magazine of the philadelphia folklore project

● Palestinian tatreez

● Kulu Mele in Guinea ● Family stories

● Liberian dance and drum

● Curing homesickness

Volume 22:1-2 summer/fall 2009 ISSN 1075-0029 Works in progress is the magazine of the Philadelphia Folklore Project, a 22-year-old public interest folklife agency. We work with people and inside communities in the Philadelphia area to build critical folk cultural knowledge, sustain the complex folk and traditional arts of our region, and challenge practices that diminish these local grassroots arts and humanities. To learn more, please visit us: www.folkloreproject.org or call 215.726.1106. 3 From the editor philadelphia folklore project staff 4 Kulu Mele in Guinea Editor/PFP Director: Debora Kodish Program Associates: Abimbola Cole Program Assistant: Thomas Owens 6 Tatreez: Palestinian women’s Designer: IFE designs + Associates needlework in Philadelphia Printing: Garrison Printers by Nehad Khader [Printed on recycled paper]

philadelphia folklore 0 1 Do these stories exist in other families? project board by Linda Goss, Yvonne DeVasty & Jeannine Osayande

Leslie Esdaille Banks Linda Goss 12  Building a town with dance & drum Rechelle McJett Beatty Ife Nii-Owoo by Ruth M. Stone Mawusi Simmons Yvette Smalls Ellen Somekawa Dorothy Wilkie 14   Chhayam by Toni Shapiro-Phim we gratefully acknowledge support from: 18 Does it cure homesickness? by Germaine Ingram ● The National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great arts 30 PFP doings ● The National Endowment for the Arts - Front cover: Recovery Act Palestinian needlework ● Pennsylvania Council on the Arts artists Maisaloon Dias, Alia ● Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Sheikh-Yousef, and Nehad ● The Pennsylvania Humanities Council Khader looking at tatreez. ● The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Photo: Sarah Green, 2009 Economic Development ● The Philadelphia Cultural Fund ● The William Penn Foundation ● The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Heritage Philadelphia Program ● Artography: Arts in a Changing America, a grant and documentation program of Leveraging Investments in Creativity, funded by the Ford Foundation ● The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, through Dance Advance ● The Pew Charitable Trusts ● The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Philadelphia Music Project ● The Malka and Jacob Goldfarb Foundation ● The Samuel Fels Fund ● The Douty Foundation ● The Hilles Foundation ● The Henrietta Tower Wurts Foundation ● Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation ● PNC Arts Alive ● and wonderful individual Philadelphia Folklore Project members ● We invite your support: thank you to all

2 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall f r o m t h e editor

“I can look back 50 years,” pages offer powerful testimonies past, and our place in the world, says Baba Robert Crowder, to the challenges and joys of by sharing stories with one founder of the Kulu Mele such spirit work: the territory another, clearing space to hear African Dance Ensemble, of folklore. Palestinian women where spirit rises, lingers, is lost. remembering the Ghanaian artist of three generations, described Many tragedies haunt these and statesman who called the in Nehad Khader's article (and pages, contextualize these words. group into being. And more: present in her exhibition in our The horrors of occupation, “Kulu Mele constantly gallery until December 2009) war, enslavement, and racism developed and is still stitch tatreez. This Palestinian lie behind the efforts of those developing. There is value in needlework is visible affirmation speaking here. Radical hope and Saka Aquaye’s words. This is of their rightful connections to progressive visions of justice for our ancestors.While we are particular home places—villages and equity provide unspoken living, we are trying to embrace seized and destroyed in the frameworks: contexts for the the spirit of our culture.” catastrophe of 1948 and after, expressive work described here. Truth be told: Baba is now 79, the Palestinian Nakhba. We will In these contexts, these folk arts and he looks back longer than a not be dispossessed, tatreez says: of social change address breaks mere five decades. Imagine him our peoplehood, our spirit, will and ruptures and show how we a young man— not so different, not be taken. Stitching tatreez, repair them, bridge them, together. perhaps, from the student women sustain relationships with This issue of Works in Progress who says that his experience one another, and with generations goes to press in a year of many in our Culture Camp stopped of other women. Ruth Stone catastrophes. The wisdom in this homesickness. Each found in the shares Kpelle (Liberian) wisdom issue reminds us of what we practice of folk arts a path toward along the same lines: it takes hold dear, how we endure, how hope, courage, and integrity in drummers and dancers to build we collectively sustain vital and the face of inequality and loss. a town. Think of what Kpelle healthy and just communities. This is spirit work, Baba people are saying. The folk arts Taking folklore seriously, together, tells us. What does he mean? are inherently social. They enspirit, we try to embrace the spirit Considering the historic trip inspire, enliven: requiring, creating, of our culture. We stand on that the Kulu Mele dance engaging people. These arts, and Baba’s shoulders, and on the ensemble took to Guinea this their practice, bring communities shoulders of so many others. past December, the focus of the into being. Spirit dwells here. It conversation excerpted in these is built here. Toni Shapiro-Phim —Debora Kodish WIP pages, Baba tells us not to offers Cambodian examples in be distracted by the movements the chayyam ensembles who of the body or the beat of the lead celebrants in ceremonial drum. You have to be correct, processions on particular yes, but also correct inside and occasions. They are part of the in relation to so many others, “mind-altering multi-media” part of a continuum reaching experience that traditional far back and far forward. He festivals often allow, bringing directs us to feeling, motivation, people into closer relation with and intent: matters of spirit. one another and abiding Buddhist Embracing the spirit of our spirituality. Stories shared by culture requires engagement with people gathered at Linda Goss’s others, awareness of our own “In the house” workshops are parts in forwarding community reminders of the ways in which well-being in the long term. These we continue to puzzle out the

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 3 A conversation with Baba Robert

> word * of mouth < Crowder, Ama Schley, Payin Schley, Tamara Thomas, Angela Watson, Dottie Wilkie, James (Ali) Wilkie and Stephanie Amma Young. Transcribed by Thomas Owens. Edited by Debora Kodish kulu mele in guinea:

More than 20 years ago, Dorothy Wilkie saw blog (www.kulumele.org).travel This may be the first stories les Ballets Africains perform the danced drama time that an African dance ensemble from the Mali Sadjo here in Philadelphia. Inspired by the United States has had the opportunity to travel djembe drum and the dancing, she never forgot that to the African continent for intensive study. performance. She began to dream of how the entire Shortly after returning, Kulu Mele came to Kulu Mele African Dance and Drum Ensemble might the Folklore Project to share travel stories with travel to Guinea to learn the piece directly from a rapt audience of community members. In talking members of that famed ensemble. What a dream! about their experiences, Kulu Mele artists were Forty and fifty years ago, when they began their transported back to Guinea. Completing one anothers’ own journeys, Kulu Mele founder Baba Crowder and sentences, emotion welling up—the feeling was elders Dorothy and John Wilkie sought out their own palpable. The excerpts included in these pages and teachers, purposefully piecing together educations in Gabe’s photos give you some idea of this historic African drum, dance, culture and meaning. Visits to adventure made possible by a grant from the Pew Ghana, Guinea, Cuba and elsewhere profoundly affected Center for Arts and Heritage, through Dance them. Their travel deepened connections with Advance and the Marketing Innovation Program. homeland master artists, allowed immersion in particular cultural contexts— and expanded the terms through which new generations here in Philadelphia explore Dorothy Wilkie: As soon as we came out of expressive and cultural possibilities. They have truly customs—it was 3:00 in the morning. M'Bemba Bangoura, “passed the torch,” training hundreds of dancers and the master drummer who worked with us, taught us, drummers. This trip extended possibilities even further. and arranged our trip, had the drummers playing. In December, fourteen Kulu Mele members Ama Schley: In the parking lot. spent ten days in Conakry, Guinea, studying Dorothy Wilkie: And then, the Kulu Mele dancers with M’Bemba Bangoura, Mariama Touré, and wouldn't stop dancing. So M’Bemba said, "It's time to others. Producer Pam Hooks, photographer Gabe load up now. We gotta get the suitcases in the van, Bienczycki, and writer Clare Croft were also on you come on." I said, "Well, you're gonna have to the trip, and they documented the journey on a stop the drums, 'cause they're not gonna stop!” 4 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall kulu mele in guinea: travel stories

Ama Schley: Nope. If they ate lunch, and we started right away of—you have to be a part of it. Photos: Ali Wilkie and Edward Smallwood still playing, we gonna still dance! on meeting the choreographers and And that's where it was. And the in Guinea; Kulu Mele Payin Schley: As soon as you starting our rehearsals. And then we spirit comes out, and the dancers company members get off the plane, you hear drums. changed again, and then they took dance, and the drummers drum. and Guinean teachers and friends, just before I'm like, "Is that a radio?" M'Bemba's us to a dundunba, which is a festival, Amma Young: The Kulu Mele’s departure. steady laughing, "I got something for you know, in the community, and that drumming was very spiritual. Photos: Gabe Bienczycki/ you guys." And we're like, "Well, was—that blew everybody's mind. Baba Crowder: And strong! It's Zebra Visuals c'mon y'all, we gotta hurry up!" Baba Crowder: And that's what unbelievable. It's really unbelievable. Dorothy Wilkie: That first day they I was speaking about. In a dundunba, ‘Cause — like I was speaking about, took us to the compound. They had you have to play correctly; you some of us, in our days when it food for us. Everybody got situated. have to dance correctly. It's not a [Continued on p. 24 >] And then, we came back around noon, family that you just become a part

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 5 >home*place< Tatreez: palestinian women’s needlework in philadelphia

6 WIP Winter 2007-2008 Alia Sheikh-Yousef and her needlework. Photo: Sarah Green, 2009

by Nehad Khader Tatreez: palestinian women’s needlework in philadelphia

I grew up watching my mother, Alia Sheikh-Yousef, stitch patterns into fabric on the weekends and after work. This was my introduction to tatreez— traditional Palestinan needlework. My mother's creative works would be sewn together by my grandmother in whatever way my mom wanted. These women turned panels full of intricate tatreez designs into cushions, wall hang- ings, tablecloths, and dresses. Observing their pieces more closely revealed threads of all colors, chosen carefully, interweaving their way through one another to create a flower, a bird, or multiple triangles. But to me, a child, this work only represented my mother's talents and her desire to decorate her home. I didn't know where these patterns came from—that certain designs came from particular villages or had a long history, recognizable to their makers. Nor did I understand the reasons behind this needlework until the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in September 2000.

