I Colliding Truths in the Interpretation

I of Culture Fall Conference - Nov. 9-1 2, 1995, in Coopastown

I fyou saw the 'The Way West," the remarkable PBS documentary by Rick

Burns on the clash of white and Indian cultures that aired in May, you

probably saw our keynote speaker for the conference, John Carter. A folklorist

and alumnus of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in American Folk Culture

and Museum Studies, Carter was curator of the documentary and an on-camera

commentator.

At a planning meeting for the conference, Gretchen Sorin and I were

discussing the documentary, which we had both seen the night before. It

occurred to us that Carter should be part of the conference. Gretchen, new

director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program and also a CGP alumna, called

him from the meeting and he graciously accepted on the spot.

As announced in our last newsletter, the New York Folklore Society will hold

its annual Fall Conference jointly with the Cooperstown Graduate Association

.(CGA) in Cooperstown from Thursday evening, November 9 through Sunday

noon, the 12th. The conference will focus primarily on the uses of folklore in

cultural interpretation in museums and other settings; also under discussion

will be the training of folklorists and other cultural specialists for public sector

work and cultural diversity in folklore and museum studies.

Many of the speakers and panelists for the conference have been dealingwith

cont inued o n page 3

Public Funding for the Arts?

A s we go to press at the end of May, we still await word on the New York

State budget, now two months late, and all signs in Washington point to

drastic cuts to the NEA and NEH over the next couple of years, possibly leading

to their elimination altogether. The situation in Albany is complex and difficult

to read, and since the budget will almost certainly be done by the time you read

this, I won't offer any predictions. Instead let me offer thanks on behalf of

everyone who benefits from NEA and NkSCA folk arts funding to all ofyou who

have participated in the advocacy effort this year-writing letters, visiting

legislators, urging others on to action. If NYSCA has received a $5 million

restoration and if line items for the Folk Arts and Decentralization programs

have survived the budget negotiations, congratulations! If not, we came very

close, and your work this year will add to the weight of next year's effort, maybe

with a better result.

In the meantime, please remember that advocacy must be a year-round

activity. Keep in regular touch with your legislators, both state and federal.

Thank them for their support this year. Invite them to everything you do.

FOK LORE I N E W S L E T T E R

Editor: Karen Taussig-Lux

Design: Diane Ghiwne

Typesetting by Creative Types

Printed on recycled p p c r by Weidcnhi~mmer Printers

'The New York Folklorc Society Newsletter is published quarterly antl providcs informatinn and services to individt~als and organizations involved with folk arts. Advertisi~~g space is available at alhrdable rates.

Please observe the following copy de;~tllit~es: October I l i ~ r the Winter issue (Dec. I to Feb. 2H);Jan. 15 l i ~ r the Spring issue (Mar. I to May 3I);April I for the S111nmer issue (junc 1 to Ang. SO); antl July I Ibr the Fall issw (Sept. 1 to Nov. SO). Articles sl~ould be suh~nitted on disk using a sranctard Macintosh or DOS word processor. IT this is not possible, please contact the editor in adva~~cc.

New York Folklore Newsletter Karen Ta11saig1.11~. Edilor

1179 Maple I lill Rct. Catleton, NY 14033

5 18-732-4074

P~hlication of the Newsletter iss~~pported in part by general operating funds from the New York Svare (:ouncil on the Arl.3.

New York Folklore Society, Inc. P.O. Box 130

Newfield, New York 14867

John Sucer, Executive Director Voice and FAX: (607) 273-9137

c-mail: JSNYFSBAOL.COM

New York Folklore Egle Zygas, Editor

P.O. Box 48, 1-enox Hill Su~ ion , New York, NY 10021

Board of Directors: Ellen McHale. President; Benjamin

Saluar, Vice President; Peter Voorheis. Sccreury/Trelsurer; Charles Briggs.

Amanda Daraan, Todd DeGarrno, Earleen DcbPerriere, Kate Koperski.

Judy Kugelmass, Mary Kay Penn, David Quinn, Danicl Franklin Ward.

FALL CONFERENCE Contin~~cd from pitgc 2

"colliding truths"* in presenting culture and history, either in mu- seums, publications, or for broad- cast. I .onny Ranch, Assistant Di- rector for Curatorial Affairs of the National Museum of Anierica~~ History, regularly addresses issues ol'intcrpretation in African-hneri- can history and culture and is inti- mately acqr~ain ted with the rccent Enola Gay controversy. Daniella Gioseffi, a wcll known poet and professor of comnlunications, is editor of the voluminous and pro- vocative 1993 book On Prqudice. Gretchen Sorin was curator of Bridges and Iloundaries, a pathbreaking exhibition on Afri- can AmericanTlewish relations. Rayna Crecn is a leading folklorist and curator at the National Mu- seum of the Aincrican 1ndian.And Henry Classic, another CGPalum- nus, is onc of the most inlluential folklorists in the field. Other dis- tinguished spcakcrs arc bcing in- vited as wcll.

Cooperstown, home of'thc New York State Historical Association (whcre the NYFS was based for many ycars) and the Farniers Mu- seum (establishcd by NYFS founder 1.ouis Jones), is a lovely andstimulatingvenue for thecon- fcrence. Some of the state's and the nation's pre-emincnt folklor- ists are graduates of the Cooperstown Graduate Programs in Folklore and Museum Studies, and CGA is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, so the meet- ing promises to bring together many distinguished colleagues to discuss issues of great importance to the field.

