AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Winter 1988 Volume X, Number 1 CENTER LAUNCHES LOWELL STUDY OnJune 1,1987, the Folklife Center launched a year-long study of tradi­ tional arts and culture in Lowell, Mas­ sachusetts. The Lowell Folklife Project will explore, document, and analyze the cultural life and traditions of Lowell today, prepare recommenda­ tions for the newly developed Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center, and cre­ ate a major archive of contemporary ethnic and neighborhood traditions. Folklorist Douglas DeNatale is the field coordinator for the project, and Peter Bartis is the coordinator of the Center's management team. Mem­ bers of the field team include Michael Bell , John Lueders-Booth, Mario Montano, Martha Norkunas, Tom Rankin, and Eleanor Wachs, and Center staff members Carl Fleisch­ hauer, Mary Hufford, Marsha Maguire, Gerald Parsons, and David Taylor have also participated. The project is being conducted in cooperation with the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, with sup­ port from the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities, and is ex­ pected to assist the work of the Com­ mission, the Lowell National Historic Park, the Lowell Heritage State Park, regional planning commission s, and local cultural organizations. Fieldwork is focusing upon the creation and maintenance of community space in Lowell. Simultaneously, the National Council on the traditional Arts is hold- See page 5: LOWELL STUDY councils, parks, historical SOCieties, AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER DIRECTOR'S COLUMN and other cultural organizations. Col­ THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS What is the state of folklore and folk­ lectively these positions now form a life studies in the United States today;> "wing" of the American Folklore So­ Alan Jabbour, Director As the hundreth anniversary of the ciety-a public-sector wing balancing founding of the American Folklore So­ the academic wing. Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director ciety approaches, many folklorists Carl Fleischhauer have fallen, quite appropriately, into 2. Terminology in our field remains Mary Hufford an introspective, retrospective, and David A. Taylor fluid or confusing, depending upon Folklife Speciali sts prospective revery. Where have we your point of view. I am not speaking come from;> Where are we now;> And just of our debates about the microter­ Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian where are we going;> These are big minology of genres. Folklore remains James Hardin, Editor questions; we are drawn to them, but the word of preference for our field of we are understandably wary of gener­ study, but folklife also has a following Lisa Oshins, Program Specialist Jcnnifer A. C utting, Program Assistant ali zing too expansively. Nevertheless, as the comprehensive term. Three fac ­ Magdalena G ilinsky, Cont ract Specialist though angels have been cautious tors seem to be simultaneously at play about treading here, I have resolved here. The federal agencies give a ma­ Doris Craig, Admini strat ive Secretary to rush in with a series of columns sur­ jor boost to the termfolklife, and some Tel 202 287-6590 veying the state of our field today. state agencies and private organiza­ But first a couple of caveats. When tions follow the federal model. Folk­ ARCHIVE OF FOLK CULTURE I say' ' our field," I do not mean just lorists in academic positions tend to the academic field (though the aca­ prefer folklore, but even they hesitate Joseph C. Hickerson, Head demic field is its core) nor even the when it comes to extending that term Marsha Maguire, Archivist larger field that includes both aca­ to material culture, and a few toy with Sl'bastian LoCurto , Program Specialist demic folklorists and all the profes­ as the overarching term. To Aldona Kamantauskas, Staff Assistant folklife sional folklorists emplo yed by various confuse matters further, some popu­ Tel: 202287-5510 agencies and organizations. Our total lar writings use folklife, perhaps be­ orbit is yet larger, including a variety cause of the layers of unwanted FEDERAL CYLINDER PROJECT of amateurs and enthusiasts and verg­ meani~gs and associations that have ing out into the larger public domain. accrued to folklore in the popular mind. Ju.'!ith ~~ _ Edwin J Schupman, Jr Further, though my focus will be on ­ Meanwhile, new general terms enter Ethnomusicologists the present state ofaffairs, I will glance our professional parlance, notably public-sector (characterizing folkloric en­ Tel : 202 287-9022 back with regularity, and peer forward occasionally as well. Let's begin, then, deavors outside the academy) and cul­ with a quick turn of the kaleidoscope tural conservation (referring to the Folkline to sample what seems worth a closer cultural work itself, as opposed to the Fur timely inl()rmation on the lick! look. workers). of 1()lklore and liJlklile, including train­ 1. The list of states boasting a folk­ 3. The academic sphere of the pro­ ing anc! prolCssional opportunities anc! fession, which previously seemed small news it ems of national interest, dial: loric position within