[Continued on next page >]

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 7 Tatreez/continued from p. 7

Tatreez:palestinian women’s needlework in philadelphia Exhibition Through December 2009

me tatreez, and in the process I exiled to Iraq and my mother's to or a 15-year-old Palestinian was educated in the philosophy of Syria, where they lived as refugees. AmericanF girl, the images of the art as a method of resistance, Neither of my parents has been to Palestinian youths—most of them as a means to preserve Palestinian their homeland, but both are deeply my age—throwing rocks at tanks and heritage, and as a contribution to connected to it and desire to return participating in a popular resistance the Palestinian collective memory. one day. It is this history that I began made a lasting and deep impression. These processes are extremely to explore in the last year as part of I began searching my home, our important to us Palestinians, a project to find and document the books, even my facial features for a Diaspora people, scattered work of other women who stitch something that would bring me closer worldwide after a forced exile. tatreez in Philadelphia—a project that to those youths and to my homeland. My family is part of this exile. culminated in the exhibition "Tatreez: Not surprisingly, I found value in my Both sets of my grandparents were Palestinian Women's Needlework mother's art, a Palestinian art that expelled from their homeland in 1948. in Philadelphia," now on display at she learned from other Palestinian My father's family comes from the the Philadelphia Folklore Project. women. I learned that my mother village of Umm el Zeinat, just outside For centuries tatreez has been was stitching our heritage and history Haifa. My mother's father also comes the creative, financial, and fashion into fabric. I wanted to participate from there, and her mother from the capital of Palestinian women. Long in this process. My mother taught city of Haifa. My father's family was ago, a woman’s social status and

8 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall From left: Wall hanging by Wafa Ajaj. This resembles the chest panel for the thob. Alia Sheikh-Yousef and her needlework. Detail of stitching on one side of neck scarf, made by Alia Sheikh-Yousef: Moon of Ramallah, birds and cypress. Photos: Sarah Green, 2009

geographic origins could be identified change is connected to the major is an expression of identity, and from the stitch, fabric, and cut of her structural changes in Palestinian life. thus oftentimes political: a way of thob, the traditional embroidered In 1948, 75 to 80 percent of the publicly and visibly stating—insisting Palestinian dress. As soon as she Palestinian population was expelled on—who we are, a way of claiming was able, a young girl was taught to from their ancestral homes and our connection to a homeland and to stitch her own dresses. Typically she villages in a massive ethnic cleansing. one another. After the nakba and to began preparing for her marriage: she We call this our nakba, "catastrophe." this day, many women used tatreez to would cross-stitch everything from In place of our homeland the state of support themselves, making and selling her wedding dress to pillows for her Israel was created, and the majority clothing for wealthier women. When I home and personal handkerchiefs. of Palestinians became refugees began fieldwork in Philadelphia, I had Then, when expecting her first child, or internally displaced people, a no idea whom I might find who still she would compete with the other complex crisis involving our identities, made tatreez. Nor did I know women, passing the months of her livelihoods, and quality of life. The what uses this art might still have. pregnancy preparing with her own community that had been held Today, for the women I interviewed, hands an elaborate cross-stitched together by physical space and land the economic uses of tatreez wardrobe for her daughter or son. became a community connected by are less important: none of them Tatreez has changed tremendously, a cause: liberation, homeland, and sell their work, and all alive more both in practice and in use, and this identity. As a Palestinian art, tatreez [Continued on p. 20 >]

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 9 By Linda Goss, Yvonne DeVasty, & Jeannine Osayande

Transcribed & edited by Thomas Owens “do these stories exist in other families?”

10 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall Linda Goss: Okay, well, I went to Elyria, Ohio, to visit the oldest relative in my family.1 And she is my great aunt, Alma Willmore. I went there to celebrate her one-hundredth- and-one birthday. And it was wonderful do these stories in other fami because, I would say, maybe about fifty “ exist lies?” years ago was the last time I saw her. And she didn’t remember that time until we really started talking. I discovered, like most of the people in my family, she’s afraid of thunder and lightning, too. And this really started my research into my family—because of a story that my moth- er had told me, that had been passed on by her mother, and I wanted to know if Aunt Alma knew the same story… I can’t remember how old I was, but I his March, the Folklore Project T know I was young—probably pre-teen. opened our doors for a series of And I remember standing in my mother’s conversations with storyteller Linda kitchen in Alcoa,2 Tennessee, and all of a Top Left, Jeannine Goss. Linda had recently undertaken Osayande. sudden she started telling me this story research into her family history, and Photo courtesy that her mother had told her. It was about Jeanine Osayande. each session began with Linda sharing Left, Linda Goss when Aunt Alma and them were young. Photo: Ife Nii-Owoo stories—and stories about tracking Above, Yvonne down stories. She talked about Their father was named Pappy, Pappy DeVasty and her father. Hunter, and he was a good cook. And ev- Photo courtesy uncovering different versions, and Yvonne DeVasty. about how complex meanings unfold ery so often, usually on a Saturday, usually

behind “simple” tales, sometimes when the sun was going down, you could over the course of many decades. hear these horses coming up, 'cause they Those attending each session were lived, like, on a farm. And it would be the invited to share, comment, and paddy rollers3—and another name for the respond. Each session took on its own paddy rollers [Continued on p. 22 >] shape. People connected and powerful tales emerged. Some spoke of the uncertainty of the past, and the process of searching for—or confirming first hand—important narratives and memories. Others shared vivid recollections of times when, as children, they refused to be silenced by racism or injustice. Others spoke about what these experiences taught them about the need for reparations or the work they saw ahead for themselves. Here, we share stories offered by three women at these sessions. We’ll offer more opportunities for storytelling with Linda Goss and Irma Gardner-Hammond this fall.

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 11 > point * of view <

Ethnomusicologist Ruth M. Stone has done extensive fieldwork among the Kpelle people in Liberia. She brought her expertise to the spring Culture Camp, helping with the planning, teaching afternoon sessions on the cultural traditions represented, and

Liberian Camp teachers facilitating conversations and storytelling Fatu Gayflor, Zaye Tete with Liberian elders from the Agape Senior and Kormassa Bobo, and students at the closing Citizens Center. Here, Dr. Stone shares her celebration. Photos: Verlon Stone, 2009 knowledge of Liberian arts, recollections of her experiences in Bong County, and her impressions of the week-long camp.

12 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall by Ruth M. Stone Building a town with dance and drum

If you build a town and there’s no the coast to grasslands in the north. gold, and diamonds. Yet its people drummer, it’s not a town. If you build During the rainy season, which runs have suffered greatly since civil war a town and there’s no dancer, then from about May to October, the soil erupted in 1989. Many were killed it’s not a town.—Kpelle proverb is saturated. Rice and cassava are or displaced during the war years; grown by nearly everyone living in the even today, thousands of United I first heard this proverb from rural area, along with sweet potato Nations peacekeepers remain in the a Kpelle musician in Liberia more greens, collard greens, tomatoes, country. President Ellen Johnson- than twenty years ago. At the time Sirleaf, the first woman elected as a I was impressed by how vital music head of state in Africa, is working to and dance are in West Africa. A restore the country's infrastructure, town simply cannot be a real place as well as peace and prosperity. without people who drum, sing, If you build a town During the war, refugees sought and dance together. I thought of safety in other parts of Liberia, in it many times since then during and there’s no Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Sierra the time I spent in that country Leone, and in places even farther recording Kpelle musicians in Bong drummer, it’s not a afield, including the United States. County. It came alive in a new way Many now reside in the Philadelphia in Philadelphia during the week of town. If you build a area. Among the students at the April 6–10, 2009, at the Philadelphia Culture Camp were some who had Folklore Project’s first Culture Camp town and there’s no fled Liberia with their families as on Liberian music and dance. toddlers or infants, along with some dancer, then it’s not a who had never lived in Liberia at all Background but claimed it as their ancestral home. .—Kpelle proverb Liberia sits near the equator on town the West Coast of Africa. When one The Culture Camp looks at the continent on a world At the camp, more than forty map, this is the area that bulges out students worked with four talented into the Atlantic Ocean. The region Liberian artists all day for a week. At was once called the Pepper Coast the beginning of the day, Gbahtuo after the hot spice that has been and peppers. Rubber is harvested Comgbaye guided them in storytelling, grown there and exported over and exported for cash income. sometimes narrating stories from the years. The vegetation of Liberia Liberia is abundantly endowed with [Continued on p. 27 >] ranges from thick rainforest near resources, including iron ore, timber,

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 13 by Toni Shapiro-Phim > point * of view <

Above; Chhayam ensemble at a Bon Kathin, Phnom Penh, November 2008. Photo by Toni Shapiro-Phim

Facing page top right: Chhouen Phal teaches chhayam druming to students at PFP’s Cambodian Culture Camp. Photo: Debora Kodish, 2009

