E-mail: [email protected] Marlene Meyerson, New Mexico Veterans History Project Presidential Appointees FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Diane Kresh, Director Cynthia R. Church, Assistant Secretary for Stephen D. Winick, Editor Peter T. Bartis, Senior Program Officer Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor Anneliesa Clump Behrend, Department of Veterans Affairs Sheryle Shears, Designer Public Affairs Specialist Fran Mainella Peggy Pixley,Production Jeffrey Lofton, Public Affairs Specialist Director, National Park Service Debra Murphy, Special Assistant Sonya E. Medina, Assistant Director of Folklife Center News publishes ar- Sarah Rouse, Senior Program Officer Projects, Office of the First Lady, ticles on the programs and activ- Timothy Schurtter, Program Officer The White House ities of the American Folklife Cen- Eileen Simon, Archivist Ex Officio Members t e r, a s w el l as o th er ar t ic l es o n Taru Spiegel, Program Officer James H. Billington, Librarian of traditional expressive culture. It is Congress available free of charge from the Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Library of Congress, A m e r i c a n C ov e r : The Washington Chu Shan Smithsonian Institution Folklife Center, 101 Independence Chinese Opera Institute perfo rm e d Dana Gioia, Chairman, Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. scenes from The Monkey King and National Endowment for the Arts 20540–4610. Folklife Center News other Peking operas on May 18, 2005, Bruce Cole, Chairman, National does not publish announcements in the American Folklife Center’s 2005 Endowment for the Humanities f rom other institutions or re v i e w s Homegrown Concert Series. In this Michael Owen Jones, President, of books from publishers other photo, Master Zhu Chu Shan performs American Folklore Society than the Library of Congre s s . as the Monkey King. For a full listing of Timothy Rice, President, Readers who would like to com- Homegrown concerts, see p. 23 or visit Society for Ethnomusicology ment on Center activities or us on the Web at www.loc.gov/folklife. Peggy A. Bulger, Director, newsletter articles may addre s s (Photo courtesy of Washington Chu American Folklife Center their remarks to the editor. Shan Chinese Opera Institute)

2 Folklife Center News ARTHUR MILLER—A VIEW FROM THE FIELD

By Matthew Barton It was only natural that f o l k l o re and folkso ngs When the great play- would be used in such pro- wright Arthur Miller died grams, but Alan Lomax, in February, obituary writ- the twenty-six-year-old di- ers focused on his most rector of the A rc h i v e , famous work and his trou- sought a more active role bled marriage to Marilyn for his division in the proj- Monroe. Miller’s life and ect. In a report to Mac- work prior to All My Sons Leish, he described a docu- and Death of a Salesman mentary series based on received little attention, new field recordings that particularly his brief but would demonstrate “a new memorable stint as a field- function for radio; that of worker for the Library of letting the people explain Congress in 1941. themselves and their lives In 1941 the twenty-six- to the entire nation.” To y e a r-ol dMiller was just that end, Lomax, Liss, and another struggling, unem- others traveled the country ployed writer. As a stu- in the summer of 1941 dent at the University of in a sound truck outfitted Michigan he had won a with new disc re c o rd i n g pair of drama awards, and equipment. They inter- in 1939 his political satire viewed people about their The Pussycat and the Expert lives, homes, and work, Plumber Who Was a Man The playwright and fieldworker Arthur Miller, pictured and re c o rded their had been produced for sometime after the war. Source: Library of Congress thoughts about the war in CBS Radio’s C o l u m b i a Prints and Photographs Division Europe, and if or when the Wo r k s h o p while he was United States would enter making $22.77 a week on the WPA such as the regional surveys of the the fray. Theater Project in New York. Since Federal Writers Project, the hold- How Miller, who had no experi- then, his career had stalled. ings of the Library’s Manuscript ence as a field collector, came to be In December 1940 Miller’ s Division, and the collections of the responsible for collecting the mate- friend from the Columbia Workshop Archive of American Folksong (the rial and writing the script for the series, Joseph Liss, was hired as precursor of the American Folklife sixth and final show is not quite project editor for the Library of Center’s Archive of Folk Culture). clear, and at the time, Lomax ques- Congress’s Radio Research Project, One of Miller’s programs, called tioned his qualifications. In a note andhebrought in Miller as a “Buffalo Bill Disremembered,” fea- to Radio Research Project director s c r i p t w r i t e r. The Radio Researc h tured an aging Buffalo Bill Cody Phillip Cohen dated October 15, Project was an ambitious foray into looking back at his life, trying to 1941, the day that Miller set out in broadcasting conceived by Librar- separate fact from fiction. This pro- asoundtruckforWi l m i n g t o n , ian of Congress A rchibald Mac- gram struck a chord, and many lis- North Carolina, with engineer John Leish and funded by the Rocke- teners wrote in with Buffalo Bill Langenegger, Lomax wrote: feller Foundation. MacLeish saw it stories that had circulated in their “[Arthur Miller] making the trip as an opportunity to use the families. Another Miller script means for the project to make other Library’s resources in a popular dramatized the early history of sacrifices. Mr. Miller is an awfully f o rum to educate theA m e r i c a n New Orleans. Programs by other nice lad, but if his ability to handle public about the history of a free writers dealt with the building of regional materials is evidenced in nation in a time when freedom was the Erie Canal, the history of the the New Orleans script and in the under fire. tune “Yankee Doodle,” and the Buffalo Bill script, I say he needs Miller, Liss, and other writers story of a Polish migrant in the some more work before we spend took inspiration from raw material Jamestown colony. $400.00 on him.”

Winter/Spring 2005 3 A p p a re n t l y, th e Un ite d S t a t e s Defense Policy) decided that the Department of Health wanted to strike sequence, Negro unemploy- b o r row a sound truck from the ment sequence and material about Library for use on a mining safety the gay times of defense workers film to be shot in Wilmington, North would have to come out of the C a rol in a, an d M il le r and L an g ene g- show. That meant cutting the show ger were provided as a sound cre w. down to twenty-four minutes and I Their main job was to interview the saw nothing else to do but cut it miners and safety engineers and further and make a fifteen-minute gather sound eff e c t s . program out of it.” In the end, all In 2003 Miller recalled that he six programs were cut down to fif- had been told to record as many teen minutes, but it must have been d i ff e rent southern accents as he quite a blow for the first-time field could on the trip, and there were a worker to see some of his best re c o rd- great variety in Wilmington. As a ings hit the cutting room floor. result of the new industries created Nevertheless, Miller produced a by the demands of the U.S.–U.K. tight fifteen-minute script, manag- Lend Lease agreement, the city’s ing to keep some of the strike mate- population had doubled in less than rial, including two songs. The pro- two years, with workers and their gram ended with a ringing call for families streaminginfrom all over freedom: the South. The finished program included Arthur Miller in 1961. Source: New York MILLER: But there is no time for many accents, but its subject was Wo r l d - Tel eg ra m & S u n C ol l e ct i o n, talk. The men have ships to build. really the people and the town of L i b r a r y o f C o n gr e ss P ri nt s a n d One ship will slide into the water Wilmington. In a staged opening Photographs Division every twelve days. So this is the scene, Phillip Cohen tells Miller to fascinating glimpse of the young voice of the shipyard. “get on the Library Sound dramatist’s mind at work: SOUND: SHIPYARD NOISES Recording Truck and go down to “Just to remind you, Alan of our UP VERY FULL North Carolina. There’s a boom on talk in the restaurant,—in the in a town called Wilmington .... Negro jobless scene my aim was to MILLER: And this is Wilming- Ask the folks there what’s going keep their talk going in as sponta- ton, North Carolina. A h u n d re d on, what they think is wrong and neous a fashion as was possible. So voices talking free and one voice what’s right. Talk to the people. the dubs should be as close togeth- over all the rest, the voice that will Get records of their answers, their er as possible. In between cut keep men free . . . . questions . . . get Wi l m i n g t o n , pieces, of course, we don’t want North Carolina into that sound The script called for further dead silence. Now I remember sev- shipyard noise at this point, but truck.” eralpieces of theNegro records Miller proved to be an excep- secretary and typist Evelyn Young which were barren of voices and got the last word, at least in print, tional field worker, asking intelli- only the general street and outdoor gent and direct questions while when she entered this bit of dia- noise was recorded. If those could logue for herself at the very end: keeping his informants at ease, be slipped in between the dubs, the whether it was the city manager of realism of the scene could be main- YOUNG: And don’t let me hear Wilmington, the newly arrived tained. Of course the sound of a car you birds ask for another Wilming- shipyard workers in the Wilming- passing would do if the above is ton Script!! Merry Christmas!! ton shipyard, their wives in the too difficult.” trailer parks where they lived, or Joseph Liss’s secretary Evelyn Miller never forgot his experi- the now unemployed black labor- Young forwarded Miller’s finished ence in Wilmington. In 1990 he ers who had built the shipyard. script to Lomax on December 11, ordered copies of his Radio Re- One Sunday afternoon Miller was which suggests that Miller, now search recordings from the Library. led indoors by the sound of sing- back in his Brooklyn apartment, Two years before his death, he ing. There he found twenty-five may have finished it just before the reviewed and commented on them African-American women singing attack on Pearl Harbor. It timed out for Christopher Bigsby, author of old spirituals that they had refash- at thirty-two minutes, twenty-two “Arthur Miller: A Critical Study,” ioned into songs of labor protest. A seconds, a length that could easily which became the basis for the BBC strike at a shirt factory was then in be trimmed to the required broad- Radio 4 program “Arthur Miller: its fifth month, with no end in cast length of twenty-nine minutes The Accidental Music Collector.” sight. Miller set about document- and thirty seconds—and an edited His recollections were vivid: the ing the strike and its music, an carbon copy timed out to just over mining safety engineer whose experience he would remember for twenty-nine minutes survives. But breakfast was three bottles of Coca- the rest of his life. in an apologetic letter to Miller Cola and a bag of salted peanuts. Miller and Langenegger re - dated December 21, 1941, Lomax The octagonal barrel of a shotgun turned to Washington on N o - informed him that Phillip Cohen aimed at him by a drunken man vember 5. An undated typed “for reasons which he will explain who told him to go back to note to Lomax from Miller offers a to you (considerations of National Washington. The voice of a gospel 4 Folklife Center News singer who “should have been to A rchibald MacLeish, a once- esting script about this southern singing at the Metro p o l i t a n . ” doubtful Alan Lomax gave the boom town. This script was written “Why do I remember all of this?” rookie field worker his due: and narrated by Mr. Miller and it is he asked Bigsby at one point. “ M r. M i ll er show s th e town o f up to now the most stirring pro g r a m Though he never again made Wilmington which, since the begin- which we have completed.” field recordings, Miller’s work re- ning of the defense program has tained some of the methodology. m o re th an d ou bl ed i ts si ze. It is a The field recordings made by His 1955 play “A View From the ship-building town and full of the Arthur Miller and John Langenegger Bridge” had its origins in a bit of contrasts between the old leisure l y can be heard in the American Folklife Italian graffiti he saw on the New way of life and thenewtrip-ham- Center Reading Room. Miller’s fin- York w a t e r f ront: Dové Pete Panto? mer tension that the defense pro- ished radio program on Wilmington, ( W h e re is Pete Panto?) His inquiries gram has brought on. Mr. Miller was North Carolina, can be heard in the among dockworkers initially met m o re di rec t than we had been in Performing Arts Reading Room of the with silence, but piece-by-piece, he other field efforts and simply Library of Congress. assembled the story of a young man walked up to people that he met in Alan Gevinson’s detailed history of m u rd e red by the mobste rs who trailer camps, factories, and on the the Radio Research Project appears in c o n t rol led l ab or on t he wa terfro n t . s t re ets and in terviewed them about the 2002 Library of Congress Per- Miller’s program aired on May what was going on in the city. Fro m forming Arts Annual. 28, 1942. Later that year, in a report this material, we developed an inter-

