Maritime Folklore of NYC's Forgotten Borough

Fall–Winter 2017 Volume 43: 3–4

The Journal of New York Folklore

Maritime Folklore of NYC’s Forgotten Borough

Foraging Apples and Pressing Cider in the Finger Lakes

“The Golden Arm” Performing the Folktale

Pageantry Puppets and Community Memory

The Market on Saturday Night From the Director From the Editor

Because of our state- in the Buffalo, NY, region. The project will My friend Jack Leadley wide mission, the train community tradition bearers and folk died April 4, 2018. He New York Folklore artists in the skills needed to be teaching art- was 90 years old. I’ve Society necessarily ists within the K–12 school setting and will known Jack for some works in collabora- introduce classroom educators to curricu- 30 years. We first met tion with a variety of lum connections, which can be made with during my first survey of partners. Our most folk and traditional arts. A workshop with folk artists working in the extensive partner has the nationally recognized consultant on folk Adirondacks. been the Folk Arts Program of the New arts in education, Amanda Dargan, will be Called “An Adirondack Legend,” Jack York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), conducted in partnership with the Erie and was a skilled woodsman, hunter, and trapper. with which we have partnered since 1990 to Niagara County BOCES on August 21 and He was also an artist, writer, and snowshoe provide professional development and tech- 22. Participating educators will have the op- and ski instructor. He made beautiful pack nical assistance to the folk arts community portunity to have a two-day artist residency baskets and rustic furniture. He flew a plane, within New York State. With NYSCA, New in their own classrooms as a follow-up ac- giving me my first aerial view of the Adiron- York Folklore conducts the annual New tivity. This program is supported by grants dack Park, saying how handy it was for a York Folk Arts Roundtable and an ongoing from NYSCA and the National Endowment quick trip to Maine to catch up with family Mentoring and Professional Development for the Arts, with plans to duplicate it in over a lobster dinner, and be back in time to Program. NYSCA is also a partner in an subsequent years. sleep in his own bed by nightfall. annual folk arts internship that is provided Probably, our most extensive partnership Jack’s love of the Adirondacks came early to graduate students in folklore, so that in 2018 is our joining with the American in life. In the 1930s his family drove up from they can gain on-the-job public folklore Folklore Society (AFS) and NYSCA to Staten Island to spend summers in a rented experience. co-chair the annual meeting of AFS. This cabin on Lake Pleasant in Speculator, New Since 2016, the New York Folklore So- annual conference draws hundreds of folk- York. The mountain air helped his father’s ciety has also partnered with the William lorists, oral historians, and cultural special- asthma. After serving in the Second World G. Pomeroy Foundation in approving the ists for four days of academic presentations, War, Jack returned to the mountains perma- placement of markers that designate specific workshops, forums, and professional devel- nently, marrying his wife Joan and joining a sites as important to folklore in New York opment. This year’s theme is “No Illusions, family with roots that traced back to 1794. State. In the past few years, more than 30 No Exclusions,” and it will be held October He opened Leadley’s Adirondack Sug- markers have been placed throughout the 17–20, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown arbush in 1949. He and his family tapped state, highlighting the role of “place” in Buffalo. We hope you’ll plan to join us there some 2500 maple trees each spring to make New York’s heritage. “Legends and Lore” as we showcase folklore and folklife, with a maple syrup to sell from the gift shop on recognizes the role of local legends and the special focus on New York State. Route 30, just north of Speculator. It is one folk stories of New York’s communities The New York Folklore Society remains of several buildings on the 115-acre Leadley through markers explaining the tales. For a membership organization, open to all. compound, along with immediate family more information, or to make a nomination, We hope to be in YOUR community soon. households, including those of Leadley’s please see the website: http://www.wgpfounda- three adult children who are eighth-generation.org/index.cfm/nys-historic-grant-programs/ Ellen McHale, PhD, Executive Director tion Lake Pleasant natives. legends-lore. New York Folklore Society Jack’s Adirondack pack baskets were sec- The New York Folklore Society is pleased [email protected] ond to none. He made them the old fashioned to enter into two new partnerships in 2018. www.nyfolklore.org way, cutting black ash trees, usually in the Local Learning: The National Network for spring when the bark peels off easily. He Folk Arts in Education has begun a program soaked and pounded every square inch of

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“… the making of art is an irrepressible force that is true of everyone.” —Greg Sharrow, Folklorist, Vermont Folklife Center

VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Contents Fall–Winter 2017

Features 3 Maritime Folklife of New York City’s Forgotten Borough by Naomi Sturm and Daniel Franklin Ward 11 In Memoriam: Jack H. Leadley, Sr. (1927–2018) 17 Fruit in the Forest 3 Foraging Apples and Pressing Cider in the Finger Lakes by Maria Elizabeth Kennedy 23 At Work in the Garden of Eat and Be Eaten by Chuck F. Tekula, Jr 24 “The Golden Arm”: Collecting and Performing the Folktale by Timothy Jennings 30 Pageantry Puppets, Community Memory, and Living Traditions: Extending the Reach of Cultural and Educational Institutions into Immigrant Communities by Kate Grow McCormick 38 In Memoriam: Gregory Sharrow (1950–2018) 40 The Market on Saturday Night by Dan Milner 17 41 Two Poems: Jack “Legs” Diamond and Portal by Shannon Cuthbert 42 Analysis and Intuition: Reflections on the Mystic Union of 24 Measure and Abandon in the Art of Figure Drawing by Stephen Alcorn Departments and Columns 12 Upstate by Dan Berggren 13 Poetry of Everyday Life by Steve Zeitlin 30 16 Good Spirits by Libby Tucker 29 Voices of New York by Libby Tucker Cover: The Warasila bay house survived Superstorm Sandy due to 35 ALN8BAL8MO: A Native Voice the use of helical piles and having a by Joseph Bruchac trap door in the floor, which allows water in, but keeps the house in From the Waterfront place during storms and hurricanes. 37 Photograph by Martha Cooper, by Nancy Solomon courtesy of Long Island Traditions. Read more in Nancy Solomon’s 39 Artist Spotlight From the Waterfront column, “In Harm’s Way” on p. 37.

Fall–WinterFall–Winter 2017,2017, VolumeVolume 43:43:3–4 3–4 1 1 From the Editor (continued) the log, causing the annual growth rings granite boulder formed the north wall and to loosen and separate. He then pulled the the back of an open fire pit. Inside, smoke splints off the full length of the log. These escaped through a small, covered wooden Fall–Winter 2017 · Volume 43: 3–4 he smoothed and cut into uniform strips, to tower on the roof. The two pole beds lining Acquisitions Editor Todd DeGarmo create the raw material used to weave the the walls of the 8 by 10-foot cabin were Copy Editor Patricia Mason basket. filled with fresh balsam. He welcomed Administrative Manager Laurie Longfield Design Mary Beth Malmsheimer Jack had carried a pack basket since visitors, including a special road trip from Printer Eastwood Litho the 1940s while running his traplines, and Glens Falls, as a part of our kids’ workshop began to make his own when quality baskets series on “Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties.” Editorial Board Todd DeGarmo, Chair. Gabrielle Berlinger, Sydney Hutchinson, were getting hard to find. He shared this Jack demonstrated his craft at our earliest Maria Kennedy, David Puglia, Puja Sahney, knowledge wholeheartedly with anyone. Adirondack folk festivals and children’s Joseph Sciorra, Emily Socolov, Nancy Solomon He’s noted as a strong supportive influence workshop series. He enjoyed these visits of many basketmakers, and I’ve found his with us and with other venues like Fort Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is published twice a year by the interviews as far away as Maine. For me, Klock, Hanford Mills, and the Adirondack New York Folklore Society, Inc. he breathed life into the old, discarded Museum. As he became more sought 129 Jay Street, Schenectady, NY 12305

pack basket hanging in the garage of my after, he began to limit these activities, as New York Folklore Society, Inc. childhood, owned by my stepfather, who, he recalled in a letter: “You and Crandall Executive Director Ellen McHale according to a family story, was carried Library have always been special as I Administration and Gallery Laurie Longfield Web Administrator Patti Mason in it by his own stepfather across a frozen started going away from my workshop to NYC Regional Representative Eileen Condon Saranac Lake. Jack carried his own young demonstrate my work.” But it was a two- Upstate Regional Representative Hannah Davis son in a pack basket of his making while edged sword. “Almost all my work is sold Voice (518) 346-7008 / Fax (518) 346-6617 hiking the woods near their home. on order…I don’t need more ‘exposure’. Website www.nyfolklore.org Jack also made rustic furniture. He is Working alone with no power tools limits Board of Directors known for reviving the Whitehouse chair, my production.” He came to prefer staying President Tom van Buren originally made by Lee Fountain, a local on his own property in the woods, allowing Vice President Julie Tay Treasurer John Braungard innkeeper in the late 19th century. The folks to come to him: “My workshop is Secretary Naomi Sturm chair has birch framing with woven seats of so complete for my production, I do not Gabrielle Berlinger, John Gleason, James Hall, black ash splints and was an early addition leave it much… July and August, there are Maria Kennedy, Wilfredo Morel, Gregory S. Shatan, Kay Turner to the Folklife Center’s Folk Art & Artist visitors here every day. I like to be here as Collection, available for view, along with people interested in my work are an added Advertisers: To inquire, please call the NYFS (518) 346-7008 or fax (518) 346-6617. his other work, on nyheritage.org. benefit to meet.” A Hamilton County destination was What an incredible joy it was to share an the bark shanty that Jack built back in afternoon with Jack in his own workshop Voices is available in Braille and recorded the woods of his family’s compound. back in the Hamilton County woods. versions. Call the NYFS at (518) 346-7008. These small cabins, now rare, were once A mini pack basket made by Jack was The New York Folklore Society is committed to commonly used by woodsmen, hunters, gifted to my family at the birth of my first providing services with integrity, in a manner that trappers, and fishermen in the backcountry son. Jack’s own son Rick carries on his conveys respect for the dignity of the individuals and communities the NYFS serves, as well as for their of the Adirondacks. He called it Camp dad’s role of maker of traditional rustic cultures, including ethnic, religious, occupational, and Balsam and dedicated it to the memory of furniture, and his daughter Lynn continues regional traditions. The programs and activities of the New York Folk- those “Adirondack pioneers who came here to make the pack baskets. lore Society, and the publication of Voices: The Journal of before us.” Jack was a kind-hearted man, so very New York Folklore, are made possible in part by funds Its design was based on a shanty built talented and generous with his time and his from the New York State Council on the Arts. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is indexed in by Jack’s wife’s great-grandfather, George knowledge. Indeed, he was an “Adirondack Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Music Index and Burton, at Little Moose Pond in the 1890s. Legend.” What an honor to have known abstracted in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. His shanty was framed with poles and him. Fare thee well, my good friend. Reprints of articles and items from Voices: The Journal covered with sheets of peeled bark. The Todd DeGarmo of New York Folklore are available from the NYFS: www. front door faced south to catch the winter nyfolklore.org/gallery/store/books.html#back or call (518) Voices Acquisitions Editor 346-7008 or fax (518) 346-6617. sun, and the west wall had a window Founding Director of the Folklife Center at ISSN 0361-204X covered with deer rawhide, diffusing a Crandall Public Library © 2018 by The New York Folklore Society, Inc. All warm amber light inside. A flat side of a [email protected] rights reserved.

2 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Maritime Folklife of New York City’s Forgotten Borough

BY NAOMI STURM AND DANIEL FRANKLIN WARD

“Our commitment to this project stems from our deep- amount of local involvement, enthusiasm, working, and interacting with New York Har- ly held belief that local knowledge both sustains com- and input from Staten Islanders of differing bor. munity and makes community interesting. Interesting generations, ethnic backgrounds, and occupa- We devoted the first half of 2016 to inten- communities thrive.” tions demonstrated the importance of wa- sive field research, training and utilizing a ded- —Naomi Sturm terfront and maritime heritage in their lives. icated team of local community scholars from The myriad of local businesses, industries, a range of occupations and backgrounds. We Introduction and venerable cultural institutions dedicated interviewed, observed, documented, and con- We, as folklorists, enjoy studying local tra- to maritime and waterfront material on the nected with a diverse cross-section of Staten ditions, developing programming within local island are further evidence of this fact. Island waterfront communities, occupational communities, and exploring their folklife. Be- Folklife, as we know, can best be defined groups, heritage sites, and cultural organiza- gun as a project of Staten Island Arts (SIA) as living traditions that are passed informally tions. This research resulted in a platform and Folklife, and expanding to include many part- through generations within communities. plan for diverse programming that was carried ners, the Working Waterfront initiative’s theme Whether it be the distinctive Staten Island ac- out in 2017–18. We hope that the training and and project mission were chosen by the com- cent, a ritual conch shell performance, a song program models put forth by this project will munity, for the community (see “About the with no author, a story from hurricane sur- result in a more sustainable future for mari- Initiative” on page 4). In November 2015, we vival, or knowledge of how to make chum to time folklife on Staten Island. began what would become an expansive case attract the best catch, folklife or living tradi- Staten Island’s Working Waterfront: Maritime study for public folklore’s role as a mecha- tions are the fabric of cultural heritage that Folklife of NYC’s Forgotten Borough seeks to raise nism for sustainable economic development. celebrates everyday life. The Working Water- both awareness and appreciation for Staten Is- Even prior to the start of the initiative, the front initiative highlights this folklife—living, land’s uniquely place-based maritime folklife,

The tugboat James E. Brown in New York Harbor. Photo courtesy of Naomi Sturm.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 3 on the north and west shores are suddenly facing large-scale commercial development from the New York [Ferris] Wheel, Empire Outlets, Lighthouse Point, and Bay Street Corridor, with gentrification as luxury hous- ing expands. There is a strong sense of need in these waterfront communities for a way to connect local people and the local folklife to the planning of these developments to ensure that Staten Island’s uniqueness is sustained.

The Assets “The Working Waterfront initiative draws attention to Staten Island as the last hurrah of a vanishing diversity of urban lifestyle that has characterized New York City for the past 100 years.” —Naomi Sturm

Vintage Staten Island Ferry t-shirt by Richmond Hood Company. Photo courtesy of Re- shan Hangiligedara. Staten Island’s waterfront heritage is uniquely place-based and authentic. Its historical importance as New York City’s last at a moment when cultural heritage tourism association with the Ferry, it is nearly un- continuously operating commercial water- has increasing potential for local communi- known to potential tourists. At over $50 bil- front is noteworthy. As the last surviving ties and industry. The multiyear Folklife se- lion last year, cultural tourism is among NYC’s and still vital working waterfront in what was ries complements a borough-wide focus on largest industries, yet nothing on Staten Island creative placemaking and waterfront revital- is even listed as a top tourist attraction. Of ization, highlighting Staten Island’s rich in- New York’s five boroughs, Staten Island ben- About the Initiative tergenerational and multicultural waterfront efits the least from tourism. Working Waterfront began as a project traditions. Programming took place at loca- of Staten Island Arts (SIA) Folklife, and tions throughout Staten Island and the great- Changing Maritime & Waterfront Economy the concept evolved to include a di- er New York Harbor and featured a range Although Staten Island’s working water- verse configuration of partners, ranging from the local (Museum of Maritime of authentic maritime traditions, including front has survived almost 300 years, there Navigation and Communication, At- crafts, music, foodways, narrative, and tradi- have always been economic and cultural lantic Salt Company, Isla Bonita, Sandy tional knowledge that make seaport working changes. These changes have usually been Hook Pilots Association, P.S. 59 “The life and history accessible. The programming progressive advances in technology or other Harborview School,” Moon Studios, is intended to “excite” both renovation and ways of increasing productivity or decreasing Flagship Brewery, Staten Island Museum, sustainability of public spaces utilized for overhead expenses. Today, the long ignored Noble Maritime Collection, Conference House), to citywide (City Lore, Center presentation. industrial waterfront economy appears to be for Traditional Music and Dance, Wa- facing an acute economic and social restruc- terfront Alliance, Tugster, Kottu House), The Issues Confronted turing, driven by such forces as sudden dein- and statewide (Long Island Traditions, Absence of Cultural Tourism dustrialization, impending gentrification, and New York State Canal Society) institu- Despite the fact that almost every New functional obsolescence in traditional water- tions. Research and programming was Yorker and New York visitor takes a ride front occupations. made possible, in part, by generous support from the New York State Regional aboard the Staten Island Ferry, the experience Economic Development Council, Gov- is largely limited to Statue of Liberty sight- Community Connection to Impending ernor Andrew Cuomo, New York State ings and the infamous on-deck “selfie.” Non- Development Council on the Arts, the National En- commuting passengers rarely venture beyond New York City’s last working waterfront is dowments for the Arts, NYC Depart- the St. George Ferry Terminal before return- changing. Port facilities on Staten Island are ment of Cultural Affairs, Councilwoman ing to Manhattan. Indeed, Staten Island’s expanding to accommodate the larger ships Debi Rose, Global Container Terminals NY, Con Edison, Lois & Richard Nicotra reputation as the “forgotten borough” and as that are now using the new Panama Canal. Foundation, NYC & Company, Stop & a cultural backwater means that, beyond its The long ignored waterfront communities Stor, and Northfield Bank.