14 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall Comic artists wielding hand vital aspect of Bon Phka and Bon They strike cymbals, tap gongs, or clap cymbals, small hanging gongs, and Kathin, two Buddhist ceremonies. Bon pairs of wooden sticks while dancing wooden clackers join with drummers Phka (literally “Flower Ceremony”) knock-kneed or pigeon-toed. The to make up the chhayam ensemble—a can take place at any time of year and drummers, in the same outfits, play humorous, semi-improvised Cambodian involves the presenting of monetary instruments that are often decorated call-and-response drumming and dance donations by lay people to a temple with ruffled, brightly colored cloth. A tradition. Chhayam performers often for a construction or repair project female dancer—with no mask—may head ceremonial processions to and or some other community endeavor. join in, performing the graceful steps through Buddhist temple compounds. Traditionally, paper money, folded to and gestures of the roam wong, a A line of men (usually five or seven) symbolize flower blossoms, is attached popular social dance. Wearing a kben set up a rhythmic base on long to small wire, plastic, or paper “trees.” and a fancy shirt of lace or other drums held up with straps across one Bon Kathin occurs in October or fine material, she invariably attracts shoulder. That base is complemented November at the end of the monks’ the attention of a drummer. A comic by their own syncopated chanting rainy season retreat. Worshippers interlude transpires as the drummer or singing, and the percussive clatter travel to hometown temples to flirts and tries to impress her by and clap of the clowns’ hand-held offer new robes and supplies to tossing his drum around his body. instruments. Clowns wear comical the monks. Hundreds of celebrants He may go so far as to pick up the face paint or masks with exaggerated circle the sanctuary three times three-foot-long wooden instrument features. When leading a parade as as an act of reverence, with the and balance it between his teeth. (If part of a Buddhist ceremony, chhayam chhayam drummers and dancers no woman appears, the solo drummer artists enliven the atmosphere and in the lead, helping to create a may instead perform a kind of duel contribute to a sense of community as feeling of togetherness and joy. with the cymbal-player in which they other participants freely stride behind Chhayam performances (and mock and compete with each other, or clap alongside the performers. ensembles) are not formulaic. A utilizing martial arts–like movements.) Khmer music scholar and award- community’s resources and local All the while the other drummers winning composer Dr. Chinary Ung people’s talents and interests may continue their spirited, at times has written that a chhayam “ensemble dictate whether the emphasis nonsensical, singing. A lead drummer functions as one of the components is solely on the drumming and starts the chant, and the others repeat (along with other ritual preparations, chanting or is broadened to include or respond to it. For example: costumes, martial arts, chanting, etc.) comic and other dancers. of the mind-altering multi-media The clowns, with masks or makeup Krovey krovo that is an integral part of [certain] in place, wear white or pastel Ksae krovat Buddhist ceremonial festivities.”1 short-sleeved shirts and dark kben, Lok khae bang chat Though chhayam is also performed pantaloons made from three yards Chat bang lok khae at secular events, including theatrical of cotton fabric wrapped around the [Continued on p. 16 >] performances, it mainly serves as a waist and pulled through the legs.

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 15 chayyam/continued from p. 15

[alliterative nonsense syllables] Congratulations! Chhayam is taught as part of the A belt Congratulations! folk dance curriculum at the National The moon is covered by an umbrella The celebration of January 7th!2 School of Fine Arts. But away from An umbrella covers the moon the formal academy, chhayam is passed In Philadelphia, where a chhayam down within a community, centered Chaiyo ma sekat troupe has been based at Bra [Preah] at the Buddhist temple. People who Chaiyat ma sekii Buddha Ransi Temple since 2007, the grow up watching and listening to Prachea mul mi following verse has been heard on more chhayam performances may make Douc chea bong p’oun than a few ceremonial occasions: the transition from observer to participant by practicing alongside [alliterative nonsense syllables] Kendom chhaip older relatives and neighbors. Crowds gather round Angkaep chha —Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim Just like family Yeiy yeiy Phila Former Associate Director at PFP, Heu haa mleh tee Toni is now on staff at the Khmer Kendiokeov Arts Academy in Phnom Penh, Kramaothawt [Alliterative lines that translate Cambodia: www.khmerarts.org Thangyeth Thongyaw as “shocked” and as “stir-fried frog”] Chhaohoy hkatis Older women of Philadelphia Notes Khatis dong So very cool3 1 Liner notes for Cambodia: Traditional Damlong sngao Music, vol. 1 (Folkways Records, 1978). Pot kampao Drums are sounded by a number of Available as Smithsonian Folkways Si tao heum pos techniques, including hitting the drum FWO4081 http://www.folkways.si.edu/ head with the outer half of the palm, albumdetails.aspx?itemid=669 [A listing of various desserts, with just two fingers of each hand, 2 On January 7, 1979, the leaders of made with coconut milk, gelatin, or with a closed fist. A particularly the Khmer Rouge regime, under whose bananas, and other ingredients] dynamic and flexible drummer might rule the country was officially known as even strike the drum with his elbows Democratic Kampuchea, were overthrown, During the 1980s, when Cambodia or knees during a solo routine. paving the way for the establishment of was officially known as the People’s Clown characters appear in a the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Republic of Kampuchea, the heavy number of Cambodian performing 3 A Cambodian audience would find hand of communism was felt in arts traditions. In the case of chhayam, this couplet amusing, since older women nearly every form of expressive they serve as a vehicle for lighthearted are generally assumed not to put much culture, including chhayam. Lyrics community celebration. The clown stock in being “cool” or “hip,” whereas at that time included these: in chhayam may also be related to the implication here is that they are an indigenous (non-Buddhist) child indeed cool, and not afraid to flaunt it. Kenhanh chek qaoy spirit, Marinh Kongviel. This tiny playful 4 Personal interview, Kandal Lot tum mok svay being is welcomed to homes and Province, Cambodia, May 2009. Srok yaeung sabay elsewhere through offerings of candies, Daoysa renakse fruits, and other items. Cambodian ethnologist Chan Sambath notes [Common insect] oh! that the comic dancer in a chhayam Jumps onto a mango tree branch ensemble is often said to represent Our country is happy Marinh Kongviel,4 bringing levity Because of the National Front and humor to the ceremony. Such a combining of Buddhist and indigenous Aab oor sator! beliefs and practices is common, Aab oor sator! since Cambodian cultural and artistic Tivea aab oor 7 Makara! traditions seamlessly mix local animistic, Buddhist, and even Hindu elements.

16 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall About Chhayam in Philadelphia

Philadelphia has had a chhayam ensemble in residence at Cambodian community, both women and men, who the Bra [Preah] Buddha Rangsi Temple in South Philadelphia dance around them or clap along with the drum beats. since Thavro Phim, a former dance teacher and performer This year Chhoeun Phal, one of the temple’s chhayam at Cambodia’s University of Fine Arts, began instructing artists, taught beginning chhayam performance technique community members in 2007. This chhayam ensemble has to 7 children as part of a week-long culture camp held led ceremonial processions through their neighborhood during the Philadelphia School District’s spring break. Thavro, and was even featured in this year’s Mummers’ Parade. Chhoeun Phal, and fellow Cambodian performing artist Approximately ten people, ranging in age from high Chamroeun Yin taught dance and chhayam to a total of school students to senior citizens, practice once a week 21 children and youths at the Bra [Preah] Buddha Rangsi at the temple. (PFP helps to support these classes). Temple. (This first-ever intensive Cambodian Culture Camp The monks at the temple have been involved from the was organized by the Philadelphia Folklore Project.) Though beginning, making sure that the proper chhayam drums these students cannot participate in chhayam processionals were bought from Cambodia and providing resources for now—they are too small to hold the drums, so they learned costumes and rehearsal space. “It was actually the monks the rhythms while seated—there is a strong possibility who had the idea to create the chhayam ensemble here,” that they will be involved in performances in the future. says Thavro. “They approached me with the idea once they knew about my background as a professional artist, and as someone who had performed chhayam for years.” When they lead a procession, these chhayam performers are often joined by members of the South Philadelphia

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 17 > after* word <

Students at the child’s simple, unassuming prose an anxious glance. Without speaking, I presentation by Dr. Ruth Marie Stone. final Liberian Culture Camp can sum up an experience handed him the note, and he quickly The noted ethnomusicologist had celebration. Photo: in ways that overshadow all understood my reaction. We were still recently returned to Liberia to gauge Verlon Stone A our studied and crafted methods of feeling the afterglow and exhaustion of the impact of two decades of civil program evaluation. A sixth grader, planning and carrying out PFP’s week- war—and the deaths of hundreds of an immigrant from Liberia, shared long dance and culture camps—one thousands and the flight of millions— his assessment of a recent PFP focused on Liberian dance, and one on the musical traditions that she had program in a hand-printed note: on Cambodian traditional dance. We first encountered as a child there, Over the years of my life in the were still riding a wave of satisfaction and subsequently made the focus U.S. I have always felt homesick. I generated by strongly positive reviews of her teaching and scholarship. The missed my friends, family and things I from students, parents, and community audience for her talk included more loved back home. I came to the U.S. members, from the accomplished than a dozen Liberian performing at a young age and I had to make teaching artists whose knowledge artists, many of whom were former new friends. People say kids don’t and skill were the backbone for the members of the National Dance and remember their past, but they’re camps, from independent evaluators, Cultural Troupe, based in Kendeja wrong. I remember my past. I think and from the organizations (Folk before the war. They were eager to people should pay attention to their Arts–Cultural Treasures Charter hear about the state of their homeland, past because the past is what makes School and the Khmer Buddhist and the state of its arts. The discussion us us. …The dance camp was the Humanitarian Association) whose vibrated with the intensity of their most fun I had ever in my life. It support was critical to the camps’ desire to teach young people about stopped my homesickness and made success. But this youngster’s pure the traditional arts that were still me feel great. If I could do it again I and simple comment spoke with central in their own lives. The idea of would… but I didn’t like the food. an authenticity and profoundness creating a traditional dance and culture The first time I read this, I caught that eclipsed the other reactions. camp was hatched, and former PFP my breath. My PFP colleague, Thomas The dance and culture camps Associate Director Toni Shapiro-Phim Owens, who was sitting a few feet grew out of conversations at a PFP shaped the idea into a successful grant from where I was standing, gave me event in October 2007 following a proposal. The Pew Center for Arts 18 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall by Germaine Ingram Does it cure homesickness? and Heritage through Dance Advance camps' content and structure and tap students than we had expected. provided funding that allowed PFP into community cultural networks. And then we braced ourselves for to plan intensive week-long camps in As the project proceeded, staff hours the opening day. What if kids didn’t Liberian and Cambodian traditional arts ballooned beyond early estimates. show up, or straggled in for half the for children and youths aged 8 to 18 At times we felt as if we were morning? What if breakfast didn’t arrive during the 2009 spring break for local planning two simultaneous weddings on time? What if kids refused to engage public schools. Cambodian dance was in two different languages and cultures. in activities or acted out, or kids from a natural companion to the Liberian The planning process for each camp different neighborhoods and schools dance theme in light of PFP’s ties to had its own tempo and texture: didn’t get along, or boys wouldn’t dance cultural workers in both communities, a delicate, deliberate court dance and girls spent their time preening for the availability of accomplished Liberian with our Cambodian colleagues, a the boys? Or maybe some unexpected and Cambodian teaching artists, and syncopated and sassy village dance problem with the facility would the two countries' similar histories with our Liberian colleagues. PFP staff arise. . . . But none of these horrible of loss and displacement through had to attune our eyes and ears to contingencies occurred—not the first protracted civil strife. (Additional the nuanced messages embedded day, nor any day. Kids showed up every funding for the camps came from in the artists’ speech and gestures, morning eager to get to know one the National Endowment for the Arts, and wait patiently for answers to another, to learn from remarkable the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, emerge in response to our questions teachers, cultural practitioners, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and prodding about instructional scholars, and most of all to dance. and PFP’s members and contributors.) goals, lesson plans, teaching aids, By the end of the week, students at Planning for the camps kicked off and such. Much of this must have the Cambodian camp were executing in the spring of 2008, a year before seemed like senseless bureaucracy the precise, sustained poses of court the main event. This was a first-time to our artist collaborators. dances from the Reamker (the endeavor for PFP. We had a roster As with weddings, some decisions Cambodian version of the Ramayana of exceptional teaching artists eager and actions had to wait until the last epic) and the complicated patterns of to be involved, but we had to build frantic days before the camps opened. the traditional Coconut Dance, and the infrastructure from scratch: We used several strategies to notify playing drum rhythms on the chhayam. instructional goals, curriculum content, parents and young people about At the Liberian camp, students were lesson plans, daily schedules, closing the camps—letters and e-mails to distinguishing between the footwork, celebrations. It was important to us people in our database, notices to rhythms, and significance of dances to do that in collaboration with the teachers and principals, phone calls to from the Vai, Lorma, and Dan tribes, artists—master Cambodian dancers cultural and civic leaders, fliers that we as well as finding places to inject their Chamroeun Yin and Thavro Phim, and handed out on weekend afternoons own improvisational flourishes. Inspired celebrated Liberian dancers/musicians at community marketplaces and by daily storytelling presentations Fatu Gayflor, Zaye Tete, and Kormassa churches. The response was slow at with Gbahtuo Comgbaye and a visit Bobo. We also wanted the camps first, especially for the Liberian camp. from a group of Liberian storytellers to respond to community needs We feared that kids would not want from the Agape African Senior Center, and visions: nurturing young people, to give up the luxury of sleeping late kids regaled their peers and the sustaining significant cultural practices, during spring break, or that parents staff with their own stories—some and making the Delaware Valley a would be hesitant to allow them to based on ancient characters and more hospitable place for Liberian ride public transportation to center themes, and some based on their and Cambodian immigrants. Designing city. But just days before the camps own life experience—modeled and developing a program driven and started, the floodgates opened, and on traditional Liberian style. shaped by these values—values that our challenge was no longer recruiting The closing exercises were lively reflect PFP’s core mission—required more students; it was deciding when community celebrations. About 125 a time investment that no one fully to shut down enrollment, getting all family members and friends showed anticipated. The project budget certainly the forms completed and returned up to applaud and cheer as colorfully didn’t account for all the meetings before the first instructional sessions, costumed students from the Liberian and planning hours that the artists and making sure we had enough food, [Continued on p. 29 > ] invested in helping us to design the supplies, and materials for a third more

