NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 2016 National Heritage Fellowships II 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 2016 National Heritage Fellowships

Clarissa Rizal regalia Photo by Jeff Laydon/Pagosa Photography

COVER Theresa Secord basket Photo by Theresa Secord Elk flute by Bryan Akipa Photo by Mike Wolforth, Rapid City, SD Contents 5 Message from the President of the United States

6 Message from the Chairman

7 Message from the Director

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellows

8 Bryan Akipa Dakota Flute Maker and Player, Sisseton, SD

10 Joseph Pierre ”Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux Mardi Gras Indian Craftsman and Musician, New Orleans, LA

12 Billy McComiskey Irish Button Accordionist, Baltimore, MD

14 Clarissa Rizal Tlingit Ceremonial Regalia Maker, Juneau, AK

16 Theresa Secord Penobscot Nation Ash/Sweetgrass Basketmaker, Waterville, ME

18 Bounxeung Synanonh Laotian Khaen Player, Fresno, CA

20 Michael Vlahovich Master Shipwright, Tacoma, WA/St. Michaels, MD

22 Leona Waddell White Oak Basketmaker, Cecilia, KY

24 THE 2016 BESS LOMAX HAWES AWARD Artemio Posadas Master Huastecan Son Musician and Advocate, San Jose, CA

26 Acknowledgments

27 Concert Credits Master of Ceremonies

28 NEA National Heritage Fellowships, 1982–2015 n the 34th year of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, we are pleased to present to this year’s Fellows an award that Icarries with it the passion and knowledge of cultural traditions passed down through the generations. Ornamental ironwork found in Charleston, South Carolina, and Osage Nation ribbonwork were two craft traditions celebrated in 1982, the inaugural year of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships. Joined together, these traditions represent legacies of perpetuation, distinction, and extraordinary commitment to cultural heritage.

Georgeann Robinson (1917–1985), citizen of the Osage Nation, received a National Heritage Fellowship for her intricate ribbonwork stitched by needlepoint onto clothing worn by Osage people for the In-Lon-schka dances and other important social gatherings. Her granddaughter Lisa Powell continues this tradition from her home in Eudora, Kansas. With her daughter, Jami Powell, Lisa designed and delicately balanced the traditional red, blue, and yellow ribbon motif that drapes over each Fellow and joins together with the medal.

Philip Simmons (1912–2009), master blacksmith and ironwork designer, received a National Heritage Fellowship for his ornamental ironwork. His distinctive wrought-iron gates, fences, balconies, and free standing sculptures still grace many of the homes, gardens, and businesses in Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding areas, adding to the city’s unique visual and cultural aesthetic. His nephew Carlton Simmons apprenticed with his uncle from age 13 and continues to work in the same workshop on the grounds of the former residence and now Museum Home of Philip Simmons (which also houses the Philip Simmons Foundation and Gift Shop). Carlton designed the award medal in a signature heart motif, skillfully representing the passion and beating drive that illuminates each National Heritage Fellow and the dedication they have to their life’s work.

We would like to thank the artisans who created this special award and say congratulations to the 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellows.

4 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships

August 26, 2016

I am pleased to join in congratulating the 2016 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellows.

Through each chapter of the American story, our people have drawn inspiration from artists and found meaning in their works. Capable of capturing the experiences, emotions, and ideas that define our common humanity, the artistic achievements that move us can speak to who we once were and who we are now, inspire us to question what surrounds us and envision what could be, and transcend barriers—both between and within us.

As men and women creating stirring and extraordinary work in the folk and traditional arts, the NEA National Heritage Fellows embody a most American of notions: that to carry forward our origins is to continue to shape the future. In their dedication to enriching our Nation and our world with meaning, beauty, and grace, we see the extraordinary diversity of perspectives that makes the arts essential and universal.

Again, congratulations to this year’s honorees. I wish everyone gathered on this special occasion the very best for an outstanding evening.

b

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 5 Message from the Chairman

Thank you for joining us as we celebrate the 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellows. These men and women are master artists, demonstrating expert execution of folk and traditional art forms. But as they weave sweetgrass baskets or play the Dakota flute, or perform music in elaborate suits during Mardi Gras, they are creating Photo by Steve Peterson/www.stevepeterson.photo Steve by Photo something deeper than an exquisite piece of artwork; they are cultivating the future of their culture.

Since we began awarding these fellowships in 1982, our NEA National Heritage Fellows have served as cultural stewards, preserving their artistic traditions, passing down their knowledge to the next generation, and teaching us about ways of life that are perhaps different from our own. They have worked tirelessly to attract new audiences and develop new practitioners, expanding the reach and enhancing the vitality of their art forms. For example, since shipwright Mike Vlahovich founded the Coastal Heritage Alliance in 2003, the organization has trained more than 120 apprentices in shipbuilding. In California, the traditional Mexican music style of son huasteco has become an integral part of community life thanks to the efforts of Artemio Posadas. Not content to simply perform onstage, he has spent years renting halls, recruiting musicians, and organizing fandango events that invited people to eat, drink, and engage with son huasteco as a social experience.

As our fellows expand their art forms, they create new traditions for all Americans to celebrate and honor. They have broadened our notion of American art, and demonstrate the diversity of talent, culture, and meaning that empowers and energizes this country. The United States is as vibrant and rich today because we are infused with the colors, sounds, and movements of the art forms practiced by our fellows. As we celebrate and admire our 2016 honorees, let us also express our gratitude to them for filling our lives with extraordinary beauty, meaning, and value.

Jane Chu Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts

6 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Message from the Director

In 1958, then Senator John F. Kennedy published the book A Nation of Immigrants, Photo by Edwin Remsberg outlining a premise that has gained a significant hold on the national imagination. But a review of this year’s nine remarkable NEA National Heritage Fellows reveals a more complex tale of community journeys. To visit with this year’s fellows is to know that we are also a nation of indigenous peoples, a nation of migrants, refugees, and descendants of enslaved Africans. Even with this small group of nine fellows, we can see that the makeup of the United States—like the ancient, exquisite basketry of Theresa Secord of the Penobscot Nation, and Leona Waddell of Kentucky—is an extraordinary interweaving of cultural fibers harvested from different roots.

Immigrants such as Artemio Posadas, and refugees like Bounxeung Synanonh, have transplanted their musical traditions from Mexico and Laos to new communities in California where they flower today. Michael Vlahovich and Billy McComiskey—both the sons of immigrants—show us how traditions migrate within the United States: moving from the ethnic enclaves of the immigrant generation and into new geographies never encountered by their parents. And both have taken their traditional skills—heartily nurtured here in the United States—back across the ocean to reinvigorate the traditions of the Old Country.

On the Sisseton Wahpeton reservation in South Dakota, Bryan Akipa’s life’s work has involved stewardship of the delicate melodies of his Dakota ancestors, maintained through the cacophony of westward expansion into the northern plains. And in New Orleans, Joseph Pierre “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux’s hand-stitched Mardi Gras suits, inspired by Native-American regalia, pay tribute to a history of oppression—and an assertion of identity—shared with the indigenous people.

Our traditions—like the Tlingit robes of Clarissa Rizal—are a garment we wear to reflect the stories of our elders and the geography of our people; a source of strength that enables us to walk forward into the headwinds of change. Like the baskets of Secord and Waddell, our traditions carry the promise of who we will become—as individuals, as a community, and as a nation.

Our heartfelt thanks and congratulations go to the 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellows.