4 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Post-storm wreckage along the Port Richmond waterfront. Photo courtesy of Naomi Sturm. once the greatest seaport in the United States, captains, engineers, fishermen, sailors, long- via their maritime-focused exhibitions. The the Island’s potential as a top destination for shoremen, brewers, and waterfront business Maritime Education and Recreation Corridor cultural heritage tourism is growing exponen- owners. (MERC) is planning for a large-scale renova- tially. Through professional documentation, tion of Ft. Wadsworth on the East Shore, interpretation, presentation, and promotion Folklife and the Working which may include a new maritime middle of its unique status, this initiative makes in- Waterfront school for NYC. roads in connecting the often forgotten bor- Working Waterfront complements Staten By tapping into a shared local vision and ough to the rest of NYC, its harbor, and other Island’s borough-wide focus on waterfront streamlining ideas, resources, and market- state waterways, including the Hudson River revitalization and creative placemaking proj- ing, Working Waterfront takes a multipronged and the Erie Canal. That the Staten Island ects. Staten Island Arts, the local arts council approach to cultural programming, which Ferry is one of the world’s most famous boats for the borough, is concurrently involved in builds pride and appreciation for our uniquely is icing on the cake. Future Culture, a partnership with the De- place-based maritime heritage. Through this The working waterfront’s traditional, water- sign Trust for Public Space that shapes and work, we hope to protect and make sustain- based knowledge and authentic maritime folk communicates a vision for culture in the able special “folk” qualities of life in Staten customs are carried by the borough’s great- public realm of Staten Island’s rapidly de- Island’s waterfront communities and busi- est asset. These are the folk tradition bearers veloping North Shore waterfront. Empire ness districts. We believe that the very same from, among others, the following cultur- Outlets, Ironstate Investments, and the New authentic qualities that make a community ally rich ethnic and occupational groups: Sri York Wheel are engaged in beautification unique can also make it a magnet for cultural Lankan, Sierra Leonean, Ghanaian, African and construction in St. George. The Noble heritage tourism, not to mention a highly at- American, Puerto Rican, Turkish, Egyptian, Maritime Collection, Staten Island Museum, tractive place to live and work. Folklife holds Southern Italian, Irish and Anglo-Ameri- and National Lighthouse Museum regularly great potential as a holistic activator of posi- can, Mexican, and maritime pilots, tugboat share knowledge and produce programming tive economic development.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 5 Our Model The Fellows’ unique life experiences in- important to (1) conduct deep, long-term We developed Staten Island’s Working Water- formed their research and participation in fieldwork that adequately identifies commu- front: Maritime Folklife of New York City’s For- the project. They worked alongside Naomi nity and aesthetic preferences; and (2) pilot gotten Borough with five primary objectives in Sturm (SIA Folklorist at the time), to conduct varied interdisciplinary programming to “test mind: interviews, AV documentation, community the waters” (pun intended for this project) to (1) To establish authentic local folklife as outreach, and participant observation, while see what sticks. It is often impossible to know a sustainable magnet for heritage tourism for weighing in on the initiative’s overall devel- which program structures will work most ef- Staten Island; opment and deliverables. Each Fellow also fectively and be the most popular within a (2) To train and employ local community published their research and debuted creative given demographic, without a proper test run folklife scholars to work in the growing cul- material (photography, design, installation, and feedback. In the case of Working Water- tural sector; music, and live presentation) via the project. front, we produced programs in the following (3) To support and sustain the livelihoods SIA plans to continue this program in an areas, as part of the overall project: exhibi- of maritime tradition bearers; effort to empower and prepare community tion; film screenings; history harvests (sto- (4) To connect local folk artists to future members for jobs in the growing cultural sec- rytelling); multimedia installations; foodways developments like those surrounding the tor, and we believe that it is a replicable pro- demonstrations; site tours; concerts; festival New York Wheel, real estate, and shipping via gram component for any folklife department. collaborations; themed events; community the newly enlarged Panama Canal; and Doing fieldwork from the roots up, telling awards; school-based curriculums and edu- (5) To enhance visibility for local water- stories from the inside out, and encouraging cational programs; publications; and material front business and historic institutions. self-presentation when developing public pro- production. Beyond the execution of a wide-ranging gramming is central to the sustainability, rele- In this section, we provide several exam- and comprehensive cultural program, it is vance, and social consciousness of our field. It ples of the diverse, interdisciplinary, and in- through the achievement of these objectives is increasingly important that we find ways to teractive programming that comprised Staten that we now propose a model for putting highlight and legitimize local scholarship and Island’s Working Waterfront: Maritime Folklife of public folklore “to use” (Owen Jones 1994) in present local perspectives and cultural contri- New York City’s Forgotten Borough. sustainable economic development initiatives. butions, with less of a top-down filter. Exhibition—“Memories Hold” was an interactive exhibit in the SIA Culture Lounge at Pillars of Our Approach Programming for Cultural Sustainability the St. George Ferry Terminal. The opening Workforce Development and Local Scholar- In order to develop high quality, self- reception for “Memories Hold” also served ship sustaining folklife programs, we believe it is as the official launch of ourWorking Waterfront Folklife Fellows Program—We pilot- ed an intensive training and advisement in folklife field research and program design with four local “community scholars” from various ethnic and generational orientations, each representing a different waterfront community: Sachindara Navinna—Sri Lankan Amer- ican traditional dancer and researcher of water-based Sri Lankan traditions. Bob Wright—Local songster and fourth- generation Staten Islander, hailing from a maritime family. Researcher of local waterfront history, occupational folklore, and maritime musical traditions. Lina Montoya—Colombian-born public artist and graphic designer. Documenter of heritage sites, festival liaison, and project col- lateral. Carl Gallagher—Musician, researcher of maritime occupational folklore, and art han- Will Van Dorp and Ed Fanuzzi discuss the Arthur Kill ship graveyard as part of a film series dling/exhibition construction. in the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Photo courtesy of Naomi Sturm.

6 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore also served as the theater for a film and discussion series and a backdrop for three “history harvest” workshops. Festival Partnerships—“Illuminating the Harbor: Lights, Lanterns & Lyricists of our Working Waterfront” was a fully curated exhibit, workshop, and performance loop at SIA’s biannual Lumen Festival at Atlantic Salt Company. As a collaboration between the Folklife Program and partners that included City Lore, 50/50 Skate Park, the Wa- hoo Skiffle Crazies, Harbortown, Brooklyn Arts Council teaching artist Aeilushi Mistry, and the South Asian Cultural Preservation & Educational Center, it presented a uniquely abstract, interdisciplinary, and interactive waterfront folklife installation, complete with Folklife Fellow Sachindara Navinna demonstrates Sri Lankan conch shell traditions at the tales of the Staten Island Ferry, songs of the 2017 Isla Bonita Festival. Photo courtesy of Reshan Hangiligedara. harbor, and South Asian lantern ceremonies adapted to the NYC shoreline. initiative. Through archival images, documen- throughout the decades; and a wide variety “IL-LUMEN8-ing the Working Wa- tary photography, and sound recordings; the of maritime artifacts, the exhibit explored terfront” was a collaboration with Folklife personal narratives of Staten Islanders and individual and collective memories through Fellow Lina Montoya’s Isla Bonita Festival in accounts from tugboat crew members, long- three broad themes: Storms & the Sea, Gen- Faber Park along the Port Richmond Water- shoremen, sailors, and maritime engineers erations of Maritime Occupation, and, Water- front. We curated a pop-up exhibit and fes- lore & Material Culture. A continuous screen- tival booth that included ephemera, media Folklife and Economic ing of a narrative-based documentary about arts, and live demos, ranging from traditional Development superstorm Sandy and other natural disasters Morse Code and Sri Lankan conch shell tradi- brought the experience full circle. The exhibit tions to skateboarding and surf rock. Economic development has tradition- ally been left to planners who are simply trying to get a job done. Their ideas are tried and true, and that is why every place you visit is beginning to look like Any- place, USA. The new development plans for Staten Island were promising more of the same. We felt that local folklife could be incorporated into development planning to help hold back the march toward sameness, while also helping to make waterfront traditions more sustainable. In our preliminary research, we could not find any good examples of local folklife as a consideration in development planning. What we did find was that Staten Island had not shared in the growth of the booming tourism industry in New York City. It seemed to us that the Working Wa- terfront held great potential as a magnet for cultural heritage tourism. We submitted a proposal to the Regional Economic Development Committee for funding of a planning grant. The committee saw the potential and funded the planning of our ini- Samir Farag and his Museum of Maritime Navigation and Communication 2017. Photo tiative and later, funded the project itself. courtesy of Reshan Hangiligedara.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 7 School-based Folklife Education Working Waterfront at P.S. 59 was a twice weekly, after-school folklife residency program for grades 2–3, with additional professional development for teachers that was focused on the history, cultural heritage, occupational traditions, and changing nature of Staten Island’s working waterfront. The three-unit curricu- lum ran concurrently with P.S. 59’s Waterfront Harbor Unit and emphasized social studies knowledge best understood via local maritime professions, storytelling, and artistic traditions associated with waterfront life.

Long-term Impact The long-term impacts of the Working Wa- terfront initiative can or will be seen in a number of areas. First, and most obvious, will be ongoing waterfront folklife programming on Staten Island at venues such as Atlantic Salt, Bill Wright (uncle to Folklife Fellow Bob Wright) aboard his boat The Amigos in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of Naomi Sturm, from Bob Wright’s personal collection. Flagship Brewery, Staten Island Museum, Museum of Maritime Navigation and Com- Public Program Series living through storms past on the island, as munication, Global Container Terminals NY, An important aspect of Working Waterfront well as live presentations on different forms Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Conference was our flagship program series that included: of water-based natural disaster preparedness, House, Urby, and the New Dorp Moravian Saltlore Fest! at Atlantic Salt Company, from Sri Lankan water purification rituals, Church, where we presented our initial pro- featuring a narrated site tour by Terminal West African libations, and folktales to coastal gramming. Additionally, both LUMEN and Manager Brian DeForest, a salty foodways storm prep. Isla Bonita will continue to feature mari- demonstration, live presentations by maritime folklife as a core theme in their annual time professionals, and a sharing about the Working Waterfront initiative via our descriptive report. Brewing Up Staten Island featuring a narrated site tour of the Staten Island family- owned harborside Flagship Brewery, interpre- tive demos on their folklife-inspired branding process and oysterfest, and a tasting and un- veiling of their Oyster Stout, created collab- oratively with this initiative. Waters at Play, a water-based recreation and music festival along the Stapleton waterfront that included live presentations on fishing traditions and fish-based foodways from different Staten Island ethnic communities (Sierra Leonean, Sri Lankan, and Italian), waterfront sports, nautical knot tying, and a illu- minated nighttime concert featuring seafaring music by NYC-based artists from Sri Lanka, India, Puerto Rico, and Staten Island. Staten Island Storms about Staten Island Fifth-generation Sandy Hook Pilot Tom Ferrie talks shop and family history at the 2017 weatherlore, featuring a story circle about Saltlore Fest! Photo courtesy of Reshan Hangiligedara.

8 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore festivals. Community conversations about such topics as storm preparedness will continue. Another important byproduct of this work was the establishment of a Staten Island Heritage Award by Staten Island Arts Folklife, which will continue annually. This award, given to a deserving individual or entity for a lifetime of superior stewardship of Staten Island’s living traditions, was awarded to Mr. Samir Farag (maritime engineer and founder of the Museum of Maritime Navigation and Communication) in 2017. Given the department’s recent orientation, additional awards will be made in the areas of waterfront tradition and maritime knowledge. Local community discussion on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath five years later. Photo Although still in the beginning phase, courtesy of Reshan Hangiligedara. this outgrowth of annual waterfront folklife programming positively impacts new tour- of replicable programs that allow them to tap The project is now being taken on by several ism borough-wide. Evidence is found in the into new cultural markets. Moreover, the Ca- organizations, including City Lore, Long Is- decision to include project-based attractions nal Society of New York State saw this proj- land Traditions, and the Waterfront Alliance, in the borough president’s “Tourism Ready” ect as a compelling reason to bring the 2018 working together to generate more interest in campaign and feedback from our partner in- New York State Canals Conference to Staten maritime folklife. stitutions indicating that participation in the Island and New York Harbor. Our expecta- project increased their visitorship and clients tion is that the groundwork we laid for the Conclusion: “Putting overall. In particular, the Flagship Brewery Working Waterfront will provide a foundation Folklore to Use” and Museum of Maritime Navigation and for other organizations to promote the Work- In planning the Working Waterfront: Mari- Communication noted that working on this ing Waterfront as an authentic and unique at- time Folklife of NYC’s Forgotten Borough, we initiative provided them with a toolkit and set traction in its own right. had a strong interest in documenting the vi- Our groundbreaking work in education, tal maritime folklife of Staten Island in the New York State Canal through the P.S. 59 after-school program and 21st century. The folklife we encountered Conference in training cultural workers via our Folklife was manifested in many forms, ranging from Fellows program, provides models and re- material objects to specific hand skills to tra- One measure of economic impact is sources that will be valuable to future his- ditional foodways to narrative performance. how many people can be attracted to tory, culture, and STEM (science, technology, Ultimately, what interested us most were the a place to spend their money. From the engineering, and mathematics) education in stories that were contained in and carried by a start, we made it a goal to attract a conference to Staten Island. The New York Staten Island’s schools. hand-created boat fender or a fisherman’s old State Canal Conference convenes every Possibly the the most important impact of manual chum grinder or a deckhand’s master- two years at a different port or historic the Working Waterfront initiative at this pivotal ful performance of marlinspike seamanship site along the state’s numerous water- moment is its influence in the area of public or an ancient ballad sung about a long forgot- ways. The eight-year long bicentennial of policy and regional creative decision-making. ten mishap in the harbor. the Erie Canal kicked off in 2017. The Erie On Staten Island, the protection and encour- It seemed easy enough, and certainly Canal connected New York Harbor to the Great Lakes and the interior of the agement of waterfront folklife has become a worthwhile, to collect these stories. We real- continent. We learned that the New York central discussion promoted by Future Cul- ized, however, that the cultural landscape was Canals Conference had never met in New ture and others. The folklife element has now about to meet a “storm surge” of change in York Harbor, so we submitted a proposal also been included in the Department of Cul- the form of new kinds of port operations, to bring the conference to Staten Island. tural Affairs (DCA) Cultural Plan and state- large-scale gentrification, and destination The competition was stiff, but the Working wide advocacy. consumerism. Could the local folk traditions Waterfront sold itself. The conference, with its theme of “One Water,” will take place One exciting development is that we are that we are documenting survive? Should they October 14–16, 2018, and will showcase expanding the geographical footprint of survive? the folklife of Staten Island’s working Staten Island’s Working Waterfront model to Beyond simple documentation, our pur- waterfront. cover the entire New York maritime region. pose soon became to first demonstrate that

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 9 Group photo of the 2017 Saltlore Fest! at Atlantic Salt. Photo courtesy of Reshan Hangiligedara.

local folklife is what makes Staten Island unique and that this uniqueness enhances life Naomi Sturm is a folklorist and ethnomusicologist with expertise in on the Island. Next, we sought to advocate expressive culture of the Americas, maritime for and set in motion effective means to sus- and water-based folklore, and the New York City immigrant experience. Presently, she tain the waterfront tradition bearers, matching is the Director of Public Programs for the traditional knowledge and art forms with new Center for Traditional Music and Dance and a Visiting Fellow in the Music Department economic drivers for their sustainability (At- at the New School for Social Research. She kinson 1994, 240–7). This project succeeded is also the founding Executive Director of Los Herederos, a media arts organization in attracting broad attention to the folklife of dedicated to inheriting culture in the digital the working waterfront and enabling a type age. Sturm holds a MA in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University. Her public sector work, media publications, and writing deal extensively with: (1) issues of of “responsible tourism” (Dettmer 1994, ethnic identity, political economy, and cultural sustainability in NYC; (2) transmedia 192–7) that invigorates local cultural activity storytelling and documentation; and (3) models for holistic economic development and sustains practitioners. We look forward to through cultural tourism. Formerly the Director of Folklife at Staten Island Arts, Sturm cofounded and designed Staten Island’s Working Waterfront: Maritime Folklife of New building on the foundation of this work with York City’s Forgotten Borough. Sturm has also worked for Pachamama Peruvian Arts, a growing consortium of local and statewide City Lore, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and as a festival presenter for the National Council on the Traditional Arts. She is the cofounder of the partners and further solidifying Staten Island’s Quechua Collective of NY (formerly the NY Quechua Initiative) and regularly consults place in NYC’s cultural economy. on the design and production of self-sustaining community work, media projects, and other folklife-related activities with organizations across the country. She is the Board Secretary for the New York Folklore Society. Photo by Alex Bustamante, courtesy of Bibliography the author. Atkinson, Patricia. 1994. In Putting Folklore to Daniel Franklin Ward is an independent folklorist, based Use. Lexington: The University Press of in Syracuse, where he is chair of the city’s Public Art Commission. A member of the board of the Canal Kentucky. Society of New York State, he serves as education Dettmer, Elke.1994. “Moving Toward Re- curator for the Society’s newly opened Old Erie Canal sponsible Tourism: A Role for Folklore.” Heritage Park at Port Byron. He holds a Master’s degree from the Cooperstown Graduate Program and In Putting Folklore to Use, edited by Michael a PhD in American Culture from Bowling Green. For Owen Jones, 187–97. Lexington: The Uni- 23 years, Dr. Ward served as Regional Public Folklorist for Central New York. He partnered with Naomi Sturm versity Press of Kentucky. on the Working Waterfront project from its inception. Owen Jones, Michael, ed. 1994. Putting Folk- During summer 2017, he and co-producer, Steve Zeitlin, traveled by canal boat from Brooklyn to Buffalo, lore to Use. Lexington: The University Press screening their documentary Boom and Bust: America’s of Kentucky. Journey on the Erie Canal and presenting musicians and storytellers in canal ports, large and small. Dr. Ward is a past president of the New York Folklore Society and a regular contributor to Voices. Photo courtesy of the author.

10 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore In Memoriam: Jack H. Leadley, Sr. (1927–2018)

Jack Leadley—An Adirondack Legend. Framed giclée print on canvas, signed and numbered from an original, 2007. Paintings by Rhea, [email protected], 518-774-5554.

Jack Leadley, Sr., maker of Adirondack Pack Baskets, Speculator, Hamilton County, NY. Photograph by Tim Davis, for the program booklet, Festival of the Adirondacks: Celebrating Cultural Traditions (edited by Todd DeGarmo, Crandall Library, 1990).

Right: Rustic Furniture: Whitehouse Chair by Jack Leadley. Folk Art & Artist Collection, Crandall Public Library.

Below: Jack Leadley demonstrating his craft at the Festival of the Adirondacks, September 15, 1990, hosted by Crandall Public Library in City Park, Glens Falls, New York. Photograph Camp Balsam, a bark shanty, built by Jack Leadley on his property in by Todd DeGarmo. Speculator, New York. October 15, 1994. Photograph by Todd DeGarmo.

Left: Miniature Adirondack Pack Basket by Jack Leadley, 1990. Gift to Dylan DeGarmo at his birth. Private Collection.

