Folklife Center News American Folklife Center The Library of Congress Winter 2000 Volume XXII, Number 1 ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Card No. 77-649628 The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world. STAFF Administration Peggy A. Bulger, Director James Hardin, Acting Assistant Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Acquisitions David A. Taylor, Acting Coordinator Processing Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Nora Yeh, Archivist Programs Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist Public Events Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Reference Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, Coordinator Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Specialist Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist Administrative Office Fax: 202 707-2076 Reference Service Tel: 202 707-5510 E-mail: folklife@loc.gov BOARD OF TRUSTEES Congressional Appointees William L. Kinney Jr., Chair, South Carolina James F. Hoy, Vice-chair, Kansas Janet Brown, South Dakota Mickey Hart, California Judith McCulloh, Illinois Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Massachusetts Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska Presidential Appointees Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior William Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission Mario Moreno, Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Department of Education Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Advisor to the First Lady on the Millennium Librarian Appointees Jane Beck, Vermont Norma Cant£, Texas Tom Rankin, North Carolina John W. Roberts, Ohio Ex Officio Members James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Bill Ivey, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts William Ferris, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Jo Radner, President, American Folklore Society Bonnie Wade, President, Society for Ethnomusicology Peggy A. Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS James Hardin, Editor David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor Sheryle Shears, Designer Peggy Pixley, Production FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS does not publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books from publishers other than the Library of Congress. Readers who would like to comment on Center activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. TELEPHONE AND ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES American Folklife Center publications (including FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS), a calendar of events, collection guides, general information, and connections to a selection of other Internet services related to folklife are available on the Internet. LC Web is available through the World Wide Web service (http://lcweb.loc.gov/). The Center's home page can be accessed from the Library's main menu. The direct URL for the Center's home page is: http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/ Folkline, an information service providing timely information on the field of folklore and folklife, including training and professional opportunities and news items of national interest, is available through the above Internet server. For telephone service, call the Folklife Reading Room: 202 707-5510. EDITOR'S NOTES Fuzzy Photographs We received two messages pertaining the photographs used with Rachel Howard's article "Music More Naturally Rendered: the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip," in the fall 1999 issue. H. Wallace Sinaiko writes: I've been a long time, interested reader of FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS. The fall issue arrived today. I'm disappointed with the photograph that appears on the back cover, and those on pages 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9. All are badly out-of-focus. Those fuzzy images certainly didn't enhance the text and, for me, they did a disservice to the people portrayed. Better to have omitted such poor quality pictures unless they had an overriding historical significance. And from Carl Fleischhauer: It was a pleasure to read Rachel Howard's excellent and informative article about the Lomax family and the 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. It reminded me of earlier work also well organized and informative by the English folklorist John Cowley. The Flyright record albums he compiled in the 1980s improved our understanding of how the Lomaxes carried out their fieldwork. And we owe John a special debt for his work in clarifying and improving the fragmentary identifications for the Lomaxes photographs, some of which you reproduced as illustrations. Although the images are unprepossessing snapshots, they represent nearly the only visual documentation from the Lomax field trips in the 1930s and 1940s. Mr. Sinaiko and Mr. Fleischhauer have correctly identified our reason for using the "fuzzy images": "overriding historical significance." Unfortunately for us today, many collectors failed to take good photographs of the persons they recorded or the places they visited, thinking apparently that the recorded voice was enough. (We are extremely fortunate to have the Farm Security Administration photographs from the 1930s and 1940s, an extraordinary collection by master photographers housed in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division). In fact, we have no photographs from the Lomaxes' 1939 trip. The ones with Ms. Howard's article were taken by Ruby Lomax in 1940. Nevertheless, we judged that some idea of what the various persons looked like was better than none. Photographic Collections at the Center Initially, of course, the Archive of Folk Culture was the Archive of American Folk Song. It was located in the Library's Music Division, and the emphasis was on recorded sound. A number of collections from the Archive's first fifty years include wonderful photographic documentation the James Madison Carpenter and the Vance Randolph collections, for example--but many do not. When the Center began its program of field documentation projects in the late seventies, however, the photographic component of the Archive grew substantially, and Center collections now include thousands of black-and- white and color images. In addition to the photographs from the Center's own projects, the Archive has profited from donations of photographic collections made by others. One such