state government passes forty, headed for the magic but vigorous, enters a period of uncer­ (202) 287-2000 number fifty (or more, adding terri­ tainty. A major graduate program in A taped announcement is available torial folklorists). It now is reasonable folklore, at the University of Texas, around the clock , except during the to hope for at least one official folklor­ hours of 9 AM until noon (eastern ist in every state. Of course, on closer time) each Monday, when it is up­ inspection the li st turns out to be less dated. Folkline is ajoint project of the than tidy. Titles of state folklorists American Folklife Center and the range from " folk arts coordinator" American Folklore Society. (the majority) to "director of folklife programs. " Their host agencies are all cultural agencies (mostly state arts councils), but institutional support is as varied as our states themselves. Cover: Manuel Figueira filling the wine What is important is that they are a press in the basement of his home in the network, and they not only keep in Back Central neighborhood of Lowell , touch and compare notes but actuall y Massachusetts. Figueira, who was born collaborate on certain projects. Their on Madeira, gives his product to family emergence is paralleled by a rapid in­ and friends. Photo by John Lueders-Booth crease in other nonacademic positions, (LFP-JB-B251-19A) particularly with museums, local arts 2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS enters into an attenuated recasting. tional media, appearing on television Other academic programs wrestle with talk shows and being interviewed and BOARD OF TRUSTEES generational change or mobile faculty, reviewed in syndicated newspaper fea­ but for some universities, like Utah tures. The public-sector wing is W illiam L. K inney, Jr., Chairman, State, the changes increase the folk­ equally active with publications and South Carolina loric presence. Ballad courses dwindle exhibitions that have occasional na­ Jeanne Guillemin, Vice Chairman, in number, but other subjects bur­ tional impact and considerable re­ Massachusetts geon. The conceptual debates of the gional impact. For these accom­ Russell W. Fridley, Minnesota 1970s subside a bit, but intellectual plishments we can partly congratulate Bruce Jackson, New York ferment bubbles away in the graduate ourselves, but finally we must credit Judith McCulloh, Illinois folklore and folklife programs. the powerful public interest in the sub­ Barre Toelken, Utah ject matter we know most about. Marta Weigle, New Mexico 4. Folk festivals (that is, intercul­ Hence one notices, in addition to pub­ tural festivals organized by our field) lic pieces inspired by folklorists, a rise continue to be popular. But after a bi­ in pieces which explore our special centennial binge during which we per­ subjects without consulting us. (In my Ex Officio Members fected the genre- it can be called our arrogance I was astonished to read an gift to the nation's bicentennial- our extended essay on fiddling in The New James H. Bi ll ington, Librarian of field draws back a bit from its own cre­ Yorker that managed to be meticulously Congress ation in the post-bicentennial period. informed without asking me.) Robert McCormick Adams, Secretary of Several statewide and regional festivals the Smithsonian Institution are discontinued, not because they These are but glimpses into the ka­ Francis S. M. Hodsoll,Jr., Chairman, failed, but because of a certain restless­ leidoscope as it turns. But what are the National Endowment for the Arts ness on the part of organizers who patterns to it alP Are things getting Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, National wanted to do something else. A decade better or worse for the field of folklore Endowment for the Humanities later, however, new experimental di­ and folklife studies? Are there conspic­ Alan Jabbour, Director, American rections in festival presentation suggest uous new trends in our thinking? In Folklife Center that the genre is again becoming a our acting' What are the most impor­ focus for the ideas and creativity of tant developments in our field over the folklorists. past generation? And, while we are thinking about ourselves, how are the 5. Exhibits increase tremendously cultural traditions faring that are our as a communicative medium of our chosen focus of attention? Are they in field, almost as if some of the energies danger from the larger forces of mod­ ern civilization, as our pessimist­ devoted to festivals in the 1970s mi­ Editor's Notes grated to exhibits in the 1980s. The activists fear; is our civilization public-sector folklorists lead the way expanding its support of the cultural Folklife Center News is a quarterly re­ with a generation of what might be diversity necessary for fo lk traditions port on the programs and activities of called" anthology exhibits" - exhibits to flourish, as our optimists believe; or the American Folklife Center, avail­ highlighting, for example, the varied will the amount, function, and cultural able free of charge from the Library traditions of the regions and ethnic value of folklore remain constant de­ of Congress, American Folklife Cen­ groups within a state.