“Leadley’s Adirondack Sugarbush 1949” logo by Jack Leadley.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 11 Hunting for a Song BY DAN BERGGREN

Living on the edge of a village, one can experi- then bobbed its head down to check out the Snowshoe rabbit, your trail is narrow. ence lots of critters exploring backyards. Here, in ground while keeping its eye on me. I stood still, Can you beat the speed of an arrow? Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and

UPSTATE Saratoga County, I’ve seen squirrels, chipmunks, so as not to spook it. you’ll wind up in a stew. rabbits, and the occasional skunk foraging for That scene, along with the blackberry-pick- grubs or worms. Growing up in the Adirondacks, ing bear, probably lasted no longer than a few Hey red fox, you sly old thing, I was used to all sorts of wildlife wandering freely seconds, but they are preserved in my memory Can’t you hear them hound dogs sing? between state land and our family farm. It was as lasting moments of wonder. When I was old Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and fairly common to watch deer, bear, woodchucks, enough to get a hunting license, I loved the ex- you’ll wind up in a stew. and porcupines in the apple orchard, and ruffed citement of tracking, but shooting one of these grouse, snowshoe rabbits, coyotes, and foxes a creatures had no appeal at all. That’s probably Back home, while the boys were taking a little further away in the fields. what prepared me for writing “Johnny Hunter.” well-deserved nap after our outing, stories of My mother, who had grown up on that farm, One autumn while walking in the woods flatlander hunting accidents came to mind, was willing to let the wild animals take a por- with my nephews, we made up a song. I told along with a moral to the story. tion of the harvest, but she also wanted her fair them that during hunting season it was best to Old moo cow that means you, too. share of the apples and berries. I did, too, espe- wear a red or some other bright-colored jacket They got the goat and they’ll get you. cially if I was ever going to enjoy another apple and to make some human sounds, so hunters Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and pie, blueberry muffin, or a taste of strawberry would not mistake us for wildlife. Just then, we you’ll wind up in a stew. jam again. One August when I was seven or surprised a grouse and as it took off, its wings eight years old, my mother sent me out to pick a-drumming gave us a surprise in return. Whenever you’re in the woods alone, wild blackberries. On that hot and still summer Sing this song with hearty tone, or Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and afternoon, I found a good crop growing next Partridge, partridge you’d better stop drumming. you’ll wind up in a stew. to a juniper bush that must have measured 15 Look behind you, who’s that coming? feet across. Standing in one spot, I could pick Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and My nephews are now grown men with chil- and pick and . . . suddenly, I noticed I wasn’t you’ll wind up in a stew. dren of their own. They know Johnny Hunter, the only one getting berries. On the far side of even though they may not remember that par- And so the impromptu song began, in the that bush was a black bear. I’d seen bear before ticular fall day when we walked and talked, sing- oral tradition of thousands of songs—long be- but never so close. It might have been because ing and making up a song the old-fashioned fore the Internet, television and radio, before I was downwind of the bear, or maybe it was way. A few years ago I was visiting an elemen- jukeboxes, record players, and sheet music— so focused on its own technique for freeing the tary school to sing with children and introduce when all music was folk music; when the only berries that it ignored me. Its mouth went over them to songwriting, when a young teacher said way to share a song was in real time, and the each thorny branch; then, drawing its head back something that made me smile and feel espe- only method to learn it was by ear. Variations gingerly, let the ripe ones fall into its mouth be- cially happy: “Johnny Hunter—that’s a tradi- can creep in, depending on memory, geography, fore releasing the branch. I stood there dumb- tional song, isn’t it?” founded, remembering my parents’ advice and other influences, or the urge to modify the about bears: don’t run, and don’t get between song to a suit a new situation. My childhood memories kicked into gear. a mother and its cub. Still ignoring me, the bear Dan Berggren’s turned, walked to another bush, and began its roots are firmly in Old black bear you’d better not wait. process again. Slowly, I took a few steps back- the Adirondacks, but If I were you, I’d hibernate. his music has taken wards while keeping my eye on the bear. When Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and him throughout the I felt I was a safe distance away, I turned and you’ll wind up in a stew. United States and abroad. Dan has walked as quickly and quietly as I could. worked in the woods Several years later, I had another close en- White-tailed deer, you’re young and strong, with a forest ranger But if you’re not fast, you won’t have long. and surveyor, was counter that sticks in my memory. Coming Johnny Hunter will find you quick, and a radio producer in Europe, professor of around the barnyard corner, I found myself audio and radio studies at SUNY Fredonia, you’ll wind up in a stew. and owner of Sleeping Giant Records. An face to face with a deer. Without forethought, award-winning musician and educator, I started speaking to the doe, as one would There we were the three of us in the woods Dan is also a tradition-based songsmith who writes with honesty, humor, and to a dog. “Hey, how you doing? What are you singing to every animal. My nephews and I were a strong sense of place. Visit www. looking for, hmm? Something good to eat?” It on a roll, and there was no stopping us in our berggrenfolk.com to learn more about Dan raised an ear, turned its head this way and that, oral tradition experiment. and his music. Photo by Jessica Riehl.

12 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore POETRY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

The Bell Tolls for Ringling BY STEVE ZEITLIN

This past spring, I bought two tickets to the one friend said to me, “Ringling’s demise is ear / Hey son, you want to try the big top?” last show of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum something like the Catholic Church shutting Years ago, I used a circus metaphor to & Bailey Circus, scheduled for May 21, 2017, down.” write about a crazy and wonderful girlfriend: in Uniondale, New York. The iconic three- I attended a three-ring circus once in “Rosemary, lioness of rare beauty / struts ring circus, mother of all American circuses, my childhood. My uncle Walter took my across her cage / scratching with her claws was closing its show after 146 years. brother and me to Ringling sometime in / rattling her cage! / Yet she pats with velvet At the time, my friend, the circus historian the early 1950s, and I can still remember paws / the keeper of the neurotic woman / Richard Flint, was busy researching a walking through its legendary sideshow who puts his head between her jaws.” Not book commissioned by Ringling Bros. to tent, past giants and fat ladies, and seeing just poets, but all of us need the circus as a commemorate the history of the famed the elephants lined up as an attraction. world apart, a world of daring, extravagance, circus for its 150th anniversary in 2021. That one unforgettable visit sparked my and wonder. Ringling didn’t make it that far. The circus imagination. You need to see the circus only A few weeks after the final Ringling Bros. closed prematurely on the book. once to experience its magic—and you can’t show closed, the Smithsonian Institution “People call it the Greatest Show on experience it on your phone. Once the images featured circus arts as part of its Folklife Earth,” Richard told me, “but it was literally of the circus and the sideshow entered Festival on the National Mall, in Washington, the Greatest Show on Earth.” A large, our lived experience, they emblazoned our DC. Among the performers were members profitable circus, Ringling was able to deliver imaginations with unforgettable imagery. of a number of youth circuses and grandeur that no other show could match. The circus serves as a powerful metaphor small circuses, along with a few veteran, Not just horses, acrobats, and clowns. for the poetry of everyday life. It often multigenerational performers, including Not only numerous elephants, but lavish harbors its own elevated language: circus Dolly Jacobs who just two years earlier won a costumes, state-of-the-art lighting, three impresario Milton Bartok, for example, National Heritage Award from the National rings, five weeks of rehearsals, Broadway pointed his audiences’ attention to the Endowment for the Arts for her career as choreographers to help train a bevy of aerialists not at the “top of the big top” an aerialist with Ringling Bros. and other showgirls and clowns, original music but to the “lofty recesses of the big top.” circuses. From June 29 to July 9, visitors to composed for Ringling each season. As The circus has kindled the imaginations of the festival could see aerial acts, jugglers, countless writers, poets, tightrope walkers, and trapeze artists, as well and musicians. In his poem as attend panels on circus lingo and circus “The Circus Animals’ life. This magnificent array of circuses Desertion,” William Butler included the Hebei Golden Eagle Acrobatic Yeats wrote: “Winter Troupe, which features two dozen of China’s and summer till old age top acrobats; UniverSoul Circus, which is a began / My circus animals unique celebration of urban pop culture; were all on show, / Those the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, based in New stilted boys, that burnished York City; and a number of youth circuses, chariot, / Lion and woman including Sailor Circus Academy from and the Lord knows what.” Sarasota, Florida. In contrast to the Ringling In his song “Wild Billy’s Bros.’ demise, these were ten banner days for Circus Story” Bruce circuses in the nation’s capital. Springsteen sings of a circus I attended the festival, and a number of where “the flyin’ Zambinis the participants suggested that Ringling watch Margarita do her Bros.’ closing was just the end of an era, a neck twist” and where the business decision by a circus too big and “circus boy dances like a unwieldy to survive (which does not appear monkey on barbed wire” to have been the case). One person likened it and “the Ferris wheel to a large oak tree that came down, but that turns and turns like it ain’t now would allow the underbrush to grow— ever gonna stop / And the suggesting that the small youth circuses Ringling Bros. image with circus performer Gleice Gillet on circus boss leans over and sprouting across the United States would the lead elephant. Courtesy of Ringling Bros. whispers in the little boy’s now be able to blossom.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 13 which purported to depict the disputed mistreatment of elephants, in the faces of children and families waiting to enter the big top. The Humane Society of the United States and other groups sued Ringling Bros. for its alleged mistreatment of elephants, but in 2014, their suit was thrown out by the judge when it turned out the groups had paid a low-level elephant groomer to bring the suit, claiming that the mistreatment hurt his personal relationship with the elephants. Despite losing the battle, the protesters, and the PR nightmare they created ultimately forced Ringling Bros. to retire the circus elephants to a preserve in Florida. Without the legendary elephants, the circus seemed doomed to fail, and its demise came a year The Hebei Golden Eagle Acrobatic Troupe performs in the Open-air Ring at the 2017 later. The Humane Society lost its legal battle Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Photograph by Art Pittman. Courtesy of the Ralph Rinzler against Ringling Bros. but won the war; Folklife Archive and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution. children of all ages lost. The Ringling Bros.’ elephants had been part The Circus Historical Society convened One of the circus participants said if of New York City folklore for generations. in the same hotel where the Smithsonian indeed animals had been allowed, protesters When the show was up in Madison Square participants were housed; it promised the from People for the Ethical Treatment Garden, the elephants paraded from the Greatest Convention on Earth for 2017! The of Animals (PETA) would have lined the circus train through the Lincoln Tunnel with meeting showcased a film about renowned walkways to add controversy to the event, pomp and circumstance, often paying the tiger trainer Mabel Stark (December 10, generate publicity, and put a damper on the tolls with great fanfare. New Yorkers lined 1889–April 20, 1968). The film depicted times occasion. The circus, they suggested, is a the streets in the middle of the night to when she had been mauled, her heroism, perfect target for PETA’s cause, because it watch the procession. In a number of small and her love for the tigers. Circus historian guarantees publicity. circuses, the elephants would assist with Charles Taylor met Mabel Stark when he PETA and other animal rights groups did hoisting the tents and pulling the stakes to was 18 years old. He was, he said, “naive and picket Ringling Bros.’ performances for a take them down. Elephants hearkened back precocious enough to ask her why she had so number of years, holding up graphic signs, to the beginning of Western civilization, many wrinkles. She sweetly answered, ‘Why, dear, they are all places where I have been bit by lions or tigers. There is not a square inch on my body that doesn’t have a scar!’” Legendary juggler and Big Apple Circus performer Hovey Burgess told me that the youth circuses on the National Mall were, to use his crazy pun, a “stark” contrast to the film about Mabel Stark. No animals—no lions, no tigers, no horses, no animals at all—were featured in the circus program. A sign at the festival read, “major compliance regulations and costs relating to sanitation, safety, and welfare (both human and animal) eliminated the presentation of exotic animals. Nonetheless, several sessions in the Circus Stories tent will discuss the role of animals in the circus.”

14 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore shout the loudest prevail.” I don’t believe there is any point in debating the impossible question of whether elephants are happier in their natural habitats in Africa and Asia (where they are frequently killed for their ivory tusks), or in the zoo, or the circus. I’ll leave it to others to ask the elephants that question, but who is there to raise a whisper in honor of the collective creative genius that created the modern day circus and the role it plays in sparking our imaginations. The circus in all its glory is one of humanity’s great imaginative constructs—like the opera or the sonnet. And the circus, I believe, needs to be experienced in its fullness, with animals and acrobats and clowns; those diverse attractions have defined the circus from ancient India to the early 19th-century horses he saw at the circus were actually since Philip Astley, an English cavalry officer, circuses. Until recently, at the Blessing of unicorns. He told New York Times reporters brought the three together to create the first the Animals at the Cathedral of Saint John Sarah Maslin Nir and Nate Schweber that circus in his London amphitheater in 1770; the Divine in New York, Episcopal priests the world is losing “a place of wonder.”1 The without that combination of elements, it’s an sometimes paraded an elephant in, at least athletic youth circuses cropping up across opera without the music. once led by Gunther Gebel-Williams, the country are healthy and wonderful—they My wife Amanda and I never did get to Ringling’s star animal trainer in the 1970s are a form of gymnastics in which young see the last show of the Ringling Bros. and and 1980s. acrobats await the audience’s applause rather Barnum & Bailey Circus. We had a family The animals, clowns, and aerialists, than the judges’ scores; they are a place emergency—so two seats were still available. which make up the circus, free the human for retired circus performers to teach; they Here’s hoping that two curious children, imagination to consider the glorious support many thousands of underserved their eyes filled with wonder, snuck under possibilities of how the body moves, how young people; they are a boon to physical the big top and found those seats for the animals can be trained, how human beings fitness and youth camaraderie. But no one last performance of the Greatest Show can choose to live dangerously, and how runs away to join a youth circus. on Earth—and that children everywhere human beings interact with the natural Cruelty to animals is a serious offense. No will always have the chance to see clowns, world. As a child, ringmaster Johnathan Lee one questions that. As Richard Flint put it: acrobats, tightrope walkers, tigers, and Iverson recalls that he thought the festooned “In this day and age, those who insistently elephants gallivanting under “the lofty recesses of the big top.”

NOTE 1Nir, Sarah Maslin, and Nate Schweber. 2017. “After 146 Years, Ringling Brothers Circus Takes Its Final Bow.” New York Times, May 21.

Please email your thoughts, stories, and responses about the poetic side of life to . Steve Zeitlin is the Founding Director of City Lore. He is the author of The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the The artist Philomena Marano drew this picture of the circus after seeing it, when five years Art of Awareness (Cornell University Press, old. Courtesy of the artist. 2016).

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 15 Shadow People BY LIBBY TUCKER

Many supernatural figures in ghost stories Both of these stories suggest that shadow One YouTube video of the Rolling Hills are friendly and kind. There are, however, people are disruptive and dangerous. Their Asylum begins with a view of a long, violet- certain supernatural beings that defy the usual emphasis on negativity fits Carl Jung’s shadow hued corridor with peeling paint on its walls. categories and make observers’ hair stand on archetype, which represents the socially “Is anybody here?” the videomaker’s voice end. Unlike familiar, easily recognizable spirits, unacceptable impulses that people may feel inquires. After a moment, there are two these are the strange, elusive beings known as while leading orderly, admirable lives. Jung footsteps and then—so fast that you can shadow people. argues that all of us have a shadow self, whether hardly see it—a shadowy blur moves from

GOOD SPIRITS According to folk tradition, you are most or not we choose to follow it. No matter how the right to the left of the screen. This is one likely to see shadow people from the corner of kindly and courteously we behave, our shadow of the shadow people of the famous East your eye. If you look straight ahead, you will selves may urge us to pull fire alarms in public Wing. Although one might ask whether the never spot them. But if you pay attention to buildings, tell inappropriate jokes at parties, videomaker added this moving image, the your peripheral vision, you may see something and cut other people off on the highway. Like image certainly looks eerie. I am not sure startling begin to appear. As you walk along, the four rowdy guys in the popular movie, The how comfortable it would feel to stand in that doing ordinary things, a shadow person may Hangover (2009), shadow selves are exciting, but corridor, waiting for such a shadow to pass by. suddenly cross your path. troubling and unsafe companions. Sometimes images of shadow people gain Some paranormal enthusiasts insist that While some stories about shadow people fit a wide audience through YouTube videos. In shadow people get humans’ attention while Jung’s concept of the shadow self, others told the summer of 2016, a video of a dozen or traveling between dimensions. Some think that in New York State do not emphasize negativity. more shadow people in the clouds above New shadow people feel drawn to humans who In Potsdam, for example, some people have York City caused a brief uproar. What was this feel sad and are grieving the loss of a loved reported seeing a shadowy man who wears a shadowy host of people in the sky? Could it be one; others believe that these travelers simply top hat. His tall, imposing hat reminds us of the coming of the last judgment, or could it be want to get where they are going. The first of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when upper the spirits of people who died on September these two possibilities does not seem to match class American men dressed quite formally. 11, 2001? Alternatively, could it just be an what we find in oral tradition. In ghost stories, President Abraham Lincoln, for example, unusual assortment of clouds, enhanced by shadow people do not seem to be especially often wore a top hat. Why would a man Photoshop? Anyone who enjoys both gazing empathetic or kind; on the contrary, they tend wearing a hat of this kind suddenly appear at clouds and listening to stories about shadow to be enigmatic, silent, and even threatening. and then disappear? There seems to be no people can have a good time watching this A few years ago, a freshman in one of my compelling reason; however, like other ghost video, trying to discern faces in the shadowy folklore classes told me about a terrifying, stories, this one tells us that the past can break crowd. middle-of-the-night encounter he had into the present with very little warning. It is tempting to wonder whether we experienced in our campus’s Nature Preserve. A more specific reason for a shadow person might become shadow people ourselves, “I was climbing a hill,” he told me, “when I to appear is to help visitors understand about stepping briefly into others’ worlds through bumped up against a really tall, dark shadow. I painful past circumstances. Dramatic sightings the entryway of a different dimension. Our couldn’t see who it was, but I could tell it was of shadow people have taken place at Rolling universe holds many wonders that we are just a man, and he was definitely dangerous. I just Hills Asylum in East Bethany, New York. beginning to discover. If a doorway to another turned around and ran. I’m never going back Known as the Genessee County Poor Farm dimension opens, let’s go! to the Nature Preserve again!” when it was founded in 1827, this institution This freshman was not the only student offered shelter to orphans and indigent adults, of mine who was frightened by humanoid as well as elderly and disabled individuals. Now Libby Tucker teaches folklore at Binghamton shadows. When I was researching my book a part of New York’s Haunted History Trail, University. Her book Haunted Halls, a male Resident Assistant told this asylum has become well known as a site Haunted Halls: Ghostlore me that a dark, shadowy man had appeared for shadow people’s appearances. Because so of American College Campuses (Jackson: Uni- in a plate glass window during his late-night many legend trippers have observed shadows versity Press of Missis- rounds. This man was his own size but wore in the East Wing, that part of the building has sippi, 2007) investigates college ghost stories. different clothes that were all black. Horrified earned the nickname, “The Hall of Shadows.” She also authored by the sight of this unexpected apparition, he On YouTube, Pinterest, and other Internet Children’s Folklore: A Handbook (Westport: Greenwood, 2008). changed his evening routine to avoid seeing sites, eager visitors post their latest videos, She co-edited, with Ellen McHale, New more shadow people—and as far as I know, photos, and observations of the shadows’ York State Folklife Reader: Diverse Voices (University Press of Mississippi, 2013). he never did. activities.