We will be sending out registra- tion information during the sum- mer. In the meantime, please mark your calendar. This is a confer- ence you won't want to miss.

* "Collidingttuths " is a t a m borrorued from Washing-lon L)C choreographer Liz Im-man, who hasfound it use& in understanding tile dynamics of her multicultural dance comjlany and the communities thq, serue.

Roundtable Turns 10 The Ncw York State Folk Arts Roundtable celebrated its tenth anniversary May 24 through 26, as always at the elegant Hotel Syra- cuse. Sponsorcd each year by the Ncw York State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Program and the Cultural Resourccs Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County, the Roundtable is planned by Folk Arts Program director Robert Baron a n d folklorist Daniel Franklin Ward f'rom the CRC, wi th input from the field; it is hosted and ably administered by Dan.

About 45 pcople participated this year, and as is the custom, everyone presented, either on a panel or in onc ofthe "Whatwe're Doing" scssions. The theme for the conference, "Interpretation- Why? How? By Whom,"stimulated provocative presentations and dis- cussions that reflected the many ethical, intcllectual,and program- matic challenges of interpreting folk arts and culture in public set- tings. Spccial gucst speakers in-

Continued on Pagc 10

The New York Folklore Newsletter is h a m to publish lettenfrom ourread- ers. All letters must be signed by the sender and include his or her correct addressand telephonenumber. Anony- mous letters or those with unuaifiable names and addresses cannot be p u b lished.

I just received your excellent, folklorist-accessible manual. I am going to persuade the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture to buy it. The New York Folklore Society deserves a great deal of credit for devoting resources (not just lip service) to this initiative. 1 am grateful, because it will save me a lot of effort when I return to the field as a full-time archivist.

Erin Kellen Montgomery, Alabama

WPA - Lessons about Public Arts Funding Steve &illin

T wenty years ago, in an effort to be a conscientious stu- dent, my head was bent over

an open book at the library of the University ofPcnnsyIvania. Unable to concentrate on the prescribed reading, I took a break cvery half hour or so, and wandered aim- lessly along the shelves, running my eyes across stray books. One title caught my eye - The Folk- lore of New York City. I opened it to a random page, and came across a series of children's rhymes: I should worry/ I should care/ I should marry a millionaire/ He should die/ I should cry/ I should marry another guy. I spent a few hours reading that book, and now trace my decision to pursue a ca- rcer as a folklorist partly to that collection of rhymes.

I went on to discover that thc hook's cditor, Ben Botkin (one of the foundersofthc NewYorkFolk- lore Society), had, alongwith John Idomax, interviewed some of' the last su~vivorsof slavery for the Fed- eral Writers Project of the WPA. The slave narratives are an essen- tial resource in American history. More than halfacenturylater, not a day goes by that the Library of Congress is not consulted about the collection.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal govern- ment initiated a number of public programs to put Americans back to work. According to legend, the artist George Biddle convinced his old classmate, FDR, that artists have to eat too. The New Deal classified writers and painters as out ofwork peoplc and gave them jobs to make public art. In the largest subsidy cver given to the arts, the country embarked on a renewed search for national tradi- tions. In 1935, the Farm Securities Administration commissioned a group of photographers to docu-

Coritinucd o n Page 1(

Steve Zeitlin i r executive director of City lore. This cornrnenlary was originally produced for the National Public Radio show, Crossrwd*

Honorory Fire Chief, 90 year old Roy henry at hi home in Troy. Henry has been toliefling the objects and history of Troy's Fire Deoprtment since he wm o teenager. Otossionolly, he still show up at the gene of a fire.

Photographers & Folklore: Nicole Keys, Troy, NY 3hotographers &Folklore is a series ofintmiews with uutstnndingphotogra- )hers who w d closely with folklorists in New York State. Nicole Ktys collaborated uilh folklorist Mary Zwolinski on two projects, The Art and Culture of Boxing md the T r q 1;irefighters Project, In both instances, thq, worked as a team, mmersingthemselves in the occupational culture that defines the twogroups. As z team, thqr laid thegroundwork for the pojects, developedfieldzuork plans, and icheduled meetings with the people who would be instrumental in helpingthem. The followingessay is based on an interview conducted by M a 9 Zwolinski, who s Directorof theFolk Arts Program at the Rensselaer County Counn'1JorIheArl.s.

I met Nicole and first saw her photographs soon after I started at RCCA. Nicole's early

vork consisted of photographs of :rowds at different public events: estivals, parades, etc. I remember ;oing to the Uncle Sam Parade vith her one summer: Besides the :ouple that decided to get mar- -ied on a float during the parade, ;he was particularly interested in .he man who dressed up as Uncle jam. That photograph has been n numerous shows and was even nade into a postcard. At lunch on a spring day more than three years ago, over plates of pyroghys at the now defunct Helene's in Cohoes, ue decided to work together on the boxing project.

Working with Nicole has been <reat, both personally and profes- sionally. I get to hang out with a Friend, go on adventures, and get paid to do it. We call each other the morning after a particularly grueling night of fieldwork to gos- sip and to plan strategies. Her pres- ence allows me to do my work unencumbered by camera equip- ment and undistracted by good photo opportunities.