GRAMMY FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT TO AFC by Michael Taft shanties sung by sailors on the Walton was one of the few to col- Great Lakes. lect the songs of the upper The Grammy Foundation, an arm •Discoteca Publica Municipal of Midwest, and his recordings of the of the National Academy of S˜ao Paulo collection, of Brazilian G reat Lakes mariners are early Recording Arts and Sciences, has folk music (1937–38). examples of documented occupa- awarded the AFC an archiving and •Robert Sonkin collection of tional folklore. preservation grant of $38,414. This music and speech from Gee’s Bend The team of fieldworkers who award is the Foundation’s third to and Palmerdale, Alabama, and re c o rded Brazilian songs and the AFC in the Center’s continuing other places (1941): Conversations, music for the Discoteca Publica Save Our Sounds initiative to digi- interviews, prayer meetings, Municipal of S˜ao Paulo represent- tally preserve endangered sound rhymes, and songs, re c o rded at ed a pioneering effort in group recordings in the Archive of Folk various locations in Alabama and fieldwork (some of this collection C u l t u re. The fir st tw o award s New Jersey. was issued as part of the Library of helped the AFC to fulfill the •Helen Creighton collection C o n g r es s “ En d an g e red Mu si c matching requirements of the Save f rom Nova Scotia (1943–44): P roject” on Rykodisc 10403; see A m e r i c a ’s Tre a s u re s grant that R e c o rd ings of i nstrumentals, mono- h t t p : / / w w w. r y k o d i s c . c o m / C a t a l o g / enabled the digital preservation of logues, religious matter, shanties, d u m p / r y k o a l b u m s _ 6 7 2 . a s p ). Robert close to 3,000 recordings. songs, stories, and birdsongs from Sonkin is perhaps best known for The present grant will go various communities in Nova his collaboration with Charles L. towards the preservation of five Scotia, including African Canadian, Todd in recording in the migrant collections of disc field recordings: German, Gaelic, French Canadian, work camps in central California •Henrietta Yu rchenko’s Mexi- and Micmac Indian material. in 1940 and 1941 (see the American can Indian recordings (1944–46): The project will save over 140 Memory presentation, Voices from Indian music in the areas of Cora- hours of re c o rded sound docu- the Dust Bowl, http://memory.loc.gov/ Huichol in the States of Jalisco and menting a wide variety of tradi- a m m e m / a f c t s h t m l / t s h o m e . h t m l ), but Nayarit, the area of Seri in the State tions and cultures from the he also collected material in the of Sonora, Tarahumara Indians Western Hemisphere. Beyond the South, New Jersey, and in New recorded in the state of Chihuahua, value of the material recorded on York City. Helen Creighton was and the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Indians these discs, these collections repre- one of the great Canadian folklore recorded in the state of Chiapas, as sent the work of some of the pio- collectors. From the 1920s to the well as other Indians in Mexico neer folklore fieldworkers of the 1970s, she recorded the traditions and Guatemala. Yurchenko made 1930s and 1940s. Henrietta Yu r- of the people oftheMaritime these recordings for the Instituto chenko, whose collecting care e r Provinces. Indigenista Interamericano, the has spanned five decades, has T h rough this generous grant Secretaria de Educación Pública, and recorded traditions, not only from f rom the Grammy Foundation, the Library of Congress. Mexico, but from the United these valuable recordings will not •Ivan Walton’s fieldwork in States, Ireland, Puerto Rico, only be permanently pre s e r v e d , Michigan and Ohio(1938–41): Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, and but they will become more accessi- Folksongs, including ballads and Morocco, among other places. Ivan ble to researchers. Winter/Spring 2005 5 Alistair Cooke: A Radio and TV Icon in the Archive of Folk Culture.

Alistair Cooke (l.) interviews an unknown woman for the BBC program I Hear America Singing in 1938.The program was one of the first to air materials in the Archive of Folk Song. Courtesy of the estate of Alistair Cooke