16 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Fruit in the Forest Foraging Apples and Pressing Cider in the Finger Lakes

BY MARIA ELIZABETH KENNEDY

pickup truck pulls up to a busy scene at Mounds of this apple pulp are spread onto a fall, and they instinctively gravitate toward A the end of a tree-shadowed driveway in coarse cloth, which is folded into an envelope the sweet juice, as it is being poured into the Finger Lakes National Forest. Under the on the bed of the apple press. Layers of these individual plastic jugs. cover of tents, the churning motor of an apple pulp-filled cloths are stacked, one on top of At the helm of the apple mill stands Marty mill grinds away, and a homemade press stands the other, until the press is full. A strong young Morris, who is the center of the cider-pressing ready. The back of the pickup truck is full of man, accompanied by several friends, cranks event that he and his friends and family have apples, and we are loading them into laundry down the press inch by inch, and the golden been carrying on for over 30 years. Marty first baskets. They will be sprayed with a garden juice begins to pour out of the neatly packed learned to press cider from an old man who hose to rinse off the twigs and dirt and then cloths full of pomace into a bucket. The bees pressed apples near Letchworth State Park: fed into the mill. are still alive, even this late in the long, warm

Behind the truckload of apples, Peter Hoover, mentor to many local cider makers, waits for the pressing to begin. All photos by Maria Kennedy.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 17 Each load of apples gathered from the back of the pickup will be washed, milled, and pressed for juice. Neighbors, children, and friends each bring their own foraged fruits, but all pitch in together in the work of the pressing.

An old man had a cider press a long time been a regional folk practice for many of fruit for some cider makers, forgotten corners ago, and he showed me how to do it, and generations. of former agricultural land provide the resources we liked to drink hard cider so…. He was At The ARTS Council of the Southern for others. Abandoned orchards on old farmland an old guy, 80 years old. All those old guys Finger Lakes, the Folk Arts program has been and wild trees on the roadside and the hedgerows that grew up there in the Depression made hard cider. He always did it. documenting local cider-making practices contain an interesting stock of heritage or feral among amateurs and entrepreneurs, as part of fruit often well suited for cider making. Marty bought the press from him, and it our Finger Lakes Fruit Heritage project. While In the hilly land between the southern ends has continued to function, making cider for large-scale commercial orchards are the source of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, there are two his family and friends for the past 30 years. This old press has also provided a model for other presses that friends have built based on its design. Marty once used a hydraulic jack, but found that the pressing wore the jack out over time, and switched to a manually turned house jack, set in the wooden frame. Marty’s cider pressing is a tangible link between a generation of cider pressers who lived through the Great Depression and Prohibition, and a new generation of people who are interested in making craft beverages like cider, wine, and beer, both as amateurs and entrepreneurs. Craft cider has become an increasingly popular industry in New York in the last few years, following the rise of local wineries and craft brewing. Although a commercial cider In boxes, bags, barrels, and truckbeds, the apples come in from backyards, farms, and forest. industry is experiencing a new blossoming, Some domestic, some wild, in colors of red, yellow, green, russet, and blush—each has a distinctive flavor to add to the juice. People revisit their favorite trees year after year and find cider pressing gatherings like Marty’s have new gems by the roadside.

18 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore areas where these abandoned orchards have been preserved on state and federal land. Both the Finger Lakes National Forest and the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area are upland areas that were farmed by early European settlers. In the early 20th century, lands deemed unsuitable for agriculture were purchased by the state and federal governments and turned into conservation areas:

Between 1890 and the Great Depres- sion, thousands of acres of farmland were abandoned in south–central New York…. From 1934–1941 over 100 farms were purchased in the area now known as the Finger Lakes National Forest, as authorized by the Emergency Relief Act and the Bankhead–Jones Act. Sales were strictly voluntary, resulting in a federally owned patchwork of parcels. (“Origin of the Finger Lakes National Forest,” USDA Forest Service pamphlet)

While the farmhouses and barns on these properties were torn down, and the fields slowly reforested, the orchards remained and became a resource for local foragers and cider makers. Close to both these preserves, the States Cider Mill in Odessa, New York, served local people as a custom cider press for decades, allowing them to bring apples from farms, gardens, or from the abandoned orchards in the forest to be pressed into cider. Small local custom- pressing operations like States, which used to dot the landscape and serve rural populations, are now few in number. Carl States, whose father Lloyd owned the mill, recalled how many of the people, who would come to press their apples at the mill, had foraged them from the abandoned farms on nearby Connecticut Hill:

Most of the old-timers would bring plenty of apples, more than what they needed, and The apple mill’s loud engine clicks and sputters to life, signaling the beginning and end of then Dad would buy what [cider] was left new batch of pomace ready for pressing. over, or they would just take it home with them in gallons or give it away. Apples were pasteurizing equipment was too much. Like pretty plentiful then. up and get all the apples you wanted for free—just go up and pick them. Marty Morris, the States Cider Mill was an A lot of people when I was a kid—all the important bridge between a generation of old- old orchards were still in production on States Cider Mill no longer operates. It timers and people who would go on to lead the Connecticut Hill, because all the old farms closed its doors when New York State changed commercial craft cider revival today. Before were abandoned in the Depression, but the its laws to require pasteurization of all cider. it closed, it was a place where people like orchards were still there. So you could go For the little cider mill, the investment in new commercial cider maker Ian Merwin of Black

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 19 fair, with the pot of water simmer[ing] on the top, which drove belts and overhead shafts, and that ran the whole operation.… At some point they switched from a steam engine to a little single cylinder gas engine.

While Steve and Ian have taken their experiences at States Cider Mill forward not only as a hobby, but also as the basis for new craft cider businesses in the region, Marty Morris’s cider pressing party is evidence that, even in the absence of local custom cider mills like States, the tradition of autumn apple pressing continues among new generations. Another pickup truck with a load of foraged fruit pulls up to the tents just as I am leaving, driven by a young man eager to fill up his carboys. “Marty is the only one I know who has a cider press, so it’s the only way to get the juice,” says Josh Bower, driver of the pickup. “It’s easy and it’s cheap. With a truckload of apples, I can make enough cider to last a year.” Interview with Diane Richards, Grove Road Cider Pressing, October 2017 Folklorist Maria Kennedy interviewed Diane Richards, co-host of the Grove Road Cider Pressing with Marty Morris.

MK: You’ve been doing this for 30 years? DR: Well over 30 years—33 years. Every year, we do it. MK: And how did you get started? DR: Well, Marty. He got this press given to him, this really old press back in the day. Like in the ‘70s. So, then we just always used it. He knew how to make it. And, of course, we are Fellow fieldworker Dr. Karin Patzke pours freshly pressed juice into a carboy for in an area where there are a ton of apples. So fermentation. we’ve just always done it. MK: Was it something you did growing up, Diamond Cider encountered the local tradition The press, an enormous old 19th-century too? at a grassroots level. Ian Merwin recalled his machine, was, according to Merwin and fellow DR: No. early introduction to States Cider Mill, which cider maker Steve Daughhetee, a wonder in MK: Just when you moved here? a friend insisted he visit soon after he arrived itself, a magnificent piece of 19th-century DR: Just when we moved here, and he had in Ithaca, as a professor in Horticulture at mechanical technology still functioning into a cider press. Cornell. At the cider mill, Ian described a the end of the 20th century. According to MK: Where did he get it? crowd of people showing up with burlap bags Daughhetee: DR: Nunda, over in Allegany county, by full of apples in the back of their trucks that Geneseo—that neck of the woods. An old- they had picked from old abandoned orchards States ran on one of those old single cylin- timer had given it to him, or maybe he bought or from people’s front yards. der gasoline engines like you see at the state it. But since then, we’ve had so many cider

20 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Marty Morris feeds apples into the hopper of his Participant Josh Bower brings in a load of apples to make his yearly batch of cider. apple mill.

Marty Morris looks on while newcomers master the mechanics of his old press.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 21 Host Diane Richards and friends sample the freshly pressed juice.

parties, that we’ve had two or three people that orchards. They are not for production. But around here who are doing this when you have made presses, taking all the dimensions we can go and pick on them. So, we do those started? and information from this press. Maria every year. Like the same ones, the ones in the DR: Absolutely, yes. Although now, in the Kempler, who has the Hammerstone School neighborhood. last five years, it’s kind of taken off, with the for Women—she just did a big pressing and MK: And the wild ones in the cow pastures, hard cider renaissance that is happening here. made her press after using this press. I feel like are they old? So, more and more people are doing cider. And it is the grandfather of all the presses around DR: They are really old. They are old making their own hard cider, which is certainly here. varieties, they are old. And the apples happening here. MK: Where do you get most of your apples themselves are kind of small. But a lot of MK: Is most of the cider you make here to from? them are like the older varieties that you drink fresh, or do people ferment it, too? DR: Everybody brings them. Every year is don’t see grown in people’s orchards. Like the DR: It’s probably half of the people here different. Translucents—the old white ones. They are are going to have carboys, and they are going MK: Are there trees in people’s backyards? delicious, they are tart. They are very different to do hard cider, and then all the half gallons DR: I think a lot of them—the first than a lot of apples today. are going to go in our freezers, which will last pressing we did today—my daughter Emma MK: Do you know what kinds they are? me all winter. And I won’t have that many. If and granddaughter, we went into Hector, on DR: Peter—the guy who was here—he is I have, like 10 gallons, that will be good till Potomac Road, and we went onto the cow the variety guy. I just taste them and go—this is summertime. pastures and we picked the wild apples that a good one, it’s really good, it’s yummy. It’ll mix were out there. And there are wild apples on good with all the sweet ones. Dr. Maria Kennedy is the Folk Arts this road. And all these are pretty much—none MK: Do you know, were they on old Coordinator at of these are orchard apples. They are all just homesteads? The ARTS Council of the Southern wild apples. DR: Some are for sure. And up here—I Finger Lakes. MK: And do you go back to the same spots picked on this road and there’s old foundations Additional writings on cider, orchards, every year? Do you have trees that are like your and stuff, so you can tell there was a house there and vineyards can trees? at some point, absolutely. So they were planted, be found on her blog: ciderwithmaria.com. Photo by Chris DR: Yes, we do. And then, of course, we certainly a hundred years ago, probably. Walters. have friends who have orchards, like planted MK: And are there other people you know

22 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore At Work in the Garden of Eat and Be Eaten BY CHARLES F. TEKULA, JR.

On dry land nothing’s moving yet, And the still soft ones are like warm buttered muffins right still dark and cold. out of the oven to these bright-eyed But in the watery fields the feasting continues. and stealthy hunters. Bluefish dart like lightning in and out of the pods of bunkers The fish that hit early on in the night have attracted a bevy that themselves still strain the tiny swimming plankton, of crustaceans to even as their brethren are themselves devoured. Spider my webbing, there to return the favor. crabs wait for the pieces to fall, and then crawl through the waving eel grass We who trek the land with our shod feet don’t face into my awaiting net for what they think is another free meal. the constant threat of being eaten alive by our larger neighbors — The big bass know. At least not literally. But they’ve had their fill of the shiny finned and oily delights. We don’t rationally worry that bugs and birds will Another aroma draws them in. The spiders are shedding now, peck us apart if we sleep a bit too soundly. it being early autumn. And so we consume ourselves with these irrational fears. Like the impending collapse of life on earth brought on by the likes of my little gillnet boat. More sensible parents wonder what to put on the dinner table. Left: Getting ready to make an overnight set Prudent chefs wonder what they’ll find at their seafood on the south side of supplier to grace the specials card tonight. Moriches Bay. Photo by Nancy Solomon. And if I get in early my wonderful bluefish, or weakfish or bass Below: Chuck Tekula might be the prey that answers their prayers. is a regular participant in Long Island Traditions’ education But at this point in my own journey the hardest and public programs. Here he shows an work of the day comes first. audience at the Tobay The roughest leg of the day’s excursion is Boat Show what a blowfish is. Photo by the trip from the bed to the floor. Nancy Solomon. Raisin Bran, weather websites, and a cup of hot tea. A prayer for a safe and successful morning, and I’m off to witness another sunrise over the Garden of Eat and be Eaten.

Chuck Tekula is a commercial fisherman from Center Moriches. Educated at Empire State College in New York, Chuck frequently writes about the lives of commercial fishermen, the regulations and policies that affect them, and what has led to the decline of Great South Bay. He was one of the first observers to the pollution caused by sewage treatment plants on the bay and other factors that affected the marine resources, including runoff and development. Tekula fishes using a gill net, crab traps, and other traditional methods of baymen and fishermen. He also harvests clams and other shellfish when not fishing. Chuck has written extensively for National Fisherman, Newsday, and other publications. He has also written poetry and songs including “Morning in the Garden.”

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 23 “The Golden Arm” Collecting and Performing the Folktale

BY TIMOTHY JENNINGS

[Editor’s Note: Tim Jennings, a storyteller of His words are fun to read; you can see At its most effective, the story left us all folktales, is back with another story of a how they work. Best of all—and rare to this feeling stupid and a little sore; it was like be- tale and how he presents it. In his pre- day—in addition to the words of the story, ing on a roller coaster that goes up and up vious article, in the Spring-Summer 2014 Twain gave tips on how to tell it. Most em- and up, then at the top somebody slaps you issue of Voices (www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/ phatically, Twain told me (he said “you,” and you have to get out. voic40-1-2/liver.html), Jennings wrote of so he was definitely talking to me) that the Maybe I just didn’t have the chops? Then performing “Dead Man’s Liver,” and in- story would create a big effect. But, he said, I saw Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain To- troduced the storyteller’s concept of the that would only happen if I could manage night”—lots of chops there—tackle the “jump tale,” in which the storyteller builds the timing on a particular pause just before same story, with similar results to mine. suspense, then jumps and shouts loudly to the final line. He said, “you must get the For a modern teller, it doesn’t help that, elicit similarly jumps, shouts—and laugh- pause right; and you will find it the most thanks to Twain’s essay, the story is so well ter—from the audience. In this new piece, troublesome and aggravating and uncertain known. Much of an audience’s enjoyment he explores his collection and retelling thing you ever undertook.” from this kind of tale comes from the sud- of Mark Twain’s “The Golden Arm,” again Yes, it was. den final surprise. As Twain points out, if a sharing his storyteller’s technique.] Instinctively, I dropped the dialect. listener can figure out the surprise is com- (Twain assumed the persona of the black ing, the whole set-up “fails of its purpose Introduction man who had told it to him as a boy.) Af- and makes trouble.” Like many people, I read Mark ter the usual early stumblings, I got control It’s a problem with all jump tales. As lis- Twain’s “The Golden Arm” when I was of the narrative, so the story would reliably teners figure out what kind of story they’re a child. My buddy Stevie and I had been take hold and ratchet up tension all the way hearing, they begin to brace themselves, swapping scary stories on the school bus to the climax. I shed a lot of sweat over the and it’s hard to get under their guard. I ride home. I told him stuff out of Poe— ending, and by the time I was an adult, I was gave up on “The Golden Arm” a few years “Tell Tale Heart” was my best— and he able to spring what Twain calls “the snap- into my professional career. I had taken to told me elements of Lugosi’s Dracula, Ab- per” without telegraphing its approach. telling “Dead Man’s Liver,” a different jump bot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and most Twain wasn’t lying about that pause. It— tale I’d collected myself, with my own tim- memorably something about “The Mad or something—was aggravating. Some- ing and my own balance of humor and Axman,” who comes into rooms out of any where in my twenties, I began to suspect scares. It worked. The roller coaster went up corner that’s too dark to see into. (That’s that the promised final effect never was go- and up and up, teetered on the brink, then one that’ll come back to you after bedtime.) ing to pay off the way Twain said it should. plunged, reliably delivering its brief payoff Naturally, I was on the lookout for some- Nobody gave out a “dear little yelp.” I rush of primal fear. I watched my audience thing new. And here was this compelling, never made anybody “spring right out of jump, recoil (in a visible wave sometimes), traditional oral tale, transcribed by an au- her shoes.” Sometimes nothing happened. squeal, then after the briefest catch-your- thor I loved, with instructions for perfor- Sometimes something did—maybe their breath silence, explode into ten to thirty mance. Around 1850, little Sammy Clemens stomachs sank—but it wasn’t enjoyable. seconds of laughter and loud talk. That’s heard it just before bedtime; much later, I might see them shrink a little, or look what you want, it turns out—that’s the sign as the legendarily effective public speaker stunned, or cringe. To tell the truth, they the thing has landed right, and you’ve given Mark Twain, he performed it in front of often looked abused. The slow-winding en- your crowd a good time. large audiences all around the world and ergy of the build never got released, there Nobody wants my second-best jump tale, wrote it down in an essay “How to Tell a was no laugh (which you expect from a I decided. It was useful. I’d learned from it, Story.” “snapper”), no sense of fun. now let it go.