Clifford R. Murphy, PhD Director, Folk & Traditional Arts, National Endowment for the Arts

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 7 Bryan Akipa Dakota Flute Maker and Player Sisseton, SD

rowing up in the Sisseton Wahpeton Akipa took a break from college to serve in Oyate Reservation of northeastern the Army, but his mentor Howe passed away GSouth Dakota, Bryan Akipa did not shortly after Akipa returned to USD, so he know that traditional flutes were to be found changed his studies from art to elementary in Dakota culture. That changed when he was education. While working his first teaching job studying painting with famed Dakota artist at the Pierre Indian Learning Center, he would Oscar Howe at the University of South Dakota often play the flute for his class, the music (USD). While in Howe’s studio, he saw and echoing through the building. Soon his fellow became entranced with a wooden mallard- teachers were asking him to come to their head flute, made by Lakota artist Richard Fool classes, and other schools were inviting him to Bull. Akipa spent hours studying, measuring, perform. He began making and selling flutes, drawing it, and puzzling out how it was made. in addition to performing, to supplement his Eventually he made one of his own, carved income. Audiences began asking for recordings with a pocketknife from red cedar. Thus began of his music, and after he produced his first a career in music and art that helped revive CD in 1993, he realized he could turn his a long put-away tradition. Akipa sought out craft and music into a career. He has taught, tribal elders who knew the flute tradition, demonstrated, performed at workshops, remembered songs, and showed him old flutes. museums, schools, colleges, and prestigious He absorbed every bit of that knowledge and venues across the country, always generous used it to perfect his art. in sharing his knowledge. He has won several Nammies (Native American Music Awards) The Ocˇhéthi Šakówin Native-American flute is and has been nominated for a Grammy. In unique in its construction, with a plug partway addition to making and playing flutes, Akipa down the body of the instrument that forces is also a traditional dancer, visual artist, and air up through a hole above, and then back digital media artist. down, controlled by a tuning block or saddle tied over the opening with a leather thong. The The flute circle would not be complete without block is usually carved in the shape of a bird passing on the tradition. “For me, the red cedar or animal, and it faces the player. The far end flute and its aria are my cultural journey,” he of the instrument is also often carved as a bird said of the path that brought him where he or animal head, as was the mallard flute that is today. He has taught his son, friends, and drew Akipa in many years ago. Akipa is one of relatives, most recently teaching two of his the few artists to play the ancestral flute using nephews through an apprenticeship grant from the indigenous musical scale. Additionally the the South Dakota Arts Council. age-old flute songs have melodies based on how Bio by Andrea Graham, South Dakota Arts Council they are sung. When a traditional flute player performs these songs, they play the melodies as the songs are sung, with additional bird imitations and sound techniques. As Akipa says, “When I play the flute, I can hear this melody in my mind.”

8 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships “ When I looked at the mallard flute for the first time, I was so amazed. I could not imagine that we had red cedar flutes in our culture. I wanted to play it, I wanted to hear it, and then I wanted one.”

Photo by Bill Goehring/Sioux Falls

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 9 Joseph Pierre “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux Mardi Gras Indian Craftsman and Musician New Orleans, LA

oseph Pierre “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux the dissolution of the tribe and he joined the is the leader of the Golden Eagles, a Golden Eagles. Boudreaux later became the Big JMardi Gras Indian tribe of New Orleans, Chief of that tribe. Louisiana. Born in New Orleans on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, Boudreaux is a In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a small vital figure in the tradition, and has steadfastly group of New Orleans students and folklorists distinguished himself as a gifted folk artist worked to bring the Mardi Gras Indian and dynamic performing musician through his tradition to a wider community. Boudreaux, unwavering dedication to this singular African- and several others, eventually became American culture. nationally known recording artists by blending their folk traditions with R&B and funk. The New Orleans Black Indians emerged in the late 19th century, appearing as various “tribes” Boudreaux’s musical career has spanned nearly or “gangs,” in stunningly elaborate costumes, a half-century and has seen him perform in or “suits,” that combine the visual aesthetics the world’s finest concert halls, including of 19th-century American Plains Indians and Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Additionally, Afro-Caribbean Carnival revelers. Completely he has performed in the United Kingdom, handmade, these suits include brightly colored France, Germany, and Japan. Boudreaux has feathers, intricate beadwork, rhinestones, recorded several critically acclaimed albums sequins, satin, and ruffles. and has appeared as a guest musician on numerous recordings. In 1982, he performed Music and movement are as central to with rock legend Robbie Robertson on NBC’s the tradition as is symbolic costuming, or Saturday Night Live. More recently, Boudreaux “masking.” The 1956 field recordings by portrayed himself in several episodes of HBO’s documentarian Samuel Charters first captured original series Treme. the group’s mélange of percussion, hypnotic chanting, and improvisational singing. This Though Boudreaux has traveled the world musical tradition is expressed through a as an ambassador of the Mardi Gras Indian shared canon of song form, lyrical allusions, culture, he remains deeply rooted in the Black Indian patois phraseology, and rhythmic traditions of place and family. Today, he structure. focuses his artistic energies on his children and grandchildren, who now form the members of Boudreaux began masking with the White the Golden Eagles. As Boudreaux completes Eagles tribe as a young man of 16. He drew his sixth decade of masking, he grows ever personal inspiration from his father Raymond, more dedicated to maintaining, and indeed a carpenter by trade, who had been a member perpetuating, the foundations of this vibrant of the Wild Squatoulas when he was very American vernacular culture. young. After Boudreaux became a member of Bio by Robert Brown, Appalachian State University the White Eagles, an internal dispute led to

10 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Photo by Robert Brown “ Take me downtown on the battlefield; and when you meet ‘em that morning you’d better not kneel.”

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 11 Billy McComiskey Irish Button Accordionist Baltimore, MD

illy McComiskey is a world-renowned moment, he recalled, that felt like a “horse accordion, or “box,” player and composer kicking my head.” He then became McGlynn’s Bwho was taught by the great Sean “sidekick,” learning intricate fingering and McGlynn, a master of the East Galway style phrasing techniques. During the 1970s and of Irish traditional music. Also known as the ‘80s, he won gold and silver in the prestigious Slieve Aughty style, named after the mountains All-Ireland musical competitions in solo that cross Counties Galway and Clare, accordion and in duets with the renowned McComiskey explained, “The music is slower fiddler, Brendan Mulvihill (son of 1984 and steadier than other styles, and the tunes National Heritage Fellow, Martin Mulvihill). are extremely well thought out—it’s stately music and very round, particularly the grace In the mid-1970s, McComiskey, Mulvihill, and notes.” guitarist Andy O’Brien were invited to play a weekend gig at the Dubliner in Washington, McComiskey was born in 1951 in Brooklyn, DC by Lou Thompson and Peggy Reardon, New York, to a family steeped in Irish music who were interested in growing an Irish and dance. It was a home where recordings music community in the region. Soon after, of the great Flanagan Brothers, the McNulty McComiskey played at the Smithsonian Family, and Joe Derrane, a 2004 NEA National Folklife Festival during the U.S. Bicentennial, Heritage Fellow, often played, and in a region and after meeting his future wife, Annie, to which masters in Irish fiddle, accordion, they settled in Baltimore. Over decades, flute, tin whistle, and dance immigrated. He McComiskey has played an integral role in notes that it was through early 20th-century building the now thriving Baltimore-DC Irish New York, and its network of musicians, that traditional music scene, connecting the deep Irish traditional music was brought from more legacy of the Slieve Aughty traditions of New informal settings to the performance stage. York to the region. Through to today, he teaches Each summer, Irish musicians and dancers musicians all over the world, as well as in his from northern cities would congregate in the home state, as a master through the Maryland foothills of the Catskill Mountains north of Traditions apprenticeship program. He won the city, a place significant to McComiskey’s the Irish Echo’s Album of the Year for his 2008 musical growth. His godfather owned a popular Outside the Box and was their 2011 Traditional pub in Cairo, and his uncle brought together Artist of the Year. He has been invited to share the legendary Mary Bergin, Joe Cooley, Angela his outstanding talents at the White House, Crotty, Larry Redican, Andy McGann, Charlie the Kennedy Center, and throughout the U.S., Mulvihill, and Sean McGlynn to regularly Ireland, and beyond. perform. McGlynn played his Paolo Soprani Bio by Michelle L. Stefano, Maryland Traditions accordion for 14-year-old McComiskey, a

12 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships “ I didn’t learn this tradition; I was born into it.”

Photo by Tom Pich

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 13 Clarissa Rizal Tlingit Ceremonial Regalia Maker Juneau, AK

larissa Rizal, member of the Raven has educated scores of students in Chilkat, T’akDein Taan (black-legged kittiwake) Ravenstail, and button robe techniques. Today CClan of Hoonah/Glacier Bay, Alaska, at clan ceremonies as well as public festivals, is a highly respected cultural leader and a the abundance of such textiles being worn multitalented artist who has contributed to and danced with is a testament to Rizal’s the revival and perpetuation of Chilkat blanket training, influence, and inspiration. More than weaving. These difficult and time-consuming a mentor, Rizal’s vision to create a community twined robes made of wool and cedar bark of artists dedicated to Northwest Coast Native depict highly stylized images of the crests heritage inspired her to organize the Biennial which embody a clan’s history and eminence. Northwest Coast Native Artists’ Gathering In the gender-divided world of Tlingit art, a and assemble the Shaax ’SaaniKeek’ Weavers’ Chilkat robe is the female equivalent of the Circle of Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers. Her male-carved totem pole. In addition to Chilkat passion for community participation in artistic weaving, Rizal has perfected the Ravenstail creative projects recently led to the creation technique, an earlier, more geometric type of of “Weavers Across the Water,” a Chilkat- Tlingit weaving, and has also created blankets Ravenstail robe composed of squares woven by depicting crest beings in appliqué and buttons. 54 weavers which she sewed together to create Rizal not only creates fine textiles, which blanket that will be used in celebrations of would be sufficient to guarantee her artistic Northwest Coast canoe launchings and other reputation, but she makes paintings, collages, ceremonies. and drawings that integrate the formline style of historic Tlingit art with modernist visions, Rizal’s weavings have received Best in Show creating almost surrealist two-dimensional at the Heard Museum Indian Art Fair, the works of visual intensity and drama. Santa Fe Artists Market, the Anchorage Museum All Alaska Juried Art Show, and the Several Tlingit elders mentored Rizal. Harry Sealaska Heritage Invitational Art Exhibit. K. Bremner, Sr., taught her Native songs and She has had visiting artist fellowships at dance and basketweaver Selina Peretrovich the Pilchuk Art School in Washington state, trained her to make spruce root baskets. But, the Rasmusson Foundation in Alaska, and perhaps most significantly, Rizal trained the Native Arts and Cultural Foundation in in Chilkat weaving by 1986 NEA National Vancouver, Washington. She has also received Heritage Fellow Jennie Thlunaut. When a Smithsonian Creative Capital Grant from she first started weaving with Thlunaut, the the First Peoples Fund in Rapid City, South oldest living woman trained in this complex Dakota, and a George Kaiser Foundation Tulsa textile technique at that time, almost no one Artist Residency. knew how to make these powerful and, by Bio by Aldona Jonaitis, University of Alaska Museum that time, rare robes. Following her mentor’s of the North directive to teach others how to weave, Rizal