By Stephen D. Winick during his sixty-year career as a Fellowship that took him to both journalist and critic. The sheer Yale and Harvard universities. At When English-born journalist, number andlengthofextant H a r v a rd, Cooke enrolled in a b ro a d c a s t e r, a nd cri t i c A l i s t a i r recordings of his voice is matched course on the English language in Cooke passed away on March 30, by few presenters in the history of America taught by Miles L. Hanley, 2004, he left a remarkable legacy. broadcasting. who was at that time a fieldworker Cooke’s Letter from America, a BBC The American Folklife Center is for the American Dialect Society radio feature that ran as a virtually t h e re f o re pleased to note that a and associate editor of the Linguis- unbroken weekly series from 1946 very early interview with Cooke, tic Atlas of New England. Hanley until 2004, holds re c o rds as the which we believe to be the first interviewed Cooke about both l o n g e s t - r u n n i n g sp o k en w or d recording of his voice ever made, is drama and speech. During the in- radioprogram and the longest- held in the Archive of Folk Culture. t e r v i e w, Cooke talked about his running show ever presented by a The twelve-inch aluminum audio- acquaintances in the world of single host: for fifty-eight years disc, which is part of the American American drama, many of them and almost three thousand fifteen- Dialect Society Collection, docu- Englishmen working on Broadway minute episodes, Cooke spoke to ments an interview conducted on or in Hollywood, such as Leslie the world about American life. January 14, 1934, during Cooke’s Howard, Noel Coward, and espe- That’s about 750 hours, or one full first trip to America. cially Charlie Chaplin. He also month of round-the-clock talking. Cooke had come to the United praised what he called the “greater And that’s only one show among States in 1932 to study drama on a purity and consistency” of Amer- the many that Cooke pre s e n t e d two-year Commonwealth Fund ican vs. British speech. 6 Folklife Center News The interview is all the one of his idols. He later more remarkable in that it is recalled the evening on one only one of several points of of his recordings: “He was connection between Cooke’s playing a sour piano in a c a reer and the A rchive of really smelly café, the sort of Folk Culture. Because of his place where they never genuine love of folklore , serve a meal. Just a neon Cooke visited the Library of sign with two bulbs missing Congress many times, partic- and a cab driver leaning up ularly what was then the against a glass of beer. It A rchive of Folk Song. In was like meeting the 1936, while back in England, P resident in a shoe-shine Cooke produced a very suc- p a r l o u r. ” C o i n c i d e n t a l l y, cessful half-hour program of Morton himself was plan- American hobo songs for the ning to meet with Lomax for BBC, entitled New York City to aseriesofre c o rding ses- the Golden Gate. After emi- sions at the Library of Con- grating to the United States gress. Cooke sat in during in 1937, he began pursuing the sessions, at which Lo- his dream of a longer and max re c o r d e d M o r t o n ’ s more detailed program trac- repertoire of blues, jazz, and ing the origins of American folksongs. folksong. He discovered fair- Alistair Cooke’s dealings ly quickly that there were few with the Archive were not extant commercial re c o rd- always so successful. A plan ings. He therefore journeyed for Cooke to borrow record- to Washington from his ing equipment for a 1941–42 home in New York and BBC documentary tour of a p p roached Alan Lomax, This 1932 studio portrait of Alistair Cooke was taken the United States seems not then A s s i s t a n t - i n - C h a rge of just before he left for his first trip to America, which to have borne fruit. The plan the Archive of Folk Song, for lasted two years. It was on this trip that he was is sketched out in letters help. Lomax, always happy recorded by the American Dialect Society, on a disc among Cooke, Lomax, and to promote folk music on the that now resides in the Archive of Folk Culture. Harold Spivacke, then Chief radio, helped him identify Courtesy of the estate of Alistair Cooke of the Library’s Music Divi- songs to use from the sion. The use of expensive a rchive’s holdings. From these how desperately hard it is for an equipment was more difficult to songs and a few others, along with amateur to get within earshot of arrange than the use of recordings, his expert narration, Cooke the music he is interested in and and the letters reveal a complex stitched together IHearAmerica excited about ....Ifoundthat the process of negotiations once again Singing, a series of thirteen half- Library, and only the Library, has involving the Librarian of Con- hour programs. The series got recorded a score or more of the gress, at that time Archibald Mac- excellent reviews in most British songs which can make my series Leish. Moreover, no detailed ac- media outlets, with the Times of possible.” Cooke was able to per- count of what the trip was to entail London sounding particularly suade Putnam to grant the BBC seems to have survived. It is likely enthusiastic, and suggesting that one-time rights by promising to that the BBC’s plan was something the show be expanded to an hour. return to the Library not only the along the lines of the Radio The Times, of course, has a long originals, but also all copies of the Research Project for which Arthur m e m o r y, and when Cooke died A rchive’s re c o rdings. IHear Miller was working at the time, in they commented on I Hear America America Singing was there f o re which Cooke would ask for Singing in his obituary, alluding to broadcast live, only once, and was Americans’ opinions about the agreat mystery surrounding the to our knowledge neither commer- w a r. 1 T h e re f o re, the fact that the series: how had Cooke managed to cially released nor even preserved BBC was part of the British govern- b o r row re c o rdings from the Li- in re c o rded fo rm. Ma ny o f t he ment, which was already at war, brary of Congress, when no other re c o rdings from the Library of while the Library was part of broadcasters had yet managed to C o n g ress had never been heard the American government, which do so? It turns out not to be such a b e f o r e b y a n y on e o u ts i de th e was still officially neutral, made mystery after all: Cooke simply Library. the negotiationsmoresensi- wrote an eloquent, charming, and During his trip to Washington to tive. Cooke, a newly naturalized persuasive letter to the Librarian of consult with Lomax about the pro- American citizen, did not know Congress, Herbert Putnam, a copy gram, Cooke made the acquain- how forthcoming he could be of which is held in the Archive of tance of blues and jazz pianist Jelly regarding his plans. “I didn’t think Folk Culture. “When I first became Roll Morton, by strolling into a bar it was proper for me to give an interested in American folk songs,” where Morton was playing. Cooke, exhaustive account of what is, after Cooke wrote, “I had no idea so lit- a blues and jazz fan since his uni- all, a British government project to tle had been done in recording, and versity days, was thrilled to meet anybody until the first formal Winter/Spring 2005 7 negotiations were over between Outside his dealings with the the era before global cable net- M r. Lindsay Wellington [North Library, Cooke remained a lifelong works, Cooke’s musings were thus American director of the BBC] and aficionado of folk music and of one of the primary means by which Dr. MacLeish,” he explained, in a folklife more generally. In L e t t e r English-speakers in Africa, A s i a , handwritten letter to Haro l d from America he often quoted the Australia, Latin America, and Spivacke, held intheLibrary’s lyrics of hymns, ballads, and blues. Europe understood American poli- Music Division. He also produced programs on tics and culture. He also served as The survivingcorre s p o n d e n c e such folklife topics as: legends the chief American correspondent suggests that Lomax and Spivacke about the evolution of baseball in for the Manchester Guardian. both supported Cooke’s plan, but both America and the Soviet Cooke’s appeal soon made him the time turned out to be inauspi- Union; jokes and legends about the a star on television as well. The cul- cious: Cooke’s initial telegram, sent iceman and other deliverymen; tural program Omnibus,ofwhich in October 1941, requested the American regional celebrations of he was the host, was a Sunday- equipment from January 15 until Christmas, MayDay,andthe afternoon staple on American TV the end of March. Up until Decem- Fourth of July; the culture of beau- for nine years during the 1950s, ber 5, when Cooke was sent a ty pageants, parades, and world’s and remains one of the few shows telegram from the Library inform- fairs; mythic representations of the ever to make the rounds of all three ing him that the equipment was American West; and conspiracy major networks. His NBC histori- spoken for until the fifteenth, it theories about the assassination of cal series America: A P e r s o n a l looked as though the plan would President John F. Kennedy. All of History later ran on both PBS and be feasible. But there the paper these topics have since been stud- the BBC, one of the few American trail goes cold, and we have no ied by folklorists. Cooke passed his commercial programs to do so. In re c o rd of Cooke receiving the love of folk music on to his son, 1971 Cooke began hosting the PBS equipment. John Byrne Cooke, who became a anthology program M a s t e r p i e c e In all likelihood, the loan was p r of e ss i on a l b l u egrass musician Theatre, reversing his usual role to cancelled due to WorldWarII. (with the Charles River Va l l e y present British culture to American When the last telegram was sent to Boys) and a well-known photogra- audiences. He would continue as Cooke on December 5, neither pher of the folk and rock music host for twenty-two years, and this Cooke nor the Library could have scenes in the 1960s. facet of Cooke’s career is the one known that The Empire of Japan Cooke was also held in great primarily remembered by Ameri- would attack Pearl Harbor two esteem by Congress itself, which he cans. Seated in a comfortable days later. After the attack, the covered as a journalist from the leather wingchair, Cooke looked Library changed its plans and 1930s on. He received the highest the epitome of the English dra- began to gather the “Man on the recognition possible from Congress maturge as he deftly contextual- Street” interviews documented in in 1974, when he was asked to ized dramatic renderings of Jane our online exhibit After the Day of address the assembled body on the Austen and Henry James, as well I n f a m y .(h t t p : / / m e m o r y . l o c . g o v / occasion of its two hundre d t h as enthralling and delightful serials a m m e m / a f c p h h t m l / a f c p h h o m e . h t m l ) anniversary. Up to that time, the such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Specifically, Cooke was setting out only foreign-born people to have Jeeves and Wo o s t e r. T h ro u g h h i s on his trip just as Lomax and the made such an address were the radio and television work, he Library wererecording the “Dear Marquis de Lafayette and Winston became one of the world’s most Mr. President” interviews, and it is Churchill. Cooke kept the mood familiar voices. likely that the equipment request- light. He told Congress: A copy of the Alistair Cooke ed by Cooke was used elsewhere in interview is available for listening this important effort. Nonetheless, Standing here now I feel as if I were in the Folklife Center Reading the entry of the United States into just coming awake from some night- Room between the hours of 8:30 the war made Cooke’s trip all the mare, in which I see myself before you and 5 P.M., Eastern Time, Monday more relevant, and he went ahead unprepared and naked, as one often through Friday (excluding federal with it. According to his biogra- does in dreams, looking around this holidays); appointments are not pher Nick Clarke, he documented awesome assembly and blurting out “I necessary. the trip primarily in notebooks. accept your nomination for the The relationshipofcord i a l Presidency of the United States!” respect between the Library and Cooke continued until a few years Of course, Cooke was primarily 1 Cooke’s biographer, Nick Clarke, notes before Cooke’s death; during the known as a journalist and media that the BBC’s primary purpose was coordi- nating propaganda, and “convincing occu- Library’s 1999–2000 exhibition, personality. Throughout his career, pied Europe of the potential strength and John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Cen- he served as a BBC commentator invincibility of the American armed forces.” turies of British-American Relations, a on American affairs. Arecognition Clarke identifies this field trip as a plan printed version of one Letter from of his prodigious talents as an devised by Cooke and his supervisor at America, “Beer in Tins and Other essayist and broadcaster led to the BBC, Lindsay Wellington, to document Matters,” was displayed pro m i- creation of American Letter (later re- “how the war affected ordinary Americans Letter from America from every walk of life.” The surviving cor- nently at the Library. The letter can titled )in1946. respondence clearly indicates that the plan now be viewed in the online ver- On the BBC World Service, Letter predated the United States entering the war, sion of that exhibition on the f rom America eventually re a c h e d which makes the trip’s aims very similar to Library of Congress Website. audiences in over fifty countries. In those of the Radio Research Project. 8 Folklife Center News The Making of American Folktales

J.D. Suggs entertains folklorist Richard Dorson in Calvin, Michigan, in 1952. Watching from the window inside the Suggs home are Suggs’s children Beatrice, Toka, and Wink. Suggs shared 175 folktales with Dorson. Although Dorson took down the great majority of Suggs's narratives in shorthand, he tape-recorded some of them, including some that had never been previously published. Fifteen of Suggs's tape-recorded tales, as well as this photo, appear in American Folktales from the Collections of the Library of Congress. Photo: George T. Kolehmainen