24 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore “He re-e-e-eached in and felt around.” Tim Jennings in storytelling performance of “The Golden Arm.” Photo by Terry J. Allen, courtesy of the author.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 25 Then one day during a course of elemen- his arm, too. And, like I said, she wasn’t very made me! Why? What good is it doing her? tary school workshops in Chester, Vermont, well; a swamp’s not a healthy place; maybe Doing anybody? I should have said no, I a girl in the fifth grade told a story she she’d die, then the golden arm would really should have changed the subject. Aaaa! … got from her auntie. It was “The Golden belong to him. But I keep my promises, I’m man of my Arm” all right, but miles away from Twain’s No, he didn’t kill her! He wasn’t that kind word.” He walked a little further, furious: version, clearly coming from no book. And of man; not wicked, he wouldn’t do that, “Wasted! It’s wasted! She can’t use it! In it was great! not a murderer. Just, very, very tight, very the ground, in the dirt! Oh! It’s stupid! It’s Best of all, the ending was different from greedy. wrong! It’s wicked! In the grave, with the anything I was familiar with. Actually, I real- A swamp is not a healthy place, and she worms! No good to anybody! And I waited ized later, I had come across that ending in got sicker and sicker, and one day she went so long!” Over and over, more angry and the text of an English dialect tale, but had to bed and didn’t get up. She called him upset every step he took. Until, suddenly, turned my nose up at it. I had to hear it per- over to him. She said, “Honey, maybe I’m he stopped. formed to know it was perfect. not going to get better this time, and now “I kept my promise. I said I’d bury her I tell the story that way, now using that it’s time to tell you. I know why you married with her arm, and I did! I am a man of my little girl’s ending and structure, mixing in me. I’m not blaming you, I knew who you word. But I’ll tell you what I didn’t promise. some of Twain’s set-up and flourishes, a were when we got married, we’ve done all I never said I wouldn’t go back there and few things I’ve learned from performing right, you’ve been good to me, considering, dig her up again.” the “Liver” story, and a lot of stuff—maybe as good as you know how. But, now I need And that’s just what he did. That mean, too much—that just comes up on its own. you to make me a promise. When I die, I grasping, greedy man turned around and It’s one of my wife’s favorites, and it al- want you to bury me with my arm. It’s part went back to her grave. He dug down ways works. of me, and I want to go into the ground to where she was, re-e-e-eached in, felt whole. I want you to promise me that, right around—there it was—reached into the The Golden Arm now.” sheet, pulled it out. Then he filled in the There was a man who lived in the swamp; He said, “Oh, honey!” He said, “You’re hole, and started back home, heart pound- he was a miser; he loved to get and keep not going to... I would never… how could ing, hugging the arm tight against his chest. and never spend, more than anybody you you think… I didn’t… Alright, I promise.” Well, by this time, with all the carrying know. He lived in the swamp because it was And, she did die, just a little while after. and digging, and going back and forth, it free, and because nobody came around to He didn’t get her a coffin, they cost too was growing dark, and from the coolness bug him out there, trying to get something much, and for what? He wrapped her in a of the night after the heat of day, a thick from him. He built himself some kind of a sheet. It was good enough for his grand- mist was rising in the wetlands. And as he house out of the things people dumped out parents; it was good enough for anybody. walked down into the mist, a big moon rose there. And actually, he was pretty handy; it He wasn’t going to bury her in the church- up above it. He couldn’t see the moon itself, was an OK kind of place to live, consider- yard, you have to pay too much, big waste but the moonlight turned the mist white. ing it was made out of junk, in the middle of money. He knew a spot in the middle He could see a step before him and a step of the swamp. of the swamp, where the ground rose up behind him, but beyond that was just like a Now they say there’s somebody for ev- to a high place, dry enough that trees and glowing white wall. eryone in this world, and I guess it must be flowers grew there, and berries, and birds He wasn’t concerned, he’d been that way true, because this man had a wife, some- came, and butterflies. He thought she’d many times, his feet knew the way without body got married to him. She was an or- like it. him thinking about it at all. His heart and dinary person, nothing unusual about her, He carried her up there; he dug the hole, his mind were full of the golden arm, as he except for three things. First, she was will- put her in and covered her up, then started hugged it tight to his chest. ing to marry him. Second, she was sickly; back home. And now up above the mist, a wind rose she was never very well. (Maybe that’s why Every step he took away from the golden up. He didn’t feel it down where he was, but she married him; maybe she thought he was arm, he grew more angry and upset. He he could hear it blowing up there, it made a her last chance.) And finally—I probably started talking to himself as he walked. kind of moan: whoooooooooooooooo. should have told you this first—one of her “Why did she make me promise that? And while he was listening to that, he arms, instead of flesh and bone, was made How selfish can you get! But I promised, began to imagine he could hear something out solid gold. damn it. I’m a man of my word, I do what else, too, under the wind: his own footsteps, And that’s why he married her. I promise.” A little further on, more angry, of course, but also—was it an echo?— He figured, because she was his wife, more upset, ”It’s wrong! I never should something that sounded like another set of community property, her arm was kind of have promised. She never should have footsteps coming along behind him. But

26 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore how could it be an echo? There’s no echo he heard the steps go toward the cellar. He exactly, lying in bed he heard the wind stop. in a swamp. heard the cellar door open, heard footsteps He heard the shuffling footsteps come into He stepped a little faster; the echo going down. his house, smelled that powerful smell of did the same. And now he began to “No!” he thought. “Don’t! Leave it mold, much worse now. Heard it go down hear the moaning of the wind almost alone!” But he didn’t say anything; he was into the cellar, then smashing crashing, like like a voice: whooooooooooooooooooooo. He too scared. He wanted to jump up, to go rolling stones, splintering glass. Heard it walked a little faster, and the steps kept down and stop it, whatever it was, keep it come back up the cellar stairs and go into right up. Whoooooooooooooooooooo ssssssssss- away from his arm, but he was paralyzed, the bathroom. “NO!” he thought. But he toooooooooooooole. He walked faster; the steps he couldn’t move. Then he heard the steps couldn’t move, he didn’t dare, he was par- behind him came faster. The wind was get- come back up to the living room and leave alyzed. Heard smashing and crashing in ting louder, it sounded more and more like the house, and go away. And the wind came there, then the steps left the bathroom, left a voice, and if you let yourself, you could up again; he couldn’t hear anything else. He the house, and he heard them shuffle away. hear words: Whooooooooooooooo ssssssssssssssss- wanted to go downstairs—so bad!—and The smell drifted away, the wind picked up, toooooooooooooooole my goooooooooooooooooolden see what had happened, but he didn’t dare. and again he lay there motionless till the arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm? He stayed in bed, still wide awake, until the first light of dawn. He stopped walking. The other footsteps first light of day. Then he ran downstairs, down into the kept coming. Then he got up and ran downstairs. The cellar. The shelf was thrown down, jars bro- He ran, fast as he could, he never knew couch and tables had been turned over; ken, pickles and peaches and glass all mixed how he got home; the next thing he knew cushions ripped open, cabinet doors open, on the floor. The stonewall was down. If clearly was that he was in his house, heart dishes smashed all over the floor. The cel- the arm had still been there, she would have pounding, hugging the arm to him, looking lar door was open! He ran down the cellar found it. around wildly. “Where am I going to hide stairs, The shelf was moved, pulled away He ran up to the bathroom. The cabi- it? Where can I put it where nobody will from the wall, the stone wall part way taken net was open, bottles and pills and such find it?” down. all tossed onto the floor. The tub had He saw the cellar door, went down into “No!” and he reached back behind the been moved out from the wall! The tiles the cellar. There was a dry stonewall set up stones—Oh! Thank god! The arm was still were disturbed. “NO!” He pulled the tiles against the dirt and in front of that was a set there. He pulled it out, hugged it to him. down, reached behind the lathing— Ah! of shelves, with jars of pickles and peaches “Where can I put it? She’s going to come Thank god! It was still there. He took it out, and jam. He pulled the shelf out, took some back. Where can I hide it where she’ll never hugged it to him. of the stones down from the wall, dug a find it?” “She’s going to come back! I know she is! nook into the dirt, and put the arm in there. He carried the arm out of the cellar, went Where can I put it where it’ll be safe?— I Then he set the stones back up in front of into the bathroom. He pulled the clawfoot know! I’ll hide it under my pillow.” it, moved the shelf back, went back up to bathtub away from the wall. Some of the And he did. From then on, every night, the house and shut the cellar door. tiles on the wall next to it were loose; he he’d sleep with it under his pillow, he could He paced around for awhile, listening to took them off, behind them was bare lath- feel it under his neck; he could touch it the wind, looking out the window, trying to ing. He pulled some of that out a bit, and whenever he wanted. And everything was see into the mist, until he finally went up- dropped the arm back behind it into the fine. Nothing happened. For a year. stairs to bed. But he couldn’t sleep. He just wall. Replaced the lathing, stuck the tiles And exactly a year later, to the day, that lay there in bed, wide awake for hours, star- back, moved the tub up against the wall same weird weather, the white mist, the ing out the window, listening to the wind. where it had been. moaning wind. At midnight, the wind Then, at midnight, the wind stopped. He And, everything was fine from then on. stopped, and as he lay in bed he could hear heard footsteps outside, shuffling towards Nothing happened after that. He knew the shuffling footsteps come into his house. the house. He heard the steps come up where the arm was; he could put his hand The smell of mold was overpowering, ris- onto his porch, heard the screen door open, up on the wall near it whenever he took a ing up through the floorboards. He heard heard the kitchen door open, and then slam bath. Whenever he wanted, he could take it cross the room to the staircase. He heard together shut. He heard the footsteps mov- down the tiles again, reach down behind the it coming up the stairs. He heard it outside ing around downstairs, under his bedroom lathing, and touch it, or take it out and look his bedroom door. Saw the doorknob turn. floor; then he smelled, coming up through at it. Everything was great. For a year. Saw the door swing open. Saw it at the foot the floorboards, a dank smell of earth, of Then a year later, to the day, the sun set, of his bed. mold. Then he heard ripping and crashing that same white mist rose up, with that “Honey—what happened—to your… and smashing and tearing below him. Then same wild wind above it. And at midnight long, long… hair?”

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 27 “Faded awayyyyyyyyyyyyy. Faded Tiny Woman.” A Horrible Thing comes in, really make sense, it’s the man’s line, not his awayyyyyyyyyyyyy.” climbs the stairs, enters the bedroom, and wife’s, but I’m sure she got the move from “Honey—what happened to your... approaches the bed. Sometimes, I use the her auntie and it had a surprising impact bright blue... eyes?” bit from the “Liver” story where the man when she did it, so I do it, too. “Faded awayyyyyyyyyyyyy. Faded pulls the bedclothes up over his face, and the The rhythm of question and response awayyyyyyyyyyyy.” Thing grabs them from the foot of the bed stays the same with each iteration, though “Honey—what happened to your… and pulls them down again. I may have got- there’s room to build within the sentences, long, long… legs?” ten it from Jackie Torrence; I’m not sure. It’s and in the spaces between sentences. “Faded awayyyyyyyyyyyy. Faed a nice touch. I use it when the audience hasn’t The man can be increasingly nervous, awayyyyyyyyyyyyy.” already heard me tell the “Liver” story. conciliatory, smiling, swallowing—reacting “Honey— what happened to your… Generally speaking, you don’t follow one to each of the ghost’s chants. golden…arm?” jump tale with another, but I have followed The ghost can vary between intense, re- “YOU GOT IT!” the “Liver” story with this one (generally, signed, spooky, or sad. But the music of the at different ends of the show), because the chant must remain the same. Performance Thoughts distinctive finale will go a long way to make As the man begins to speak his final line, As usual with texts of performance ma- the jump happen anyway, even though they it should be clear that he knows he shouldn’t terial, much of what makes the thing good know it’s coming. ask it, and in fact is in some way fighting doesn’t reveal itself until you start working Do not memorize this story. Start by cut- against asking it, but he is somehow trapped with it. ting it to the bone. Figure out how it works, by the structure, it’s almost pulled out of The great Viola Spolin had a useful and make it your own. If you’re like me, it’ll him against his will, like poor Little Red prompt for improvisers: “Show, don’t tell.” start stretching out again soon enough, and Riding Hood squeezing out “Oh Grand- Characters in a tale can speak and act from you’ll know why. Using your own words ma…What big … teeth … you have.” within their emotions—anger, terror, ten- naturally and engagingly on stage is para- The audience also knows he shouldn’t ask sion—there is no need to say, “He said, in doxically difficult—ask any aspiring come- that question, and is bracing itself. If you a frightened voice.” So, when the man has dian—but it’s the only thing that pays off play it right, though, their ancient preverbal run home with the arm, the story-medium in the long run. social intercourse module should set them of text requires the words “looking around up irrationally to expect a chant of “faded wildly,” but a live storyteller need not say Getting the End Right awayyyyyyyy” before anything else happens. that, but can rather show the guy look- By the ghost’s final visit, you already So they will be unprepared, unbraced, when ing around wildly, speaking breathlessly: should have demonstrated how the man you go in sharp and sudden to get’em. “where am I gonna hide it?” looks, as he’s lying in bed, terrified, holding Once you get the dynamics right, you can Similarly, as you say “he re-e-eached in his bedclothes up under his chin. get ’em every time. It’s bulletproof. and felt around,” demonstrate what you’re The cadences and language of the final talking about—it’s a normal part of high- dialogue are as I received them from the value speech to show as well as tell. No little girl. Tim Jennings has careful mime here, just ordinary conversa- As the man, I address the Thing (ghost or been telling folktales tional gesture and high-level tone and tim- zombie or whatever it is) directly, speaking for a living since 1980. Recordings of ing. to the space above the foot of his bed, six live performances You can skip the moaning of the wind if feet in front of me, up in the air. (I think made with his wife, you want, I imported it from Twain, I don’t of her as floating.) I smile nervously at his Leanne Ponder, have received always use it. wife, speaking in a hesitant, conciliatory, American Library One of the tale’s biggest payoffs comes reasoning tone of voice. Association and Parents’ Choice on the line “I know. I’ll keep it under my The ellipses (…) in the husband’s ques- Foundation awards. pillow.” Pause after you say that, share the tions indicate pauses. Take them, it’s impor- In addition to their storytelling, Tim and Leanne have released instrumental music moment with the audience and enjoy their tant. Don’t even think about what she looks recordings as the harp and concertina reaction. Try to notice other places like that like. Say her lines blindly, staring off into duo “Sheefra,” and contributed four cuts to the 2008 FolkSounds compilation as you perform. space, in a quiet, moaning, trailing, sing- English International: A history of the Clearly, there is quite a bit of similarity song voice. English Concertina with some of the best players from around the World.” Tim between this and the “Liver” story, and for Like the little girl from whom I got this and Leanne live in Montpelier, VT, with that matter a host of other jump tales you story, I widen my eyes on the word “eyes.” a feisty little dog and a ginger cat. Their website is www.folktale.net. Photo by may have heard, like “Big Toe,” or “Teeny (She and I both have blue eyes.) It doesn’t Terry J. Allen, courtesy of the author.

28 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore VOICES OF NEW YORK George Ward — Oh! That Low Bridge! BY LIBBY TUCKER

George Ward, one of New York State’s best-loved, regional folksingers, brings the Erie Canal’s folk culture to life in his wonderful CD Oh! That Low Bridge! (2006). Sing- ing and playing the banjo, concertina, and other instruments, Ward helps us feel the emotions of Erie Canal diggers, teamsters, pilots, and travelers: pride, excitement, frus- tration, and sadness. His waterways research, over a period of more than 25 years, has given us a treasure trove of meaningful and entertaining songs from this important period in New York State’s history. The Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, gave people a chance to travel and haul freight from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. New York State was growing fast, so the chance to move all sorts of materials and passengers from Albany to Buffalo was tremendously exciting. “The Meeting of the Waters,” this CD’s eighth song, shows how awestruck people felt about the merging of these two mighty bodies of water. Just a few decades later, however, railroads became the dominant mode of transportation. Song number seven, “Lament of the Teamsters,” personalizes the sadness of this change: sung this song over a long period of time, For further information, see: “If we go up to Albany and ask for a load, nobody sings it better than Ward does. Dur- Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, They’ll tell us too late, it’s gone on the rail- ing his many visits to schools, he has helped http://www.eriecanalway.org road.” Even though the Erie Canal is no lon- children understand why they should pay The Erie Canal Museum, http://eriecanal ger a vital pathway for movement of freight, attention to an old mule named Sal. Times museum.org it still has a lively bunch of commercial and change; now Sal has her portrait on the Erie Erie Canal Song, http://www.eriecanalsong.com pleasure vessels. In 2000, the Erie Canalway Canalway’s Facebook page. It’s nice to see National Heritage Corridor opened. One of her picture there, but Ward’s song keeps her George’s CDs are available online (http:// 49 such sites in the United States, the Erie memory alive even better than Facebook www.nyfolklore.org/gallery/store/music.html) and Canalway encourages historic preservation does. in the NYFS gallery shop. and celebration of regional folkways. All of us who love New York folklore owe Libby Tucker teaches All of us who have had the pleasure of thanks to George Ward, who has done so folklore at Binghamton attending Ward’s performances know how much to keep Erie Canal songs as appealing University. Her book Haunted Halls: Ghostlore eloquently he conveys the spirit of an era. and exciting as they were in the 19th century. of American College “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal” (some- George and his late wife Vaughn produced so Campuses (Jackson: Uni- versity Press of Missis- times called “Fifteen Years on the Erie Ca- many concerts, recordings, festivals, and ex- sippi, 2007) investigates nal” and “Mule Named Sal”) is very well hibits that they received one of the only two college ghost stories. known in the United States; I learned to She also authored Chil- Evergreen Lifetime Achievement Awards giv- dren’s Folklore: A Handbook (Westport: sing it in grade school and am fairly certain en by Traditional Arts of Upstate New York Greenwood, 2008). She co-edited, with that most of my fellow Baby Boomers did (TAUNY). Let us celebrate these achieve- Ellen McHale, New York State Folklife Reader: Diverse Voices (University Press too. Even though countless Americans have ments and enjoy listening to the CD! of Mississippi, 2013).

