NATIVE BASKETRY NEW ORLEANS W'ms
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ALBERTA LATINO CHICAGO NATIVE BASKETRY NEW ORLEANS W'ms. 40th Annual Smithsonian Foli<life Festival Alberta AT THE SMITHSONIAN Carriers of Culture LIVING NATIVE BASKET TRADITIONS Nuestra Musica LATINO CHICAGO Been in the Storm So Lon SPECIAL EVENING CONCERT SERIES Washington, D.C. june 3o-july n, 2006 The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival brings together exemplary practitioners of diverse traditions, both old and new, from communities across the United States and around the world. The goal of the traditions Festival is to strengthen and preserve these by presenting them on the National Mall, so that with the tradition-bearers and the public can connect and learn from one another, and understand cultural differences in a respectful way. Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage 750 9th Street NW, Suite 4100 Washington, D.C. 20560-0953 www.folklife.si.edu © 2006 Smithsonian Institution ISSN 1056-6805 Editor: Frank Proschan Art Director: Krystyn MacGregor Confair Production Manager: Joan Erdesky Graphic Designer: Zaki Ghul Design Interns: Annemarie Schoen and Sara Tierce-Hazard Printing: Stephenson Printing Inc., Alexandria, Virginia Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Festival is supported by federally appropriated funds; Smithsonian trust fijnds; contributions from governments, businesses, foundations, and individuals; in-kind assistance; and food, recording, and craft sales. General support for this year's programs includes the Music Performance Fund, with in-kind support for the Festival provided through Motorola, Nextel, WAMU-88.5 FM, WashingtonPost.com. Whole Foods Market. Pegasus Radio Corp., Icom America, and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. The Festival is co-sponsored by the National Park Service. The 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival has been made possible through the generosity and support of the following donors and partners. _Smithsonian Institution Partners National Museum of African American History and Culture National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Fund Smithsonian Women's Committee Lead Partner Government of Alberta, through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Major Donors Caterpillar, Incorporated City of Calgary City of Edmonton Michigan State University Museum W.K. Kellogg Foundation Donors Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group (RIWG) ConocoPhillips Enbridge Corporation EnCana Corporation National Endowment for the Arts Old Town School of Folk Music Suncor Energy Incorporated Contributors Alberta Beef Producers Canadian Forces Institute of Museum and Library Services Nova Chemicals Corporation PetroCanada Supporters Alaska State Council on the Arts Fairmont Washington D.C. Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs In-Kind and Collaborative Support Alberta Canola Producers Commission Australian Outback Collection (Canada) Limited City Lumber Corporation Cultural Institute of Mexico KitchenAid Weatherford International Ltd. r^ 6 The Festival as Cultural Partnership Lawrence M. Small 8 On the Occasion ot Our 40th Festival Diana Parker 10 We Are Very Much Still Here! Richard Kurin 24 Alberta at the Smithsonian Al Chapman and Nancy Groce 42 Alberta, Oanada: Frontiers and Fusions in North America's "Last Best West" Max Foran 46 "Oarriers ot Oulture": Native Basketry in America C. Kurt Dewhurst, Marsha MacDowell, and Marjorie Hunt 64 Latino Ohicago: Oonverging Cultures Juan Dies 76 Chicago Latino: Culturas Convergentes Juan Dies ^^- -''^•^'- 86 New Orleans Music: Spirit of a Community 92 "So Muoh of My Life, Well, Drowned' Edna Gundersen 94 Joe Wilson and His Crooked Road Richard Kennedy 96 Staff 100 Sponsors and Special Thanks Cii:^ 104 Festival Participants 130 Festival Schedule 150 General Festival Information 151 Related Events 154 Site Map The Festival as Cultural Partnership Lawrence M. Small, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution Welcome :o the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival! This year we feature three programs—Alberta at the Smithsonian; Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions; Nuestra Mi'isica: Latino Chicago—as well as a special concert series, Been in the Storm So Long. The Festival, now cele- brating Its 40th year on the National Mall of the United States, presents a compelling, research-based sampling of the diverse traditions of America and the world to large public audiences in an educational, respecthil, and profoundK' democratic wav. Employing a format it has both pioneered and mastered, the Festival illustrates the vital, living aspect of cultural heritage and provides a forum for discussion of issues of contemporary concern. And, it's fun: a great place to eat, sing, dance