collection has come recently from photographer Turner Browne, and a sampling of his portraits of Louisiana Cajuns is presented here. Many researchers have already discovered the Center's photographic collections, and as more collections are added the experience of doing photographic research at the Center will become increasingly rewarding. More on Alan Jabbour In December 1986, Mrs. Margaret Fahnestock Lewis donated to the Center her large collection of documentary materials from two expeditions to the South Seas, 1940 and 1941, including field recordings made just before World War II changed the ancient cultures of the region forever (see FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS, spring 1988). Alan Jabbour's retirement moved Mrs. Lewis to write a note of salutation and affection: It will be a sad day when Alan Jabbour retires. He has seen you through the tunnel and I am sure he has left his followers with all sorts of interesting ideas to pursue. His curiosity and interest in all facts of life have been most interesting. My son Bruce Fahnestock insisted I give my collection of music we collected in the Pacific a wise move, and that is when we met Alan and [his wife] Karen . . . . I always think of him as a tall man with time out to play his fiddle a big smile on his face and another contribution to the Folklore Department. Best of luck on his retirement and always remain friends. And from former board member Jeanne Guillemin, this note: What a joy to read the testimonials to Alan in the latest newsletter. Mine would include a wonderful six-year association as a board member, during which the meetings (and I have to add the site visits) were truly a good time. Alan was kind enough to come play the fiddle when Matthew and I were married in 1986 an event captured on videotape. Hankus Pinckus's kletzmer band had a lot to envy that night. What a good steward of the Center Alan has been! As others have commented, retirement is out of the question. We expect new adventures in the field for him. Cover: Harvesting Spanish moss in the Atchafalaya swamp. Cured moss has many uses, in building construction and insulation, for example, and stuffing mattresses and chairs. It is also used by fish hatcheries in the egg-laying process. Louisiana Cajun Portraits: Photographs By Turner Browne Introductory notes on Acadian history are adapted from "The Long Hard Road to Madawaska: Acadian Cultural Retention in Maine's Upper St. John Valley," by C. Ray Brassieur (Folklife Center News, fall 1991) Immigration stories in the United States customarily involve travel from east to west. For the Acadians, who migrated from France to what are now the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the route was from north to south. And French Acadian or Cajun culture today is usually associated with southern Louisiana. During the seventeenth century, French settlers who migrated to the New World to engage in fishing, farming, and fur trading were caught up in the struggle between France and England for domination of the region. Like many in the American colonies, they developed an independent spirit and their own identity. In 1713, when the English gained possession of the Acadian territory as a result of the Treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians refused to give up their Catholic faith or to side with the British in the conflicts with the local Indians. In 1755, the Acadians again refused to swear an unconditional oath of allegiance to the English Crown, and the English governor ordered that they be forcibly removed. During the next few years, thousands of Acadians were loaded onto British merchant vessels and dispersed throughout the English colonies, from Massachusetts to Georgia. Some were imprisoned in France, and others made their way to the West Indies, Quebec, and Louisiana. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended hostilities between England and France, and many of the refugees in the southern American colonies migrated to Louisiana, where they expected the French colony might offer them a congenial reception. Over the years, the migrants adapted to the conditions of their new environment, the watery humid clime of southern Louisiana, but maintained an independent spirit that characterizes and preserves Louisiana Cajun cultural identify today. Turner Browne was born in 1949 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In the 1970s, he set himself the task of making photographs of Louisiana Cajuns, whose cultural ways he feared were "dying out." In 1973, he received a grant for a documentary project from the Sunflower Foundation. The project was completed in 1975, and the French Institute of New York sponsored a traveling exhibit of his photographs in the late seventies. In 1977, Louisiana State University Press published the book LOUISIANA CAJUNS (by Turner Browne, with an introduction by William Mills). Mardi Gras, foodways, horse racing, trapping, gambling, water navigation, music, and socializing are some of the themes illustrated in the book. Currently, Mr. Browne lives in Seattle. Mr. Brown has given his collections of over fifteen hundred negatives from his photographic project and seventy- seven production prints from his book to the American Folklife Center. The collection provides a compliment to the Center's own Maine Acadian Folklife Project, conducted in 1991 (see Folklife Center News, fall 1991), and a sampling is offered here. Mr. Browne retains the intellectual property rights to his collection, but he encourages the widest possible use of the materials at the Library of Congress. Caption information by Turner Browne and William Mills Traditional Acadian-style house, with the exterior staircase leading to the second floor. A band of masked and costumed riders (courrir de Mardi Gras) celebrating "Fat Tuesday." Beginning in the early morning and led by a capitaine around the community, the band stops at houses to request a chicken, rice, sausage, or some other contribution to the gigantic gumbo being prepared for community gatherings of as many as two hundred people. Gumbo, made for the occasion in great pots such as these, is a Cajun speciality. Lavania in her kitchen. This Cajun lady is both a fortuneteller who reads coffee grounds and a traitier who specializes in curing poisonous bites. She holds a cup stained with the grounds of Cajun coffee, an omnipresent symbol of the local culture known for its strength. Annual pirogue races, held on Bayou Lafourche. This boat, adapted from the Indian dugout, was originally made from a single log. Now constructed with thin planks of cypress, plywood, or even fiberglass, it is amazingly light and well known for the ease with which it turns over. Ambrose Thibodeaux, Merlin Fontenot, and Nathan Abshire play the three principal instruments of Acadian music: the triangle, the fiddle, and the accordion The Allemond family, crawfishing deep in the swamp. Crawfish racing at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival. Games of chance in Cajun country are often associated with activities in the natural world. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Folklife Center Field School Explores Life Along the Kokosing By David A. Taylor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The field school was far and away the best part of my collegiate education to date," wrote first-year Ohio State University folklore graduate student Susan Hanson. "And I anticipate that everything to come will be more manageable as a result of my having had the opportunity to participate in the program," she added. Chris Grasso, a staff historian at the Western Reserve Historical Society, in Cleveland, wrote: "We received an apprenticeship along with our ethnographer's toolkit from the field school at Kenyon. In the field, we quickly put the tools you provided us to work. Our accelerated experience will make the project planning and implementation I do in the future seem like second nature." Hanson and Grasso were part of a group of fifteen people with a strong interest in cultural documentation, but with little or no previous experience in this area, who participated in an intensive, three-week-long field school the Folklife Center sponsored last summer in partnership with Kenyon College's Rural Life Center. It was held at the college's Gambier, Ohio, campus, June 13 through July 3, and was funded, in part, by a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. It was jointly directed by Folklife Center folklife specialist David A. Taylor and Rural Life Center director Howard L. Sacks, a professor of sociology at Kenyon. Developed in response to a continuing, nationwide demand for practical training in cultural documentation training that is in short supply both at the local level and in the academy--the Ohio field school was the third sponsored by the Folklife Center. Two previous field schools were developed, in 1994 and 1995, in partnership with Colorado College and the University of New Mexico's Center for Regional Studies. The fieldwork portions of those courses focused on life in a farming and ranching community in southern Colorado and farmers' markets based in Colorado Springs, respectively. The participants in last summer's field school were selected from a pool of applicants who responded to publicity about the course. An important criteria used in their selection was their potential for applying the training to their future work. The fifteen participants were: Eleanor Dahlin, a contract archaeologist from Houston; Grasso; Hanson; Paul Kulp a public school teacher from Marietta, Ohio; Norma Jean Loughrey, a local historian from Brinkhaven, Ohio; Lori Liggett, a graduate student in American studies at Bowling Green State University; Selina Lim, a graduate student in political science at Ohio State University; Luis Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado, a graduate student in rural sociology at Ohio State University; Elisabeth Nixon, a graduate student in folklore at Ohio State University; Gloria Parsisson, a local historian from Centerburg, Ohio; Andrew Richmon, a librarian from Gambier, Ohio; Linda Stoltzfus, a graduate student in history at the University of Akron; Mark Tebeau, a historian at the Western Reserve Historical Society; Robert Thometz, a grant writer from Columbus, Ohio; and Brenda Young, a graduate student in American studies at Bowling Green State University. Sacks and Taylor were the principal instructors at the field school. They were assisted by: Stephanie Hall, folkorist and automation specialist at the Folklife Center; Ray Heithaus, director of the Kenyon Center for Environmental Study, and professor of biology at the college; Mary Hufford, folklife specialist at the Folklife Center; and Gregory Spaid, photographer and professor of art at the college. Several residents of Knox County (where the college is located) also came into the field school's classroom and provided information about various aspects of local history, culture, and the natural environment. As with the Folklife Center's previous field schools, a specific theme was selected for exploration, and this year's theme was "Life Along the Kokosing." Newly designated as an Ohio scenic river, the Kokosing is the main waterway running through Knox County, a rural district characterized by a large number of small, family-run farms. The main goal of the fieldwork was to study the ways the river affects, and is in turn affected by, Knox County's residents and visitors. It was the task of the participants to determine what exactly to study and how to go about the work. In part, the theme "Life Along the Kokosing" was also selected because the research done by the field school's participants could serve as the foundation for future research that Sacks expected would be undertaken in the coming academic year by students in his fieldwork class. (Sacks and his students have conducted fieldwork with Knox County farm families and other local residents for many years and used the research as the basis for a number of impressive public programs.) The northwest corner of the county, comprising the small farming villages of Waterford and Batemantown, was selected as the main geographic focus of the research. The field school was divided into two main parts of equal duration: (1) classroom instruction and orientation field trips, and (2) fieldwork and analysis and presentation of research findings. During the first half of the course, participants received full days of classroom instruction on a variety of subjects, including an overview of Knox County (surveying its history, culture, economy, and natural environment), project planning, and research ethics, as well as techniques for documentary photography, ethnographic observation and writing, interviewing, sound recording, and organizing field data. During this part of the course, participants also left the classroom and went, en masse, on short field trips designed to better