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 19 Tatreez/continued from p. 9

comfortably than our sisters in ways. Some are motivated to take older campers about her homeland refugee camps. For local women, up this art by the idea of Palestine. and family. tatreez is about claiming identity For others, tatreez is important In the home of Wafa Ajaj I learned and sustaining collective Palestinian because it is about the particular that this art is not public, though it memory. people—family and neighbors—who is not necessarily private either. She I worked with seven women for create and sustain the memory of opened her home to me warmly, and this exhibition, including my mother the homeland with their needlework. on my first visit I ate and drank tea Alia Sheikh-Yousef. Each one has a And while each woman is Palestinian with her nieces and daughters. When unique story about how she learned and practices the same artform as Sarah Green came to take pictures, tatreez, what she makes, and why the others, each has a unique history Wafa began rearranging her furniture she makes it. However, common with tatreez and attributes different and bringing out all of her handmade themes arose in our conversations. meanings to it. pieces. Her three grandchildren— Tatreez is always communal in Umm el Adeeb is from the village Talal, Aouni, and Nahid—ended some way, connecting each artist of Jaba’ but got married and lived their noisy play, mesmerized by with other women both within in Mukhmas: both villages are the importance surrounding their the family and outside it. All the between Ramallah and Jerusalem. grandmother at that moment, and women express pride in tatreez, a Her hometown, on the occupied surprised and curious about her pride that stems from preserving West Bank, continues to exist, never ability to create the artwork around the art of a Diaspora peoples who demolished by war. She learned them, which until that moment live with a contested identity and tatreez from her mother at an early they had taken for granted. They under perpetual occupation. It is age and remembers her mother wanted to photograph the tatreez an example of cultural resistance: every time she sees an older woman themselves, be photographed with we are maintaining the existence of wearing a thob. After she began them, and make absolutely sure that the Palestinian people through our having children, she stopped making their grandmother, astonishingly, had stitched heritage. tatreez until her youngest daughter produced those pieces. We, the artists, see ourselves went to school. Then she began Wafa Ajaj learned tatreez from as beacons of our heritage. We making embroidered thyab to wear her mother. She remembers feel responsible: we have inherited when she returns to Mukhmas. “In gathering outdoors with her sisters this tradition and cannot stop your own country you look fancy,” and the young women from the creating. All the women interviewed she explains, “not like here, where neighborhood to make tatreez in one expressed a hope that younger people are going to make fun of another's company. They would drink generations of Palestinian women you.” She embroiders panels that tea and hold friendly competitions to would learn tatreez and find their her mother sews into dresses for her see who would finish the most balls own uses for it. And just as we have when she visits Philadelphia. of thread, or tubba. Wafa smiled innovated within the tradition to suit Today Umm el Adeeb has an nostalgically as she remarked that our changing lives, we hope that the extensive collection of embroidered the tatreez around her reminded next generation will do the same. dresses. She keeps most of them her of family and friends in Ramallah, Most importantly, these artists hope in her home in the West Bank. She especially her mother and her that young women will preserve the is particularly fond of a group that mother-in-law. She also made dresses art of tatreez for other generations. she made out of lighter and cooler for her daughters when they were Older women lament that others material for the summer heat of young, pointing out that “the young have turned to machine-made Mukhmas. The women in Mukhmas woman is proud of her heritage, she Palestinian dresses. (In their opinion, love her dresses, and she is proud is not ashamed of it.” These gifts the quality is lower, and the effort of her innovative ideas. When she of time and handwork connected is absent.) Local women all highlight turns over a panel to point out the generations, making and sharing a the hard work and labor that goes details, the stitching on the back is sense of pride and beauty. into each handmade piece—from extraordinarily neat. She no longer For Arij Yousef, too, this art is design to stitching to thinking of stitches, for lack of time, but last rooted in family. In her thirties, she how the piece will be sewn into summer she came to the Al-Bustan is one of the younger artists. She was the final product. Their work is an Camp (a summer camp teaching born to a Palestinian father and an accomplishment to be proud of and Arabic culture to young people in Iraqi mother and lived in Amman and to display for people to enjoy. Philadelphia) and, along with my Cairo before settling down in the Seven women are featured in mother, taught the young campers United States. She learned tatreez the exhibit, and tatreez connects how to make tatreez. She showed in 2008 while visiting her family in them to the homeland in various her own work and spoke with the Jordan. Learning the traditional art

20 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall Tatreez/continued from p. 20

of her Palestinian family was a way the United States. Aunt Samia made art. Their mother gave them panels of bonding with her sisters and her a dress for my grandmother in the and a pattern to follow. “She did it grandmother, Umm Hasan, who was traditional thob style—black cloth first,” Wafai said. “She showed us how exiled from Jerusalem in 1948 and stitched in red on the chest panel, to do it, and we tried to repeat it as now lives in Amman. At the age of along the sides, at the bottom of best as we could.” They laugh as they 102, Umm Hasan still embroiders: the sleeve, and on the bottom of recall that their mother abandoned last summer she and her other the back of the dress. I wore it for plans to make those panels into a granddaughters taught Arij how to many years in my Palestinian folk dress when she saw how uneven embroider as well! Arij took to this dance troupe. My mother made a their stitches were! Now they are art, puzzling out patterns from older more modern dress for Aunt Ghalia: accomplished needlework artists. models and enjoying the chance to it is navy blue, falls just below the Maisaloon and Wafai's mother creatively adapt traditional patterns. knee, and is stitched extensively on never sold her own tatreez, but local The women have become very the chest panel in various colors. women would bring their handmade close to each other thanks to tatreez. These works are treasures, ways tatreez panels for her to sew into Umm Hasan sent Arij home with in which our relationships to one dresses. Business decreased over a traditional Palestinian thob made another, to the past, and to our the years, as women started to of black cloth embroidered in red home villages are made visible. bring ready-to-wear dresses and thread and a jacket embroidered front Seeing the works that her sistes ask her to adjust them. The sisters and back in a variety of colors and were producing, Ghalia became lament this change and were excited layers of patterns. Her grandmother interested. She began work on a to find a community of women told Arij that as fallaheen (farmers), practice piece many years ago, and who continue to make tatreez. women looked to the colors of she still stitches on it to test out I undertook this project for many nature for inspiration: the brown patterns. Her stitches have become reasons. Tatreez is an integral part bark of a tree, a red bird, or the visibly larger over time. Our lives and of our lives. After the backlash Arab blue sky. Arij lives in the city, but the years are traced in this work. Americans faced after September she is still inspired by nature, as This exhibition project inspired her, 11, 2001, I wanted the American is evident in her colorful work. and all the women of my family, to public to see alternative images of us Arij’s favorite pastime since carry their pieces around and share that represent us more accurately. I returning to the United States what they’ve accomplished, to copy also wanted to introduce the youth is tatreez. She has taught it to patterns and search for ideas, and in our own community to stories several women in her family here to finish pieces started long ago. A of our heritage, fearing that they in Philadelphia. Because the proper text message from my aunt recently were too often being exposed to materials are often difficult or showed me her most recent piece: stereotypical and negative media impossible to find in craft shops in a wall hanging for her son’s new images of themselves. Tatreez is the United States, she brought back house, incorporating the colors of accessible as a traditional artform canvas, thread, needles, and books, his favorite sports teams. She started because of its presence in our which she distributes generously. it months ago but completed it only local community. The youth, girls (Canvas is used to provide gridlines two weeks after visiting the gallery in particular, can learn a great deal for the cross-stitches; when the artist as I worked on the installation. from the artists, as I myself learned is finished, the canvas is removed, Sisters Maisaloon and Wafai Dias from them—both about this art and leaving only the stitches and fabric.) are the youngest women whose work about Palestinian women’s lives. When I complained about my own is included in the exhibit. Maisaloon is Within the first few interviews, needle, she advised me to use a dull a social worker in her mid-twenties, I discovered how personal tatreez one, and gave me several of hers, and and Wafai is a high school senior. Both is, and how much it pertains to the she gave my Aunt Ghalia, another women learned from their mother, home. Wafa Ajaj says that her work contributor to the exhibit, a book a seamstress who also made tatreez. is beautiful art for her home: none and sewing materials to take back to She used to embroider her own of these women ever shared their her home in Norwich, Connecticut. panels and sew them together into work in a public exhibit—nor did Ghalia Salahi is my mother’s dresses, and Maisaloon and Wafai any of them ever sell their work. older sister. While my mom and her remember how she would ask them Instead, patterns are traded, panels younger sister, Samia, were working to sit near her while she worked sewn on by several women, and and studying in the Arab world (Alia and help her by removing the canvas ideas exchanged. Yet all of them in Damascus and Samia in Amman), between the stitches and the fabric. agreed with the mission of the Ghalia was obtaining a master’s As the girls grew older, they became project and were happy to tell their degree in math education here in more interested in the creation of the [Continued on p. 29 >]