By Carl Lindahl lorists do and the importance of pre- American Folktales emerged from serving our collections for the future. a sense of unfinished business that Editor’s Note: The American Folklife For readers who are not folklorists, had haunted me for decades. Long Center is proud to announce the pub- “magic tales” and “märchen” are fascinated with Appalachian magic lication of American Folktales, the both synonyms for the kind of stories tales, I was troubled with the scant first representative book of narratives commonly known as“fairy tales.” attention paid to them by folk- ever published from materials in the One kind of magic tale common lorists, and especially by the fact Archive of Folk Culture. While the t h roughout North America is the that none of us seemed to be aware music and songs in the Archive get a “Jack Tale,” a story about a wily of the depth of the tradition or even lot of attention from both scholars young man making his way in the of past scholarly attempts to assess and the media, our extensive collec- world; “Jack and the Beanstalk” is the it.In1943 the first book-length tions of stories and storytelling are best-known old-world example. And anthology of Appalachian märchen only now coming to be fully appreci- for those who don’t know, the Parsons appeared: The Jack Tales by Richard ated. In the article that follows, the Fellowship is a modest stipend award- Chase. In the notes to that book, book’s author, Carl Lindahl, discusses ed by the American Folklife Center to Herbert Halpert refers to Jack Tales the process by which A m e r i c a n help scholars do research among the he had re c o rded from Sam uel Folktales came to life. In the process many collections at the Library of Harmon in 1939. In 1997, while in he says a lot about the work folk- Congress. residence at the University of Winter/Spring 2005 9 for a book emerged. Fortunately, I began the research with a very cir- cumscribed and finite goal in mind, or I would soon have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the collections. Because I simply could not predict which tapes and disks would bear the best tales, I would often spend hours digging through one given collection with little to show for it by the end of the day.Ifound out quickly that there was no way to know in advance which tellers and which tales would work best in print. I knew about half of the tellers included in the book when I began my research on the project, at least by name and reputation: this was particularly true of the Afri- can American and A p p a l a c h i a n “superstars.” As I continued to work on the Appalachian material that I knew best, I asked AFC spe- cialists about their favorite collec- tions and narratives. It was through Joe Hickerson that I first h e a r d Sa ra Cl e ve l a n d’ s ta l e s, (Left to right) Martha Suggs Spencer, Carl Lindahl, and Toka Suggs Saunders through Alan Jabbour that I heard at the J.D. Suggs Freedom Festival, Vandalia, Michigan, August 2004. Martha Sterling Brown’s recordings of Will and Toka are daughters of J.D. Suggs. Photo: courtesy of Carl Lindahl Gilchrist, through Ann Hoog that I learned of the specific September Vi rginia to study A p p a l a c h i a n great performances. From the time 11 narratives found in the book, märchen, I came to the American that I first heard Sam Harmon’s t h rough Stephanie Hall that I Folklife Center to listen to Sam voice in the spring of 1997, I deter- learned of the great performances Harmon’s performances. Here it mined that I would do what I could by Joshua A l l e y. Wi th o u t t h e was, nearly sixtyyearssince to ensure that others would “hear” knowledge and guidance of the Halpert had recorded these tales, him too, in one form or another. archivists and folklife specialists, and overhalfacentury since In 1998 I received a Parsons this book could easily have taken Halpert had published information Fellowship toworkspecifically decades to put together. about them, and the tales had still with the British- and Irish-Ameri- The areas of my greatest prior never been released in audio or can märchen in the AFC collec- experience and knowledge were transcribed form. It seemed as if no tions. While digging through these Appalachian and African Ameri- one had listened to them since performances, I was aided by an can narrative. Fortunately for me, Halpert recorded them. enormously important finding aid these are the two populations most From what Halpert had written that had been put together in 1983 richly re p resented in the A F C ’ s about Sam Harmon’s stories, I under the inspiration of Kenneth S. narrative collections, and about expected them to be important, but Goldstein in collaboration with half of the book’s 215 tales come I was unprepared for how special AFC interns Holly Cutting Baker from these two groups. But it was they really were. Yes, the perform- and Amanda Dargan. This 211 - my desire not only to highlight the ances were marred by burdensome page typescript was the closest greatest riches of the AFC’s collec- and imperfect sound technology. thing to a comprehensive narrative tion, but also to show something of Yes, the technical shortcomings, catalogue then available at the its breadth—its representation of combined with Harmon’s thick AFC. As I read and re-read the diverse ethnicities, regions, and so accent, nonstandard vocabulary, entries on this list, I was stunned on. As a result, the book contains and occasional lapses of memory by the riches on deposit here: tales stories in English, French, and and struggles to find the right re c o rded by the Lomaxes, Zora Spanish, and also contains tales word, often made these perform- Neale Hurston, Richard Dorson, told or set in forty-two of the fifty ances difficult to follow. Yes, most and Sterling Brown, but unheard states, in every region of the coun- of these performances were a far and unread outside the A F C ’ s try. This was the most difficult part cry from the slick and heavily walls. of assembling the book because it rewritten texts that tend to find As I shared my excitement over took me out of the areas I knew their ways into storybooks. But these tales with Alan Jabbour (who best. There were many great collec- these were not merely historically was then the director of the tions that my own linguistic short- important performances: they were American Folklife Center), the idea comings prevented me from draw- 10 Folklife Center News ing into the book: nos. 2,3 (2000)]. most of the gre a t Jesse’s memories Native A m e r i c a n of Henry and collections were John were so in their original moving that I languages: Zuni, deeply wanted to N i s q u a l l y, e t c . ; include a narra- there were great tive or two that performances in could impart Yiddish, Platt- something of this deutsch, Italian, n a r r a t o r- c o l l e c t o r and other lan- relationship. But, guages that I as any folk- wish I could lorist who have re p r e s e n t - spends much ed. time comparing The otherwise oral and written inclusive nature texts soon discov- of the collection ers, there are is based on con- many great oral viction and mod- p e r f o r m a n c e s eled to some that don’t trans- extent upon an late well to the earlier collection page. The spoken that I co-edited: prose that Henry Swapping Stories: Truvillion re - Folktales fro m c o rded for John L o u i s i a n a .The Lomax included conviction is that some great per- every great nar- formances, but rator embeds the they were never- stories of his or theless untrans- This photo of the Hicks family includes Ray Hicks (far left, dancing), Frank her life and com- Proffitt (center, with guitar), and Buna Hicks (far right, with fiddle). Ray and latable to written munity’s life in Buna Hicks are both storytellers appearing in American Folktales from the form. They sim- every story that Collections of the Library of Congress. Source: American Folklife Center. ply didn’t “read” he or she tells. Photo: Frank and Anne Warner anywhere near as The more one good as they knows of the narrator’s and the recent years to guide me to particu- sounded. So being unable to find a community’s life, the richer the lar stories. For example, in his particular Dobie performance and story becomes. Thus, as often as biography of John A. Lomax, Last not being able to use any of the possible, I included autobiographi- C a v a l i e r ,NolanPorterfield de- recorded Truvillion performances cal narratives and localhistory scribes a re c o rding session dur- w e re two of my biggest disap- accounts along with the jokes, the ing which J. Frank Dobie told sto- pointments. m ä rchen, the tall tales. Sam ries to Lomax and John Henry There are also some stories I am Harmon, J.D. Suggs, Aunt Molly Faulk in an Austin hotel. Ac- very happy about including. I am Jackson, Jane Muncy, and Sara cording to the memory of one of particularly fond of what I call Cleveland each contribute nine or the men present at the time, John “nested stories”—great tales in more stories representing a wide was continually sneaking out away their own right, prefaced or fol- range of subjects and genres; each from his wife Ruby to take nips lowed by great narratives about tale, in my opinion, adds to the f rom a whiskey bottle. I badly what the story means to the teller. richness of the others and shows us wanted to include this perform- Of all the great stories in the AFC, something of the importance of a ance to complement Porterfield’s none impresses me more than 91- great storyteller in articulating the interview concerning what was year-old Joshua Alley’s “The Bear’s values, concerns, and history of the going on behind the scenes during Tale,” told to Margarite Chapallaz storyteller’s community. the re c o rding. But in the end I of the American Dialect Society in Another of my chief interests could not find the particular per- 1934. This performance runs to was to flesh out the record of how formance to which Last Cavalier over twenty-five minutes; yet it storytellers had interacted with the alludes. comes from an era when recording folklorist-collectors of the past. In Similarly, I had been intrigued narratives was severely hampered addition to such classic writings as by a recent issue of Journal of by disk-cutting technology: just to Halpert’s notes to Chase’s The Jack Folklore Research in which Jesse G. c a p t u re Joshua Alley’s perform- Ta l e s and Hurston’s inexplicably Truvillion and Pat Mullen collabo- ance, Mlle. Chapallaz and her asso- neglected recordings of John Davis, rated to write about Jesse’s father ciate had to turn over or change I leaned on some of the most sug- Henry Truvillion’s re l a t i o n s h i p disks six times in the course of gestive and tantalizing writings of with John A. Lomax [JFR 37, Alley’s performance. This kind of Winter/Spring 2005 11 interference could well have worn were as intriguing as the focal nar- together”—and the Suggs children down the composure of even the ratives themselves. Among the have interpreted that vision in greatest narrators, but Alley’s own nested stories I like the best are terms of Suggs “coming together” strengths as a storyteller, combined Jane Muncy Fugate, whom I with Dorson. When I drove up to with Chapallaz’s engaging manner recorded in 2000, describing how the J.D. Suggs Underg ro u n d as an interviewer, easily overcome she had learned “Merrywise” from Railroad Museum and Historical the tech hurdles. her grandmother nearly sixty years Site in Vandalia, Michigan, I was “The Bear’s Tale” is unique in before, as they slept in the same stunned to find two metal silhou- my experience: I am not aware of bed with Jane’s ear pressed against ettes—one ofDorson, painted any other traditional story quite her grandmother’s back to listen to white, and one of Suggs, painted like it in plot, and Alley’s under- her heart beat as the story unfolded black—facing each other. The sil- stated oral style is stunningly effec- (pages 284–86); and Sam Harmon houettes were fashioned on the tive. But the tale becomes doubly telling Herbert Halpert about how model of a photo of Dorson and special when, after its completion, his grandchildren would “wear the Suggs that Suggs had carried with Joshua Alley describes the circum- life out of me” by prodding him to him until the day he died. In stances in which he first heard it: tell tales, and how Sam managed to August 2004, shortly after Ameri- escape back into sleep with his can Folktales had been released, I When I was a little fellow, about so hypnotic tellings (pages 15–17). attended the J.D. Suggs Freedom high, I lived down on the Head Harbor Of course, in some ways, the Festival at the museum and Island . . . . I was born, brought up book is almost as much about the emerged from my car to find the down there, and there was an old fella collectors as about the storytellers. Suggs family gathered in a circle come down there to buy some fish, of Only in very few cases was my esti- around the metal cutouts of Suggs my father. I remember all these things. mation of the collector negatively and Dorson. And he told the story, and it was a bit- affected by listening to the record- The re c o rdings of Suggs and ter cold day, and we sat outdoor. We ings. In listening to John A. Lomax Dorson reveal a strong mutual af- walked down to the shore with him at work, I learned that he was fection based on the two men’s because hehadpaidhis visit and sometimes impatient to hear a common love of story. These and bought his fish and was going to leave teller tell a story almost exactly as similar re c o rdings from other story- and said that he’d forgot to tell the old John A. remembered it from an ear- teller-collector teams underline the man, my father, this story before he left lier telling. This fact spoke volumes importance and redeeming quality the house. about Lomax’s remarkable feats of of fieldwork. We may get it wrong So we sat down on the bank where m e m o r y, bu t L o ma x’s d es ire t o theoretically, our scholarship may the wind raked right on to us. Oh, a hear tales essentially re p e a t e d sometimes seriously misrepresent bitter cold day. And he told the story. rather than re-created sometimes our “informants,” but as long as And father learned it, hearing him tell cramped the narrators and led to we can re c o rd their re m a r k a b l e it. poor performances. performances and deal with them And when we got up to the house, Much more commonly,how- p e r s o n a l l y, in an atmosphere of my father says to me, “You didn’t learn ever,Iemerged from the listening mutual respect, we have done that story, did you?” experience with enhanced respect something remarkably right. The And I said, “I think I did.” for the collectors and for the posi- re c o rded performances will sur- “Well,” he says, “Go ahead and tell tive bonds they had forged with vive our misperceptions and,thro u g h it.” the storytellers. Perhaps the most such archives as the AFC, be avail- I told the story. Says he “You got it pleasant surprise of this sort was able for their grandchildren and all right.” Richard Dorson. Dorson has been ours. We justify our existence by Now, I was but a little fellow about roundly (and rightly) taken to task prolonging that of the storytellers. so high, but I’ve always remembered it. for many of his statements about The Archive of Folk Culture is in the nature of African A m e r i c a n many ways America’s folkloric Listening to “The Bear’s Tale,” I narrative, especially his contention memory. There isnosubstitute for was effectively transported back a that it was a “borrowed” tradi- the wealth of oral art and wisdom century and a half to the day when tion—adapted from Euro p e a n to be found there. As proud as I am Joshua Alley first heard it told. sources rather than being “truly” of my book, I know that written After about 85 years, Joshua Alley African American. Such theoretical w o rdscannot substitute for the still remembered the intensity and positions have long been discredit- voices of these remarkable story- the direction of the wind when he ed, but they have influenced many tellers. I feel lucky, even blessed, to first heard the tale told at harbor- folklorists, including myself, to have heard each and every one of side on a cold November day. belittle Dorson’s work with African them myself. Listening to the taped record of American narrators and narratives. Alley’s long-still voice, I felt that So I was astonished to find that Alley had led me to the direct ex- the children of Dorson’s favorite For a 30% subscriber’s dis- perience of a time and place other- African American storyteller, J.D. count on American Folktales, wise impossible for me to know. Suggs, not only re m e m b e re d visit M.E. Sharpe on the Web at I often found that, as in Joshua Dorson, but cherished their memo- h t t p : / / w w w. m e s h a r p e . c o m / Alley’s case, the stories about how ries of him. Their father had had a americanfolktales.htm the tellers learned their stories vision of “black and white coming