As a major component of RCCA's folk art projects, Nicole's work allows me to collect the best visual documentation possible. I have an archives of good, clear slides and crisp, black and white photographs to accompany the in- terviews and fieldnotes that I col- lect. The photographs provide im- ages for publicity about the projects and for accompanying books and brochures. After each project, we have mounted an exhi- bition of selected photographs, enlarged and framed, and held receptions for all the project par-

ticipants. If any of the photo- graphssell, 75 per cent of the sale goes to her and 25 to the Folk Arts Program.

~ i c o c photographs public events and society parties all over the Capital District. While these commksioned jobs provide her with most of her income, her best work is more creative. Even though I have known her formore u

than three years, it was not until recently that I saw the depth of her photography, the way she definesitfor herself. Her "dream" picturesare incrediblysubtle and beautiful. and to comDare them to her photos of boxers, bikers, or firefighters is almost impos- sible.

her ethnographic projectswith her aesthetic sensibilities. In describ ing her work with on this exhibi- tion she wrote, "I spent two and a half months ridingwith agroup of motorcycle enthusiasts based in Albany. Some of that time was spent "hanging out" at the Lark Street Dunkin Donuts. It is a place to meet other bikers, check out their bikes,joke, watch bar traffic, drink coffee and mostly be the center of attention."

Nicole is currently in Krakow, Poland, where she's spent the last two months photographing the . city. By the time this article is printed, Nicole will be back from Poland, and we will be starting our next project.

MZ: Where and when were you born?

NK: May 4th, 1963 in Canandaigua, New York.

MZ: How did you go from Canandaigua to Albany?

NK: I came to the State Univer- sity at Albany, to go to school. And then I ended up staying in the area. I have a BA in political sci- ence, and a minor in fine arts and economics. I was always attracted to photography, but I never had the money or the equipment to try it.

Trainer Tony Rodriguez with the 'knits" at the Uncle Sam Boxing Club, Troy.

In December of last year, Nicole's photographs were fea- tured in the exhibit "Motorcycle: Action/Reactionn at the Rice Gal- lery in Albany. It was clear in this exhibition that she has found a successful means of synthesizing

MZ: But did you think you were going to do something with your political science education?

NK: I think1 was really lost, and by the time I graduated I just had no idea what I was going to do. At one point I was going to go to

graduate school, and I wanted to study international relations and somehow tie in the economics with that. Rut I'm just not an of-

Former Champion. Kevin Pompey, spars in the mirror at the uncle Sam Boxing Club, in Troy.

fice type. I think it was totally unrealistic f'or me. .. and I don't think 1 realized that until I gra'du- ated froni college.

MZ: So you stayed in Albany? NK: Yes, and the only job I

could get after I graduated, I en- tered a training program at McDonald's. It was the middle of winter, and I applied fbrjobs ev- erywhere, and I was desperate for money.

MZ: What year was that? NK: 1986. I graduated in De-

cember, and I got this job at McDonald's, and I was complain- ing to a professor of' mine that I was really miserable, and his wife worked at the Albany Institute. So, he said, go ask her for a job.

MZ: How long were you at McDonald's?

NK: Three months. But every- day olT I had, 1 looked for other work ....

MZ: Were you going to become a manager?

NK: Yeah, but I didn't make it to hamburger school.

MZ: So you went to the Albany Institute, and they gave you ajob documenting the collection.

NK: Five dollars an hour. The docents that specialized in each of the collections would help me out. For instance, one docent knew about the ceramics, so I had

to work with that person for a couple of weeks, doing simple setups .... got my own camera a little while after I started that-job. Six months o r so. And then I started shooting a little bit on my own. I also took a beginning dark- room coursc at the Hermanus Bleeker Center with David Brickman, and so I learned how to do basic darkroom stuff, but I didn't have access to a darkroom. So, it was really slow at the begin- ning. And then at the Institute tliey a s k d mc: t o do some of their ~ul;lic elations shots. and that $as very slow also. ~ n d then over the next couple of years I started doing all of their public relations shots

MZ:Atwhat point do you think you made the switch from being an amateur to a professional phoL tographer?

NK: Probably just in the last three or four years. Let me think, what happened. Well, I first had my first exhibit ... at the Hudson Valley Community College, and I had 25 photographs. I was waitressing and working ata frame shop and taking photographs, so that helped outwith the expenses of the framing. And,just to see all my work together, and that was probably after working five years. And since then, things have moved along pretty quickly. The project we did together, the boxing, that also moved things along.

MZ: I know you'vedonea whole range. You d o the ethnographic stuff that we've done, and you d o some pure documentationfor the Albany Institute or the Folklore Society, o r whatever ... Do you still do the artistic stuff?

NK: Well, I still do weddings and portraits. And the artistic, for myself, used to be street photog- raphy. Specifically I used to go to very crowded events like July 4th at the Rockefeller Plaza so I could shoot really close to people, and big crowds: In the past or so, I've been turning to personal pho- tography, visual.

MZ: Give me an example of that.

NK: Well more things I've found in my dreams. Off of my darkroom is this tiny room, and I've been using it as a studio. I

have friends pose for me, but they're posing in ways that reflect my dreams. They're sort of pic- tures of myself; but using other people. They're more minimalist

Folklorist Mary Zwollnski conducting an Interview at St. Joseph's Boxing Club, Albany.

and just more dreamy. MZ: So they're more composed

by you somehow. NK: Yeah, they're completely

composed by me and the whole set is put together by me.