14 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Photo by Tom Pich “ After learning Chilkat, I gained the art of patience, the way of gratitude, and the act of compassion. The universe opened its doors with a flood of information; the kind of information not definable, yet powerfully written in our Native art, in the ways of our people, and in our commune with nature.”

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 15 Theresa Secord Penobscot Nation Ash/Sweetgrass Basketmaker Waterville, ME

passionate advocate for preserving the Under her leadership, MIBA is credited with ash and sweetgrass basketmaking lowering the average age of basketmakers in A heritage of the Wabanaki tribes of Maine from 63 to 40 and increasing numbers of Maine (Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, weavers from 55 to 200. For her commitment and Penobscot tribes), Theresa Secord is a to sustaining Wabanaki culture, Secord was master basketmaker, still using the basket named a Community Spirit Award recipient molds that she inherited from her great- in 2009 by the First Peoples Fund. In October grandmother to shape her art. 2003, she became the first U.S. citizen to receive the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life After earning her MS degree in geology from from the Women’s World Summit Foundation the University of Wisconsin, and a short stint granted at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, for with Mobil Oil, Secord returned to Maine to helping rural basketmakers rise out of poverty. work for her tribe as the staff geologist in the mid-1980s. In 1988, she became one of the first A nationally recognized basketmaker, Secord apprentices in the Maine Arts Commission’s has won many awards, including Best of Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Basketry at Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market, learning basketry from elder Penobscot and several first place awards in Basketry at basketmaker Madeline Tomer Shay over Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market the next five years. Determined not to watch and the storied Santa Fe Indian Market. Secord traditional basketry fade into history, she was named the 2011 Traditional Arts Fellow for co-founded the Maine Indian Basketmaker’s Maine and the 2013 Maine Master Craft Artist Alliance (MIBA) and became its first director of the Year. Her baskets have been purchased in 1993, mobilizing fellow Maine basketmakers by collectors and museums throughout the U.S. to work together to save their own art and and have appeared in several exhibitions, most bring forward a new generation of artists. With notably, The Language of Native American funding from the National Endowment for Baskets, from the Weaver’s View at the National the Arts, in 2006, MIBA established its own Museum of the American Indian in New York. apprenticeship program, supporting more than 200 apprenticeships since then. This program Since retiring from MIBA after 21 years, validated elder basketmakers, re-established Secord continues her work as an artist and an ancient tradition through young tribal passionate cultural advocate. Her latest work members, and helped culture bearers of all encourages ongoing conservation of the sacred ages realize cultural pride and income. Secord ash trees against the emerald ash borer beetle. has taught dozens as a master basketmaker Bio by Kathleen Mundell, Maine Arts Commission and served as a long-time instructor in MIBA’s tribal community basketry workshops.

16 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Photo by Steve Wewerka “ From pack baskets woven with curved bellies to fit the sides of our birch bark canoes to fancy Victorian art pieces or potato baskets for the harvest in Aroostook County, Maine, Indian baskets have long embodied a way of life and identified us as a Woodland people.”

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 17 Bounxeung Synanonh Laotian Khaen Player Fresno, CA

aotian-born Bounxeung Synanonh is a Laos, northeast Thailand, and in the Laotian master performer on the khaen, a free- diaspora. Synanonh is especially adept in the L reed mouth organ made from 16 lengths of style of Savannakhet, his home community, but bamboo. Born in Savannakhet, Laos, in 1949, he is also recognized in the Lao community for Synanonh is a member of the majority lowland his skill in a wide range of regional styles. He ethnic group, the Lao. At the age of 15, he lost has been invited to travel to all the major Lao his sight and that same year he started learning communities in the U.S. to perform for public the khaen from village elders, including his events like the Lao New Year’s celebration, as uncle. The musical tradition of the khaen is well as for home-based ceremonies like that essentially oral and must be learned directly which is performed to initiate a new home. from other musicians. Learning by ear, Synanonh quickly became proficient and The khaen has a deep solo tradition and expanded his knowledge by listening to khaen also provides essential instrumental players on the radio and by performing at accompaniment for lum, a tradition of sung festivals and other community gatherings. The poetry. For many years, Synanonh was sound of the khaen is extraordinarily complex, the preferred accompanist for lum singer as the player inhales and exhales through the and 1991 NEA National Heritage Fellow, instrument so it produces sounds continuously, Khamvong Insixiengmai. Their work together and because of its multiple pipes, it plays is commemorated on the album Bamboo multiple pitches simultaneously. Voices: Folk Music from Laos (1989). In 2007, Synanonh performed at the Smithsonian When Synanonoh immigrated to the U.S. as a Folklife Festival as part of the Mekong River: refugee in the early 1980s, fleeing war and the Connecting Cultures program. He has also Pathet Lao re-education camps, his musical made sustained efforts to teach the next skills were quickly prized by the stateside generation, taking on two apprentices in 2008. Lao community. The khaen and its repertoire Bio by Amy Kitchener, Alliance for California are strongly associated with and central to Traditional Arts lowland Lao culture. The khaen tradition is generally found in Lao communities in

18 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships “ [The khaen] keeps me connected to my culture. It gives me peace, as well as connects me to the Lao community in the U.S. It gives the Lao community great joy to celebrate our culture in a way that has been done for generations. My art brings people together in ways that transcend their differences because the khaen is a common thread in their lives.”

Photo by Photo by A. Kitchener/ACTA 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 19 Michael Vlahovich Master Shipwright Tacoma, WA/St. Michaels, MD

ike Vlahovich is a master shipwright conversion of the Commencement, a 65-foot and third-generation commercial wooden purse seine salmon boat that now Mfisherman who has dedicated his adult functions as a floating classroom. By 1999, life to the preservation of the cultural, material, his reputation as a master shipwright and as and environmental heritage of fisheries of the an advocate for the heritage of Northwestern Northwest and the Chesapeake Bay. fisheries earned him Washington’s prestigious Governor’s Heritage Award. Born in Tacoma, Washington, to Croatian immigrants, Vlahovich began fishing for In 2001, Vlahovich was lured across the salmon commercially at age 15. Following continent by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime high school, he pursued a calling to the Roman Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, and the Catholic priesthood, but after a year in the Maryland Historical Trust to help sustain the novitiate, he experienced an epiphany during region’s iconic—but rapidly diminishing—fleet a walking meditation within smelling distance of sail-powered oyster-dredging boats known of the kitchen: “I smelled the coffee. Well, as skipjacks. “I didn’t come here to build immediately that aroma took me to the coffee museum pieces,” Vlahovich told the New York you smell on the fishing boat. I mean, I was Times in 2002, instead focusing on “saving on the deck of the boats again. And it came to what matters”—the skills and the culture of me: Wow! I have to be back with my people!” shipwrights and seafood harvesters. Shortly thereafter, Vlahovich was fishing the Pacific waters between Alaska and Mexico. Vlahovich founded Coastal Heritage Alliance in 2003 with bi-coastal operations in Maryland In the off-season, Vlahovich was taught by and Washington. Coastal Heritage Alliance has shipwrights back home on Tacoma’s working trained more than 120 apprentices (including waterfront. His inspiration and mentor was minimum-security inmates) in shipbuilding. Joe Trumbly, a member of the Osage Nation, He and his daughter, Teresa, have trained who himself had learned in the boat yards of Maryland watermen to serve as heritage Tacoma and Gig Harbor, most of which were tour guides to supplement their incomes and run by members of the Yugoslavian-American provide education to the public. Vlahovich has community. Vlahovich served as shipwright received numerous apprenticeship awards and foreman in wooden boat yards in Bristol from Maryland Traditions, and has been a Bay, and Ketchikan, Alaska, before returning featured artist at the Smithsonian, Northwest, to Tacoma to settle down and raise a family of and Maryland Traditions Folklife Festivals. four children with his wife, Paula Clark. He has lectured throughout the Republic of Croatia as a guest of the Croatian-American In 1982, Vlahovich opened a boat shop in Society in Zagreb. Tacoma, and by 1992 launched his heritage education efforts with the restoration and Bio by Clifford R. Murphy

20 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships “ When what you know as a master is your greatest treasure, it’s kind of a matter of your inheritance. Who are you going to leave that with? And how do you leave a skill? Well, only through education and teaching. Yes, it can be documented: you can interview people, you can photograph people. But, really, if it’s to stay alive, that treasure needs to be implanted in another human being.”