12 Folklife Center News B U R LIVES and Other Four-Letter Wo r d s

By Jennifer Cutting and some saloon keeper was having his sion, or even on recordings these days, Stephen D. Winick license taken away because some man because there’s a lot of the artificial with a guitar strolled in and sang a that is sold, and these are some of the What do you think of when you song which had what they called real things, I believe, in our country think of Burl Ives? A lot of people “improper lyrics...”inother words, today; and I think they are worth would say “Jimmy Crack Corn,” dirty words. And—the man’s going to recording. “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” lose his license, and I don’t know what “Little Bitty Tear,” and “Rudolph will happen [chuckles] to the boy who Ives went on to sing four bawdy the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” On the sang the songs. So, that gives you an songs in thissession,namely other hand, you may also think idea of how quiet you must be if you’re “Brooklyn Town,” “The Meeting of of that lingering question about going to sing a song with some of the the Clan” (a variant of “The Ball of his voluntary coopera- Kerrymore”), “Old John tion with Sen. Pat Henry’s Got a Story to McCarran’s Senate In- Tell” (a variant of “The ternal Security Subcom- Sea Crab”), and “One- mittee (SISS) in 1952, Eyed Reilly.” Ives intro- when he ended his own duced each song as blacklisting by turning well, commenting, for in a list of other possible example, that “Old John communists. Henry’s Got a Story to A1950 American Folk- Tell” was “a song that life Center (AFC) re c o rd- we little boys used to ing, recently re - d i s c o v- sing in grade school e red by a New Jersey when we were, oh, six, re s e a rcher de te rmi ned seven, and eight years to hear everything Ives old, down in southern re c o rded for the A F C ’ s Illinois. Of course, our A rchive of Folk Culture , p a rents didn’t know helps offset both notions that we sang it, but we of Burl Ives: the sugar- did. It was sort of our coated children’s tro u - theme song, you might badour on the one hand, s a y, i n sc h oo l . T h e and the artist who teacher didn’t know it wouldn’t stand up for e i t h e r, th a n k g o o d- his beliefs on the other. In this 1940 publicity photo from the CBS Photo Department, ness.” There c o rding has been WoodyGuthrie (l.) and Burl Ives are acting the part of hobos, The fifth and last sitting on our shelves lying around in Central Park, New York, before a CBS radio song of the session is for fifty-five years, and a p p e a r a n c e . S o u rc e : N ew Yo rk Wo r l d - Tel eg ra m & S un “Baby Did You Hear.” for most of that time few C o l l e c t i o n , L i b r a r y o f C o n g r e s s P r i n t s a n d P h o t o g r a p h s This is not a bawdy people knew what it Division song, but a very reflec- c o n t a i n e d . four-letter words in it in nineteen hun- tive, melancholy piece that was What the tape reveals is a decid- dred and fifty. m o re agreeable to Ives’s family edly adult and slightly defiant Burl However, I am deep in the caverns audiences at the time; in fact, Ives Ives, standing up for free speech of the Library of Congress at this had recorded it commercially only and lamenting censorship, then moment, and all of the visitors have six weeks earlier, on February 17, singing a set of very bawdy songs. been shooed out; and I am a ballad 1950. Ives’s introduction, pre s e r v e d singer by trade, and of course, having Ives’s speech lamenting strin- on the 16-inch disc numbered AFS bummed around the country the hard gent indecency laws has re - 10,364, runs as follows: way,Ihave come into contact with emerged at a time when the U.S. some of these evil influences, these Congress and the American people The time is ten minutes ’til one, songs with four-letter words in them. are again questioning what consti- M a rch the 31st, nineteen hundre d However, I want to say that these tutes obscenity and what reactions fifty. My name is Burl Ives, and this songs have a lustiness, have a truth, to it are appropriate. New legisla- morning I looked in the paper here in have a vigorousness about them that tion on its way to the Senate would Washington, D.C., and I saw where you won’t hear on the radio, on televi- increase the individual fines paid

Winter/Spring 2005 13 by an artist if bawdy material sung in folksong for the balladeer, well known to his friends, which by that artist were to air on radio or Grammy-winning country singer, only made his testimony to the TV. Like the bar owner mentioned B roadway star, and A c a d e m y - SISS harder to understand. by Ives, individual artists could get Award-winning movie actor. Ives Clearly, this tape can’t solve the fined for actions taken by others, had been identified with bawdy puzzle of Burl Ives. But it is, at since artists often have no control material before, most famously in least, another piece, and it attests over when and where their record- an incident in the early 1930s in once again to the unmined riches ings are played on the air. The which he was imprisoned for two of the Archive of Folk Culture. obvious solution for artists in the nights in Mona, Utah, for singing a future would be to refrain from song the authorities considere d A transcript of the Burl Ives bawdy recording bawdy material at all. risqué; the story is recounted in his song session, pre p a red by Jennifer The March 1950 session was 1948 autobiography. Ives’s person- Cutting, is available in the Folklife only one incident in a long life al commitment to free speech was Center Reading Room.

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives: A Long History with the Library Of Congress

By Jennifer Cutting. November 16, 1978: Ives re - turned to the Library of Congress July 1938: Actor Will Geer and Ives to introduce the evening concert were recorded by Alan Lomax and for the celebration of the Archive’s Kay Dealey. Ives sang three songs, fiftieth anniversary. According to “The Parson’s Daughter,” “Cod former A rchive Head Joe Hick- Liver Ile,” and “Three Crows.” erson, Ives recalled visiting the archive and seeing some catalog September 1940–February 1941: c a r ds of h i s ow n p er fo rm a n ce s Alan Lomax hired Ives to play in with triangles on the cards. He his folk music radio series “Back asked what they meant, and then- Where I Come From,” which ran Head Duncan Emrich explained for twenty-one weeks before it was that the triangles meant “Delta” cancelled by CBS. After that ended, material, or material that had CBS kept Ives on for fifteen-minute obscene or bawdy content. During spots between other shows, paying the evening concert, Ives explained him $67 a week. his understanding of the Delta label: “It’s not to be heard until we March 31, 1950: Ives visited the are all gone fifty years. Then you Library of Congress, where he can hear it!” There is currently no recorded the bawdy song session such restriction on hearing “Delta” preserved on the sixteen-inch alu- material in the Folklife Reading minum disc numbered AFS 10,364. Room.