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 29 Pageantry Puppets, Community Memory, and Living Traditions: Extending the Reach of Cultural and Educational Institutions into Immigrant Communities

BY KATE GROW McCORMICK

he American Folklore Society’s working in understanding the work of The Bread and than Berger, covered all the walls and ceil- T group Folklore and Museums Policy Puppet Theater (http://breadandpuppet.org). ing of a gallery at the Queens Museum with and Practice outlined the rich potential for The collage installation accompanied by live black and white drawings and posters from folklorists to shape museum theory, prac- performances of The Shatterer, a play about his 50 years of protests and resistance art. A tice, and policy (AFS 2015). The Center for immigration and the iconic bread making in photo of Peter in the midst of his figures of the Future of Museums launched an ambi- Flushing Meadows Corona Park, accented human agony and angst—ogres, saints, fat tious study: “Museums and Society 2034” to through its raw imagery, as part of the The- cats, and washerwomen—reveals how he has look at trends and future planning for both ater’s 50 years of work advocating for justice been at home with his history of advocacy small and large institutions (CFM 2008). Kurt and peace. Schumann’s bread distribution for peace and justice. Puppet historian, John Dewhurst and Daniel Sheehy (2015) outlined fulfilled his mandate “to feed the audience Bell described the Bread and Puppet Theater: the expanded role of folklorists in museum at an art event” (“A Conversation with Bread “an anomaly, an odd, un-electrified, counter- heritage work in “Connecting Tangible and and Puppet’s Peter Schumann,” City Lore, culture spectacle which certainly isn’t sum- Intangible Culture.” These initiatives point 12/13/15). mer stock theater, nor a classical musical fes- to the changing demographics of museum The Queens Museum, formerly the tival, nor an outdoor rock extravaganza” (Bell audiences, shifting focus to a more interac- Queens Museum of Art, housed in the Unit- 1997, 6). Under the direction of Schumann, tive, responsive approach for museums and ed States’ pavilion of the 1964 World’s Fair, the theater has been consistently there for historical societies in serving their communi- stands in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the common man and woman. The puppets ties. The three programs chosen for discus- the most ethnically diverse borough of New slow deliberate, sweeping, provocative move- sion here are from The Queens Museum, York City. It is notable for its employment of ments have been not so much entertainment The Brooklyn Historical Society, and Teatro art therapists in its education department and as a force of theatrical wonder, which sticks SEA (the Society for Educational Arts), a visiting artists and interns. Its goal of inter- in the mind, altering perspective. Although bilingual children’s theater. These New York secting with community organizers to work Schumann said that he is not sure if a puppet City institutions have done substantial work on local issues makes it an agent of change, ever changed anyone’s mind, he has discussed engaging museum audiences and making ad- seeking to represent the Queens community the materials of his art, his design for build- vanced connections through advocacy, dia- and address the future of this diverse bor- ing “papier-mâché citizens.” Clay, cardboard, logue, community involvement, and the use ough. Its fine arts collection, expanded new river water, and cornstarch glue—the sim- of collective memory. atrium, and expanded galleries have displayed plest of materials—are the “tools” and “lan- topics relevant to everyday life and the in- guage,” “slogans” and “paint” with which his Peter Schumann’s 50- frastructure of Queens—“Migrant Kitch- “weapons” fight the Wrong in the Northeast Year Retrospective at the ens,” “Portraits and Short Films from the Kingdom, acknowledging his home base in Queens Museum Margins,” and “Waterworks of New York,” Vermont as the source and impact of his art The Queens Museum’s retrospective ex- to name a few. The updated “Panorama of (Schumann 2016, 16–17). hibit of Peter Schumann’s art, The Shatterer, New York City” is a major effort, as is the The Queens Museum appropriately ex- explored the artist’s prolific protest art, resis- museum’s ownership of the history of the hibited Schumann as a major force, as one’s tance manifestos, and pageantry puppets as 1964 World’s Fair and the fairgrounds. life work can be. The Bread and Puppet per- the artist/theater director’s response to the The Shatterer, a retrospective of Peter formance barn is called the cathedral and his needs of the world. Schumann’s cardboard Schumann’s artwork as theater director of the artifacts were placed in what he called a “ca- books, posters, and murals acted as stimuli Bread and Puppet Theater, curated by Jona- thedral gallery” at the museum. Additionally,

30 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Rafael Hernandez Band Romance Teatro SEA has operated as a bilingual theater in the Clemente Soto Art Center on Suf- folk Street on the Lower East Side of New York City for 25 years. By sponsoring a live concert of the Rafael Hernandez Band Romance, it stepped into the role of advocate for the arts for their senior neighbors. The band has been part of a musical tradition in Puerto Rico for over 60 years. By providing three evenings of traditional jibara music, dance, and song, the theater acted as a gathering place, paid tribute to elder residents of their community, and widened its footprint as a bilingual children’s theater. Increasingly, museums and historical societies are being asked to advocate and em- brace new audiences, to create programs from existing resources, to exhibit life histo- ries and ethnographic studies, and to develop citizenship skills in their young constituents. Museums, at the same time, have become concerned with changing audiences, exclu- sionary barriers to attendance, and availability of specialized knowledge on the part of their audiences, as well as with competing media and social networks that encourage or distract audiences from attendance. Mu- seums are interested in reaching out to build educational and neighborhood associations that encourage community and assure their

Cover to the 2014 exhibition of Peter Schumann’s The Shatterer at the Queens Museum. future. The American Alliance of Museums Courtesy Queens Museum. Photo by Peter Dressel. gathers data on museum attendance and ad- vocates for education and cultural exposure, Bread and Puppet’s iconic bread making in a This retrospective achieves, in exhibiting noting the economic impact of museums on simple brick oven in Flushing Meadows Co- one artist’s life’s work, a focus on the many, the economy and the changing face of the rona Park, a spectacle of feeding the public, giving hope that persistence and creativity museum within our communities of the fu- took place as an essential experience along yield belonging. So, too, many of the Queens ture. with the art. The Shatterer was conceived as Museum’s exhibits celebrate the achieve- The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center a play about immigration, deploying a vast ments of Queens’ resident artists. Museums has a broad-minded cultural collaborative ap- number of human figures moving over bor- do not exist in a vacuum, and the Queens proach to the use of its galleries and theater. ders and in lines that seem not to end. The Museum’s involvement in reclamation of It houses a youth theater and bilingual chil- immigration agent is either stamping or re- space around the museum is a further step dren’s theater, all dedicated to the cultivation, jecting these figures, shattering their desire in extending its reach as a vital agent for the preservation, and presentation of Puerto to belong. The borough of Queens and the community. Another example exhibit: “No Rican and Latino culture. The exemplary Queens Museum, in particular, provide en- Hay Medio Tiempo” (There is No Halftime) presentation of the Rafael Hernandez Band couragement of immigrants’ determination by Ecuadorean artist Quevedo recognizes the Romance in June 2017, organized by Teatro to belong through programs and recognition multiplicity of people using Flushing Mead- SEA for seniors of the community over of their place in the community, defraying ows Corona Park as their playground, a place three nights, celebrated the tradition of the the forces that shatter dreams. to belong, to use freely and call their own. band with familiar music, dance, and song.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 31 Most of the audience lives Center’s parking lot as a performance space. in the Rafael Hernandez These premium spaces, of course, are cov- Houses, which are named eted resources in New York. The addition of for the band founder and Puerto Rican crafts and food tastings added composer. Hernandez to the event, filling the performance space served in the US military with a festive flare. in the First World War Teatro SEA carries a tradition of present- and later directed bands, ing familiar Puerto Rican folktales and dra- becoming an ambassador mas with a Latin twist. They often use live for Latin music. On the masked characters to convey a lesson within occasion of the concert, the tale. Manual Moran, the director of the his son directed the band theater has chosen carefully classic folktales and three male and three for school performances including: Pinoc- female dancers enter- chio, Red Riding Hood, Perez and Martina, tained the audience with and an original play: My Superhero Roberto songs and skits in the Clemente. Manual Moran recognizes com- cumbachero/jibara tradition munity councilmen and women and local of anthems and songs of officials in a nod of thanks to their support the countryside of Puerto for his theater and encouragement for the Rico. The legacy of the arts, over its 25 years. It is an achievement composer and cumbachero met with pride in the community to be a were familiar to the appre- bilingual children’s theater, with a legacy of ciative audience and the presenting traditional tales, servicing 75,000

Rafael Hernandez Band Romance poster. Photo by Kate presentation marked an students a year. Grow McCormick. initiation of the use of the

La Cucarachita Martina performance of The Bread and Puppet Theater. Courtesy of Teatro SEA.

32 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Archival Film: Los Sures at of East Williamsburg, and another “South- highlighting everyday life is not to be under- the Brooklyn Historical side Short Docs,” highlighting activist and lo- estimated. One such moment in Los Sures Society cal heroes—those that stayed and fought for emphasizes the entrance of a well-groomed The screening of Los Sures at the Brooklyn recognition of the neighborhood’s needs like young man strutting from his apartment Historical Society (BHS) was a collaborative school access, better health care, job oppor- stairway out to the street where he is hailed program with UnionDocs (UNDO), an or- tunities, and protection from gangs. El Pu- and known to the community. He glows with ganization of documentarians housed on the ente and Southside Community Mission are pride and ownership of his street persona. south side of Williamsburg. The screening grassroots organizations, originating in 1984, Historical societies often focus on one shot fulfilled the mission of the museum to study and are core organizations in the neighbor- to glean a historical portrait. The merging of neighborhoods of Brooklyn, to provide his- hood today. these two perspectives provided a lively dis- tory, and to share archival material with de- Documentary film yields a unique - per cussion on ownership and sense of belonging tailed analysis, highlighting the educational spective that allows us to speculate on life felt by residents, where they had a common aspects of ethnographic film. TeachArchives. of a particular moment. The poignancy of language, food, music, and vibrant street life. org resulted from Students and Faculty in the Ar- chives (SAFA), a three-year grant at BHS; and BHS developed a research tool called CASA (Cultural Afterschool Adventures) to encourage research by young scholars. Notable is its ability to draw audiences with collaborations with museums, book talks, and invited speaker forums, with an accent on city planning. Los Sures is the 1984 documentary of everyday life of the changing neighborhood of East Williamsburg. Diego Echeveria used funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to give cameras to everyday residents, resulting in what has been described as “an invaluable piece of New York history.” Union Docs, an organization comprised of documentarians, activist artists, media-makers, journalists, and local thinkers, cosponsored the screening with BHS. The film displayed the value placed on everyday life in the neighborhood, as a flood of Puerto Rican newcomers struggled to make Brook- lyn home. Each presentation of the film provided for a reclamation of community memory and dialogue about the survivor’s mental- ity that still exists today in the neighborhood, largely stemming from the early residents’ determination. An interesting fact about how the film was found: East Williamsburg young documentarians heard of the existence of the footage and were determined to retrieve it from of all places, the New York Public Library. Their response, “The library! It’s our history!” indicates the collective memory and ownership in East Williamsburg residents. The film was returned, renewed, and recon- stituted. Its footage inspired several projects by UNDO: “Shot by Shot,” a frame analysis Viva Pinochio performance of The Bread and Puppet Theater. Courtesy of Teatro SEA.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 33 society and a documen- within any labeled category. (CFM tary organization’s rec- 2010, 6) lamation of film, and a bilingual children’s With that challenge comes the shedding theater expanding its of conventional language and categories for role in the community. groups of Americans. There is work to be There is much more to done. be examined in each of these organizations, as References there is in the 17,500 AFS (American Folklore Society). 2015. Re- museums in the United thinking the Role of Folklore in Museums: Ex- States, of which the ploring New Directions for Folklore in Museum small, ethnically focused Policy and Practice, A White Paper prepared historical museums are by the American Folklore Society Folk- growing the fastest. C. lore and Public Policy Working Group on Kurt Dewhurst and Folklore and Museums. Bloomington, IN: Daniel Sheehy (2015) American Folklore Society. outlined the expanded Bell, John. 1997. Landscape and Desire: Bread role of the folklorist in and Puppet Pageants in the 1990s. Glover, VT: “Connecting Tangible Bread and Puppet Press. and Intangible Cul- CFM (Center for the Future of Museums). ture.” Museums, large 2008. “Museums & Society 2034: Trends and small, are changing and Potential Futures.” Version 1.0. Amer- their approach to pub- ican Alliance of Museums, Washington, Union Docs has memorialized activist/leader Carlo Soto, lic programming and DC. resident of Williamsburg. Photo by Kate Grow McCormick. opening their doors in CFM (Center for the Future of Museums). daring ways. They have 2010. “Demographic Transformation and Testimonies by audience participants as to become more central to creating civic learn- the Future of Museums.” Authored by the historical richness of the film were abun- ing and advancing civic dialogue. Folklorists, Betty Farrell and Maria Medvedeva, Cul- dant in the discussion at the BHS. The power museums, and historical societies are work- tural Policy Center for American Alliance of this documentary to inspire 40 short films ing more closely to enrich presentations and of Museums, Washington, DC. and another project “89 Steps” indicates the enhance the lives of those they serve. They Dewhurst, C. Kurt, and Daniel Sheehy. 2015. importance of highlighting the people who have begun to view their resources as start- “Intangible Cultural Heritage.” In Rethink- stayed and built the community of East Wil- ing points for contemporary exhibits that ing the Role of Folklore in Museums: Explor- liamsburg. The struggles today are gentrifica- address the issues of a diverse society. With ing New Directions for Folklore in Museum tion, inequality of income, and sharing of these initiatives, folklorists can assist muse- Policy and Practice, 15–18. Bloomington, IN: city resources, which make Los Sures just as ums to close the gap between competing cul- American Folklore Society. relevant today as it was in 1984. Collabora- tures and peoples opening up new avenues Schumann, Peter. 2016. “Clay, Paper and tion with UNDO, which is housed in Wil- of research. Newcomers to urban centers Paint as Tools and Weapons.” Puppetry In- liamsburg and addresses the past as well as can grasp history for theirs in a similar jour- ternational 39 (Spring/Summer). the present, strengthens the historical mes- ney. Ethnographies and demographic infor- sage at BHS. Another example: One cannot mation abound and can become catalysts for Kate Grow reclaim the farm movement of the 1960s change. Media collaborations can bring to McCormick is without looking at the vast number of im- life these stories in a variety of performance an independent folklorist who migrants employed in food prep factories in genres. Elizabeth Merritt from the Center for has written about present day Brooklyn and Queens. UNDO’s the Future of Museums states the challenge: folklore projects done in her role programming is relevant. as teacher and It is up to each museum to develop guidance counselor in the Department Conclusion a nuanced understanding of its community and the very important differ- of Education NYC. The examples here have dealt with Peter Her interests ences—generational, political, histori- Schumann’s life of resistance, a historical are museum cal, geographic and cultural—that exist programming, childlore, and puppetry.

34 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ALN8BAL8MO: A NATIVE VOICE Jesse Cornplanter: Telling Stories With

Pictures And Words BY JOSEPH BRUCHAC

On the wall of our Ndakinna Education the American Revolution. One of the most of a reputation as an artist to be sought out Center hangs a striking, beautifully detailed famous Native Americans of his time, he for illustration projects. Frederick Starr, the print. An Iroquois woman sits with her led the negotiations of the Iroquois nations American anthropologist, commissioned baby beside the fire inside her elm-bark with the new United States and maintained him to illustrate Iroquois Indian Games and longhouse. Above, looking down through Iroquois neutrality and friendship with Dances in 1903, while Arthur Parker began the smoke-hole in the roof, a flying head— the Americans from then on. In 1796, a decade-long collaboration with him that one of the most fearsome of traditional the United States government granted included providing illustrations for The monsters—is poised to swoop down and “him and his heirs forever” title to 1,500 Code of Handsome Lake. In both books, he devour her. It’s done in the style called acres of former Seneca lands in northern was credited as “Jesse Cornplanter, Seneca “Iroquois Realism,” that dates back to Pennsylvania. Indian Boy.” To this day, an archive of 45 Tuscarora artist and writer David Cusick Cornplanter was also the half-brother of his illustrations, annotated by Parker, is (1780–1831). It is, to me, the quintessential of the Iroquois prophet, Handsome Lake, in the New York State Library. rendering of one of the most classic stories whose visionary experience near the start Jesse Cornplanter’s career as an artist and of the Haudenosaunee—that of the brave of the 19th century led to the creation of representative of his culture did not end in woman and the flying head. the Gai-wiio, the “Good Message”—the his teenage years. Close by his father’s side, The artist who did that drawing was Longhouse Religion. It preached a code including on a trip to Europe when he was “Jesse J. Cornplanter of the Senecas,” as his of family unity, abstinence from alcohol, a child, he absorbed everything traditional, name appears on the title page of Legends and a return to traditional ways at a time becoming an accomplished craftsman, of the Longhouse.1 Published in 1938, it’s a when the Iroquois nations had been greatly storyteller, and singer. Following another compilation of letters written to “Sah- weakened. longstanding Seneca tradition—defending nee-weh, the White Sister,” Mrs. Walter A. The code of Handsome Lake’s played the homeland—he enlisted in the United Hendericks. These were not ordinary letters, an important role in Jesse Cornplanter’s States Army in 1917, and was sent to France for each contained a well told traditional life. His father, Edward Cornplanter where he was wounded and received the story, the epistolary form serving as a (1856–1918), the original Cornplanter’s Purple Heart. His father Edward died in device for Cornplanter to relate everything great-great-grandson, was one of a half the 1918 flu pandemic, which also took the from the Haudenosaunee Creation Story dozen men of his generation who were lives of his mother, one of his sisters, and to the tale of the vampire skeleton. With authorized as faithkeepers or “holders of several nieces and nephews. Jesse adopted the author’s own illustrations bringing each the Gai’wiio.” and raised his sister’s orphaned children story further to life, it’s still a delight to read Until 1903, the Gai-wiio was entirely an while going on, over the next four decades 80 years after it first appeared in print. oral tradition. Literacy in English, however, of his life, to become a chief in the Long Who was Jesse Cornplanter? In a brief was long established among the Senecas, as House of New Town and a head singer for introduction to Legends of the Longhouse, Carl a result of the various reservation schools ceremonies. Carmer described him as “six foot two of that began to appear in the 18th century— His life story would make a fascinating solid Seneca, soldier, craftsman, musician, founded by one Christian denomination movie—no less so for the fact that he actor, tale teller. . . a fitting descendant of or another. Fearing the Gai’wiio would be played the leading role in the 1913 film that ancestor of his, the Corn Planter, who lost, Edward Cornplanter wrote it down in Hiawatha, based on the poem by Henry was a friend to General Washington.”2 All English in a manuscript he gave to the New Wadsworth Longfellow. It was the first that and more was true, but it needs further York State Museum. Edited by none other feature film with an all-Native American explanation. than Arthur C. Parker, it was published cast. A review in Moving Picture News3 (Jan– The original Cornplanter, whose as The Code of Handsome Lake (New York June 1913, 16) described Jesse as “one of European name was John Abeel, III, State Bulletin 163: 5–148) in 1912. And this the handsomest men ever shown in moving was indeed a friend of this nation’s brings us back to Jesse. pictures.” first president. His Seneca name was Born on the Cattaraugus Reservation An ironic historical footnote is that Gaiänt’wakê, “the planter.” As a war chief in 1889, Jesse became fascinated with art the death in 1957 of Jesse Cornplanter— and diplomat, he fought as an ally of the at an early age. He received no formal that ardent protector of his people’s British in the French and Indian War and training, but by the age of 14 had enough traditions—played a part in one of the