Photo by Tom Pich

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 21 Leona Waddell White Oak Basketmaker Cecilia, KY

revered leader in the white oak forests, selecting the perfect tree, splitting the basketmaking community, Leona log by hand, and meticulously scraping and A Trulock Waddell is a master artist trimming her white oak splits. She has taken whose basketmaking skills have been perfected the utilitarian form and refined it, and her by her years of experience and exemplify the baskets display painstaking uniformity and interaction of tradition and innovation, as precision. Today, Waddell takes great pride in she both maintains the traditional form of the her position that cherishes her work as both a region’s baskets and puts her own personalized detailed innovator and a historical exemplar of evolving imprint on each one. the tradition.

Waddell was born in 1928, in Cub Run, In addition to her own basketmaking, Waddell Kentucky, a small rural community at the edge ensures that the tradition lives on through of what is now Mammoth Cave National Park, education and public presentations. She has known as the epicenter of white oak in the served as a master artist in the Kentucky Arts south central area of the state. Growing up on a Council’s NEA-supported Master Folk and farm during the Depression, she learned by an Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, early age that basketmaking was essential to demonstrated at festivals and community providing for the family in a subsistence-based events, and consistently wins multiple household. By age ten Waddell began learning prizes at the annual Hart County Fair basket from her masterful mother, Ella Mae Puckett competition. In 2008-2010, Waddell was Trulock, who concluded that she, out of all her a featured artist in Tradition/Innovation, children, had a real “talent for it.” American Masterpieces of Southern Craft & Traditional Art, a touring exhibit produced by After marrying in 1945 and raising a family, South Arts. Most recently she was honored as Waddell returned to the art form she loved the recipient of the 2012 Kentucky Governor’s after her oldest daughter was born. Over the Award in the Arts Folk Heritage Award for past half century, the white oak baskets she her outstanding effort to perpetuate and creates have changed radically from the less- promote Kentucky’s unique artistic traditions. refined market baskets she made in her In 2013, Waddell’s work was included in youth to intricately woven creations owned the Smithsonian American Art Museum by basketmakers and collectors throughout and Renwick Gallery exhibit A Measure the world. of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets and the National Basketry In South Central Kentucky, the basketmaking Organization presented her with its highest material of choice has remained the white honor, its Lifetime Achievement Award. oak tree for generations because of the wood’s superior qualities, including workability, Bio by Brent Bjorkman, Kentucky Folklife Program, durability, and aesthetic appeal. For years Western Kentucky University Waddell’s practice began with hiking the

22 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Photo by Clinton Lewis “You know, I’ve always thought that if you’re going to make a basket and put that much work in it, you want to do it as neat as you can, the best you can.”

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 23 Artemio Posadas Master Huastecan Son Musician and Advocate San Jose, CA

THE 2016 rtemio Posadas is a musician, dancer, master teacher under apprenticeship grants BESS LOMAX HAWES teacher, and tireless cultural organizer, from the National Endowment for the Arts. AWARD A and this year’s Bess Lomax Hawes He accompanied several ballet folklórico National Heritage Fellow for his commitment companies, including the prominent Los to the Mexican tradition of son huasteco. Lupeños de San José, and consulted with them on traditional son huasteco music and dance The son of a traditional violinist, he was born styles. A major contribution to the burgeoning in 1948 and raised in the northeastern Mexican practice of traditional Mexican music in state of San Luis Potosí, in the cultural region California was his insistence on keeping known as La Huasteca. As a youth, Posadas the son huasteco part of social life as well as became fascinated with the region’s music staged performance. He rented halls, recruited known as son huasteco, with its singing style musicians, and organized fandango events embellished with falsetto breaks and a rich that invited people to eat, drink, and perform practice of poetic, instrumental, and dance son huasteco as a social experience. Musician, improvisation. He learned the music’s three anthropologist, and Posadas disciple Russell instruments—huapanguera (large rhythm Rodriguez sums up Posadas’s contributions: guitar), jarana (small guitar), and violin—as “The arrival of Artemio Posadas to the Bay well as traditional repertoire and dance Area of California was a blessing. He modeled style. He sought out the region’s best groups how traditional arts, such as the dance, poetry, as teachers and performed with the Grupo and music of the son mexicano, are significant de la Universidad de San Luis Potosí. He in our daily lives.” worked with the late Beno Liberman to record regional sones for the milestone Antología Posadas produced two recordings of the del Son Mexicano. After touring to the San renowned trío huasteco Los Camperos de Francisco Bay area in 1973, he was invited back Valles. One of these recordings, El Ave de Mi in 1974 to give workshops to local music and Soñar, featuring Artemio’s original poetry, was dance enthusiasts in the Mexican-American released in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways community. He resettled in the Bay Area in Recordings, and one track of which appeared 1979 and later became a United States citizen. in the movie A Better Life. In 2005 and 2009, he participated as a dancer with Los Camperos In northern California, he performed with local de Valles in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, musicians and since 1990 has taught the son and in 2014, he was featured in the Library of huasteco (along with the son jarocho and other Congress American Folklife Center’s “Home regional forms of son) at Richmond’s East Grown” concert series, an event produced by Bay Center for the Performing Arts, helping the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. to anchor the growth and understanding of authentic son in the greater San Francisco Bio by Daniel Sheehy, 2015 NEA National Heritage Fellow Bay Area. During this time, Posadas served as

24 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships “I don’t know why I was drawn to the son huasteco. I believe it was the falsetto that really got to me, along with the profundity of its poetry.”

Photo by Maria Virginia Prieto Solis

The Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship honors “keepers of tradition” who through their efforts as organizers, educators, producers, cultural advocates, or caretakers of skills and repertoires have had a major beneficial effect on the traditional arts of the United States. A member of the Lomax family of pioneering American folklorists, Bess Lomax Hawes (1921–2009) committed her life to the documentation and presentation of American folk artists. She served as an educator both inside the classroom and beyond, and nurtured the field of public folklore through her service at the National Endowment for the Arts. During her tenure as director of the NEA Folk Arts Program (1977–1993) an infrastructure of state folklorists was put in place, statewide folk arts apprenticeship programs were initiated, and the National Heritage Fellowships were created. In 1993 she received the National Medal of Arts for her many contributions in assisting folk artists nationwide and in bringing folk artistry to the attention of the public. 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 25 Acknowledgments NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS Jane Chu, Chairman

NEA National Council for the Event Production Staff Traditional Arts Staff Clifford Murphy, Folk & Traditional Arts Director Julia Olin, Executive Director Cheryl T. Schiele, Folk & Traditional Arts Specialist Madeleine Remez, Associate Director Dudley Connell Elizabeth Auclair, Public Affairs Specialist Colleen Holroyd Don Ball, Assistant Director - Publications Natalie Huber-Rodriguez James Lightner Paulette Beete, Senior Writer/Editor Amy Mills Lauren Dugas Glover, White House Liaison/Senior Ben Tungland Advisor to the Chief of Staff Blaine Waide Wendy Wang Mike Griffin, Chief of Staff The National Endowment for the Arts and the Victoria Hutter, Assistant Director - Press NCTA would also like to acknowledge the invaluable Adam Kampe, Media Specialist assistance of the following individuals and institutions: David Low, Web Manager The staff at The GWU Lisner Auditorium William Mansfield, Folk & Traditional Arts Specialist American Folklife Center, Library of Congress Elizabeth Peterson, Director Meg McGillivray, Special Assistant for Congressional Thea Austen Affairs & Council Operations Four Seasons Van and Travel Josephine Reed, Media Producer The House of Musical Traditions Keybridge Marriott Jessamyn Sarmiento, Director, Public Affairs Old Town Trolley Tours Jennie Terman, Asst. Grants Management Specialist Fords Theatre Erin Waylor, Division Coordinator Rossie Colter Stephen Fisher Jami C. Powell

Michael Vlahovich boat Photo by Michael Vlahovich

26 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert Credits The National Endowment for the Arts would like to express its appreciation to the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) for its assistance in planning and producing the 2016 National Heritage Fellowships events, which were managed for the NCTA by Associate Director Madeleine Remez. The NCTA is a private non- profit corporation founded in 1933 and dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the United States.