December 21, 1965: Ives donat- September 21, 1989: At eighty ed what is now called The Burl Ives years of age, more than fifty years Collection to the Folk Archive. At after his first visit to the Library of that time the Folk Archive was a Congress, Ives played a concert at part of the Music Division. When the Library in honor of the Year of the archive joined the newly the Young Reader. At this time, he formed American Folklife Center donated one of his three Hauser in 1976, the Music Division guitars to the A rchive of Folk retained most of the collection. Culture. The guitar had been cus- They created a finding aid for the tom made for him in 1950, the year prodigious number of press clip- of the bawdy song session. pings, radio and TV scripts and Burl Ives publicity photo from the b roadcasts, press releases, photo April 14, 1995: Burl Ives died at 1 9 5 0 s . S o u rc e : A m e r i c a n F o l k l i f e albums, and scrapbooks. age eighty-five. Center 14 Folklife Center News Cataloging, Preservation of Brazilian Chapbook Collection Nears Completion

An original woodcut print, captioned “money speaks the most loudly,”expresses concern for AFC processing technician Sarah Bradley Leighton displays the the environment. Literatura de Cordel Brazilian work done by conservators to protect an original woodcut print Chapbook Collection. Photo: Guha Shankar made by José Francisco Borges. Literatura de Cordel Brazilian Chapbook Collection. Photo: Guha Shankar four by six-and-a-half inch chap- books from strings, hence the name By Sarah Bradley Leighton servator Beatriz Haspo, preserva- literatura de cordel, which literally tion technicians in the Library’s means “stories on a string.” The The American Folklife Center’ s Conservation Division are housing poets, known as cordelistas, then Brazilian Chapbook Collection is the prints in acid-free mattes and entertain the market crowd by the largest collection of its kind in boxes that will enable AFC staff to reciting their narrative poems the world, and comprises 7,200 safely store and display these one- about current events, morality, or chapbooks, which are known as lit- of-a-kind items. This effort to con- the adventures of a famous folk eratura de cordel. Recently, members serve and catalogue the chapbooks hero. Equally entertaining are the of the Center’s archive staff, along and prints will provide researchers attractive woodcut prints, often with specialists elsewhere in the with access to a tradition that done by the cordelista himself, that Library, have devoted much effort embodies Brazil’s cultural heritage appear on the covers of the chap- to cataloging and conserving this and modern popular opinion. books to vividly illustrate the unique collection. Descended from the medieval theme of the verses inside. An arti- To date, 5,000 chapbooks have t roubadour and chapbook tradi- cle on the collection was published been catalogued and entered into a tion of Europe, literatura de cordel in Folklife Center News, vol. 22, no. database that soon will be available have entertained and informed the 4, Fall 2000, 9–11. to researchers. In addition to the general public of Brazil for over a chapbooks, the collection contains century, and offer insight into the 10 original woodcut prints created popular culture of the country. In by one of Brazil’s most famous, the markets of northeast Brazil, modern cordelistas, José Francisco where literatura de cordel are most Borges. Under the direction of con- popular, local poets hang their little Winter/Spring 2005 15 State Department Tour with Center Staff Highlights the Alan Lomax Collection

By Folklife Center Staff in Vienna, Austria. Bulger was impressed by the level of inter- American Folklife Center staff est she found wherever she traveled through Europe in went. In Luxembourg, most February and March, present- people spoke English and had ing materials from the Archive great interest in folklife in gen- of Folk Culture at U.S. eral and in American mate- embassies in Europe. The pre- rials specifically. “The Luxem- sentations, titled A f r i c a n - b o u r g e r s s eem genuinely American Heritage and the Legacy amazed at our collections and of Alan Lomax, were given in the fact that the Library of celebration and honor of Congress has put so many cul- African-American History tural materials online,” Bulger Month. Originally there were said. In Romania, blues was two embassies requesting the appreciated not only by aca- program, but as preparations demics but by ordinary people began, seven other embassies as a popular music choice; joined the list and the program Bulger saw a performance by was finally scheduled in the Berti Barbera’s ensemble, a following countries: Luxem- local blues band who per- b o u rg, Romania, Slovenia, formed Delta blues with an Austria, Northern Ire l a n d , accuracy that was almost eerie. Sweden, Hungary, England, In Slovenia, not only the people and Poland. The presentations but the landscape impre s s e d utilized multiformat Power- Bulger: “Slovenia is one of the Point technology with audio great undiscovered gems in the clips and film footage, with a former Soviet Union. It was the script lasting about one hour farthest west of the nations, sit- to be shared by two present- uated on the Adriatic Sea and ers, one from the A m e r i c a n with the Alps to the northeast, Folklife Center and one from and it has retained its old world the Association for Cultural architecture and charm.” And Equity,anorganization estab- in Austria, Bulger admired an lished by Lomax in the 1980s to exhibit in which the National promote access to his collec- Library confronted its Nazi tions and equitable representa- past. Bulger alsodiscovere d tion of the cultures they repre- unexpected connections: the sent. In addition, the AFC pre- U.S. ambassador to Slovenia, A poster in Polish, announcing the presenta- sented descriptive materials tion made by the AFC’s Michael Taft and the Tom Robertson, attended grad- and CDs at each venue to Lomax Arch i v e ’s Don Fle ming.S o u rc e : uate school at Princeton, where describe the work of the AFC American Folklife Center. Photo: Stephen D. he was a research assistant for and the LOC. The tour took Winick one of his professors: Dr. James over four weeks, with thre e H. Billington, now the Librar- teams dividing the work. brought the original materials in ian of Congress! The presentation wascre a t e d the archive to the A m e r i c a n Todd Harvey of the American jointly by the two organizations Folklife Center. Folklife Center, curator of the and included text, sound record- Folklife Center director Peggy Alan Lomax Collection, visited ings, still images, and video Bulger was pairedwithA n n a Hungary, Sweden, and Northern images. It highlighted A f r i c a n - Lomax Wood for the first four ven- Ireland. In Hungary and Sweden, American culture as documented ues. They visited a number of inter- his presenting partner was the by Lomax, whose career as a folk- esting sites, including the national Lomax Archive’s Nathan Salsburg. lorist spanned more than sixty library of the Grand Duchy of In Hungary the audiences were years and who died in 2002. In 2003 Luxembourg, the Village Museum small, but very enthusiastic, and the Alan Lomax Archive and the in Bucharest, Romania, the asked thoughtfulandengaged American Folklife Center formal- medieval castle at Ljubljana, questions after each presentation. ized a cooperative agreement that Slovenia, and the Haus der Musik Sweden proved to be very respon- 16 Folklife Center News sive to the blues, and on one night Culture, traveled to England and Academy of Sciences, who recalled generated an audience of two hun- Poland, partnered with Fleming. In for them his own meetings with d red people who asked many England, audiences were relatively Alan Lomax. Their presentations questions and talked informally small but extremely knowledge- were well attended, and very well with the presenters; one of those able, and their questions showed a received, despite the need for p resent was Stockholmre s i d e n t great depth of understanding of translation into Polish. Israel “Izzy” Young, a stalwart of the subject. In fact, sometimes there At each stop on this tour, the the Greenwich Village folk scene in were people in the audience better s t a f f me mb e rs of th e A m e r i c a n the 1950s and 1960s, and the able to answer a question than Taft Folklife Center and the Alan Lo- founderofthe Village’s famed or Fleming. A question about max Archives met with many of “ F o l k l o re Ce nte r” at 110 Mac- Lomax’s influence on British blues the most important folklorists and Dougal Street. In Northern Ireland, scholar Paul Oliver, for example, ethnomusicologists in Euro p e , Harvey was joined by the Lomax was answered from the audience interacted with large numbers of Archive’s Don Fleming, and the by Oliver himself, and a question European and American citizens, two presented to an audience of about the dangers encountered by and brought the richness of over three hundred people in Lomax when collecting in the African-American culture to new Belfast’shistoricLyric Theatre . south in the 1950s was answered audiences. Peggy Bulger was par- Their presentation was enlivened by Shirley Collins, who was with ticularly happy with the reception by music from Belfast bluesman Lomax on one of his major south- they received in each country, com- Rab McCullough and from Francis ern field trips. In Poland, Taft and menting, “we were treated like McPeake, an uilleann piper from a Fleming visited with scholars and rock stars!” The staff of the well-known musical family. a rchivists, including Ludwik American Folklife Center would To complete the tour, Michael Bielawski, director of the Ethno- very much like to see more tours of Taft, head of the Archive of Folk musicology Archives at the Polish this nature in the future.

ATALE OF THREE SISTERS

By Jennifer Cutting

In May of 1940, the young Greek- American girls and boys of the Byzantine Choir sang a lively pro- gram of Greek folk songs to mark the dedication of the Philoptochos (Friends of the Poor) Society in Tarpon Springs, Florida, a town settled by Greek sponge fishers in 1905. Prominent in the program that day singing solo, duo, and trio w e re three sisters from the Kavouklis family: Evelyn, Kath- erine (“Kitty”), and Magdaline (“Maggie”), ages 11, 15, and 16. The sisters sang and introduced the songs in Greek, performing community favorites such as To proto filli (“The First Kiss”), Zylevo (“I Am Jealous”), and Oi vounisioi (“The Mountaineers”). Luckily, these wonderful performances were captured on disc recordings (Left to right) Andrew and Julie Nichols; Jennifer Cutting; and former Senator by WPA worker John Filareton as and Mrs. Connie Mack listen to recordings of Andrew’s mother Magdaline part of the WPA’s larger effort to Kavouklis in the Folklife Reading Room on March 15, 2005. Source: American document traditional culture in the Folklife Center. Photo: Guha Shankar state of Florida. Stetson Kennedy, We traveled backroads the length glades, out onto railroad tracks, and the project’s director (who was and breadth of the Florida peninsula, aboard shrimp trawlers—where v e r also present when the Kavouklis toting a coffee-table-sized re c o r d i n g Florida folks were working, living, and sisters werere c o rded), later machine into turpentine camps, singing . . . . Ethnically speaking, this remembered the project fondly: sawmills, citrus groves, the Ever- meant documenting the predominant

Winter/Spring 2005 17 Cracker and African-American cul- World Wide Web as part of the that had been recorded such a long tures, as well as major Latin (Cuban, AFC’s online presentation Florida time ago. Not long afterward, the Spanish, Italian), Jewish, Bahamian, Folklife from the WPA C o l l e c t i o n s family sent for our files a copy of Greek, and Arabic communities, and 1 9 3 7 – 1 9 4 2 .InSeptemberofthe the eightieth birthday poster and smaller pockets of Seminole, Czechs, same year, AFC provided the fami- invitation, featuring a photo of 14- Slovaks, and others. ly with a cassette tape copy of the year-old Kitty in Greek traditional recordings. It was in December of costume that boretheslogan: Among the Greek community, they 2004 that we heardfromKitty “Captivating Audiences for 80 found the Kavouklis sisters. again. She was calling to request a Years!” Nichols’s visit with former Sixty-five years later, Kitty CD copy of the recordings to re- Senator Mack, together with the Kavouklis Arvanitis called the place the old cassette because she family’s contribution of Kitty’s American Folklife Center to re - “wore it out by playing it so many photo, added to the Folklife quest copies of those same record- times.” Center’s archives yet another chap- ings to play at the celebrations On March 15, 2005, Kitty’s ter in this ongoing tale of three sis- planned to honor her on her eight- nephew (and Maggie’s son) ters. ieth birthday. Kitty knew about the Andrew Nichols and his wife Julie Florida Folklife from the WPA recordings because, in July of 2000, visited the Folklife Reading Room Collections 1937–1942 is online at: AFC staff had contacted the sisters with former senator and Mrs. h t t p : / / m e m o r y . l o c . g o v / a m m e m / to secure their consent for these Connie Mack, and enjoyed hearing flwpahtml/flwpahome.html performances to be placed on the the voices of his mother and aunts