MZ: Do you manipulate the background at all separately, o r is it pretty straight-forward?

NK. It's manipulated in that I'm trying to, I'm really limited by

Photographer Nicole Keys, dressed and ready for action, is flanked by Denny Broughel and Frank Cavigan at the Central Station.

my space, but in a way that'sgood. I'm making the illusion of, you know, if you saw the space you would never believe that the pho- tographswere taken there because it's so small. I have very simple backgrounds, white backgrounds

Allen Walton: A Homer of thc Amy Godine

T he last time I saw Allen Walton was in October, 1994, about a fortnight be-

fore his death. New York ~Glklore (Vol. XX, No. 1-2) was publishing a piece of mine on Allen's 264 page memoir, My Hoboing Days, and while it wasn't anything like publication of the manuscript it- self, at least I could promise him some small portion of his rare, rambunctious story would finally find its way to print, albeit in the imperfect, somewhat compromis- ing context of someone else's es- say. I also meant to let him know how much I had come to admire him. After two years of interviews, phone calls and correspondence, the subject/interviewer phase of our relationship was well behind us. We had, as Allen put it once, "accumulated a friendship."

But Walton wasn't about to let me get sentimental. At this point the cancer had its hooks in pretty deep. The realization that he might not be able to get around to writ- ing the second half of his autobi- ography was finally coming home - and it vexed him. He'd had a good time working on My Hoboing Days. He began it in his eighth decade at the suggestion of friends and neighbors in Port Henry who felt his memories of hard times as an African-American "Knight of the Road" deserved a bigger audi- ence than his poker partners and the men's group of his church. This was not just another long- retired miner from Republic Steel, after all. This was a hobo who by age fifteen had earned himself a title, 'The Tennessee Kid," a son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, a boy who'd bootlegged moonshine in the back hills of Georgia, worked fly-by-night medi- cine shows, slung hash on barges with the likesof "Dangerous Blue," and "Arkansas Red," mined coal in Colorado, poached "mountain chicken" in the Adirondacks, and memorized the insides of more

boxcars, small-town jails, and county farms than he ever cared to count. And the misadventures of Walton the boy runaway, ace hobo, boxer, gandy dancer, and C.C.C. worker, were only a por- tion of the story. The other part-

narrative. Smackdab in the middle of a fisticuffs on New Years Day in 1929, we learn the menu of the holiday meal: "black eyed peas for good luck, ears and snouts for success, the greens for greenbacks (good luck)." A visit in a hobo

jungle is an invitation to a medita- tion on some lovingly remem- bered mulligan stew. A recipe for hash crops up in the middle of a knife fight on a Mississippi barge. Food and high drama are inter- twined from page one, when Walton summons up his "earliest

recollection":

Allen Walton a t his home. Photo by Amy Godine

the two-thirds of Walton's 84year life he lived not as "the Kid" but as adoptive Adirondacker, husband, father, Essex County Citizen of the Year, churchgoer; blackminer in an upstate mostly all-white town -he would never get to write. He knew it, finally. I did, too. And he was right. It was, and remains,an everlasting loss.

But consider what he did ac- complish. Never mind My Hoboing Days is not yet published. Some- day it will be. Its value as African- American autobiography, as a vi- sion of a one-time way of life for disenfranchised millions, as a rare glimpse ofblack hobo history, and as a vantage on the Depression- Era South - chain gangs, barrelhouses, bootleggers, and all -is incalculable. And as for hobo and African-American folklore, from blues lyrics to recipes, hobo nomenclature to railroad slang- Walton selves up so much of the stuff it sometimes overtakes the

"Mama and I had been to a chili stand and was on our wav back home with a contaiAerofchili, through Central Avenue. We came onto a crowd of people looking down on a man laying in the street, bleed- ing.

"Mama said to a man standing next to her, Who- ever did this ought to be tarred and feathered.

'The man said, Lady, I did that. And if that dirtv so-and-so don't die soon, I am going to cut him some more."

If Walton's manuscript is salted with legendary

recipes and meals, it is just as strongly peppered with slang and nicknames, especiallywith respect to race. A guy named "Boots" is Very large,-raw-boned, and coal black"; a chatty chambermaid is "maybe 17, a light yellow ...."

"We also had a varietv of names ... such asdirty yellow, pleas- ing brown, nut brown, high yel- low, red, blue, dirty red, and I better skip that one [!I. Black was a fighting word so we never used that unless we was ready to fight .... Teasing brown always'appli'kd to the opposite sex."

"Nigger," on the other hand, was a white man's word, the one word Walton hatedspellingout in full, and when it crops up, he signalsitas "N." Indeed, so power- ful is his revulsion he never said the word to me in conversation, even when quoting back some in- sult hurled seventy years ago. To say it might empower it. He wouldn't take that chance.