and meet artisans, musicians, and N'isitors from across the country and around the world. For the first time, the Festival features a Canadian province—Alberta, v\'hich just completed its own celebration of its centennial. Albertans have created a dynamic home for diverse peoples—aboriginal inhabit- ants, settlers, and later immigrants— in a varied and dramatic land- scape. They've built large world-class industries—oil and gas, ranching, farming, forestry—as well as two large, modern metropolises, Calgary and Edmonton, all the while being incredibly creative in the arts and sciences. On the Mall we'll learn how Alberta's scientists excavate dinosaur bones, see how the famed oil sands are mined and processed, witness ranching skills, appreciate fine Native craftsmanship, hear ballads from talented singer- songwriters, and e,\perience their contemporary "Theatresports. " Our work with key departments of the provincial government, the Royal Museum, the University of Alberta and other cultural institutions, researchers, scholars, and educators has produced not only the Festival program, but also record- ings on Smithsonian Folkways, an exhibition, a series of programs with the Smithsonian Associates, concerts at the Kennedy Center, features on our Smithsonian Global Sound website, other events, and even an Alberta- Smithsonian internship program that will continue as a legacy of the part- nership. Our collaboration is a testament to how good will and common purpose can effectiveh' cross borders and serve the educational and cultural interests of Canadians, Americans, and a broader visiting public. This kind of engaged collaborative partnership is also illustrated through the Carriers of Culture program that has brought together the Festival, the National Museum of the American Indian, Michigan State University' Museum, and a network of Native basket makers' organizations around the United States. The collaboration is built upon the needs of basket makers themselves, who face various challenges to their living heri- tage. Basket makers need access to trees, bushes, and plants untainted by pollutants; they need recognition, appreciation, and access to markets as well as opportunities to train the next generation. At the Festival, you «'ill — see scores of basket makers from dozens ot series of Latino recordings, the Smithsonian Native communities trom every part ot the helps provide a means for Americans to United States. They will be demonstrating understand each other, to speak, listen, and their masterful techniques, making baskets ol be heard—ever more important in uniting our meaning and delight in every imaginable shape diverse, complex nation. and texture. Their participation in the Festi- Finally, the Been in the Storm So Long val, including sales at the marketplace and re- concert series at the Festival represents an impor- lated public programs and consultations at the tant collaboration between the Festival and the National Museum of the American Indian, new National Museum of African American itself is part of a cultural self-help strategy. That History and Culture. The Festival grows strategy, shaped by participatory research led in part from events on the Mall during the Civil by Michigan State University in concert with Rights Movement, and thousands of leading Native basket makers' organizations, aims to figures of African American culture have graced assure the vitality of long-lived traditions. The its stages and illustrated their traditions through wonderful alliance with those organizations, its programs over the past four decades. It is MSU, and the Smithsonian enhances Native fitting that the Smithsonian Regents chose an abilities to achieve that worthy purpose. area of the Mall nicknamed "old Folklife" (so Nuestra Musica: Latino Chicago reflects an- called because Festivals took place there from other substantive partnership. The Festival joins 1977-81) as the site for the new museum. To the Smithsonian Latino Center and Chicago's initiate the partnership, the Museum and the Old Town School of Folk Music to present a Festival feature musicians from New Orleans: small sampler of Chicago's Latino cultural heri- folks who were hit with the devastation of nonetheless tage. More than a million Latinos—largely from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but Mexico, but also from Puerto Rico and just strive, with determination and grace, to continue about every nation in Latm America hixe made the cultural traditions that give their communi- the Chicago area their home. Less known nation- ties their unique character and uplifting spirit ally than the Latino communities of California, so admired and appreciated around the world. Texas, Florida, and New York, the Chicago Concerts will feature New Orleans jazz, rhythm community has a storied past and a dynamic & blues, and sacred