AFC Hosts Sound Directions—A New Initiative in the Digital Preservation of Sound Recordings by Michael Taft unique field recordings of extraor- G e o r g e Ma s se n b u rg o f G e or g e dinary national interest. Massenburg Labs; Clifford Lynch, On March 14 the AFC hosted a d i rector of the Coalition for conference of experts in the field of [ f rom h t t p : / / w w w. d l i b . i n d i a n a . Networked Information; A d r i a n sound digitization, who met to edu/projects/sounddirections/] Cosentini, chief audio engineer, plan for a new initiative in the dig- and Chris Lacinak, audio produc- ital preservation of ethnographic The AFC was particularly inter- tion manager, at Vidipax; Peter field re c o rdings. This initiative, ested in hosting this group because Alyea, digital conversion specialist named Sound Directions, will digi- of the obvious shared intere s t s in the Motion Picture, Broadcast- tize a portion of the re c o rd e d between Sound Directions and the ing and Recorded Sound Division sound holdings of two of the most AFC’s own Save Our Sounds proj- at the Library of Congress; Carl significant academic ethnomusi- ect. In fact, the AFC supported and Fleischhauer of the Library’s Of- cology archives in the country: the worked with the planners of Sound fice of Strategic Initiatives; and Archives of Traditional Music at Directions on their application for a Michael Taft, head of the Archive Indiana University and the A r- grant from the National Endow- of Folk Culture at the AFC. Deanna chives of World Music at Harvard ment for the Humanities, and the M a rcum, associate librarian for University. NEH subsequently awarded the Library Services at the Library of In the words of the pro j e c t , project a grant of almost $350,000. C o n g r es s, off e red o p en i n g re - Sound Directions will: Sitting around AFC’s confer- marks, and the group was wel- a) Develop best practices and test ence room table were some of the comed by the director of the AFC, e m e rging standards for arc h i v a l best minds on the subject of the Peggy Bulger. audio preservation and storage in digital preservation of sound: Dan The group discussed all of the the digital domain and report our Reed, director, and Mike Casey, major issues in the digital preser- findings back, in detail, to the field; coordinator of recording services, vation of sound, including the b) Establish, at each university, at the A rchives of Tr a d i t i o n a l proper treatment and preparation programs for digital audio preser- Music; Jon W. Dunn associate of original sound recordings, the vation that will enable us to con- d i rector for technology, Indiana setting of calibration tones, pitch tinue this work into the future, and University Digital Library Pro - fluctuations, equipment needs, the which will produce interoperable gram; Virginia Danielson, curator storage of digital files and the for- results; of Harvard’s A rchive of Wo r l d mat of those files, the curatorial c) In the process, preserve criti- Music, and Dave Ackerman, audio role of different players in the dig- cally endangered, highly valuable, preservation engineer at Harvard; itizing workflow, metadata stan-

18 Folklife Center News dards, and quality control. These top.html) symposium organized by such as those that attended the issues, among others, need careful the AFC in 2000. As more and more M a r c h 1 4 mee tin g , In d ian a a nd consideration before any initia- ethnographic archives realize that Harvard Universities have begun tive—such as Sound Directions or their recordings are in danger of this important and necessary task. Save Our Sounds—can proceed. i r reversible deterioration, they In many respects, this mini-con- must begin the complicated and [Thanks to Carl Fleischhauer for ference is an outgrowth of the Folk expensive process of digital preser- his detailed notes on the meeting.] Heritage Collections in Crisis (http:// vation. With the financial help of w w w . l o c . g o v / f o l k l i f e / f h c c / f h c c the NEH, and the advice of experts

Alan Dundes: a Pioneering Folklorist Dies at 70

By Stephen D. Winick apsychologistbut a folklorist: Alan Dundes. This was only one Alan Dundes, the renowned pro- incident in Dundes’s long media fessor who for many was the face h i s t o r y, wh i ch m ad e h i m q u it e of American folklore scholarship, possibly the best-known folklorist died We d n e d s a y, Ma rc h 3 0, i n in the world. Berkeley, California. He was 70. As a teacher, Dundes has had an Dundes collapsed in the middle enormous impact on folklife stud- of his graduate seminar, in ies. His undergraduate courses in Giannini Hall on the University folklore were among the most pop- of California campus. Students ular at Berkeley. In four decades of dialed 911, and Dundes was teaching there, Dundes reached lit- rushed to a nearby hospital, where erally thousands of undergradu- he was pronounced dead on ates. Some of those stayed for a arrival. master’s degree, and some went Dundes has been important to on for their Ph.D., either fro m the field of folklore for over forty Berkeley (in anthropology) or from years as a theorist, a teacher, and Indiana University or the Univer- the director of an archive. In the sity of Pennsylvania, where he reg- t h e o retical sph ere, h e is best ularly directed students to pursue known for structuralist and psy- folklore degrees. The result is that choanalyticapproaches to the the past several generations of analysis of folklore. An early folklorists haveincludedmany champion of the work of Russian Alan Dundes. Source: University of people mentored and encouraged folktale analyst Vladimir Pro p p , California, Berkeley. Photo: Deborah by Dundes. He made such an Dundes helped bringEuro p e a n Stalford impact on students that in 2000, s t r u ct u ral i s t a pp roa ch es to t h e one former undergraduate (who study of folk narratives, not least many found not only unlikely, but had not gone into folklore) sent through his own dissertation on reductive and even offensive. He him a check for one million dollars, Native American tales. He contin- was also known for the exhaustive which he used to establish a dis- ued to publish structuralist analy- nature of his research, and even tinguished professorship in folk- ses of items such as proverbs and those who did not agree with him loristics. riddles. But Dundes is even more frequently admired the thorough- At a memorial service for famous for Freudian and other ness of his work. Dundes held at the University of psychoanalytic modes of analysis. Dundes’s controversial posi- Pennsylvania, American Folklife In such works as Life Is Like a tions made him a noteworthy fig- Center director Peggy Bulger Chicken Coop Ladder, “Intothe ure with the media, and he was spoke about Dundes’s impact on Endzone for a Touchdown,” and frequently discussed, refuted, and the world of folklore arc h i v e s . Two Tales of Crow and Sparro w, consulted by newspapers, radio, “The University of California at Dundes argued that folklore is fre- and TV. In her March 13, 2005, col- Berkeley Folklore Archive contains quently the expression of psycho- umn, New York Ti m e s c o l u m n i s t over half a million folklore items of sexual impulses such as latent Maureen Dowd revealed that, after all kinds. Many of the archivists homosexuality or oral and anal fix- being embarrassed by a joke made who catalog the materials and who ations. These arguments were con- by President Clinton, she won- staff the archive are undergraduate troversial, and Dundes gained in dered why men resorted so often and graduate students. What this notoriety through his ability to to castration imagery to describe means is that a good many folk- steadfastly defend premises that her.Tofind out, she contacted not lorists enter the field with an Winter/Spring 2005 19 a p p reciation and experience of sive reputation even while he was Dundes is survived by his wife archive work. Even if they don’t in graduate school. University of C a ro l y n , so n D a vi d , da ug h te rs become archivists, we really appre- Vermont folkloristWo l f g a n g Lauren Dundes Streiff and Alison ciate working with scholars who Mieder (whose statement was read Dundes Renteln, and six grandchil- understand the challenges and by AFC editor Stephen D. Winick) dren. He is also survived by many processes involved in running an offered the most personal assess- caring colleagues and by thou- a rchive.” Former AFC dire c t o r ment from the field, calling sands of students. Alan Jabbour also spoke, remem- Dundes “the best of all possible bering that Dundes had an impres- friends.”

W. K. “Bill” McNeil (1940–2005)

By Michael Taft

W. K. McNeil, director of the Ozark Folk Center, has died at the age of 64. Bill, as he was known to his friends, was a consummate folklorist, and he devoted the last three decades of his professional life to the exploration of Ozark Mountain traditions. In this respect, McNeil was a fitting suc- cessor to that other great docu- menter of Ozark folklore, Vance Randolph (see FCN 23, ii:3-4). Like Randolph, McNeil was not a native of the Ozarks—he was born near Canton, North Carolina—but his upbringing in the Smoky Mountains undoubtedly prepared him for his later work with the Southern mountain folk of the Ozarks. McNeil’s links with Randolph were more than coincidental. He wrote the introduction to two of Randolph’s major works, the revised edition of Ozark Folksongs (1980), and Ozark Folklore: An Annotated Bibliography (1987). But Undated photo of W. K. McNeil. Courtesy of the Ozark Folk Center and the also like Randolph, McNeil’s inter- McNeil family ests and prolific writing extended well beyond the borders of the popular songs in print, on record- History (1968), The Charm Is Broken: Ozarks. McNeil was an important ings, and in films. His photograph- Readings in Arkansas and Missouri scholar of American folk and pop- ic memory made him a human Folklore (1984), Ghost Stories from ular music traditions in general, f o l k l o re bibliography—storing in the American South (1985), Southern and was also an expert on the his- his head exact citations to scholar- Folk Ballads (1987–88), Ozark Moun- tory of American folklore scholar- ly articles and books. Many folk- tain Humor (1989), A p p a l a c h i a n ship. lorists called on McNeil’s gre a t Images in Folk and Popular Culture Among his colleagues, he is per- knowledge to help them discover (1989), Southern Mountain Folksongs haps best re m e m b e red for his s o u rces and re s o u rces for their (1993), and Ozark Country (1995). p rodigious memory. He knew own studies. hundreds of songs by heart, and Among McNeil’sbooksare couldgive detailed histories of Sights and Sounds in New York State

20 Folklife Center News The Homegrown concert series Since settling in Vermont in 1948, presents the very best of tradition- M a rg a ret MacArthur has trav- al music and dance from a variety eled through the state and of folk cultures thriving in the t h roughout northern New United States. The concerts are England, re c o rding old songs being held once a month fro m that have been passed down April through December; this through generations and giving year’s remaining concerts are listed them new life through her own b e l o w. Al l co n ce rt s ar e f ree of performances. Margaret is a mar- charge and will not require tickets velous singer and a serious for admission. Concerts will be scholar and collector of the tradi- presented from noon to 1 P.M.in tional songs of New England. Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas She has been honored by both Jefferson Building (10 First St. S.E.) the state of Vermont and the or in Madison Hall, Madison New England Council on the Building (101 Independence Ave. Arts for her role in preserving S.E.), as specified below. the traditional arts of the region.

