A Month of Free Folk & Ethnic Performances in Your Washington State Parks Beginning August 4, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission presents a series of programs of folk and ethnic music, dance, and storytelling at state park sites around the state. All the events, except those August 11 and 18 at the Silver Lake Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center and the August 18 Flute Quest, are free, but all parked vehicles in the parks must display the annual Discover Pass ( www.discoverpass.wa.gov ), purchase a $10 Day Use Pass upon entering the park, or display a valid camping pass. Saturday, August 4, ShellFest 2012 , at Potlatch State Park , on Hood Canal and US Highway 101, between Hoodsport and Shelton, presents a day of beach walks, touch tanks, children’s activities, Native American cultural presentations, and live music. Taylor Shellfish Farms will provide a seafood lunch with donations going to the Washington State Parks Foundation. The program begins at 9:30 AM and lasts until 3 PM. Potlatch State Park’s location address is 21020 US Highway 101 N, Shelton, WA. Delbert smutcoom Miller , the Skokomish Tribe’s Cultural Resource Specialist, will give a presentation about the tribe’s relationship with Hood Canal’s seafood resources and share traditional legends of the Twana (ancestral Skokomish) people. Delbert is one of the Spiritual Fathers of the house of slannay longhouse, having been initiated into Seowin nearly thirty years ago. Since the age of five, his elders have told him stories, his father having followed an old custom of bringing him to elders to “talk to my sons.” Miller has led healing ceremonies using cultural teachings at a nationally accredited in-patient addictions treatment center. Folksinger Hank Cramer is known for his booming bass voice, smooth picking on a vintage flat-top guitar, and a wry sense of humor. His repertoire is a mix of original, traditional, and contemporary folk songs. They tell the stories of cowboys, sailors, soldiers, miners, adventurers, and just plain drifters. That fits with Hank’s life story: he has been an underground miner, a professional soldier, shanty-man on a square-rigged sailing ship, and wrangler for a high-country outfitter. Those experiences make Hank’s music ring with a special authenticity. At ShellFest he will be emphasizing his maritime repertoire. www.hankcramer.com Singer and songwriter Mary Garvey grew up in an oyster-growing family on the Long Beach Peninsula and presently works for Washington State University’s Long Beach Research and Extension Unit. She is one of the Northwest's most acclaimed and prolific songwriters. Many of Mary's songs are about the people and places in her southwest corner of Washington, people who fished and trapped and cut down the tall trees and worked in the paper mills, and about maritime culture of the lower Columbia River, Willapa Bay, and the nearby Pacific Coast. Mary has a beautiful soprano voice and usually sings a cappella. ShellFest 2012 is a project of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, together with Taylor Shellfish Farms, and a consortium of agencies and organizations, including the Department of Ecology, the Department of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sea Grant Washington, the Washington Beach Program, the Puget Sound Shellfish Growers Association, Northwest Heritage Resources, and the Skokomish Tribe. Saturday evening, August 4 , is the last of the five concerts in the American Roots Music Series at Deception Pass State Park . Hank Nelson and Bob and Mike Antone will perform music, stories, and poems from Northwest timber communities. The concert starts at 7 PM at the West Beach Amphitheater in the southern (Whidbey Island) portion of the park. In case of rain it will be at the East Cranberry Lake Picnic Shelter, also on the Whidbey Island side. The park is located on State Route 20 between Oak Harbor and Anacortes. Deception Pass State Park’s location address is 41020 State Route 20, Oak Harbor, WA. Hank Nelson , who calls himself "one of the last of the old-time tramp loggers," grew up in a logging camp near Coos Bay, Oregon, and worked as a timber faller for more than 30 years in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. Hank is a singer, songwriter, storyteller, and poet. From youth he remembers the "camp bards" who entertained their buddies in the bunkhouse. Hank has performed at the National Cowboy Poetry 2 Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and has recited on the same stage in New York City, where Abraham Lincoln made his 1860 Cooper Union Speech. In 2005, as part of the centennial celebrations of the U.S. Forest Service, Hank performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. www.folklife.si.edu/resources/Education/forestry/0902.html Brothers Bob and Mike Antone , are from an old German-Russian settler family in Washington’s Snoqualmie Valley. As children they