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 21 stories/continued from p. 11

are the nightriders—or just a group wondered, “Do these stories exist all talked about this, and you should of drunken men. And they would in other families, stories that really get some of the land, because you come, and they would have him kill don’t get told until out of the spur never got your inheritance.” And from a fresh chicken, 'cause in those days, of the moment, you know?” that moment, of that possibility of the best food was fresh, you know. actually getting some land—of course And he would kill a chicken, take Yvonne DeVasty: it’s taken a very circuitous route . . . the feathers off, and he would fry As a child growing up, my father would isn’t quite in place—but it started to it, 'cause he was known for really take us down to North Carolina, sort of titillate my fantasies of what being able to fry good chicken. And which is where he was born, every the land could represent. And not anyway, after he would fry this summer. And whether it was a Model so much for me, but for the family chicken, after they would eat it, T Ford, or a Dodge, or whatever, coming: my grandkids, my kids. they would drink whiskey, and then he would take us down there, and Coming down from Philadelphia, they would actually shoot at his what would be down there would down through Route One. At that feet—take out their gun and shoot be a log cabin. And I remember time, I guess you went about—I can’t at his feet and make him buck dance! seeing the rifle over the threshold, remember the highest speed—maybe And then the question was—it or the horseshoe, or the broom forty miles an hour back then. And was like a game—"Where are the made out of the long straw for the you’d finally get down towards North women?” And he knew what to say: hearth. But there was something Carolina. Well, if we got there at “The women aren’t here,” because about North Carolina, specifically nighttime, there were no lights on you didn’t know, if the women were my father’s home, that held a kind of the road. Obviously, if there was a there, you didn’t know— but use mystery to me. Now of course, my log cabin, it was not in the city; it was your imagination. I was never told father was some kind of a mystery, way back in the boondocks. So we what was gonna happen. And so, and of course he was my hero. get down there. If it was at nighttime, most of the time, when they could So the two really drew me to there was a fork in the road, and hear 'em coming, the women would North Carolina, and I always wanted even my father could not quite find hide under the bed, and they would a piece of land. And I remember as his way 'cause you couldn’t even see just stay there until they were gone. I grew up, and went back to visit, I your hand in front of you. So, his Then, years later, I received a letter would talk to my relatives, saying, “I nephew would be at the fork, with a from my Uncle A.B., my mother’s would like to buy some of this land kerosene lantern. And he would sit brother, and he told me that same down here,” because it didn’t come there no matter what time—don’t story. So then I wanted to know, down through the hereditary route to know when he started sitting there, since Alma was the last remaining, my lap. Well, they’d always say, “Yes." and I’m not sure what time we got if they remember this actually And those of you who know the to that point. But he would be there, happening. 'Cause this was told, let’s South, know the South holds many and he would shine the light. And say, second hand, and I wanted to mysteries, and many, many interesting then we would follow him, and go on know the people who were actually ways of dealing with questions. So I through. That would be one time. there—what do they remember? wanted a piece of the land, because I If it was in the daytime, I remember So when I asked Alma about it, she felt it held some of the answers to the coming from the road. I would said, “I was probably too little.” mysteries that I grew up in. And some always see the log cabin with this When I told my Aunt Marva, who of the mysteries I grew up with were: beautiful chimney, the big stones with was sixty-seven, that I was going to I never knew my paternal grandfather. multicolored patinas—just gorgeous, Elyria to find out about the story, she We had glimpses of ideas of what I kept some pictures of them. In any says, “Oh yeah, I heard that story.” was going on, and, you know, there event, we’d turn off the road there, I said, "Well, Marva, how come you were parts of our family that would and we’d trundle out of the car, the never told it to me?” And she acted go here, and then drop off. You had four of us. And here we city folks like it was no big deal. And then my no way to go there, and then people had come, and, you know, this is all grandmother, her mother, who I were silent. And you all know there’s country folks down here. So there never met, was very afraid of thunder lots of stories like that of the South. would be my two aunts out in the and lightning. So I’m wondering, is So, one day my cousin called me. yard. One would be sittin’ kinda like that one of the reasons? Because all And she had known for about ten I’m sitting now, with one of the big old of my aunts were afraid of thunder years that I had been interested in metallic bowls, and she’d be snappin’ and lightning. And it made me think getting some land, and so forth. So she beans! And then the other aunt’d be about when people use that word, told me that she had gotten through off to the side, and she’d be kinda “terror.” You know, what does the inheritance about a hundred-some slew-footed, like my father, and she’d it mean to be terrorized? And I acres. And she said, “You know, we be wringin’ chickens’ heads as she

[Continued on next page >]

22 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall stories/continued from p. 20

came. And so we’d pull in, and of just ate lunch with, you laughed and said, “Remember the birthday course they’d stop momentarily 'til your belly hurt with, it was party?” And I was like “Yes!” 'Cause to come to greet us, because my her birthday. And everyone got I was like, “Was that a dream?” father was the only one who came an invitation but me. I was the You know, sometimes you keep back to his home, from all the only Black girl. That’s still when having dreams throughout your life. brothers who were around and all. you actually wore a dress, sort of So I knew, “Okay, this happened,” I think he’s the only one who went getting in the '70s. You just didn’t and we talked about it. I didn’t say North, too. But anyway, he came wear a t-shirt or whatever. So anything; she just said, “You know, back, so he was everybody’s hero. you do the whole thing for the it was a different time then, and And so what happened is, we party, and the mom would do the we didn’t have enough money for come in. We knew, over in the invitations. Anyway, I felt like she all the food.” She kind of started kitchen there, there were these didn’t invite me because I was to go that way, and I let her. But I smells coming out, because Black, but I wasn’t sure, but I really knew she was giving me some kind every horizontal surface in that felt it. But I also felt like, “She’s my of connection and some kind of kitchen was loaded to groaning friend, and everybody else is going, peace. So every time I’d visit my with chicken, and ham, and sweet and there isn’t any reason why I dad, I’d be in her room. She’s telling potatoes, and string beans, and shouldn’t be there.” So I told my me stories and things, you know. greens, and biscuits, and coffee mother I was invited to the party. But for me, the defining moment with chicory in it, and pineapple You know, she got the gift, and is that I look back and it made cake—layer cake, with coconut took me to do all of that. And I me bold. 'Cause even though on top—and just on and on and got dressed; she dropped me at people see me as bold growing on. So back in the yard, here we the front door. Ring the bell. And up, I wasn’t really that bold. But would be, and the two aunts would when the mother opened the door, that incident, about just standing be asking us, “How was the trip,” her jaw dropped. So then I realize, up, even if you had to be sneaky etcetera. We would tell them. “Okay, she didn’t invite me because and go to a party—but to stand And then, while we were telling I was Black” [laughing]. But I’m up one way or another. Yeah. our experience of the trip, the on her step. So, she was gracious chickens were getting’ barer and enough to open the door and let Notes 1 Linda’s research trip was barer, and the beans were piled me be there. And so we had the supported by a grant from higher and higher, and somebody day at the party. And then, the the Fund for Folk Culture. was over here mixing biscuits. next day, people heard that I came, 2 Alcoa is a tiny town in the The next thing you knew, it was but I didn’t have an invitation. And foothills of the Smoky Mountains. time to eat. And they never—you time passes and all of that, and I An aluminum factory town, Alcoa takes its name from the Aluminum know, we were just talking away, got older, and I even wondered, Company of American, located there. and here they are preparing this “Did that actually happen?” 3 Before emancipation, paddy enormous feast. And I remember So, I’ll speed you up thirty years. rollers, or slave patrollers, were one of the aunts would yell And I’m visiting my father at a organized groups of white men who down—there’d be the field hands nursing home. And I walk out of hunted down African Americans escaping slavery. Later, the groups out there; tobacco was the crop in his room, and right across the hall, evolved into the Ku Klux Klan those days, as some of you know: sitting in the wheelchair, is the and other formal and informal “Go call so-and-so! Tell him his mom. And she’s like, “Jeannine!” groups, exercising their own brand brother done come!” And So-and- Well, back then they called me of social control by terrorizing so’d go on down there, trundle “Rachel,” so she’s like, “Rachel!” African American communities. See Gladys-Marie Fry, Night Riders down the road. And not before And I understood what in Black Folk History (Athens: long, there’d be a whole long line happened: it was in the '70s then, University of Georgia Press, 1991). of folk coming in to see these and people were coming out of northerners who had descended a lot of things. Or maybe not on the place. So that’s kind of even out of it, just exploring it. some of the memories that I recall. She was an older mom, too, so I understood where she was. Even if Jeannine Osayande: I was little, I understood. But still, I was about eleven, and my friends the question was, “Was it a figment were having a party. And one of of my imagination in childhood, the girls at school, who I was or did it happen?” The next thing really friends with, where you she said was, she took my hand