Margaret MacArthur— B a l l a d s D . W. Groethe—Cowboy songs and songs from Vermont and poetry from Montana June 21, 2005, at noon July 20, 2005, at noon Coolidge Auditorium Madison Hall D.W. Groethe is the genuine article, a working cowboy who writes and sings about the D.W. Groethe everyday life of a rancher on the northern Great Plains. The de- Benton Flippen, one of the icons of scendent of Norwegian immi- old-time fiddling in America, was grants who homesteaded in born and raised in a musical family Williams County, North Dakota, in Surry County, North Carolina. Groethe has a deep respect for Born in 1920, Flippen comes from a and knowledge of those who generation of great players at the came before him, Native and epicenter of Southern mountain immigrant alike. He draws on music. Flippen has been very influ- the long-standing and vigorous ential, and he received the 1990 traditions of cowboy songs and North Carolina Folk Heritage poetry, which continue to thrive Award. He has served as a mentor in the American west. for several wonderful musicians, notably NPR newscaster, music Benton Flippen and the producer, and banjo player Paul Smokey Valley Boys—Old Time Brown, who will be playing with music from North Carolina Flippen at this concert. Benton August 17, 2005, at noon Flippen is still an active musician, Madison Hall playing at fiddle contests and s q u a re dances throughout his Margaret MacArthur home region. The Smokey Valley Photo: Robert Corwin Boys consist of Paul Brown on Winter/Spring 2005 21 banjo, Verlen Clifton on mandolin, and Frank Bodie on guitar.

NEA National Heritage Fellow TBA September 20, 2005 (time and place TBA)

Negrura Peruana—Afro Peruvian music and dance from Connecticut October 12, 2005, at noon Coolidge Auditorium

N e g rura Peruana performs the music and dance of Peru's African and criollo population from the coastal region just to the south of Lima, the nation's capital. Group members emigrated from Lima to the Hartford area of Connecticut Birmingham Sunlights about ten years ago and formed Negrura Peruana in 2002. Group Dance, the Bow and Arrow Dance, d i rector James AlexTa y l o r, t h e members learned their music, and the Social Song and Dance. quartet originally included James's dances, and songs in their neigh- The group is made up of young b r ot h e rs S te ve a n d Ba rry, a n d b o rhoods in Peru, where music dancers from throughout the Four Ricky Speights and Wa y n e was an important part of celebra- Corners region of the Southwest Williams; Williams has since been tions, gatherings, and informal that comprises the Navajo nation. replaced by Bill Graves. Upon competitions. Since its founding Cosponsored with the Smithsonian becoming awareoftherich N e g r ur a P er ua na ha s be c ome a Institution's National Museum of J e ffersonCounty gospel quartet popular attraction at events held the American Indian. tradition, they sought training by the growing Peruvian commu- from a senior quartet, the Sterling nity in Connecticut. Birmingham Sunlights— A f r i c a n Jubilees, to learn songs traditional American Gospel quartet fro m to the area. For over twenty years Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers Alabama since then, the Sunlights have car- November 16, 2005, at noon December 7, 2005, at noon ried their joyful message all over Coolidge Auditorium Coolidge Auditorium the United States and the world.

Founded in 1993, the Dineh Tah The dynamic Birmingham Sun- Homegrown concerts are produced by Navajo Dancers promote the lights are dedicated to carrying on the American Folklife Center at the understanding of the rich cultural the art of unaccompanied gospel Library of Congress in cooperation traditions of the Navajo "Dineh" harmony singing that has an espe- with the Kennedy Center Millennium people. Their performances in- cially brilliant heritage in their Stage and the Smithsonian's National clude dances and songs such as the home place of Jefferson County, Museum of the American Indian. Corn Grinding Act, the Basket Alabama. Formed in 1979 by music

EDITOR’S NOTE lel courses. Since the 1980s I have Music and Song section of the been a serious student of folklore American Folklore Society. As a and folklife. Milestones on that folklife re s e a rc h e r, I ha ve p ub - It will be readily apparent to read- journey include three years as a lished articles in such academic ers of Folklife Center News t h a t folk music radio host in New York journals as The Journal of American changes are afoot. The colorful City, eight years studying folklore Folklore, Folklore, Western Folklore, cover is your first clue, of course, and ethnomusicology and earning and Proverbium, and have edited but you will also see a change in m a s t e r ’ s a n d do ct or a l de g re e s one book of contemporary proverb the masthead: Stephen D. Winick from the University of Pennsylva- scholarship, to which I also con- has entered on duty as the Editor nia, and five years as a public sec- tributed an introduction and an for the American Folklife Center at tor folklorist in southern New article. the Library of Congress. Jersey. I have also been proud to Since the 1980s, I have also been The majority of our readers do serve on the boards of the New a professional writer and editor for not know me, so a brief introduc- Jersey Folklore Society and the the general public. My most signif- tion is in order. My professional Mid Atlantic Folklife Association, icant association is with the folk life to this point has had two paral- and to serve as convener of the music magazine Dirty Linen, which

22 Folklife Center News published my first review in the of us in the folklife field a sense of field of folklife studies, and with summer of 1989, and which has the riches available in the Archive the general public. The newsletter printed at least one item by me in of Folk Culture. Reports on the must therefore adapt to the envi- every issue since then; I have now FieldSchools, Heritage Pro j e c t s , ronment both inside and outside appeared in ninety-three consecu- Neptune Plazaand Homegro w n the field if it is to remain as sub- tive issues and bear the title of Concert Series, and Botkin Lectures stantive, interesting, and relevant Contributing Editor on their mast- made us admire the Library of as it has always been. Although head. I have also written and Congress as a site for the best in some things will change in the served as an editor for a variety of public sector folklife work. A n d months ahead, I plan to use all my other publications, including Sing articles by guest scholars about skills as a folklorist, writer, and edi- Out!, Tower Pulse, Music Hound, All- issues of general interest to folk- tor to continue the tradition of Music Guide, and the Philadelphia lorists and folklife enthusiasts kept excellence Folklife Center News has City Paper. the Center and the newsletter established. I hope our longtime For many years, as both a folk- engaged with the field. readers will continue to subscribe, lorist and a writer and editor, I One thing we learn as folklorists and also that we can inspire new have admired the job James Hardin is that traditions are not static. We people to investigate the richness and the staff of the A m e r i c a n can honor our traditions even of American folklife in its home at Folklife Center were doing with while adapting them to current sit- the Library of Congress. Folklife Center News. Each issue was uations; in fact,wemust.The informative and interesting, and changes you will see in F o l k l i f e served as a window onto the world Center News are offered in this spir- Stephen D. Winick of the American Folklife Center. it. Folklife Center News is one of the Editor, Folklife Center News Stories about the Center’s collec- ways in which we at the American tions and acquisitions gave those Folklife Center interact with the

NEXT ISSUE:

A StoryCorps MobileBooth pulls into position outside the Library of Congress on May 19. StoryCorps began its national tour collecting oral histories across America with ten days at the Library of Con- g ress. Their re c o rdings will be- come part of the Archive of Folk Culture. Photo: Guha Shankar

Stetson Kennedy, veteran folk- lorist and social activist, visited the American Folklife Center on May

24. Here he signs a copy of his book The Klan Unmasked for Folk- life Center staff member Va l d a Morris (r.) while publicist Joanelle Mulrain looks on. The book is based on Kennedy’s experiences infiltrating and exposing the Ku Klux Klan in the 1950s. Photo: Stephen D. Winick

Plus: Jack Santino on Yellow Rib- bons, a new collection of letters from Woody Guthrie, and a day in the life of a Folklife Center processing techni- cian! Read more about these stories next time!

Winter/Spring 2005 23 On March 18, 2005, Angela Smith, Member of Parliament, Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, andParliamentary Undersecretary of State for Northern Ireland, visited the Library to learn about the American Folklife Center’s plans for an exhibit on traditional Irish music. During her visit she and her staff met with Library personnel from the AFC and other divisions.The photo shows (l–r) Michael Gould, Deputy Director, Northern Ireland Bureau; Irene Chambers, Chief of the Interpretive Programs Office; Minister Angela Smith, MP; Associate Librarian of Congress Deanna Marcum; American Folklife Center Director Peggy Bulger; Anne Hanafin, Cultural Affairs Officer, Northern Ireland Bureau; and Charles Stanhope, Director of Development at the Library. Photo: Stephen D. Winick

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESORTED STANDARD AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER POSTAGE & FEES PAID LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 101 INDEPENDENCE AVENUE, S.E. WASHINGTON, D.C. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20540–4610 PERMIT No. G–103

OFFICIAL BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE, $300

ISSN 0149–6840 Catalog Card No. 77–649628