But he remembered. His boy- hood terror of the Nan ... his un- willingness to take refuge from pursuing revenuers in a certain town called "Lynchn ... the rail- road detective's threats to "blow his d.b. [damn black] head off," gang bosses who offered more of the same ... pool halls, tenements and cheap motels forwhites only .... Racism was so much a part of his experience, he doesn't have to name it. Just putting down the facts ofJim Crow life as lived each day - a Missouri farmhouse with a "Nigger, Read and Run, and If You Can't Read This, Run Any- way" sign in the windows, white bootlegger friends he couldn't hang with and white women he couldn't date without pretending to be servant or valet - was ac- knowledgment enough.

But to sound the bass note of outrage wasn't Allen's style. He'd sooner dramatize his thoughts on racism through oblique send-ups ofwhite man's unending folly and ineptitude, a familiar enough strat- egy in the Southern black folk tradition. Thus, as Walton writes ofoutfoxing yet another gang boss, of gaining illicit entry to a whites- only officers' club by donning a turban and posing as an Indian fakir, or ofall the married women, white and black,who tried without success to have their wily way with him, he partakes not just of his own story, but of a folk culture's proven M.O. of su~vival in the Jim Crow South.

Hobo folk culture is another source ofsustenance, but Walton's take on this is different: adoptive, more objective and self-conscious. 'There was several classes of hobos, ... each class looking down on each other. The 'Bindle Stiff traveled through the West, mostly with some kid that had run away from home. The kid was known as his punk. The long-distance hobos rode the fast trains such as the 'Red Ball,' 'Hot Shot,' and 'Fast Express.' These trains were cross- country trains, and went 80 to 100 miles without stopping .... The lo- cal hobos ... went back and forth between divisions, and the home- town bum ... stayed around one town, and hung around the ... jungles where the hobos cooked

their food." Then there were the common

tramps he met, berrypicking in Maine:

"Hay was throwed loose in barns in those days. The tramps would locate such a place and sleep there. About thirty was sleeping there, sweating in the hay all night, next morning freezing in your damp clothes. Every so often you hear of a barn burning burning up anum- ber of tramps ...."

The hobo of the floating or "extrymgang, part-time semi-skilled hobos hired on to "make three or four days pay, and then move on" when there was more work than full-time section gangs could handle, held a special fascination for young Walton:

'They look over a person that just drop by, with a flashlight, for lice. Then, they put you in a tub and scrub you with lye soap. After my bath, they gave me supper. The Captain ... put me on as waterboy and flagman ... at half the regular salary, $1.50 a day, room and board. I had a top bunk in one of the boxcars. At 5 a m . the roustabout came through, waking everybody up, singing, "Rise and shine!" It ain't quite day, but it's time to go ....

"I walk over a mile and brought back two lOquart pails of water, twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon."

Hard workwasn'ttheonlything to which Walton was exposed as the youngest member of an "extry gang."

"When there was a lot of urgent work to be done, the foreman would have someone bring in the ladies to keep the men there ... Twice a week they had shipped women in from St. Louis,Missouri, and Cincinnati. Ohio. I did not participate in those orgies that went on in the cars. There was no partitions .... The action went on all night Saturday, and until noon, Sunday. A work train would come and take the women back so the men could rest up for work."

Later, when he-was bigenough, Walton got work as a "gandy dancer," "dogging steel, laying trackn:

"Six men on each side of an 80 foot [long], 4-inch [thick] rail, one

man with a strong voice - all he have to do is sing. The 12 men [are] two each to one set of tongs, a clamp-like device with two handles. When the singer sings every fourth word, the steel doggers make a move, clamp the ... tongs on the steel, pick it up waist high, now jump - six men jump backwards, most of the time up a slope or hill, the other six jumping and pushing the rail to you.

"No one makes a move until the singer sings out the signal."

'There's a crew of men ahead of us pulling spikes, a crew behind them pulling out the bad ties, and ... my crew, putting in the rail. Behind us is the spiking crew, two men on a spike, each trying to catch the other's spike or hurt

Allen Walton in Cincinnati during the Depression.

one so theywill have something to brag about. Behind the spikers is the track liners. I like to work with this crew. There's nothin in the line ofwork thatgivesone achance to hurt his fellow worker ...."

At his death, Walton was the last representative of a Port Henry enclave of southern-born African- American miners that had once approached a hundred. White faces inevitably outnumbered black at the packed service in the Moriah Presbyterian Church. Four members of the clergy spoke, and his daughter, work mates, some old friends and one relatively new

Continued on Page 10

the former Soviet Union, Armenia, and other former homes (where their fami- lies had resettled after 1915).

771e Nerosletter is interested in publishing short ~-+n-ts on the folklore research and activities in udiich its readership is involved. Phase smd U S ufldates on what you are doing along with photographs or slides.

Jessica Pay ne During a four month period I conducted fieldwork for the Armenia Cultural Project, a large scale endeavor launched by Nancy Sweezy through her Boston based organization, Country Roads. Nancy spearheaded this project in or- der to develop a major exhibition on Armenian folk art which will include

Marionette by Valery Boyakjan of his friend filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov. His torso is tilled with ripe pomagranates, a traditional Armenian symbol of health. growth and fertility.

objects held in museum collections in Armenia and work by both Armenian and Armenian-American artisans. In ad- dition to extensive research and docu- mentation in Armenia itself, the project includes a national survey in the United States to identify Armenian Americans involved in crafts, music, dance , storytelling, and other cultural forms tied to traditional and contemporary Arnlenian aesthetics.