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 35 A Native Voice (continued) Submission Guidelines for

most unjust events to befall the Iroquois Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore people in the 20th century. Because Jesse Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is Style left no children and was the last descendant a membership magazine of the New York The journal follows The Chicago Manual of Style. of the original Cornplanter, the federal Folklore Society (www.nyfolklore.org). Consult Webster’s Third International Dictionary for The New York Folklore Society is a nonprofit, questions of spelling, meaning, and usage, and avoid government claimed the 1,500-acre statewide organization dedicated to furthering gender-specific terminology. Cornplanter Tract that had been granted cultural equity and cross-cultural understanding Footnotes. Endnotes and footnotes should be through programs that nurture folk cultural expres- avoided; incorporate such information into the text. to “him and his heirs forever.” The Kinzua sions within communities where they originate, Ancillary information may be submitted as a sidebar. Dam built there flooded most of the lands share these traditions across cultural boundaries, Bibliographic citations. For citations of text and enhance the understanding and appreciation of from outside sources, use the author-date style of that tract, forcing the relocation of folk culture. Through Voices the society communi- described in The Chicago Manual of Style. many Seneca families and taking most of cates with professional folklorists and members of Language. All material must be submitted in related fields, traditional artists, and a general public English. Foreign-language terms (transliterated, their fertile land, and also resulting in the interested in folklore. where appropriate, into the Roman alphabet) should moving of Cornplanter’s grave and the Voices is dedicated to publishing the content of be italicized and followed by a concise parenthetical folklore in the words and images of its creators and English gloss; the author bears responsibility for the 1866 monument honoring his friendship practitioners. The journal publishes research-based correct spelling and orthographics of non-English with the new nation. articles, written in an accessible style, on topics words. British spellings should be Americanized. related to traditional art and life. It also features stories, interviews, reminiscences, essays, folk poetry Publication Process Notes and music, photographs, and artwork drawn from Unless indicated, the New York Folklore Society people in all parts of New York State. Columns Cornplanter, Jesse J. 1938. Legends of holds copyright to all material published in Voices: on subjects such as photography, sound and video The Journal of New York Folklore. With the submission the Longhouse. Port Washington, NY: recording, legal and ethical issues, and the nature of of material to the editor, the author acknowledges traditional art and life appear in each issue. Kennikat Press. that he or she gives Voices sole rights to its publication, and that permission to publish it elsewhere Carmer, Carl. 1938 “Introduction.” In Editorial Policy must be secured in writing from the editor. Legends of the Longhouse, p. 9. Feature articles. Articles published in Voices For the initial submission, send an e-mail attach- represent original contributions to folklore studies. ment or CD (preferably prepared in Microsoft Word Archive available online: https://archive. Although Voices emphasizes the folklore of New and saved as Rich Text Format). org/details/movingpicturewor15newy York State, the editor welcomes articles based on Copy must be double spaced, with all pages num- the folklore of any area of the world. Articles on bered consecutively. To facilitate anonymous review the theory, methodology, and geography of folklore of feature articles, the author’s name and biography Joseph Bruchac is are also welcome, as are purely descriptive articles should appear only on a separate title page. a writer, musician, in the ethnography of folklore. In addition, Voices Tables, charts, maps, illustrations, photographs, and traditional provides a home for “orphan” tales, narratives, and captions, and credits should follow the main text and Native storyteller songs, whose contributors are urged to provide be numbered consecutively. All illustrations should be whose work contextual information. clean, sharp, and camera-ready. Photographs should be often reflects Authors are encouraged to include short personal prints or duplicate slides (not originals) or scanned at his American reminiscences, anecdotes, isolated tales, narratives, high resolution (300+ dpi) and e-mailed to the edi- Indian (Abenaki) songs, and other material that relates to and en- tor as jpeg or tiff files. Captions and credits must be ancestry and the hances their main article. included. Written permission to publish each image Adirondack Region Typically feature articles range from 1,000 to must be obtained by authors from the copyright of northern New 4,000 words and up to 6,000 words at the editor’s holders prior to submission of manuscripts, and the York where he discretion. written permissions must accompany the manuscript lives in the house Reviews and review essays. Books, recordings, (authors should keep copies). he was raised in films, videos, exhibitions, concerts, and the like are Materials are acknowledged upon receipt. The selected for review in Voices for their relevance to by his grandparents. He is the author of editor and two anonymous readers review manu- folklore studies or the folklore of New York State over 120 books for young readers and scripts submitted as articles. The review process and their potential interest to a wide audience. Per- adults, including the award-winning takes several weeks. sons wishing to review recently published material volume OUR STORIES REMEMBER, Authors receive two complimentary copies of the should contact the editor. Unsolicited reviews and American Indian History, Culture and issue in which their contribution appears and may proposals for reviews will be evaluated by the editor Values through Storytelling. Photo by purchase additional copies at a discount. Authors and by outside referees where appropriate. Follow Eric Jenks. of feature articles may purchase offprints; price the bibliographic style in a current issue of Voices. information is available upon publication. Reviews should not exceed 750 words. Correspondence and commentary. Short but Send Your Story substantive reactions to or elaborations upon material appearing in Voices within the previous year are Submission Deadlines to Voices! welcomed. The editor may invite the author of the materials being addressed to respond; both pieces Spring–Summer issue November 1 Did you know that Voices publishes creative Fall–Winter issue May 1 writing, including creative fiction (such as short may be published together. Any subject may be addressed or rebutted once by any correspondent. stories), creative nonfiction (such as memoirs The principal criteria for publication are whether, Send submissions as Word files to and life/work stories), and poetry? If you are in the opinion of the editor or the editorial board, Todd DeGarmo, Voices Editor one of New York’s traditional artists or work- the comment constitutes a substantive contribution (e-mail preferred): [email protected] ing in a traditional occupation, please consider to folklore studies, and whether it will interest our or sharing with our readers. For more information, general readers. New York Folklore Society see our Submissions Guidelines or contact the Letters should not exceed 500 words. 129 Jay Street Acquisitions Editor at [email protected] Schenectady, NY 12305

36 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore FROM THE WATERFRONT

“In Harm’s Way” BY NANCY SOLOMON

As part of the exhibit “In Harm’s Way,” which explores how communities cope with storms and hurricanes, I conducted numerous interviews with local residents, architects, and planners about their experiences with storms and hurricanes. One of those interviewed was the Town of Hempstead Commissioner of Conservation and Waterways, Tom Doheny, who has worked on erosion issues for over 40 years. In addition, architects Joe Pignataro of Freeport and Joe Gallinaro of Long Beach have important insights into the problems facing waterfront homeowners. Tom Doheny: “The severe storms of the ‘60s and the ‘70s snapped us to attention. Because there was no dune, and therefore, everyone had a good look at the ocean. We started building dunes in the early 1970s, installing snow fenc- Point Lookout 2015: Shoreline communities like Point Lookout on Long Island’s South Shore suffered catastrophic damage during Sandy. Photo by Nancy Solomon, courtesy of Long Island ing and planting beach grass. I went to a Long Traditions. Beach Civic Association meeting and when I ex- plained about the dunes, they just about tarred to go, it will take the path of least resistance. It’s There are other proven ways to mitigate a house and feathered me. Hurricane Gloria showed up just going to shunt the water further west. The to make it flood resistant, such as buoyant foun- and completely wiped out the west end of Long water will just pile up on it [the wall.] It’s a mas- dations or flood break walls that rise against the Beach. Their TVs and furniture were floating sive 15-foot wall of steel and concrete that is house as the floodwaters rise. These designs al- down Ohio Avenue. The City Manager’s phone made to protect infrastructure. They don’t really low the house elevations to remain as-is. You line lit up, and the people demanded a dune be care if the water goes someplace else. I hope have other issues, too, when you elevate. You built for the west end of Long Beach. A month the state is going to do some studies on the hy- may be out of the flood zone, but now you’re and a half later, it was completed. We were able draulics. The mayor of Freeport wants to put higher in the wind zone. You also have to think to decrease the damage to a great degree.” tidal gates in the inlet. The volume of water that of the marketability of these houses—who is When Sandy hit, Doheny, like others, was comes in the inlet is enormous. I can’t tell you going to want to climb 13+ steps to get to their surprised at the damage on the bay front: “Had how many millions of gallons of water come in front door? We have to be sensitive to the com- I known we were going to have an 11-foot tsu- there a day—600,000 cubic yards of sand come munity.” nami, coming down Reynolds Channel, I would in there on the littoral drift every year. A study Pignataro helped redesign a bay house and have done a lot more personally to protect my needs to be done to determine what will hap- has some astute observations about its design: own property. The forecasters kept equating it pen when the tidal gates holds the water back, “The bay houses have these trap doors in to Irene, saying ‘it would only be a foot or two from coming into the embayment, as to where the floor, and they let the water come in. When over, don’t worry.’ But that was not the case. the water will go in response to the tide gate.” the water rises, the trap door opens, the water The tide from the East Rockaway Inlet and the Alongside people like Commissioner comes in, and six hours later, the water goes tide from Jones Inlet came together, and sand- Doheny are architects like Joe Pignataro of down. The interior will get wet, but if you live in wiched the people in Island Park. They didn’t Freeport, who experienced Sandy and also have a coastal area, you have to make a few conces- have a chance.” to cope with the new reality of climate change. sions to how you design your interiors. A lot of Like many coastal planners, Commissioner “A house has to be designed well, but just houses around here were condemned, because Doheny had seen a wide variety of proposals to as important, has to be built well. We’re being they shifted on their foundations, where there prevent future storm damage on Long Island. more sensitive to how these houses are going was so much water pressure on the sides of the Although there are some who would like to see to be fastened, and how they’re going to be houses, it actually caved in their foundations. floodgates erected, there are factors that could constructed and secured. There’s a big rush Had they had flood vents that let the water in affect the success of such proposals. to elevate the houses, and I think we’re getting and out, most likely their foundations would “I’m still asking myself what a flood wall ahead of ourselves. We’re creating skyscrap- have remained intact. Older houses that have would do. When there’s no place for the water ers of houses just to get them off the ground. used spray foam fiberglass insulation within

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 37 their floor joist cavities after Sandy could pos- sometimes bring the yard up to the height of sibly float off their foundations the next time the second story or main living area with a large such a storm occurs. Those are the things peo- deck, or extend the exterior yard space under a ple need to be concerned about.” house on stilts for kids to play on. Architect Joseph Gallinaro of Long Beach We ask people, ‘How do you live?’ so that has worked on countless projects since Sandy the house design reflects their lifestyle. It’s not struck: enough to make the houses safe—we need to “We stayed during the storm. Unfortunately, do more. Designing a house that can withstand our block had multiple house fires. The flames strong winds and flood waters is not enough. were reflecting off the 36-inch deep floodwater, We have to positively affect the way people live making the street look like it was on fire. A very in their homes. We try to give people something surreal experience.” they don’t even know they want.” “After the storm, the potential for how I For those interested in hearing more about could help surfaced right away. In a single day, these topics, I invite you to visit the Long Island I could be at a friend’s or neighbor’s house giv- Traditions’ YouTube channel, and look for the ing them a list of individuals that could help “In Harm’s Way” playlist. www.youtube.com/user/ them, gutting houses or drawing with a black LongIslandTraditions marker on some wall, showing owners how to deal with this forced renovation project. It has Nancy Solomon felt good to help my community. My children is executive director of Long are the fourth generation of Gallinaro’s to live Island Traditions, located in Port 115 Connecticut Avenue: Architect Joe in Long Beach.” Washington, Gallinaro has rebuilt several houses in Long “We’ve been developing multiple founda- New York. She Beach, where there are houses on both the can be reached at ocean and the bay. Photo by Nancy Solomon, tion systems and ways of laying out houses. The 516/767-8803 or courtesy of Long Island Traditions. homeowner’s connection to the yard is com- info@ pletely different once elevated a full story. We longislandtraditions.org.

In Memoriam: Gregory Sharrow (1950–2018) Folklorist, Vermont Folklife Center

“We believe strongly as an organization and as individuals that art does not belong to any particular sector of the population—to rich people or to people with university training or to people who have public acclaim—but rather that the making of art is an irrepressible force that is true of everyone.” —Greg Sharrow

“If we are really wanting to understand someone’s experience we need to know what they believe. Because people exist within a system of belief that has to do with health and wellness and illness and healing, it has to do with justice and fairness and all kinds of really fundamental and important things. Folklore is the perfect postmodern discipline. Because truth from my point of view is a chorus. It’s a chorus of 10 people, or a chorus of a thousand people, where some people are singing in unison, some people are singing in harmony, and some people are singing in disharmony. —Greg Sharrow

Quoted from “In Memoriam: Gregory Lew Sharrow (March 26, 1950—April 2, 2018)” Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont. For the entire post, go to https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/fieldnotes/in-memoriam-gregory-sharrow

38 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ARTIST SPOTLIGHT Alex Torres & His Latin Orchestra Formed in Amsterdam, New York, in October Alex Torres & His Latin Orchestra also have Abe Sanchez is from Venezuela and currently 1980, this 12-piece orchestra is led by the Bronx- been featured on television commercials for The resides in North Adams, MA. William Rodriguez born bassist Alex Torres. They have been Albany Times Union. They wrote and performed is from Santiago de Cuba and currently resides in presented by hundreds of festivals, performing the music for the PBS weekly program Made in Brattleboro, VT. Alex, Robert, Angel, and Miguel arts centers, and events annually to perform their New York, and twice performed for Time Warner’s are Puerto Rican and have roots in Amsterdam, original blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, such as music series, Sounding Board. Their music has also NY, and Todd was born and raised in Amsterdam salsa, merengue, cha-cha, bomba, plena, and Latin Jazz. been featured in the motion pictures Slammin’ and currently resides in Saratoga. Alex, Todd, The Orchestra has been the recipient of Salmon, Old Dogs, Drunken Wedding, and Broken and Robert attended Amsterdam High School numerous awards, including the New England City; indie films The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, together. Ken, Fred, and Nate are Albany residents, Cultural Arts Preservation Award, the New York Guten Tag Ramon, and Permission; and the made-for- while Jon is from Gloversville, NY, and Terry is State Music Achievement Award, the Schenectady TV movie Unanswered Prayers. Also, they have been from Sharon Springs, NY. Many of the musicians League of Arts Award, the Governor’s Excellence featured on TV series Ugly Betty, Human Target, The are Capital District jazz players, and this has helped in Arts Award, the NAACP Albany Chapter Finder, Miami’s The Color Splash, Road to the Kentucky spread the word among them about Alex’s band. Award, and three awards from New York Capital Derby, Quiero Mis Quinces, Mistresses, Breaking Some have stopped by to “check it out” and have District Original Music Awards in 2016. Amish, The Blacklist, Code Black, and Complications; stayed for over 20 years! Alex Torres & His Latin Orchestra have and Australian TV series Tricky Business and The The band is currently in their 37th year of performed for President Bill and Hillary Clinton Glades; as well as Verizon’s web series Grown, and performing, and there are no signs of them at the New York State Democratic Convention featured sound tracks on the video games Tropico slowing down. They are also currently recording and also for New York Governor’s George Pataki 3, 4 & 5. their 13th CD Guarapo y Mermelada, which is due to and Eliot Spitzer’s inaugurations. They have Orchestra members are: Alex Torres – Band be released in the summer of 2018. shared the stage and billings with such major acts leader, bass, vocals; Abe Sanchez – Piano; For additional information and a complete as Tito Puente, Tito Puente Jr., Eddie Palmieri, Robert Lopez – Tres, vocals; Wilo Rodriguez – schedule of performance dates, please visit the Andy Montañez, Los Hermanos Moreno, Arturo Lead vocalist; Todd Fabozzi – Congas; Angel band’s web site (dates are added every month): Sandoval, Branford Marsalis, the Count Basie and Dueño – Timbales, guira, vocals; Miguel http://www.alextorres.com. Woody Herman Orchestras, and others. Santiago – Bongo; Jon Bronk – Lead trumpet; The group is also registered with the Arts-In- Terry Gordon – Trumpet; Fred Young – Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra CDs and Education Program of New York State. This Trumpet; Nate Giroux – Saxophones; and Ken T-shirts are available in the New York Folklore Society’s program brings the orchestra into schools to Olsen – Trombone. Gallery, 129 Jay Street, Schenectady and online at showcase cultural diversity and explain the music, The band members hail from different areas www.nyfolklore.org/gallery/store/music.html instruments, and rhythms associated with their music. of the region and are of different ethnicities:

Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra. Back row, left to right: Bobby Falcon, Angel Dueño, Todd Fabozzi, Jon Bronk, Terry Gordon, Fred Young, Miguel Santiago, Eric Ciarmello, Abe Sánchez. Front row, left to right: Ken Olsen, Alex Torres, Robert Lopez. Photo by Bill Ziskin.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 39 The Market on Saturday Night

BY DAN MILNER

The most important center in any village, town, I’m a poor market woman, We sell peanuts, bananas, or city is its primary place of exchange—the mar- I do a fine trade, And Chinese Havanas, ket. It is the place where everyday, or once a week, Selling my goods at the stall; It’s really a beautiful sight, or sometimes in between, people spend what they A nate bit of money It’s oleomargarine, have to buy what they need. Today, that can range Myself I have made Little pigs crubeens, from local farm produce to clothing or tools made Where I sit with my back to the wall. At the market on Saturday night. on the other side of the globe. In many smaller I sell turkeys and partridges, Saturday night is crucial to the widowed stall- localities within New York State, the market can Turnips and cabbages, be a vestigial general store or modern convenience holder, because it is the apex of the week, the eve- Crockery and tinwear so bright, ning before the only day of rest for most working outlet, while in towns and cities, it is likely to be the Parsnips and cresses, class New Yorkers. While most of the city happily main street or a mall. In Manhattan, beginning in And little babes’ dresses, 1812 and for more than 140 years thereafter, Wash- At the market on Saturday night. puts work aside, she joyously embraces it. Saturday ington Market dominated the scene. night is when the throng descends, when she might Built partially on wetlands and now the site The Mondays and Tuesdays make her weekly rent in one day and could raise the of the World Trade Center, Washington Market And Fridays are fine, cash needed to buy her stock for next week. Who at first contained both wholesale and retail busi- Wednesdays and Thursdays are light, is this woman? First, she is Irish. We know that be- nesses, becoming the largest food market in the But thousands of people cause she refers to pickled pigs feet as crubeens. Sec- They stand in a line country by 1859. Its bustling location between the ond, she is proud, someone who has worked her At the market on Saturday night. downtown central business district and the Hud- way up to being a small business owner, possibly son River, however, became a traffic nightmare, as after laboring at a laundry tub—one of the self- We sell lemons and butterbeans, employed army of stallholders in the city’s prime horse carts and hand trucks and throngs of people Carrots and holly greens, bazaar. could barely move in and around it. So, the two Celery, so crispy and white, If you want to sing “The Market on Saturday functions, wholesale and retail, were separated after Pickles and chow-chow, the Civil War. The retail operation, between Wash- And dogs that say bow-wow Night,” you may do so. Just go to the University ington, Vesey, and Fulton Streets and the river, was At the market on Saturday night. of California website (http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ rebuilt between 1883 and 1884—but not before OBJID/Cylinder3626) to listen to Ada Jones’ re- Edward Harrigan, the greatest 19th-century musi- In summer or winter, markable 1909 recording. Interestingly, the tune cal chronicler of Manhattan’s streetscape, captured Oh, when the wind blows, David Brahim wrote for Harrigan’s lyric sounds the atmosphere in his 1882 realist song lyric, “The Filling wid dust all our eyes, very much like a minor key rendition of the Dub- In rain or in frost Market of Saturday Night”: lin standard, “Biddy Mulligan, the Pride of the Or terrific snow, Coombe.” Which appeared first? Probably the We’re shouting and yelling our cries. New York melody.