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 23 kulu mele /continued from p. 4

started—the culture in America—we 'cause we thought of the strength and, respect of life. I mean, when you didn't really realize what we were really "Hey, dig me! I'm doing it!" Yes, true, look at the things that are done, and about. All we knew is this is where you but it's the spiritual part of it coming their excellence, and then you look had to go, and the drive you had to into you. Are you delivering it to—in around and see the conditions in the place in it. But we didn't realize that that concept of—feeling? And this is poorest—you know it's only God. It's it's spiritual, what it held, what it meant, what I really observed from that. only spirit. It's only going deep within you know, to do this. This isn't just that Dorothy Wilkie: I have to give a and bringing out, you know, from a you could do it. No! You had to go up lot of credit to M'Bemba Bangoura, place that only God can just touch you. there. Say, "I'm coming up," you know, because he paved the way for us to I know it just rejuvenated me. Things "I'm coming up," and you'll go up there. go there, and he set up everything, I thought I forgot came out. Things Dorothy Wilkie: Go up there, 'cause you can't just go to Africa and I hesitated to do, I saw done. Sitting and the spirit comes and it hit y'all! find where you're gonna take master with some of the greatest artists in My dancers came, jumped right classes. He set up a compound where the world. Just seeing them for years out, there in the dundunba. Ali we stayed. And there he brought a and years and years on video and got up and did the dundunba, and choreographer, a dance instructor, a DVD, and then going and sitting next then Ali started doing the hip-hop costume designer, the drum maker, to him. I did sketches of a flute player stuff, and they went! That was it! the singer—everything. Everything. He that I've seen playing when he was Ama Schley: Oh, that was it! took us where they make drums. We maybe in his twenties on VHS— And, Crazy! went to the place where they made lo and behold, we went to their Amma Young: Oh, that was it! drums. They had, it looked like, acres workshop there, their rehearsal, and Baba Crowder: To me, it was of cows. He took us where they make there he was! Now he's grey haired, like really seeing America in Africa and bells. So, I mean, it's hard to find a still playing the same flute, still doing Africa in America. What the people person who could set it up like that. just amazing, extraordinary things. tried so hard in America to teach That was a blessing for us. He knows And then you look and you say, each other about was being positive, all the ballets—the companies there. "But they look like my cousins and my and being spiritual, and then physical And he took us to different ballets. brothers and my family and regular content. Because all this work is very, And we went to their rehearsals. We people." But, oh, how they carve very spiritual. It has nothing to do with watched them perform. We went to something out of nothing— When the body itself. It may appear that it festivals—dundunba festivals, where we say, "Oh, we don't have this. does, but it doesn't. And, the way we're the dancers got involved, and they We don't have that.” Most of us taught, it was hard to believe that we were dancing beside other indigenous dancers ask for wooden floors do were speaking that, because we didn't Africans, getting the feeling of each dance on. Everywhere we went was actually have the thought that we were other together. For a dancer, that’s so cement—raggedy, bashed-in floors! doing something spiritual. We’re always much for imagination for a dancer. That Potholes. Places that looked like a made conscious of the spiritual. But was very skillful for Kulu Mele dancers. shell. And people did splits on this in Guinea we immediately realized Amma Young: It was spiritual. ground like it was rubber. They defied how deeply we were in depth of the Everything about it was very spiritual. gravity like there was no gravity. spirituality of dance and music and When you say "folk and traditional At street parties, the sounds of the song. In other words— I would say artists," we're talking about looking music just could crack the heavens. hip-hop, for one. Or doo-wop, on the at regular people—regular people I mean, here is culture in its purest corner, for two. Well, the way we used doing things beyond the norm, but form, and these are regular people to sing and verse together—well that's then regular people doing things in the doing what's in them and saying, the same way the drums and the voice norm. And then, as folk and traditional "Oh, this is us. This is what makes us is in there. You have to be correct. You artists, we make it spectacular when great, and this is what we're proud of. had to do this right. And that's what we put cultural arts on the stage. But And this is how we survive. And this the whole trip to me. You know that then, when you see the people in their is how we communicate with one once you see the true, true essence of community of the people, you see: another and give back to God and it. How when Saka Acquaye came to “Oh! That's a regular part of life.” You say we love each other. The music Philadelphia, and Kwame Nkrumah and know, it's a regular person; this is what was like an engine running, taking all of them came to Philadelphia, they they do. "This is survival. This is what you higher and higher. Oh well, I just taught in that drive that they dance in. God gave me, and I'm transferring it lost my mind. I just lost my mind. It's And that was hard for us to accept. It out, and I'm recreating what's in me." so many things. There's no words to really was, because we didn't realize And everything is about spirit just tell the whole story. People just the spiritual ideology of it, you know, and joy of life and appreciation and touch your soul. People—you can

24 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall kulu mele/continued from p. 24 just carry them in your spirit forever. Dorothy Wilkie: The company had up early, you know. I mean, hurting, but Ama Schley: I was home. I to learn how to do theatre. You know, somehow, you rise. It's no longer about felt like I was home, you know. that's something that we—most of the the body—it's about a larger mission, Payin Schley: Being around time, we just do dancing and drumming about a shared experience, about love, a bunch of sisters and brothers and singing, but it's drama, so we had and making it transcend—continually, that I never thought I had. to get into that, and they did well. working with Mari Touré and Yamusa Amma Young: Because Ali Wilkie: I'm not an actor, and I really and honoring their legacies, honoring you can see yourself in them, had to turn into an actor down there. Baba's legacy, honoring Mama Dottie's right! You can see yourself— Dorothy Wilkie: And Ali is legacy and giving 130 percent. I couldn’t Ali Wilkie: It's so— it's just one of our hip-hop dancers, and, have done anything else. It just wouldn't like there's so much love over so he's learning African dance, make sense. We were all put there there. It's not like over here. so this was a step up for him. He for a reason. And, it's palpable—the Payin Schley: There's a developed a lot from going on experience and the energy that has whole lot of love over there. this trip. His skills have developed kind of come and effervesced from it. Dorothy Wilkie: We tremendously with the African dance, I applied for a Leeway grant to had vigorous rehearsals. learning African dance moves. travel with the company and also to Payin Schley: Every day. Ali Wilkie: I'm more humble. I'm specifically look at the intersections Ali Wilkie: Practice. Practice. more humble now, too. And freer, now. between hiphop and traditional Guinea Tamara Thomas: In the Amma Young: Because, before, music. And I linked up with a group beginning, our feet were hurting you guys had a little somethin' with called Methodique, and I went to one and our ankles, and our calves— African dance that you don't have performance. I didn't know what I Dorothy Wilkie: We had to soak no more. They just got out there and was gonna see, but those experiences them. But now, the story is about a did it. They were trying everything. kept coming, where you didn't know hippopotamus: Mali Sajdo. Well, it starts Ali Wilkie: Before, it was like, what was gonna happen to you. And off with a couple, and the woman "Eh, I ain't gonna do that." Now everything that you needed to know was promised to take care of the it's like "I appreciate this!" happened—at that moment. And on hippopotamus when she got a certain Dottie Wilkie: And see, Ali is the stage there was someone playing age. And, so, that was her job. So, she my son. We were at a dundunba. I the kora, there was someone playing had a relationship going on, and her was sitting there at the first dundunba the djembe, and then they're rapping. job was to take care of Mali Sadjo. we went to and I was sittin' there, And you see how African American Her boyfriend was jealous of her job. and all of a sudden I see him run culture has gone there, and there's this Tamara Thomas: And, the Mali across the ground, and dust kick up, complete give-and-take. You see how Sadjo is a hippopotamus, but it was a and start dancing. I say, "Is that my spoken word—the oral tradition, how treasured entity for the community. And son?" What happened?! He just bust it's unlocked, born and bred in Africa, so, the woman was— not necessarily open! "This going to be something." has made its way to the Americas, a sacrifice—but she was promised to Ali Wilkie: I just don't take a and made its way back. And how the Mali Sadjo when she came of age. lot of stuff for granted no more. I this just keeps going back and forth. And I guess you could say she had a just appreciate a lot more things. And so it was amazing, I mean, to say boyfriend: she had a lover, an interest. Dottie Wilkie: And they went into the least. And I just think the beauty But because she was promised to the the community. They were hanging out. is that the seeds have been planted, Mali Sadjo, to take care of the Mali These people would go out every night, and now it's just about watering it, Sadjo, there was somewhat of a rift. Her and they would go to the clubs and just and making it continue to grow. boyfriend became jealous and eventually, hang out. They got into the community, Baba Crowder: Thank you, thank out of that fervor, killed the Mali Sadjo. into the people. And you know, they you. I'm glad you said that, because that's But the Mali Sadjo also allows rain. It's speak a different language, but it was a exactly what it is— exactly what it is. a protector, right? So the people, they common thing that they communicated. You think it's something else, but it's not. honor the Mali Sadjo, to ask for rain to Tamara Thomas: It was the Tamara Thomas: If you leave come and to protect the community ultimate sharing. And I've been to yourself open, it's really about entering. and the village. So, the lover, he shot Africa on several occasions, but this Emptying the cup, so it can be filled the Mali Sadjo—but out of passion. is the first time I traveled with my up again. And it kind of happens when Dorothy Wilkie: And that Kulu Mele family And so, that was a you—when everybody gave gifts. You caused— profound experience: to have shared Tamara Thomas: Chaos to ensue. experiences, to have busted toes, to be [Continued on p. 26 >] Ali Wilkie: A lot of drama. sick, to have late-night whatever, to be

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 25 kulu mele/continued from p. 25

don't go with the expectation, like, much for granted. I mean, sharing can see his youth, his vigor. He got out "How much can I get, how much can I ourselves, emptying ourselves to of his bed and came to the airport get?" You give, so whatever comes your be filled up again. I mean, from the to wish us a safe journey. It was that way, comes your way. And that just got beginning to the end, we take so much important. We had no idea he was reinforced over and over and over and for granted, You know, for me— the coming, you know, because we had over and over again. I mean, I got kind idea of it being spiritual—it's because said our goodbyes earlier that day, and of sick on the trip at one point. We it was real. On the last day, when we it was hard, you know, "See you next all kind of got touched at some point. went to the airport, it was kind of time," you know. "This is not it." But But, it was just so amazing. I felt ill, but emotional kind of separating from the for some reason, it is one of those I didn't wanna not do my part. And master teachers, from Mari Touré and memories that really struck me, that we everybody was like, "You're good? What Yamussa. And, so some of the people were his children, we were his family. do you need, what do you need?" And who we befriended when we were That was a remarkable moment. then we each had a chance to kind there accompanied us to the airport. Ama Schley: He was filled of watch over each other. And those And our flight wasn't until 3:00 in the up. He was out there with tears in moments are given to us as tests, to morning and I think Ama came outside his eyes. Of course I was crying. kind of see how strong these bonds and was like, "Yamusa." And he's—how Amma Young: You didn't want are, and how strong the family can be. old is Yamusa? He's probably in his to leave. You didn't want to leave Ama Schley: This trip brought seventies. But he has a spirit of a young them there. We know they don't me more close than, you know, man. He rides a motorcycle; he doesn't have much, but they all gave us gifts! than how I already felt or how I wear a helmet. He moves! I mean, his They found a way to give us all gifts. was to these members here. energy—he would dance, and you Ali Wilkie: We have to go back! Tamara Thomas: We take so wouldn’t even believe it, because you Dorothy Wilkie: Yeah, we have to go back. Because, well, we didn't have enough time to do the whole play. We got a excerpt from the play. And so, hopefully we can go back to get the other half. But we have enough to present the beginning. You’ll see the story in the dance and the music. It was a trip of a lifetime. And it is just the beginning.