I was contracted in November to con- duct the New York and New Jersey por- tion of the survey. Focusing on the met- ropolitan area, I worked with local orga- nizations and churches and contacted Armcnians whose families were here since the 191 5 genocide, as well as those who have come to this country more recently from Lebanon, Syria, Bulgaria,

There is a thriving musical scene in the area, with musicians who play regu- larly in clubs and at Armenian gather- ings (church picnics, weddings, etc.), performing in styles that perpetuate older Armenian musical forms and also combine them with Middle Eastern, American big band, and Jazz styles. As a former hub for Armenians, the area used to boast a variety of folk dance societies in which youth performed dances associated particular regions of Armenia. While most of the elders who taught these dances are no longer with us, there is a small contingent of people still dedicated to teaching these dances.

Although many older crafts, such as wood and stone carving, needle work, and carpet making have gone into de- cline among Armenian Americans, the influx of Armenians from the Middle East and elsewhere over the Dast decades has brought a resurgence of these an- cient art forms. I was surprised to find a significant number of people doing ex- ceptional craft work, along with others who maintained extraordinary family col- lections, particularly of nekdle work. Another category of artists I contacted included those working in visual art me- diums, including painting, collage and mosaic, who draw upon and transform traditional Armenian aesthetics.

I have handed all of my documenta- tion (fieldnotes, interviews, photo- graphs) over to Nancy, but would be glad to share it in greater detail with anyone who is interested. A number of the people I worked with are worthy of inclusion in festivals, demonstrations, and exhibitions, andwould benefit from greater exposure. (Anyone who knows of Armenian traditional artists in their area is urged to contact Nancy Sweezy at Country Roads, 81 Walnut Street, Ar- lington, MA 021 74).

This year I also continued to serve as the coordinator for a project adminis- tered by the Rockland County Histori- cal Society in collaboration with the local Suffern School District, to develop curricular activities related to ~ a t i v e American contemporary culture. Now in its fifth year, the program was com- pleted this April, involving four school departments (English, Social Studies, Art, and Home and Careers), the entire eighth grade student body (400 stu- dents), and four Native tradition bear-

Long Island Traditions, a non-profit organization dedicated to document- ing and preserving the cultural tradi- tionsand folkartsof 1,ong Islanders, has received a$12,500grant for institutional support from the Folk Arts Program at the NY State Council for the Arts. Director Nancy Solomon said "We are honored to have been chosen for this award. The grant will enable us to con- tinue to offer programs that explore the contemporary cultural traditions that

Miniature bay houses, by Jeff Blossom will be on display at Festival-By-The-Sea.

have been passed down through several generations of Long Island residents."

During the next year Ms. Solomon will be conducting research on Long Idand's Trinidadian steeldrum bands, African- American gospel singers, and the West Meadow Beach bungalows in Setauket harbor. On the weekend of September 16 and 17, 1995, LI Traditions will be participatingin theTown of Hempstead's Festival-By-The- Sea at Lido Beach Town Park. On December 10,1995, a program on airplane and boat model making will be held at the Port Washington Library featuring Bethpage resident A1 LaRocca and Melville resident Emil Cassanello. LI Traditions will also continue publishing its quarterly newsletter and lecture/dem- onstration series.

Membership in Long Island Tradi- tions is open to everyone. For more information please write LI Traditions at 619 Brooklyn Avenue, Baldwin, NY 11510 or call us at (516) 623-5099.

continued on page 10

CONFERENCE O N NEW YORK STATE HISTORY

The annual Conference on New York State History will take place June 2 - 3 at the State University of New York at Brockport. This year's theme, "Post- Revolutionary New York: Needs and Opportunitiesn will include the follow- ing topics: North Country Communi- ties, 1865-90; Social change from Unex- pected Sources; Slave, Free, and Not-so- Free; Empire and Frontier; Myth, Memory, and Escape; Cultural Politics of Gender: Women in Mid-19th Cen- tury New York City; The New York Con- stitution under Crown and State; Minis- tering to the Natives; Women and the Workplace. For information call (518) 47469 17orwrite to Conference on New York State History, 3093 Cultural Edu- cation Center, Albany, NY 12230.

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN QUILT- MAKING: A CALL FOR INFORMATION

The Michigan State University Museum, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian and Atlatl (a national professional Native American artists' service organization), is developing a major exhibition on historical and con- temporary quiltmaking in Native Ha- waiian and North American Indian com- munities.

Of the various American Indian art forms that resulted from contact with Euro-American missionaries and set- tlers, perhaps the least well known is quiltmaking. However, throughout the entire post-contact period, native quilters in the Hawaiian Islands and on the North American continent have used colors and designs distinctly their own to make quilts which function in ways both similar to other cultural groups as well as in ways that have specific native cultural or pan-Indian meanings.

Much of the recent recognition on native quilters has focused only on indi- vidual quilts, quilters, o r specific types of tribal traditions (such as Plains "Star Quilts," the Native Hawaiian wholecloth

applique quilts, Seminole Indian patch- work and Woodlands ribbonwork). To date there has been no single exhibition which examines the ''whole cloth" of native quiltmaking. The exhibition "North American Indian and Native Hawaiian Quiltmaking" will place the various specific quiltmaking traditions in the larger continuums of Native American culture and other American quiltmaking traditions.