National Heritage Fellowships Concert Director Production Assistants Radio Production Paul Douglas Michnewicz Brittany Truske American Routes, public radio Elizabeth Zagraniski from PRX Set Design Khileen Herry Host and Producer: Tony Cisek Nick Spitzer Green Room Coordinator Lighting Design Editor: Nina Feldman Susie Pamudji Dan Covey Associate Producer: Logistics Sound Design/Production Garrett Pittman Nicole Martin Stephen Fisher Recording Engineer: Charlie Pilzer Video Projection/Production Michael Schweppe Creative Video of Washington, Inc. Production Manager Drivers Elaine M. Randolph Sign Language Interpreter Joe Lally Jayne Tubergen Dean Carrigan Stage Manager Shari Moxley Lisner Auditorium Program Book Design Cassandra Lammers Fletcher Design, Inc. Assistant Stage Manager Eric Annis Martita Lee Slayden

Master of Ceremonies

2015 NEA National Heritage Fellow and Bess leadership, Smithsonian Folkways published Lomax Hawes Award recipient Daniel Sheehy more than 200 recordings, earning five Grammy exemplifies what it means to be a public servant awards, one Latin Grammy, and 17 nominations. and devoted cultural heritage advocate. A While at the Smithsonian, he has also served as Fulbright-Hays scholar in Veracruz, Mexico acting director of the Smithsonian Latino Center (1977–78), Sheehy earned his doctorate in and the director of the Center for Folklife and ethnomusicology from UCLA in 1979. In 1978, Cultural Heritage. Sheehy now serves as director he was hired at the National Endowment for and curator emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways. the Arts to work under his mentor and teacher, He has served on the boards of the Alliance for Bess Lomax Hawes. He was instrumental in California Traditional Arts (currently president), developing and sustaining the infrastructure of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, Photo by Tom Pich the folk and traditional arts field while serving the American Folklore Society, the Society in multiple capacities at the NEA, including as for Ethnomusicology, and the Association staff ethnomusicologist and assistant director for Cultural Equity. An active musician, he (1978–92) and director of Folk & Traditional co-founded Mariachi Los Amigos in 1978, Arts (1992–2000). In 2000, Sheehy joined Washington, D.C.’s longest-existing mariachi the Smithsonian Institution as director and ensemble. In 2016, he was awarded a John curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. succeeding Anthony Seeger. Under his

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 27 NEA 1982 1983 1984 1985 National Dewey Balfa * Sister Mildred Barker * Clifton Chenier * Eppie Archuleta * Heritage Cajun Fiddler Shaker Singer Creole Accordionist Hispanic Weaver Fellowship Basile, LA Poland Spring, ME Lafayette, LA Garden City, ID Awardees Joe Heaney * Rafael Cepeda * Bertha Cook * Periklis Halkias * Irish Singer Bomba Musician/Dancer Knotted Bedspread Maker Greek Clarinetist Boone, NC 1982–2015 Brooklyn, NY Santurce, PR Astoria Queens, NY Tommy Jarrell * Ray Hicks * Joseph Cormier Jimmy Jausoro * Appalachian Fiddler Appalachian Storyteller Cape Breton Violinist Basque Accordionist Mt. Airy, NC Banner Elk, NC Waltham, MA Boise, ID

Bessie Jones * Stanley Hicks * Elizabeth Cotten * Mealii Kalama * Georgia Sea Island Singer Appalachian Musician/ African-American Singer/ Hawaiian Quilter Brunswick, GA Storyteller/Instrument Songster Honolulu, HI Maker Syracuse, NY George Lopez * Vilas, NC Lily May Ledford * Santos Woodcarver Burlon Craig * Appalachian Musician/ Cordova, NM John Lee Hooker * Potter Singer Blues Guitarist/Singer Vale, NC Lexington, KY Brownie McGhee * San Francisco, CA Blues Guitarist/Singer Albert Fahlbusch * Leif Melgaard * Oakland, CA Mike Manteo * Hammered Dulcimer Norwegian Woodcarver Sicilian Marionettist Player/Builder Minneapolis, MN Hugh McGraw Staten Island, NY Scottsbluff, NE Shape Note Singer Bua Xou Mua * Bremen, GA Narciso Martinez * Janie Hunter * Hmong Musician Texas-Mexican African-American Singer/ Portland, Or Lydia Mendoza * Accordionist/Composer Storyteller Mexican-American Singer San Benito, TX Johns Island, SC Julio Negrón-Rivera San Antonio, TX Puerto Rican Instrument Lanier Meaders * Mary Jane Manigault * Maker Bill Monroe * Potter African-American Seagrass Morovis, PR Bluegrass Musician Cleveland, GA Basketmaker Nashville, TN Mt. Pleasant, SC Alice New Holy Blue Legs Almeda Riddle * Lakota Sioux Quill Artist Elijah Pierce * Ballad Singer Genevieve Mougin * Rapid City, SD Carver/Painter Greers Ferry, AR Lebanese-American Lace Columbus, OH Maker Glenn Ohrlin * Joe Shannon * Bettendorf, IA Cowboy Singer/Storyteller/ Adam Popovich * Irish Piper Martin Mulvihill * Illustrator Tamburitza Musician Chicago, IL Mountain Veiw, AR Irish-American Fiddler Dolton, IL Simon St. Pierre Bronx, NY Henry Townsend * Georgeann Robinson * French-American Fiddler Howard “Sandman” Sims * Blues Musicain/Songwriter Osage Ribbonworker Smyrna Mills, ME African-American Tap St. Louis, MO Bartelsville, OK Dancer Alex Stewart * New York, NY Horace “Spoons” Duff Severe * Cooper/Woodworker Williams * Saddle Maker Sneedville, TN Ralph Stanley * Percussionist/ Poet Pendleton, OR Bluegrass Banjo Player/ Philadelphia, PA Ada Thomas * Appalachian Singer Philip Simmons * Chitimacha Basketmaker Coeburn, VA Ornamental Ironwork Charenton, LA Charleston, SC Margaret Tafoya * Lucinda Toomer * Santa Clara Pueblo Potter Sanders “Sonny” Terry * African-American Quilter Espanola, NM Blues Harmonica/Singer Columbus, GA Holliswood, NY Dave Tarras * Lem Ward * Klezmer Clarinetist Decoy Carver/Painter Brooklyn, NY Crisfield,MD Paul Tiulana * Dewey Williams * Eskimo Mask Maker/ Shape Note Singer Dancer/Singer Ozark, AL Anchorage, AK Cleofas Vigil * Hispanic Storyteller/Singer San Cristobal, NM

* Deceased Emily Kau’i Zuttermeister * Hula Master (Kumu Hula) Kaneohe, Hi 28 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1986 1987 1988 1989