To learn more about Kulu Mele and their trip, visit their blog http://blog.kulumele.org

Baba Robert Crowder and his balaphone— an instrument to which he returned on this trip. Photo: Gabe Bienczycki/Zebra Visuals 2009

26 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall dance and drum/continued from p. 13

local areas in Liberia, sometimes letting the even supernatural, as when a tutelary spirit poured out in the evenings in village life. young people practice storytelling themselves. comes to make their sound especially fine. I told the students how in 2007 I recorded Fatu Gayflor, Zaye Tete, and Kormassa Among the Kpelle, instruments are classified an epic-pourer in Totota, Bong County, who Bobo then taught dance-drama and led as struck (ngale) or blown (fee). The struck knew a wealth of episodes. Sometimes he students in varied choreographies. The young instruments include goblet drums, two- narrated the story; sometimes he responded people bonded, learned, and explored. headed cylinder drums, hourglass drums, to the mare-kee-ke-nuu (questioner) who sat As a student wrote: "The teachers were and xylophones, as well as plucked string directly behind him; sometimes he directed really interesting to me because they were instruments such as the konîng, struck bow, a chorus of audience members who helped very proud, pleasant, and kind. Most Liberian and the multiple bow-lute. Hollowed-out create the background of song that was people would not want to tell others about wooden logs are used to accompany workers the foundation for “pouring the epic.” their culture. They would say they are too cutting bush for making rice farms. The struck civilized for their own culture. But one thing category also encompasses gourd rattles, which The Feel of Liberian Music I learned from these teachers is that it a number of the musicians used in the Camp Motion and action feature prominently in does not matter who you are, you should to lead the dancers and indicate when to Liberian music. During my fieldwork among always respect and own your culture." change step patterns. The blown instruments, the Kpelle, I was vividly impressed by the Each group spent an hour at a time with a pervasiveness of precise and subtle metaphors teacher. Zaye Tete trained her group in a dance in their descriptions of music and dance that depicted childrearing and childcare while moves. Dancers' movements might be called her husband and son provided drumming Many Kpelle people believe that "trembling" or "sharp." A drummer described backup. Fatu Gayflor taught a dance that she his improvisation on the goblet drum as “Kwa had learned as a member of the Liberian instruments, like people, have woo tono siyge, ku bene, pene” ("We take one National Dance and Culture Troupe while voices. A master drummer may sound and turn it, turn it"). The singer Feme residing in Kendeja, on the outskirts of the Neni-kole layered metaphors of motion and capital, Monrovia, using her voice to produce give his goblet drum a woman’s action as she sang, “Ngei ya e pu gata, gata the rhythms of the drums and gourd rattle. name. One drummer I worked with yee gbai gbang su gbai” ("My tears fell gata, Kormassa Bobo's dance portrayed the farming gata like corn from an old corn farm"). Kulung, cycle: clearing bush, planting and harvesting in Liberia called his drum Gomaa an epic performer, depicted the jealous wife rice. Her daughter served as her able assistant. ("Share with me"). of the superhero Woi, forced to earn her At the end of each day was a period for living by carving bowls with her voice. The cultural reflection. All the students gathered visual-kinesthetic action of her carving was together for conversation and discussion. The portrayed by words, each sound conveying children were asked the first day, for example, a different action and a different effect: what they knew about their family’s origins in ranging from side-blown wooden or ivory Bongkai, kpolong, kpolong, kpolong Liberia. Some replied that their families came horns to flutes, are frequently believed to Mono, mono, fee laa. from the Loma, Vai, or Krahn areas, among represent the voices of spirits or supernatural Kalu fee laa, kalu mono, mono. others. Some young people could not name beings. Camp instructors introduced the Bongkai—the sound of carving a bowl the languages of their ancestral areas, but students to various instruments and helped with a large interior space; kpolong—small went home that day to discuss this with their them develop a list for each category. adze strokes; mono, mono—shiny blackness; families. I told the students about how I first During our cultural reflection periods, we fee laa—a flat bowl. Each word evoked a came to live in Haindee, Bong County, as a focused on the types of musical performance different gesture. As we listened, the bowl, three-year old because my parents worked found in Liberian communities. Work songs with all its distinctive features, took shape. there as missionaries. I learned to speak accompany all the stages of farming—clearing, The Kpelle have a rich array of Kpelle as I played with Liberian children after planting, harvest, rice pounding. Entertainment performance contexts where motion and I had finished my home schooling each day. songs tell stories, some of great length and action are essential components of music complexity. The epic known in Kpelle as performance. The result is a creative, Music and Song woi-meni-pele displays the wealth of knowledge constantly evolving tapestry of sound and Many Kpelle people believe that instruments, of local people. Plants, animals, and objects dance. This, in turn, is at the heart of the like people, have voices. A master drummer are named as the storyteller narrates the rich world of thought, movement, and may give his goblet drum a woman’s name. adventures of the superhuman Woi, moving music to which Philadelphia students were One drummer I worked with in Liberia called with his family, encountering obstacles, and introduced during their week at camp. his drum Gomaa ("Share with me"). A player overcoming them. As one Kpelle musician in of the konîng (a triangular frame-zither) gave Liberia told me, “If you know the woi-meni- Greedy Father Spider the low-pitched strings names like “voice pele, then you know the Kpelle people.” He In the storytelling that constituted the first of the chief,” while the upper strings were regarded the epic as a kind of encyclopedia hour each day at camp, Gbahtuo entertained called “voice of the children.” Instruments of Kpelle life, an oral repository of knowledge, and educated the group with folktales, may become not only human-like, but passed on from one musician to another and [Continued on p. 28 >]

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 27 dance and drum/continued from p. 27

including stories about Nansii or of why one shouldn’t be greedy. of the drum and gourd rattle. Each Father Spider, a greedy trickster who Gbahtuo explained to the of the teachers showcased a group is always getting into trouble as he campers that these morals are of students, who performed the tries to fill his stomach. Some of an important part of the stories, dance-dramas they had rehearsed. those stories were accompanied meant to teach young people At the end of the performance by songs that the children learned. about values and ways to behave. the whole group came forward One of my favorites is about Nansii's One afternoon a group of elder for a bow and more dancing, as love of feasts. One day he went to a Liberian storytellers from the Agape the drums kept the energy high. village where the people were getting Senior Center, who work with Dr. Mary A Liberian feast was spread out, ready to have a feast. Nansii became Hufford, a folklorist from the University and the audience and performers ate excited and asked them to let him of Pennsylvania, joined the students the rice delicacies and various soups know when the feast was ready so to share stories. Benjamin Kpangbah, for which the country is well known. that he could join them and share the Ansumana Passawee, Martha Carr, Families thanked teachers and camp food. To make sure that he would be and Napaa Byepu took turns telling organizers for their efforts, while informed, no matter where he might stories to the fascinated students. students mingled with new friends. be, Nansii tied a rope around his I was touched to learn that Napaa Most significantly, people could reflect waist and left one end in the village. Byepu, whose husband was a pastor on the richness of the culture that He instructed the villagers to pull on in Parakwele, had known my father had been shared that afternoon and the rope when the food was ready. when he lived in Liberia. She wanted to the week that led up to it—a rare Several days later Nansii was in tell her story in Kpelle, so we formed and important chance to learn about another village where people were a partnership that afternoon. She the wealth of a country that could also talking about an upcoming feast, narrated in Kpelle, and I translated— not be destroyed by the recent war. and how they were going to butcher line for line—into English. I realized a cow and set out a spectacular that my tone of voice and rhythm Postscript array of food. Nansii’s eyes got big needed to match hers in order to The Philadelphia Folklore Project’s and his stomach grumbled as he convey the pace and tone of the story. Culture Camp testifies to the power thought about eating wonderful rice These Liberians elders remembered of the arts to persist, to sustain, and dishes piled with meat. So he tied stories told by their families and friends to bind people together. Liberian another piece of rope around his in the evening by the village fires, after artists may have lost land, houses, waist and asked the townspeople the meals were over and the chores country, and material wealth. But to be sure and pull on it when they completed for the day. The afternoon cultural wealth in the form of the were ready to serve the feast. with the elders was particularly arts continues in their minds and Days went by, Nansii thought he wonderful for the young people. As their limbs. They remember the felt a tug at his waist from the first one of the students reflected: "When dances they were taught at Kendeja, village. He started to walk toward that it came to the storytellers, Teacher the national music and dance center village, anticipating the abundance of Gbahtuo and the elders were really once situated on the beach outside food that was going to be served. But given the gift of storytelling. You could Monrovia. By teaching these arts to not long afterward he felt a tug from image yourself in the story because of young students living in Philadelphia, the opposite direction. He staggered the way they told it. This brought back they cultivate Liberian music and dance on his feet as he started to walk memories from my grandfather. He in new and previously unanticipated toward the second village. Each village was a storyteller. He always told his ways. Returning to the Kpelle proverb pulled the rope, more and more grandchildren stories every evening." quoted at the start of this article, these insistently, first from one direction and Several of the students present drummers, dancers, and storytellers then from the other. Father Spider, displayed their own storytelling taught young Philadelphians how dragged first one way and then the skills during the final program, a to build a town through art. other, couldn’t move very far in any community gathering, on Saturday. direction. The tugging became more —Dr. Ruth M. Stone, Indiana University and more intense, and Nansii’s waist Community Gathering became thinner and thinner. He was On Saturday afternoon, friends and stuck in one spot, with the ropes families gathered in the cafeteria area around his waist pulling harder and of the Folk Arts - Cultural Treasures harder in opposite directions. And that Charter School, the site of the is why, when you see spiders today, Camp. Two drummers set the stage. you will notice that they have very The students danced, synchronizing thin waists. And this is a reminder their movements to the patterns