Individuals with information on quilts, quilters, and quiltmaking tradi- tions from diverse tribal groups, and in particular, information about historical quilts and historical photographs of American Indians making o r usingquilts are encouraged to contact exhibition curators Dr. Marsha MacDowell and Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Michigan State Uni- versity Museum, Michigan State Univer- sity, East Lansing, Michigan 48824. Phone (517)355-2370; fax (51 7) 432- 2846.

FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS

The Preservation League of New York State has compiled a listing of sources of funding for local archi- tectural documentation and pres- ervation projects in New YorkState. They include:

Student Internships - graduate students in historic preservation at Columbia University, Cornell Uni- versity, and the University of Vermont are available for summer employment through work study programs.

Grants and Loans - through the National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion; the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preser- vation; the New York Landmarks Con- servancy; and the Preservation League of New York State.

Adetailed description of these fund- ing sources and their objectives may be obtained bywriting to the Preservation League of New York State, 44 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12206. Ask for "Selected Sources of Assistance for Lo- cal Preservation Projects in New York State."

Living Legends Catalogue

The catalogue to the exhibition th ing I ~ g e n d s : Connecticut Master Tradi- tional Artists is available for sale for $10.00 plus $2.00 postage. Copies may be purchased by writing to the Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100, Hartford, CT 061065 128. The exhibition opened on September 29, 1994, at the Institute. It will travel to the Visitors Center at Lowell, MAduringJuly and August and to the Torrington Historical Society in Northwestern Connecticut in Septem- ber and October of 1995. Call the Insti- tute at (203) 278-2044 for more infor- mation about the travel schedule.

From Living Legends catalogue, Peruvian Carver, Romulo Chanduvi. Photo by Gale Zucker

From the catalogue: "1,iving Legends celebrates the continued vitalityof heri- tage arts within Connecticut's diverse communities. This exhibit also reflects the changing nature of traditional arts, artists and the communities in which they live and work. Social liistorians have documented the effects of larger social forces such as patterns of migra- tion and immigration, demographic shifts, economic and political t~pheav- als, industrialization and de-industrial- ization, upon traditional groups. The impact of these developments has been rcflected, directly or indirectly, aniong practitioners of tradi tion-based arts, not only in their works but also in the rela- tionship of these artists to their respec- tive communities."

W P A continued from page s

ment American life in its many varieties. M'alkcr Evans, Russel Lee, Jack Delano, Dorothea I.ange, Marion Post Walcott, and the other FSA photographers took ovcr 270,000 photographs, creating an unparalleled archives of American life. Todayevcry filmmaker and author docu- menting "the American experienceVgoes to tllc I.il11-ary ol'congress for that free resource, an unparalleled treasure.

In those same years, the Federal Arts Project created the Index of American Design, and a classic survey of American historic buildings. They commissioned tens of thousands of what came to be known as "post office murals." Painted by such artists as Reginald March and Ben Shahn, thcir style was patently heroic, with Conestoga wagons and Paul Bunyan- sized pionecrs moving forever west.

When the Fcderal Music Project was created (in 1935), there were fewer than 12 recognized symphony orchestras in the country. By 1938, the Project em- ployed over 2500 musicians in 34 sym- phony orchestras. In 1939, the Federal Writers Project commissioned aguide to every state, a number of which have been recently reprinted. This magiste- rial American Guide series produced beautifully written, well-researched de- scriptions of America's regional and lo- cal cultures. Critic Alfred Kazin called the series "a contemporary epic," a sym- bol of a "reawakened American sense of its own history."

In 1936, the WPA initiated the Fed- eral Theater Project, which toured the country in tents providing vaudeville, circus, classical, and contemporarydrama with seats for 10, 20, or 30 cents. Ironi- cally, the Theater Project was shut down prematurely in 1939 by Congress, for producing some controversial leftist drama in New York City.

All of the arts projects came to an abrupt halt after Pearl Harbor, and there wasa hiatusof30years before theJohnson administration created the national en- dowments for the arts and humanities in 1965. But these early arts projects asked - and thcir legacies help answer - broad questions about the relationship between American government and cul- ture. They asked if the arts could enrich the lives of ordinary citizens, and an- swered emphatically, yes. They were an American renaissance that we would do well to consider as we ponder the appro- priate role ofour current government in the arts.

10

We should consider too that, in May of 1933, the same year that the First New Deal arts initiatives were launched, Ger- many mounted a very different kind of attack. German students and Nazi party members threw thousands of books into a bonfire on Berlin's Orpenplatz. Smoke rose above the Berlin rooftops in the book burning that defined the fascist stance toward culture - stark warning of things to come.

NICOLE KEYS con~inued from page 5

or black backgrounds but on the photo- graph itjust looks like empty space. For some of the swimmers I put a piece of sheer cloth in front ... so I made the swimmer look hazy.

MZ: It must be a real change for you to do ethnographic things, where the whole purpose is to get an image of what's there.

NK: Yeah .... You can't exactly manipu- late what's in front of you but you can capture a moment that's in front of you that maybe someone else might not see. So in a way, it manipulates what is on the camera. Everything is still in front ofyou. It's you moving around. It's you waiting for the right moment.

MZ: I know one of the problems I have with fieldwork, especially the kind that we've done , where you have to spend intense amounts of time with peoplewho don't really knowwhat you're doing. I just feel, not that I'm shy, but it takes a lot of energy to do that. To be in that situation, and then once I'm there I feel incredibly uncomfortable. How did you deal with that?