Dan Milner comes from a family of Irish traditional singers. A former ranger in the National Park Service, he teaches cultural geography at St. John’s University. Dan’s recordings for Smithsonian Folkways include Irish Pirate Ballads, which received two Indie nominations in 2009, and Civil War Naval Songs with Jeff Davis and David Coffin. His book of 150 folksongs from Ireland, “The Market on Saturday Night,” which appeared in Edward Harrigan’s England, and Scotland is The Bonnie 1882 musical play, McSorley’s Inflation. Bunch of Roses (1984).

40 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Jack “Legs” Diamond Portal By Shannon Cuthbert By Shannon Cuthbert

They called him “clay pigeon of the underworld,” The man drove us up to his aunt’s old place, a man they said would never die, a tumbling-down house in Cairo, New York. in spite of the bullets they sunk in his skin. The house on its haunches lay curled like a question, Bootlegger, skirt-chaser, murderer, traitor, with trees blowing smoke on either side. he fled Manhattan for wide upstate skies It seemed to me a ghost of its own, where a man could see for miles and start anew, though the man assured us there were more within. a trail of conned cops and double-crossed dames We walked past a shed hung with dull-eyed deer, all left behind to seek their vain vengeance. past bikes whose wheels were tongue-tied with weeds, And start he did, a vast business of booze, churning up white moths like sparks of flame, a network of moonshine smuggled by moonlight, til we came to the door, its maw yawning wide, silently finding its way to speakeasies— its gap-toothed blackness beckoning us in. not always as silently as Legs hoped, I turned around once before I went through, though he was in the business of fixing that too, and watched a white moth taking flight, snuffing out lives like last night’s lanterns. its powdered wings seizing my cool, dark heart. All Legs, all strut, he was fire on the dance floor, cavorting at the Kenmore, at Catskill Mountain House, itself a doomed creature left to dim and decay, razed in ’63 to let wilderness in. Diamond was destined to shine too bright, shot in the dark in his bed on Dove Street, ghosts catching up under cover of night. A native of New Jersey, who grew up spending many He is nowhere and everywhere, an echo now, summers with family in upstate New York, Shannon his name etched deep on the marbled mountains. Cuthbert is a freelance writer who holds a BA in Creative Writing and Psychology from Hamilton College. She is a Even now the Hudson, hungry for stories, long-time lover of fairy tales, folklore, and local legends, carries whispers of his many crimes, with a particular interest in New York State and Irish folklore. She currently lives in Brooklyn and frequently dark tales that seep in the clay-soft soil, spends time in the Catskills to be surrounded by their make silver minnows scatter like stones. beauty.

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Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 41 Analysis and Intuition: Reflections on the Mystic Union of Measure and Abandon in the Art of Figure Drawing

BY STEPHEN ALCORN

eonardo da Vinci, perhaps the first art- of air and water. Many of these investiga- man’s imagination with convincing images L ist in the modern sense, was by inclina- tions revolved, however, around what we call of important things. Leonardo was too much tion a scientist. He wanted to discover how art; the way light strikes a sphere, the way in an artist, in our modern sense, not to realize things worked. He loved to collect data and which an image is conveyed to the human that the imagination could operate in a dia- filled the notebooks he kept through a spell- eye. Leonardo made no distinction between metrically opposed manner. This awareness binding marriage of calligraphic notation and the various forms of knowledge. He believed is beautifully expressed in the passage in the an unrivaled drawing prowess. He was espe- that what we call science and what we call Treatise on Painting, in which he explains this cially fond of drawing diagrams. And many art are one. Art was a branch of knowledge contrary mode of operation: of the drawings and diagrams concerned me- in which a permanent record of natural ap- chanical subjects and themes—the action of pearances was considered valuable, both for I shall not refrain (he says) from includ- crossbows and catapults, or the movement its own sake and because it would supply ing among these precepts a new and

Four figure studies; Drawn from life. In-class demos; Department of Communication Arts, VCU/SOTA. Mixed media on paper; 11 in. x 14 in. Sketchbook. Full color (reproduced as grayscale). © Stephen Alcorn 2018.

42 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore speculative idea, which although it may seem trivial and almost laughable, is nonetheless of great value in quickening the spirit of invention. It is this: that you should look at certain walls stained with Analysis and Intuition: damp or at stones of uneven color. If you have to invent some setting you will be Reflections on the Mystic Union of Measure able to see in these the likeness of divine landscapes, adorned with mountains, ruins, rocks, woods, great plains, hills and and Abandon in the Art of Figure Drawing valleys in great variety; and then again you will see their battles and strange figures in violent action, expressions of faces, and clothes, and an infinity of things which you will be able to reduce to their complete and proper forms. In such walls, the same thing happens as in the sound of bells, in whose strokes you may find every named word you can imagine. (Clark 1959, 82)

Later, Leonardo “repeats this suggestion in a slightly different form, advising the painter to study not only marks on walls, but also ‘the embers of the fire, or clouds or mud, or other similar objects from which you will find most admirable ideas…because from a confusion of shapes the spirit is quickened to new inventions.’ ‘But,’ he adds, ‘first be sure you know all members of all the things you wish to depict, both the members of animals and the members of landscape, that is to say rocks, plants and so forth’” (Clark 1959, 82).

Forging a Mystic Union The Blot and the Schemata: these may be taken to express the opposite poles of our Ten figure studies; Drawn from life. In-class demos; Department of Communication Arts, VCU/SOTA. Mixed media on paper; 11 in. x 14 in. sketchbook. Full color and grayscale faculties, and it is arguable that the connection (reproduced as grayscale). © Stephen Alcorn 2018. between the two has produced what we call art. This concept reflects the aesthetic ideas the Gothic cathedrals or set up the stained- however, painters felt that these two sciences expressed in the writings of Benedetto Croce glass windows of Chartres or cast the bronze made their art intellectually respectable and, (1928) and, in particular, the belief that art is doors of the Florence Baptistery or build the therefore, honorable. connected not with our rational, but with our dome of the cathedral. When this bracing el- The act of drawing is a means to an intuitive faculties. This represents, in fact, a ement of craftsmanship ceased to define the end—but to what end depends not only on reversion to a very old idea, because long be- artist’s outlook, as happened in Leonardo’s the individual artist, but also on the context fore Leonardo had advised the artist to draw lifetime, new scientific disciplines had to be in which he/she lives and operates. In the inspiration from the stains on walls, men had invented to maintain the intellectual element 19th century, for example, belief in art as a admitted the Dionysian nature of art. They in art. Such were perspective and anatomy. scientific activity declined. This happened also had recognized that the frenzy of in- From the purely artistic point of view, these for a number of reasons, but the end result spiration must be controlled by law and by disciplines were not necessary. The Chinese was that science and technology withdrew the intellectual power of putting things into produced some of the finest landscapes ever into the realm of specialization. In spite of harmonious order. This general philosophic painted without any systematic knowledge of their belief in inspiration, the great Roman- concept of art was supported by technical perspective. Greek figure sculpture reached tics of the day were aware of the impoverish- necessities. It was necessary to master certain its highest point before the analytic study ment of the imagination, which would take laws and to use the intellect in order to build of anatomy. From the Renaissance onward, place when science had drifted out of reach,

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 43 Twenty figure studies; Drawn from life. In-class demos; Department of Communication Arts, VCU/SOTA. Mixed media on paper; 11 in. x 14 in. sketchbook. Full color and grayscale (reproduced as grayscale). © Stephen Alcorn 2018.

thereby informing and shaping the works meaningless. Is it not the illogical totality, the world, in which theory is systematically di- they created. The deflections from art to mystic union of the blot and the blueprint, or vorced from praxis, and in which established science are more serious, because these are the instinctive and the rational, which has giv- standards of excellence are either evaded or not, as once supposed, two contrary activities en true art its significance? Can such a union refuted. The result can often be an art that but, in fact, draw on many of the same ca- ever be reestablished? Since being invited to is subjective and arcane to a fault—an art of pacities of the human mind. Although, over teach at Virginia Commonwealth University’s accident rather than rule, of stains on walls the course of the past century, science may School of the Arts in the fall of 2010, this (or of the unconscious mind), rather than of have absorbed many of the functions of art has been my primary objective. calculation, of inscape rather than landscape. and deflected many potential artists, it obvi- In this newfangled Ivory Tower, new stan- ously cannot be a substitute for art. Its mental A Proverbial Fork in the dards are being invented to accommodate a processes may be similar, but its ends are dif- Road rising tide of mediocrity at the expense of ferent. The impure nature of art, the seem- Aspiring fine artists entering today’s typical irrefutable excellence; respect for tradition ingly unnatural marriage of truth and beauty, art school move into a world in which they is dismissed as mere nostalgia; physical me- has been the despair of metaphysicians and are encouraged to pursue specializations that dia are considered obsolete, and the practice has only ceased to worry philosophers since prevent different disciplines from interact- of drawing from life has been all but aban- they both agreed that words could be de- ing in informative, meaningful ways—some doned. Fortunately, however, this is not the constructed to the point of rendering them would argue an escapist, post-Duchampian only track.

44 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Alternative tracks await those who (by con- necessitate innumerable interruptions of an impersonal, diagrammatic coldness will trast) are interested in pursuing a more pur- one’s eye–mind–hand coordination—the prevail at the expense of human tactility and poseful career within the realm of the applied very coordination upon which spontane- warmth. By the same token, the iconoclastic arts, for example, as a scientific and medical il- ous artistic expression depends. Such are the abandonment of figurative drawing practices lustrator. Students dedicated to drawing tend mechanics of observational drawing. This on the part of many fine art departments to fair better in this arena, especially in terms methodical science of gauging and transcrip- around the world today, in the name of in- of the skill sets being imparted. Here, too, the tion, once championed in Beaux Arts schools trospective self-expression (real or imagined), technical instruction they receive can suffer around the world, can degenerate—if one is has proven equally problematic. To this day, from the ill effects of specialization. There not vigilant—to the point of suffocating any students and instructors alike continue to feel are figure drawing programs that dictate that intuitive impulses, in the name of precision the aftershocks generated by the schism be- students concentrate on one sustained pose and accuracy, that the students may experi- tween analytical and Dionysian impulses that for an entire semester, forbid students from ence in the process of drawing a live model. took place in the early and mid-20th century. drawing the heads of the models, and finally, Consequently, and paradoxically, rather than from using more than one quality of graph- engage in what has been known for centu- Drawing At The Speed Of ite—a dehumanizing, impersonal approach ries as the practice of life drawing, students Sight that necessitates that the models be treated can find themselves forced to engage in a As an instructor, I strive to provide my stu- as inanimate objects. Inevitably, the end result sort of death drawing. That great intellectual dents with a healthy alternative to this divisive to this approach is an unduly formulaic and achievement known as perspective, by which dichotomy in the realm of art education. I homogeneous, disconcertingly gray body of figures of a human scale can be related to do so by cultivating a learning environment, a work devoid of any spark of life. Analysis one another in some plausible and measur- creative greenhouse, if you will, in which my requires time, due diligence, and patience. able system, can also paralyze the intuitive students can begin to experience firsthand And inevitably, the process of gauging and faculty by which objects are seen with imme- the holistic and edifying marriage of (mea- the subsequent process of transcribing one’s diate vividness. Without a proper balance of sured) deliberation and (intuitive) spontaneity findings onto a two-dimensional surface analysis and intuition, there is the danger that that was all but abandoned by art schools in

“Perpetual Motion.” Myriad figure studies; Drawn from life, at the speed of sight. In-class demos; Department ofDance& Choreography, VCU/SOTA. Mixed media on paper; 11 in. x 14 in. sketchbook. Full color and grayscale (reproduced as grayscale). © Stephen Alcorn 2018.

Fall–Winter 2017, Volume 43:3–4 45 Six figure studies; Drawn from life. In-class demos; Department of Communication Arts, VCU/SOTA. Mixed media on paper; 11 in. x 14 in. sketchbook. Full color and grayscale (reproduced as grayscale). © Stephen Alcorn 2018.

the wake of the Second World War. By dedi- the drawing tool, a calligraphic rhythm can allegory’s equivocations—a dream in which cating the beginning of each semester to the be achieved, the result being the embodiment the protagonists are dissolved. In drawings fundamentals of gauging and transcription, of a figure in motion. The inability to pause, such as these, it is imperative that those pas- I provide students with a foundation that and ponder the marks they make, encourages sages stemming from half-formed thoughts serves as a precursor to the more interpre- students to act swiftly and with decisiveness. remain inarticulate, unless they are expressed tive approaches that follow—the elements of The resultant economy of means of drawings by a hint, a suggestion, or a cadence, that gives space, light, and time. The semester-long, in- executed in this manner fosters an awareness remote intuitions visible shape. Tintoretto, El cremental transition from analytical process- of the importance that the selection process Greco, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso, and Käthe es of transcription to increasingly intuitive plays in the realization of a compelling draw- Kollwitz have shown how the greatest artists mark-making practices culminates with a visit ing, and of the value that lies in the creation could achieve a complete and coherent man- to the Department of Dance and Choreog- of a graphic shorthand, capable of express- ner of drawing with a degree of definition no raphy, where students are challenged to draw ing in select few lines the essence of what is greater than that of a prehistoric cave paint- dance majors as they train and rehearse—in being drawn. From this newfound awareness, ing. In the wake of the advent of photogra- a word, to draw the human figure in perpetual students come to realize that the creation of phy, we have learned that all the knowledge motion. Thus, students experience the antith- works of art is not a sort of obstacle race, in of anatomy, botany, and geology with which esis of the inanimate, static approach that has which the artist who wins has overcome the Da Vinci enriched his art could have been come to define the conventional figure draw- greatest number of arbitrary conceptual or suggested, rather than described and could, ing instruction and, in the process, are intro- technical difficulties. And perhaps, most im- perhaps, have found as vivid expression in a duced to drawing at the speed of sight. Such a portantly, they learn that finish is only of val- few spontaneous hints, as in an accumulation practice precludes an unwarranted interrup- ue when it is a true medium of expression. To of careful statements. tion of the line-making process; and indeed, bring every square inch to the conventional one of the means by which one can achieve degree of finish risks destroying the unity of A Means To An End a level of fluidity that is commensurate with the whole. This is the case, especially, when I believe that, although the practice of the kinetic spirit of such subjects is via the a drawing is conceived in a spirit opposed learning to draw the human figure in this way use of a single, continuous line. By not lifting to clear statement: as in an allegory, with an is neither the beginning nor the end of art,

46 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore it is a means for my students—perhaps, the assignment serves to present the professor most reliable means—of uniting their analyt- not as a “fount of all knowledge,” but as a ical and intuitive mental faculties. By remind- facilitator and participant in the humble ac- ing my students of the original meaning of tivity of learning. Thus, teaching becomes the word “art”—it signifies a certain level of learning. The result of this pedagogical skill and discipline—and by treating the mod- strategy is twofold. First, students come to el as a living, breathing individual while intro- respect professors who adhere to daily stan- ducing the element of time (and the passage dards of behavior fundamental to their field. thereof) into the drawing process, I find it Second, the professor comes to have a great possible to restore to the learning process an deal more respect for the challenges that stu- appreciation for the ties that bind the seem- dents face as they complete their rigorous ingly disparate, yet mutually inclusive, mental assignments. The drawings featured in this faculties of analysis and intuition. The result article are emblematic of the variety of tech- is a process, predicated upon the recognition niques and approaches I have developed as of and trust in the eye–mind–hand coordi- an instructor, and of my participation in the nation, a process in which the flow of con- daily drawing lessons I have had the privilege sciousness—rather than its interruption—is to conduct within the Department of Com- celebrated and fostered. The need to bridge munication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth Self-Portrait: “Through the Looking these complementary mental faculties and University: a corner of the world in which Glass” (Detail of self-portrait by Stephen the mechanics of drawing with the greater the practice of figure drawing continues to Alcorn). Mixed media on tinted paper; 22 in. x 17 in. Full color (reproduced as spiritual dimension would not be so urgent play a defining role in the development of grayscale). ©Stephen Alcorn 2018. were it not for the incremental reduction of aspiring artists. focus on the practice of figure drawing over Stephen Alcorn is an Associate Professor, the course of a typical art school academic References Department of career. Clark, Kenneth. 1959. Leonardo da Vinci. Communication Arts, School of the Arts, Virginia Hammondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. Commonwealth University. Cultivating A Garden Of (first published by Cambridge University Stephen’s work at VCU is described in the March 7, 2018, Richmond Times-Dispatch Experiential Learning Press, 1939). profile titled “Drawn from real life: The courses I teach require students Croce, Benedetto. 1928. Estetica come scienza Stephen Alcorn uses his global education to lift VCU art programs”: http://www. to draw and build their sketchbooks on a dell’espressione e linguistica generale: teoria e richmond.com/entertainment/art/drawn- daily basis. My participation in this daily storia, 6 edizione. Bari: Laterza & Figli. from-real-life-stephen-alcorn-uses-his- global-education/article_58931156-b84d- 5b7c-87c8-abcec916e3b0.html.

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