28 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall tatreez/continued from p. 21 stories to the public and display comes from the city, and only village and understanding around the art. their work. The exhibition became women made tatreez. Even the Most importantly, we want young a new means of sharing with one women of my father’s village never Palestinian women to learn about another and becoming visible—as wore tatreez. However, when my their heritage and history through artists and makers of beauty and mother lived in the Yarmouk Refugee tatreez and find pride in their identity. community—to a wider public. They Camp for Palestinians in Damascus, were generous with their time and she organized exhibits of tatreez and —Nehad Khader their tatreez, and for this I am grateful. helped women in the camp to sell The women involved, including their work. Her passion for everything myself, range in age from their teens related to her homeland led her to to 102, so I can proudly say that ask these various women to teach this art is not dying. Nor are the her. It became her favorite pastime, identity issues tied to any Palestinian “because tatreez is mobile,” she traditional art diminishing. Far from points out. “You can pass it around home and heritage, we can insist, among people, and that way you with these stitches, on our right preserve it.” In a different setting, I to name ourselves in connection too find myself creating a new context with the places and people we for showing, sharing, respecting come from. Thanks to my work and learning about this tradition. on this first exhibition project, my I am very happy about the support American-born cousins Nehad, 15 I’ve received from the Palestinian years old, and Dania, 13, have taken community for this project. During the canvas and string and are currently jam-packed exhibition opening, Alia, learning tatreez by stitching their Arij, and Umm el Adeeb graciously names. This is how I myself learned answered questions, responded to tatreez at the age of 14. These new interested and enthusiastic attendees, settings encourage us all to imagine explained the process, and talked many kinds of future for this art. about individual pieces. They are Attendees at Traditionally, a woman learned now also looking forward to leading the tatreez workshop. tatreez from her mother and passed workshops and teaching the art. Our Photo: Thomas Owens it on to her daughter. But my mother hope is that we can forge a new and learned it differently. Her mother lasting space for tatreez in Philadelphia never made tatreez because she and continue to build community homesickness /continued from p. 18 camp told stories with musical and fried rice, noodles with curried chicken, “It stopped my homesickness.…” dramatic flair and performed the dances and spring rolls prepared and served My eyes water each time I read it. they had learned, accompanied by a by the temple’s food committee. battery of drummers. Their teachers By all the conventional measures, —Germaine Ingram offered short performances, and the camps were a success. Kids, everyone enjoyed lively talk over a feast parents, artists, and staff were happy of traditional Liberian foods prepared with the experience and looking by the mothers of some of the forward to the next one; there was students. A day later, in the courtyard demonstrated growth in students’ of a beautifully ornate Khmer Buddhist skill and knowledge; no emergencies Temple, Cambodian camp students or mishaps occurred; PFP made new performed their dances and drumming friends and contacts in the Cambodian in the bright sun and brisk breeze of and Liberian communities; and we a Sunday afternoon. The Chief Monk, brought the project in on budget (well, members of the temple, and residents almost). Then a hand-scrawled note of the surrounding South Philly from a sixth grader arrived, evaluating community—merchants, seniors, kids the camps according to a different, out riding their bikes—joined parents profoundly personal standard. and grandparents for the demonstration and an open-air buffet of Cambodian

2009 Summer/Fall WIP 29 doings at pfp... > after* word <

Have you stopped by PFP’s stopped by to show and tell. Viewing artists, lots to read, hear and watch, West Philadelphia rowhouse? one anothers’ beautiful work, people and plenty of resources for people Monthly workshops, open houses, talked technique and motivation, working in (or interested in) folk and salons and exhibitions, offer chances history and practice. traditional arts. to experience the region’s folk arts. For example… * Every corner and chair was * Looking forward: looking back occupied at a June embroidery In the coming year, Germaine returns * Our “Folk Arts House” workshop, as a half-dozen Palestinian to a role as featured artist with the season began with a December women taught a diverse group— latest PFP “Dance Happens Here” reunion of tap dancers who beginners to experts, all ages and initiative, The President’s House participated in in PFP’s “Stepping in backgrounds—to stitch tatreez, the Project, a multi-disciplinary collabo- Time” concerts and “Plenty of Good needlework displayed in PFP’s ration between her (doing tap/chore- Women Dancers” documentary current exhibition (and described in ography), jazz musician Bobby Zankel project in the 1990s. Viewing the the magazine article here). and visual artist John Dowell. The proj- “Rethinking Plenty of Good Women ect aims to commemorate the nine Dancers” exhibition on display at PFP, * More Folk Arts Education: Africans enslaved in the President’s people shared photos, appreciated More than 490 young people stud- House (Philadelphia’s White House one another’s company, traded ied folk and traditional arts this past during George Washington’s presi- experiences as entertainers and year at Preah Buddha Rangsi Temple, dency), reflect on the contradictions, friends, and remembered great Patterson School, and the Folk Arts- ironies, and present-day resonances artists now passed: LaVaughn Cultural Treasures Charter School of slavery’s practice in America’s first Robinson, Henry Meadows, Edith (FACTS) which PFP co-founded in seat of government, and explore using Hunt, Libby Spencer, Hortense Allen collaboration with Asian Americans traditional arts to spark meaningful Jordan, Michele Roberts Webster, United. Check out the new Culture questions and thoughtful conversa- Delores and Dave McHarris. Tools website (www.culturetools,org) tions about African/African American to see work by artists, students, and traditions, freedom of expression, and * Over the years, neighborhood activists. Culture Tools was developed social responsibility. The first public dis- Artist Christina Johnson has by AAU, PFP and FACTS as part of a cussion of their work is scheduled for documented African diaspora quilt Scribe Video Center initiative. December 11 at the African American and textile arts while developing her Museum in Philadelphia. Full details are own work. She invited like-minded * PFP’s redesigned website also on www.philadelphiafolklore.org. artists to “Tea with Christina” in features (www.folkloreproject. Germaine Ingram has made tre- December. Sharing needlework and org) more media and documenta- mendous contributions to PFP over the stories behind them, craftspeople tion of the work of local traditional the years, as a long-time board mem-

30 WIP 2009 Summer/Fall Photos: L-R, top - bottom. Arij Yousef and Jane Gamal- Eldin, and Mary Yee and Alia Sheikh -Yousef at the tatreez workshop. People at the Tatreez opening, photos: Thomas Owens Losang Samten with a finished mandala at FACTS school, photo: Roko Kawai. Chamroeun Yin with a student at FACTS, photo: Roko Kawai. Christina Johnson and her work, photo: Walter Johnson. Tap dancers reunion: Joan Miller, Pearl Jackson-Bolvin, Mary Syres, Barbara Clayton. Culture Tools website front page doings at pfp... by Kathy Shimizu. Debora Kodish, videotaping at Tea with Christina, photo: Walter Johnson.

ber, through her leadership of projects of displacement and place-making will on African American tap dance (“Plenty” be central. The project will culminate and “Stepping”, mentioned above), in a “Home Place” exhibition at PFP as a featured artist, and much more. and online in June 2010. We’re grate- From February 2008 through August ful for funding for planning and pilot- 2009, she served as Associate Director, ing this year from the Pew Center for where she directed our folk arts educa- Arts and Heritage, through its Heritage tion program and the Culture Camps Philadelphia Program, PNC-Arts described in these pages. Alive, and Artography: Arts in a Changing America, a grant and * Welcome to ethnomusicologist documentation program of Leveraging Abimbola Cole, who will coordinate Investments in Creativity, funded by the our new program, the Community Ford Foundation. Stay tuned for Folklife Documentation Workshop more news… (CFDW), supporting local people in documenting the cultural traditions * For information about current and folklife of their communities. PFP programs, visit our website (www. works with people from diverse com- folkloreproject.org) or give us a munities who face hard issues every- call: 215.726.1106. To join and day—newcomers impacted by harsh support these efforts, use the form anti-immigrant policies, neighbors fight- on the back page, or donate ing for decent work and fair treatment, through our website. artists striving to create usable cultural traditions drawing on sources from sometimes distant times and places. We aim to use tools of folklife and ethno- graphic documentation to understand and address the forces that buffet us all. We see this new program as a means for diverse constituents to build connec- tions with one another by investigating folk arts and social change: the historic responses and resources that communi- ties make for themselves. Questions

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about the philadelphia folklore project membership form Folklore means something different to everyone—as it should, since it is one of the chief means we have to represent our own realities in the face of powerful institutions. Here at the Philadelphia Folklore Project, we are committed to paying attention to the experiences and traditions of Name “ordinary” people. We’re a 22-year-old independent public interest folklife agency that documents, supports and presents local folk arts and culture. We offer exhibitions, concerts, workshops and assistance to artists and Address communities. We conduct ongoing field research, organize around issues of concern, maintain an archive, and issue publications and resources. This work comes out of our mission: we affirm the human right to meaningful City State Zip cultural and artistic expression, and work to protect the rights of people to know and practice traditional and community-based arts. We work with people and communities to build critical folk cultural knowledge, respect Phone the complex folk and traditional arts of our region, and challenge processes and practices that diminish these local grassroots arts and humanities.We urge you to join—or to call us for more information. (215.726.1106) E-mail ____  $25 Basic. Get magazines like this 1-2x/year, special mailings and 25% discount on publications. ____ $35 Family. (2 or more at the same address). As above. Please make checks payable to: Philadelphia Folklore Project ____ $60 Contributing. As above. ($35 tax-deductible) Mail to: PFP, 735 S. 50th St., ____ $150 Supporting. As above. ($110 tax deductible) Philadelphia, PA 19143 ____ $10 No frills. Magazine & mailings only. No discounts.. ____ Sw eat equity. I want to join (and get mailings). Instead of $$, I can give time or in-kind services. thanks to new and renewing members! Visit our website: www.folkloreproject.org Please join us today!