NK: I feel the same way. I feel exactly the same way and every time we've started these projects, and they've been terrific projects, I'm always scared to death .... You want to get to the point where people are relaxed around you and they feel comfortable around you. So, from my end, it takes a lot of time and a lot of perseverance. Spending time with people, socializing with them and getting them to trust you and to realize that you-'re not going to show them in a bad light. But at thesame time, you want to get something interesting. YOU don't want toget boring pictures. Alot of photography is chance, and waiting around for things to happen. Especially with the firefighters. I mean, I could take a million shotsof them eating, or preparing food, but to get a shot of them at an emergency or at a fire is a lot of waiting around.

ALLEN WALTON continued from pagr 7

one, me. Most eulogists extolled his virtues as a loving husband and father, activist senior citizen, devout and ten- derhearted friend. But I knew Walton as an indefatigable and expert story- teller, ;iHomer of'the Road. Sto~ytelling was the last act ofwandering his health, home, and old heart would permit. IS he couldn't physically resume his hoboing, he could travel on the fleet back of his pen. Someday we'll all be able to hop the long freight of his memory. It is one fearsome, glorious, good ride.

ROUNDTABLE conlinucd 1'1-am page 3

cluded folklorists Olivia Cadaval from the Smithsonian Institution and Rob- ert Cogswell from the Tennessee Arts Commission, oral historian Michael Frisch from SUNYRuffalo, Chief Irving Powless, Jr. From the Onondaga Na- tion, and Daniel Sheehy, director of the NEA Folk Arts Program.

Reflecting on the Roundtable's ten- year histo~y, many people acknowl- edged the important role it has played in their own professional lives and in the growth of the folk arts field in New York State. Despite the cloud of uncer- tainty and ominous forecasts about public funding for the arts, there was confidence and determination in the air.

JESSICA PAYNE continued from page 8

ers, one for each department. These people were: Ina McNeil (Lakota), beadworker; Donna Couteau (Sac and Fox), storyteller; Joe Cross (Catawa/ Potowatomi) , storyteller; and Tchin (Narragansett/Rlackfeet) ,jeweler. The project is funded through a three-year grant from the New York State Council on theArts,Arts-in-Education Program, and will continue for two more years, pending availability of funds.

Jessica Payne (413) 253-5310

NYFS SPECIAL

Working With Folk Materials In New York State: A Manual for Folklorists and Archivists

Edited by John Suter, with contribu- tions by Bruce Buckley, David Carmicheal, James Corsaro, Ellen McHale, Susan O'Brien, Paul Rapp, Kathleen Roe, and Frederick J. Stielow.

Produced in an attractive looseleaf binder, Working With Folk Materials in New York State includes the following chapters:

Introduction Fundamentals Of Folklore Fundamentals Of Archives When Folklorists And Archivists Meet What To Do Now Forms And Guidelines Glossary of terms Resources Supplementary Readings

Prejudice and Pride: Lesbian and Gay Traditions in America, New York Folklore,Vol. 19, Nos. 1-2, 1993 Nmu York Folklore has devoted an en- tire special issue to the study of les- bian and gay traditions and culture. Edited by Deborah Blincoe and John Forrest, this is the first journal issue in the field of folklore to focus exclu- sively on gay and lesbian matters.

"Prejudice and Pride" brings to- gether pioneering humanistic schol- arship and grass roots writing and imagery. Artists, musicians, activists, folklorists, anthropologists, histori- ans, and literary critics explore such topics as gay spirituality, lesbian self- made myth, the social significance of drag, Amazon rage, and queer poli- tics. The articles are risky, passionate, reflective, and readable.

Use the form at right to order either of these publications. For a complete list of NYFS publications, please contact our office.

T he New York Folklore Society is dedicated to furthering cultural equity and crosscultural understanding through its programs serv-

Please ing the field of folklore and folklife in New York Join US state. The Society seeks to nurture folklore and folklife by fostering and encouraging folk cultural expressions within communities where they originate and by sharing these expressions across cultural boundaries. r The Society publishes the scholarly journal New York Folklore and the New York Folklore Newslet&. You will receive subscrip tions to both as benefits of membership as well as discounts on various publications and events. r We provide technical assistance to organiza- tions engaged in folk arts programming and produce conferences and other programswith statewide scope that address issues concerning folklife. r We welcome your involvement and support. r Thank you!

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1988 photo of the "fairy garden" made by the late Joseph Laux in front of his Deptford, New Jersey home. Holly Metz and photographer Robert Foster have been documenting environmental creations such as this one since 1987, and are active advocates for their preservation. They will be teaching a course called Grassroots Art: The Sculptural and Architectural Creations of Self-Taught Artists this September at the New School tor Social Research in New York City. The course follows an interdisciplinary approach, exploring new scholarship by tolklorists, art historians, legal scholars, and architects. The catalogue from their 1989 exhibition, Two Arks, A Pabee, Some Robots, & Mr. Freedoms Fabulous Fifty Acres: Grassroots Arts in Twelve New Jersey Communities. is still avallable for $10.00 (includes postage) by writing Robert Foster, 300 Observer Highway, 2nd floor, Hoboken NJ 07030. Photo by Robert Foster.

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