Alphonse “Bois Sec” Juan Alindato * Pedro Ayala * John Cephas * Ardoin * Carnival Maskmaker Mexican-American Piedmont Blues Guitarist/ Creole Accordionist Ponce, PR Accordionist Singer Eunice, LA Donna, TX Woodford, VA Louis Bashell * Earnest Bennett * Slovenian Accordionist Kepka Belton Fairfield Four Anglo-American Whittler Greenfield,WI Czech-American Egg Painter African-American a Capelle Indianapolis, IN Ellsworth, KS Gospel Singers Genoveva Castellanoz Nashville, TN Helen Cordero * Mexican-American Corona Amber Densmore * Pueblo Potter Maker New England Quilter/ José Gutiérrez Cochiti, NM Nyssa, OR Needleworker Mexican Jarocho Musician/ Chelsea, VT Singer Sonia Domsch Thomas Edison Norwalk, CA Czech-American Bobbin “Brownie” Ford * Michael Flatley Lace Maker Anglo-Comanche Cowboy Irish-American Stepdancer Richard Avedis Hagopian Atwood, KS Singer/Storyteller Palos Park, IL Armenian Oud Player Herbert, LA Visalia, CA Canray Fontenot * Sister Rosalia Haberl * Creole Fiddler Kansuma Fujima German-American Bobbin Christy Hengel * Welsh, La Japanese-American Dancer Lace Maker German-American Los Angeles, CA Hankinson, ND Concertina Maker John Jackson * New Ulm, MN Black Songster/Guitarist Claude Joseph Johnson * John Dee Holeman Fairfax Station, VA African-American Religious African-American Musician/ Vanessa Paukeigope Singer/Orator Dancer/Singer Jennings Peou Khatna * Atlanta, GA Durham, NC Kiowa Regalia Maker Cambodian Court Dancer/ Fort Cobb, OK Choreographer Raymond Kane * Albert “Sunnyland Slim” Silver Spring, MD Hawaiian Slack Key Laundrew * Ilias Kementzides * Guitarist/Singer Blues Pianist/Singer Pontic Greek Lyra Player Valerio Longoria * Wai’ane, HI Chicago, IL and Builder Mexican-American South Norwalk, CT Accordionist Wade Mainer Yang Fang Nhu * San Antonio, TX Appalachian Banjo Picker/ Hmong Weaver/Embroiderer Ethel Kvalheim * Singer Detroit, MI Norwegian Rosemaler Doc Tate Nevaquaya * Flint, MI Stoughton, WI Comanche Indian Flutist Kenny Sidle Apache, OK Sylvester McIntosh Anglo-American Fiddler Mabel E. Murphy * Crucian Singer/Bandleader Newark, OH Anglo-American Quilter Luis Ortega * St. Croix, VI Fulton, MO Hispanic-American Willi Mae Ford Smith * Rawhide Worker Allison “Tootie” Montana * African-American Gospel LaVaughn E. Robinson * Paradise, CA Mardi Gras Chief/Costume Singer African-American Tap Maker St. Louis, MO Dancer Ola Belle Reed * New Orleans, LA Philadelphia, PA Appalachian Banjo Picker/ Clyde “Kindy” Sproat * Singer Alex Moore, Sr. * Hawaiian Cowboy Singer/ Earl Scruggs * Rising Sun, MD African-American Blues Ukulele Player Bluegrass Banjo Player Pianist Kapaaee, HI Nashville, TN Jenny Thlunaut * Dallas, TX Tlingit Chilkat Blanket Arthel “Doc” Watson * Harry V. Shourds Weaver Emilio & Senaida Romero * Appalachian Guitarist/ Wildfowl Decoy Carver Haines, AK Hispanic-American Tin and Singer Seaville, NJ Embroidery Workers Deep Gap, NC Nimrod Workman * Santa Fe, NM Chesley Goseyun Wilson Appalachian Ballad Singer Apache Fiddle Maker Macot, & Chattaroy, TN/WV Newton Washburn * Tucson, AZ Split Ash Basketmaker Bethlehem, NH

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 29 NEA 1990 1991 1992 1993 National Howard Armstrong * Etta Baker * Francisco Aguabella * Santiago Almeida * Heritage African-American String African-American Guitarist Afro-Cuban Drummer Texas-Mexican Conjunto Band Musican Morgantown, NC Los Angeles, CA Musician Fellowship Boston, MA Sunnyside, WA Awardees George Blake Jerry Brown * Em Bun Native American Craftsman Potter (southern stoneware Kenny Baker * Cambodian Silk Weaver (Hupa-Yurok) tradition) Bluegrass Fiddler 1982–2015 Harrisburg, PA Hoopa Valley, CA Hamilton, AL Cottontown, TN Natividad Cano * Jack Coen * Walker Calhoun Mexican-American Mariachi Irish-American Flautist Cherokee Musican/Dancer/ Inez Catalon * Musican Bronx, NY Teacher French Creole Singer Fillmore, CA Cherokee, NC Kaplan, LA Rose Frank * Giuseppe * and Nez Perce Cornhusk Weaver Clyde Davenport Elena & Nicholas * Raffaela DeFranco Lapwai, ID Appalachian Fiddler Charles Southern Italian Musicians Jamestown, TN Yupik Woodcaver/ and Dancers Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero * Maskmaker/and Skin Belleville, NJ Mexican-American Singer/ Belle Deacon * Sewer Guitarist/Composer Athabascan Basketmaker Bethel, AK Maude Kegg * Cathedral City, CA Greyling, AK Ojibwe Storyteller/ Charles Hankins * Craftsperson/Tradition Khamvong Insixiengmai Nora Ezell * Boatbuilder Bearer Southeast Asian Lao Singer African-American Quilter Lavallette, NJ Onamia, MN Fresno, CA Five Points, TN Nalani Kanaka’ole & Kevin Locke Don King * Gerald Hawpetoss * Pualani Kanaka’ole Lakota Flute Player/Singer/ Western Saddlemaker Menominee/Potowatomie Kanahele Dancer/Storyteller Sheridan, WY Regalia Maker Hula Masters Wakpala, SD Neopit, WI Hilo, HI Riley “B.B.” King * Marie MacDonald African-American Blues Fatima Kuinova Everett Kapayou * Hawaiian Lei Maker Musician/Singer/ Bukharan Jewish Singer Native American Singer Kamuela, HI bandleader Rego Park, NY (Meskwaki) Las Vegas, NV Tama, IA Wallace McRae John Yoshio Naka * Cowboy Poet Esther Littlefield * Bonsai Sculptor McIntosh County Forsyth, MT Alaskan Regalia Maker Whittier, CA Shouters (Tlingit) African-American Spiritual/ Art Moilanen * Sitka, AK Marc Savoy Shout Ensemble Finnish Accordionist Cajun Accordion Player/ St. Simons Island, GA Mass City, MI Seisho “Harry” Nakasone * Builder Okinawan-American Eunice, LA Elmer Miller * Emilio Rosado * Musician Bit and Spur Maker/ Woodcarver Honolulu, HI Ng Sheung-Chi Silversmith Utado, PR Chinese Toissan Muk’yu Folk Nampa, ID Irvan Perez * Singer Robert Spicer * Isleno Singer (Canary Islands) New York, NY Jack Owens * Flatfoot and Buckdancer Poydras, LA Blues Singer/Guitarist Dancer Othar Turner * Bentonia, MS Dickson, TN Morgan Sexton * African-American Fife Player Appalachian Banjo Player/ Senatobia, MS Mone & Vanxay Douglas Wallin * Singer Saenphimmachak Applachian Ballad Singer Linefork, KY Tanjore Viswanathan * Lao Weaver/Needleworker Marshall, NC South Indian Flute Maker and Loom Maker Nikitas Tsimouris * Middletown, CT St. Louis, MO Greek-American Bagpipe Player Liang-Xing Tang Tarpon Springs, FL Chinese-American Pipa (Lute) Player Gussie Wells * Bayside, NY African-American Quilter Oakland, CA

Arbie Williams * African-American Quilter Oakland, CA

Melvin Wine * Appalachian Fiddler Copen, WV * Deceased

30 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1994 1995 1996 1997

Liz Carroll Bao Mo-Li Obo Addy * Edward Babb Irish-American Fiddler Chinese-American Jing-Erhu African (Ghanaian) Master “Shout” Band Gospel Mundelein, IL Player Drummer/Leader Trombonist & Band Leader Flushing, NY Portland, OR Jamaica, NY Clarence Fountain & The Blind Boys of Alabama Mary Holiday Black Betty Pisio Christenson Charles Brown * African-American Navajo Basketmaker Ukranian-American Pysanky West Coast Blues Pianist & Gospel Singers Mexican Hat, UT Suring, WI Composer Atlanta, GA Berkeley, CA Lyman Enloe * Paul Dahlin Mary Mitchell Gabriel * Old-Time Fiddler Swedish-American Fiddler Gladys Leblanc Clark Native American Lee’s Summit, MO Minneapolis, MN Acadian (Cajun) Spinner & (Passamaquoddy) Weaver Basketmaker Donny Golden Juan Gutiérrez Duson, LA Princeton, ME Irish-American Step Dancer Puerto Rican Drummer/ Brooklyn, NY Leader (Bomba and Plena) Georgia Harris * Johnny Gimble * New York, NY Catawba Potter Western Swing Fiddler Wayne Henderson Atlanta, GA Dripping Springs, TX Appalachian Luthier, Solomon * & Richard Musician Ho’opii Wen-Yi Hua Mouth of Wilson, VA Hawaiian Falsetto Singers/ Chinese Kunqu Opera Singer Frances Varos Graves * Musicians Arcadia, CA Hispanic American “Colcha” Bea Ellis Hensley Makawao, HI Embroidery Appalachian Blacksmith Ali Akbar Khan Rancho De Taos, NM Spruce Pine, NC Will Keys * North Indian Sarod Player Anglo-American Banjo Player & Raga Composer Violet Hilbert * Nathan Jackson Gray, TN San Anselmo, CA Native American (Skagit) Tlingit Alaskan Woodcaver/ Storyteller/Conservator Metalsmith/Dancer Joaquin Lujan * Ramón José López Ca Conner, WA Ketchikan, AK Chamorro Blacksmith Santero & Metalsmith GMF, GU Santa Fe, NM Sosie Shizuye Matsumoto Danongan Kalanduyan Japanese Tea Ceremony Filipino-American Kulintang Eva McAdams Jim* & Jesse McReynolds Master Musician Shoshone Crafts/Beadwork Bluegrass Musician Los Angeles, CA South San Francisco, CA Fort Washakie, WY Gallatin, TN