listened to stories, legends, jokes, and tall tales from their grandparents and other elders who lived and worked in the timber communities of North Bend and Snoqualmie. Logging, railroading, Native American legends, stories from the woods, and train hopping during the Great Depression were common themes as the Antone Brothers were growing up. Bob Antone writes and performs original songs about traditional life in the area and performs the songs, stories, and poems he has learned growing up. He is a multi-instrumentalist: guitar, fiddle, musical saw, and hand-drum; and also a woodcarver, painter, and drum-maker. Younger brother guitarist Mike Antone has written and produced numerous songs and albums. A few of his compositions were chosen by Neil Young and became popular on the site "Living With War Today." www.talenthouse.com/mikeantone August 5 – September 2: Peace Arch International Concert Series Returns to Peace Arch State Park For Its Sixth Season. Sunday afternoons, August 5, 12, 19, 26, and September 2 , the stage at Peace Arch State Park , an international park on the US-Canada Border, will once again be presenting a series of concerts of music and dance from some of the many ethnic traditions found in Washington. The concerts begin at 2 PM and last about an hour. The park is at the north end of I-5 in Blaine, Washington, and it and Peace Arch Provincial Park share a common ground accessible from either side without border formalities. (See www.peacearchpark.org .) From the American side the park is accessible from Exit 276, Blaine, the last exit before Canada Customs. From the Canadian side, park in Peace Arch Provincial Park’s parking lot at the Beach Road exit of BC Route 99 (behind the Canadian duty-free shop), walk through the Canadian park, past the Peace Arch and across the traffic lanes, and then up the hill on the American side. It is advisable to carry i.d. and you must return to the side from which you came or you will have to clear Customs and Immigration. Peace Arch State Parks’ location address is 100 A St, Blaine, WA. August 5: Sayaw . Dance and musical traditions of the Filipino American Student Association of the University of Washington. The diverse regions, cultures, and languages of the Philippines are presented by this student ensemble made up of students from the Filipino American community and students at the university who are from the Philippines. Colorful costumes, lively dancing, and some interpretive background to explain what you see and hear. http://students.washington.edu/fasa/sayaw-dance-troupe/about-sayaw/mission- history/ August 12: Kalevaria Samoan United Methodist Church of Tacoma Youth Group . Returning to the series by popular demand, this troupe of over forty adults, teens, and children in traditional Samoan regalia dance, sing, and drum in the elaborate traditional choral styles of Polynesia. The harmonies and rhythms contrast as do the steps and gestures of the young men and women performing warrior, welcoming, and feasting dances and songs. August 19: Daneshvar Ensemble . This family musical ensemble, now based in L.A. and Seattle, was founded in 2002 in Zanjan, Iran, by two sisters, Parvaneh and Parisa, and two brothers, Babak and Behnam Daneshvar, and soon began performing traditional and classical Persian music in Teheran and other cities throughout Iran. In 2004, the family established the Daneshvar Music Institute in Zanjan, teaching music to children and giving lessons in traditional Persian instruments. Since 2011 they have lived, performed, and taught in the United States. The Daneshvar Music Institute is now based in Southern California where it teaches Persian traditional and classical music and instruments to adults and children. www.daneshvarmusic.com 3 August 26: Los Flacos , established in Seattle in 2002, performs a blend of the spiciest traditional sounds of Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. Using a variety of instruments, some indigenous to the Americas and others of European and African origin, this quartet create their own renditions of the songs of Latin America. The group consists of violinist Tim Wetmiller, who has studied the Tierra Caliente music of Juan Reynoso; Venezuelan harpist Fucho Aparicio; Mexican-born vocalist Abel Rocha on cuatro, quinta huapanguera, and guitar; and Diego Coy, a native of Colombia who plays quena, quenacho, and zampoña in addition to other Andean woodwinds and percussion instruments. www.flacosmusic.com September 2: Bollywood Seattle Performers is a select group trained in traditional and highly energetic and expressive Bollywood style of dance associated with the Mumbai (formerly Bombay) popular film industry, known collectively as “Bollywood.” Mollie Singh, the choreographer, imparts to each performer an authentic Bollywood flair including semi-classical and Indian folk influences. Each Bollywood Seattle performer brings an authentic Bollywood dance experience to the stage.