D.l. Menard Robert Jr. Lockwood * John Mealing & Cornelius Phong Nguyen Cajun Musician/Songwriter African-American Delta Wright, Jr. * Vietnamese Musician/ Erath, LA Blues Singer/Guitarist African-American Work Scholar Cleveland, OH Songs Kent, OH Simon Shaheen Birmingham, AL Arab American Oud Player Israel “Cachao” López * Hystercine Rankin * Brooklyn, NY Afro-Cuban Bassist, Vernon Owens African-American Quilter Composer, and Bandleader Anglo-American Potter Lorman, MS Lily Vorperian Miami, FL Seagrove, NC Armenian (Marash-Style) Francis Whitaker * Embroidery Nellie Star Boy Menard * Dolly Spencer * Blacksmith/Ornamental Glendale, CA Lakota Sioux Quiltmaker Inupiat Dollmaker Iron Work Rosebud, SD Homer, AK Carbondale, CO Elder Roma Wilson African-American Buck Ramsey * Harmonica Player Anglo-American Cowboy Oxford, MS Poet, Singer Amarillo, TX

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 31 NEA 1998 1999 2000 2001 National Apsara Ensemble Frisner Augustin * Bounxou Chanthraphone Celestino Avilés * Heritage Cambodian Musicians & Haitian Drummer Lao Weaver, Embroiderer Santero Dancers New York, NY Brookland Park, MN Orocovis, PR Fellowship Fort Washington, MD Awardees Lila Greengrass Dixie Hummingbirds * Mozell Benson * Eddie Blazonczyk * Blackdeer African-American Gospel African-American Quilter Polish Polka Musician/ Hocak Black Ash Quartet Opelika, AL 1982–2015 Bandleader Basketmaker, Philadelphia, PA Bridgeview, IL Needleworker Wilson “Boozoo” Chavis * Black River Falls, WI Felipe García Villamil Zydeco Accordionist Bruce Caesar Afro-Cuban Drummer/ Lake Charles, LA Sac Fox-Pawnee German Shirley Caesar Santero Silversmith Gospel Singer Los Angeles, CA Hazel Dickens * Anadarko, OK Durham, NC Appalachian Singer José González * Washington, DC Dale Calhoun * Alfredo Campos Puerto Rican Hammock Boatbuilder (Reelfoot Lake Horeshair Hitcher Weaver Evalena Henry Stumpjumper) Federal Way, WA San Sebastián, PR Apache Basketweaver Tiptonville, TN Peridot, AZ Mary Louise Defender Nettie Jackson Antonio De La Rosa * Wilson Klickitat Basketmaker Peter Kyvelos Tejano Conjunto Dakota Hidatsa Traditionalist White Swan, WA Oud Builder Accordionist and Storyteller Bedford, MA Riviera, TX Shields, ND Santiago Jiménez, Jr Tex-Mex Accordionist/ João “João Grande” Epstein Brothers Jimmy “Slyde” Godbolt * Singer Olivera Dos Santos Klezmer Musicians African-American Tap San Antonio, TX Capoeira Angola Master Sarasota, FL Dancer New York, NY Hanson, MA Genoa Keawe * Sophia George Hawaiian Tto Singer/ Eddie Pennington Yakima Colville Beadwork Ulysses “Uly” Goode * Ukulele Player Thumbpicking Style and Regalia Western Mono Basketmaker Honolulu, HI Guitarist Gresham, OR North Fork, CA Princeton, KY Frankie Manning * Nadjeschda Overgaard * Bob Holt * Lindy Hop Dancer Qi Shu Fang Danish Hardanger Ozark Fiddler Choreographer/Innovator Peking Opera Performer Embroidery Ava, MO Corona, NY Woodhaven, NY Kimballton, IA Zakir Hussain Joe Willie “Pinetop” Seiichi Tanaka Harilaos Papapostolou * North Indian Master Tabla Perkins * Taiko Drummer Dojo Byzantine Chant, Greek Drummer Blues Piano Player Founder Orthodox San Anselmo, CA La Porte, IN San Francisco, CA Potomac, MD Elliott “Ellie” Manette Konstantinos Pilarinos Dorothy Trumpold Roebuck “Pops” Staples * Trinidadian Steel Pan Orthodox Byzantine Icon Rug Weaver Gospel /Blues Musician Builder, Tuner, Performer Woodcarver High Amana, IA Dalton, IL Osage, WV Astoria, NY Fred Tsoodle * Claude “The Fiddler” Mick Moloney Chris Strachwitz Kiowa Sacred Song Leader Williams * Irish Musician (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Mountian View, OK Jazz Swing Fiddler New York, NY Record Producer/Label Kansas City, MO Founder Joseph Wilson * Eudokia Sorochaniuk * El Cerrito, CA (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Ukranian Weaver, Textile Folklorist/Advocate/ Artists, Embroidery B. Dorothy Thompson * Presenter Pennsuaken, NJ Appalachian Weaver Fries, VA Davis, WV Ralph Stanley Master Boatbuilder, Don Walser * (Friendship Sloop) Cowboy & Western Singer/ Southwest Harbor, ME Guitarist/Composer Austin, TX

* Deceased

32 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2002 2003 2004 2005

Ralph Blizard * Basque “Bertsolari” Poets Anjani Ambegaokar Herminia Albarrán Old-Time Fiddler Jesus Arriada Kathak Dancer Romero Blountville, TN San Francisco, CA Diamond Bar, CA Paper-Cutting Artist San Francisco, CA Loren Bommelyn Johnny Curutchet Charles “Chuck” T. South San Francisco, CA Tolowa Singer, Tradition Campbell Eldrid Skjold Arntzen Bearer, Basketmaker Martin Goicoechea Gospel Steel Guitarist Norwegian-American Crescent City, CA Rock Springs, WY Rochester, NY Rosemaler Jesus Goni Watertown, CT Kevin Burke Reno, NV Joe Derrane * Irish Fiddler Irish-American Button Earl Barthé * Portland, OR Rosa Elene Egipciaco Accordionist Decorative Building Puerto Rican Bobbin Lace Randolph, MA Craftsman Francis & Rose Cree * “Mundillo” New Orleans, LA Ojibwa Basketmakers/ New York, NY Jerry Douglas Storytellers Dobro Player Chuck Brown * Dunseith, ND Agnes Oshanee Kenmille * Nashville, TN African-American Salish Beadwork and Tanning Musical Innovator Luderin Darbone/ Ronan, MT Gerald Subiyay Miller * Brandywine, MD Edwin Duhon * Skokomish Tradition Bearer Cajun Fiddler and Norman Kennedy Shelton, WA Janette Carter * Accordionist Weaver/Ballad Singer (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Sulphur/Westlake, LA Marshfield,VT Milan Opacich * Appalachian Musician, Tamburitza Instrument Advocate Nadim Dlaikan Roberto * & Lorenzo Maker Hiltons, VA Lebanese Nye (Reed Flute) Martinez Schererville, IN Player Hispanic Guitarist & Violinist Michael Doucet Southgate, MI Albuquerque, NM Eliseo & Paula Rodriguez * Cajun Fiddler, Composer, Straw Applique Artists and Band Leader David “Honeyboy” Norma Miller Santa Fe, NM Lafayette, LA Edwards * African-American Jazz Delta Blues Guitarist/Singer Dancer, Choreographer Koko Taylor * Jerry Grcevich Chicago, IL Cape Coral, FL Blues Musician Tamburitza Musician, Country Club Hills, IL Prim Player Flory Jagoda Carmencristina Moreno North Huntingdon, PA Sephardic Musician/ (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Yuqin Wang & Zhengli Xu Composer Mexican-American Singer, Chinese Rod Puppeteers Grace Henderson Nez * Alexandria, VA Composer, Teacher Tigard, OR Navajo Weaver Fresno, CA Ganado, AZ Losang Samten Chum Ngek Tibetan Sand Mandala Ron Poast (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Wanda Jackson Painter Hardanger Fiddle Luthier Cambodian Musician and Early Country, Rockabilly, and Philadephia, PA and Player Teacher Gospel Singer Black Earth, WI Gaithersburg, MD Oklahoma City, OK Bob McQuillen * Contra Dance Musician Felipe I. & Joseph K. Ruak Beyle Schaechter- Composer Carolinian Stick Dance Gottesman * Peterborough, NH Leaders Yiddish Singer, Poet, Saipan, MP Songwriter Clara Neptune Keezer * Bronx, NY Passamaquoddy Basketmaker Manoochehr Sadeghi Perry, ME Persian Santour Player Albertina Walker * Sherman Oaks, CA Gospel Singer Jean Ritchie * Chicago, IL (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Nicholas Toth Appalachian Singer/ Diving Helmet Builder James Ka’upena Wong Songwriter Dulcimer Tarpon Springs, FL Hawaiian Chanter Player Waianae, HI Port Washington, NY

Domingo “Mingo” Saldivar Conjunto Accordionist San Antonio, TX

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 33 NEA 2006 2007 2008 2009 National Charles M. Carrillo Nicholas Benson Horace P. Axtell * The Birmingham Sunlights Heritage Santero (Carver and Painter Stone Letter Carver and Nez Perce Elder, Spiritual A Cappella Gospel Group of Sacred Figures) Calligrapher Leader, and Drum Maker Birmingham, AL Fellowship Santa Fe, NM Newport, RI Lewiston, ID Awardees Edwin Colón Zayas Delores E. Churchill Sidiki Conde Dale Harwood Cuatro Player Haida (Native Alaskan) Guinean Dancer and Saddlemaker Orocovis, PR 1982–2015 Weaver Musician Shelley, ID Ketchican, AK New York, NY Chitresh Das * Bettye Kimbrell Kathak Dancer and Henry Gray Violet De Cristoforo * Quilter Choreographer Blues Piano Player, Singer Haiku Poet And Historian Mt. Olive, AL San Francisco, CA Baton Rouge, LA Salinas, CA Jeronimo E. Lozano Leroy Graber * Doyle Lawson Roland Freeman Retablo Maker German-Russian Willow Gospel and Bluegrass Singer, (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Salt Lake City, UT Basketmaker Arranger, and Bandleader Photo Documentarian, Freeman, SD Bristol, TN Author, and Exhibit Walter Murray Chiesa * Curator (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) “Queen” Ida Guillory Esther Martinez * Washington, DC Traditional Crafts Advocate Zydeco Musician Native American Linguist Bayamón, PR Daly City, CA and Storyteller Pat Courtney Gold San Juan Pueblo, NM Wasco Sally Bag Weaver Oneida Hymn Singers Dudley Laufman Scappoose, Or Of Wisconsin Dance Caller and Musician Diomedes Matos Hymn Singing Cantebury, NH Cuatro (10-String Puerto Eddie Kamae Oneida, WI Rican Guitar) Maker Hawaiian Musician, Amma D. McKen Deltona, FL Composer, Filmmaker Sue Yeon Park Yoruba Orisha Singer Honolulu, HI Korean Dancer and Musician Brooklyn, NY George Na’ope * New York, NY Kumu Hula (Hula Master) Agustin Lira Joel Nelson Hilo, HI Chicano Singer, Musician, Moges Seyoum Cowboy Poet Composer Ethiopian Church Musician Alpine, TX Wilho Saari Fresno, CA Alexandria, VA Finnish Kantele (Lap-Harp) Teri Rofkar Player Julia Parker Jelon Vieira Tlingit Weaver and Naselle, WA Kashia Pomo Basketmaker Capoeira Master Basketmaker Midpines, CA New York, NY Sitka, AK Mavis Staples Gospel, Rhythm and Blues Mary Jane Queen * Michael G. White Mike Seeger * Singer Appalachian Musician Jazz Clarinetist, Band Leader, (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Chicago, IL Cullowhee, NC Scholar Musician, Cultural Scholar, New Orleans, LA and Advocate Nancy Sweezy * Joe Thompson * Lexington, VA (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) African-American String Mac Wiseman Advocate, Scholar, Presenter, Band Musician Bluegrass and Country Singer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and Preservationist Mebane, NC and Musician Cambodian Classical Dancer Lexington, MA Nashville, TN and Choregrapher Irvin L. Trujillo Long Beach, CA Treme Brass Band Rio Grande Weaver New Orleans Brass Band Chimayo, NM New Orleans, LA Elaine Hoffman Watts Klezmer Musician Havertown, PA

* Deceased

34 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2010 2011 2012 2013

Yacub Addy * Laverne Brackens Mike Auldridge * Sheila Kay Adams Ghanaian Drum Master Quilter Dobro Player Ballad Singer, Musician, Latham, NY Fairfield,TX Silver Spring, MD & Storyteller Marshall, NC Jim “Texas Shorty” Bo Dollis * Paul & Darlene Bergren Chancellor Mardi Gras Indian Chief Dog Sled and Snowshoe Ralph Burns Fiddler New Orleans, LA Designers and Builders Storyteller, Pyramid Lake Rockwall, TX Minot, ND Paiute Tribe Jim Griffith Nixon, NV Gladys Kukana Grace * (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Harold A. Burnham Lauhala (Palm Leaf) Weaver Folklorist Master Shipwright Verónica Castillo Honolulu, HI Tuscon, AZ Essex, MA Ceramicist & Clay Sculptor San Antonio, TX Mary Jackson Roy and Pj Hirabayashi Albert B. Head Sweetgrass Basketweaver Taiko Drum Leaders (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Séamus Connolly Johns Island, SC San Jose, CA Traditional Arts Advocate Irish Fiddler Montgomery, AL North Yarmouth, ME Del McCoury Ledward Kaapana Bluegrass Guitarist and Slack Key Guitarist Leonardo “Flaco” Nicolae Feraru Singer Kaneohe, HI Jimenez Cimbalom Player Hendersonville, TN Tejano Accordion Player Chicago, IL Frank Newsome San Antonio, TX Judith McCulloh * Old Regular Baptist Singer Carol Fran (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Haysi, VA Lynne Yoshiko Nakasone Swamp Blues Singer & Folklorist and Editor Okinawan Dancer Pianist Urbana, IL Carlinhos Pandeiro De Honolulu, HI Lafayette, LA Ouro Kamala Lakshmi Frame Drum Player and Molly Jeannette Pauline Hillaire Narayanan Percussionist Neptune Parker (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Bharatanatyam Indian Los Angeles, CA Passamaquoddy Basket Tradition Bearer, Lummi Dancer Maker Tribe Mastic, NY Warner Williams Princeton, ME Bellingham, WA Piedmont Blues Songster Mike Rafferty * Gaithersburg, MD The Paschall Brothers David Ivey Irish Flute Player Tidewater Gospel Quartet Sacred Harp Hymn Singer Hasbrouck Heights, NJ Yuri Yunakov Chesapeake, VA Huntsville, AL Bulgarian Saxophonist Ezequiel Torres Bloomfield,NJ Andy Statman Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez Afro-Cuban Drummer and Klezmer Clarinetist, Chicano Musician Drum Builder Mandolinist, and & Culture Bearer Miami, FL Composer San Diego, CA Brooklyn, NY

2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships 35 NEA 2014 2015 National Henry Arquette * Rahim AlHaj Heritage Mohawk Basketmaker Oud Player & Composer Fellowship Hogansburg, NY Albuquerque, NM Awardees Manuel “Cowboy” Donley Michael Alpert Tejano Musician and Singer Yiddish Musician and Austin, TX Tradition Bearer 1982–2015 New York, NY Kevin Doyle Irish Step Dancer Mary Lee Bendolph, Barrington, RI Lucy Mingo, and Loretta Pettway The Holmes Brothers Quilters of Gee’s Bend Sherman Holmes Boykin, AL Wendell Holmes * Dolly Jacobs Popsy Dixon * Circus Aerialist Blues, Gospel, and Rhythm Sarasota, FL and Blues Band Rosedale, MD Yary Livan Saluda, VA Cambodian Ceramicist Lowell, MA Yvonne Walker Keshick Odawa Quillworker Daniel Sheehy Petoskey, MI (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Ethnomusicologist/ Carolyn Mazloomi Folklorist (Bess Lomax Hawes Award) Falls Church, VA Quilting Community Advocate Drink Small West Chester, OH Blues Artist Columbia, SC Vera Nakonechny Ukrainian Embroiderer, Gertrude Yukie Tsutsumi Weaver and Beadworker Japanese Classical Dancer Philadelphia, PA Honolulu, HI

Singing and Praying Sidonka Wadina Bands of MD and DE Slovak Straw Artist/Egg African-American Religious Decorator Singers Lyons, WI Maryland and Delaware

Rufus White Omaha Traditional Singer and Drum Group Leader Walthill, NE

Joseph Pierre “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux Photo by Robert Brown

* Deceased BACK COVER Leona Waddell basket Photo by Scott Gilbert and Beth Hester 36 2016 NEA National Heritage Fellowships