acquaint them with the character of Knox County. For example, led by biologist Heithaus, they took a canoe trip down the Kokosing River for a distance of ten miles or so. Along the way, they observed some of the ways local residents orient themselves to and make use of the river. They also inspected the river's inhabitants by dip- netting small fish and other creatures that Heithaus identified and described as indicators of the river's health. The canoe trip had other functions as well. Taking place only a few days into the course, it provided a good opportunity for participants to work together as members of teams (to propel their canoes downstream), and the shared experience--enlivened by a number of spills along the way helped the group bond together. As Sacks and Taylor emphasized throughout the course, teamwork a new research experience for most course participants is the key to successful ethnographic fieldwork involving more than one researcher. Another memorable experience was a group trip to an indoor livestock auction in nearby Mt. Vernon, the county seat of Knox County. This trip followed classroom lectures and discussions about ethnographic observation and writing. The purpose of the exercise was to apply lessons learned in the classroom in a field situation. The auction and various activities that surrounded it provided a research opportunity simultaneously rich in activity, sound, and aroma! Back in the classroom the next day, a lively discussion ensued about such things as asking effective questions, using strategies for observing complex events, taking insider and outsider perceptions into account, and being aware of ethical considerations when doing fieldwork. One more field trip followed instruction in interviewing and photography and was intended to give participants an opportunity to test these documentary techniques while learning more about life in Knox County. Participants were divided into two groups and each one went to visit a different farm and meet members of the family that runs it. Both were "century farms" (farms in continuous operation for one hundred years or more). One was a cattle operation (the Cassell Farm), and the other was a sheep operation (the Shinaberry Farm). Many field school participants were eager to learn more about documentary photography and they had ample opportunities to do so. During the first half of the course, Greg Spaid delivered lectures about photographic equipment and technique and showed examples of the work of top documentary photographers. He also gave numerous assignments that allowed participants to improve their technique with a 35mm camera. During frequent sessions, participants' slides were projected on screen for all to see and critique. This permitted participants to see the results of their photography very quickly and receive advice they could use to improve their work. (An arrangement had been made with a photo lab that enabled rolls of film to be processed and returned within a few hours.) The course was also designed to address another need participants had expressed the need for guidance in organizing and preserving tape recordings, photographs, fieldnotes, emphera, and other materials generated during field research. Folklife Center archivist Stephanie Hall provided instruction that ranged from numbering systems of archival containers to the use of computer programs. One point she stressed was the need to plan for the organization and preservation of documentary materials at the start rather than at the end of a field project, when a pile of material has been collected. Hall, Sacks, and Taylor all emphasized the importance of attending to archival chores, fieldnote writing, and related tasks on a daily basis. After seven days of classroom lectures, field trips, and practice with documentation equipment, the course then moved on to address planning for the fieldwork that would take place during the second half. Sacks and Taylor explained that the fifteen participants would be divided into teams of three. Each team would be responsible for developing a research plan that would address some aspect of the overall theme life along the Kokosing carrying out the fieldwork, and making twenty-minute slide-illustrated presentations about their findings at the end of the course. The team dimension was again stressed. Members of the teams were instructed to share fieldwork chores evenly (interviewing, photography, and notetaking was to be rotated so that everyone gained experience in every technique), and teams were encouraged to work cooperatively with other teams whenever that made sense. The five teams each with a colorful self-selected name such as "The River Bottoms" and "The Cicadas" then proceeded to develop their individual sub-themes and research plans. Five sub-themes emerged: the history of businesses in a small cross-roads village on the Kokosing, the lay of the land with an emphasis on ways of moving water for agricultural purposes, local foodways, recreational uses of the Kokosing reservoir, and cottage industries with an emphasis on woodworking shops operated by Amish families. At this point, the course instructors stepped back, assumed the role of advisors, and let the teams embark on the research each had selected. The teams' plans were refined and the team members moved ahead to identify informants and pertinent upcoming events, schedule and conduct interviews, and carry out other fieldwork activities. As their fieldwork unfolded, team members put in long hours in the field and, later on, at their computers, as they strived to keep up with the job of writing fieldnotes about the day's activities. At one point early in the fieldwork phase, several of the teams determined that an aerial perspective was required to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the local landscape. And so, in the best tradition of teamwork, they pooled their resources and hired a local pilot to take representatives of three teams aloft for an hour of aerial photography above the study area. The images they shot were later distributed among all five teams. During the brief fieldwork period only six days the teams worked diligently to gather information needed to inform the themes they had selected. Predictably, mistakes were made along the way (someone neglected to check whether a microphone was in the bag of recording equipment before the team left for an interview; the team member with the car forgot to show up to carry the others to a scheduled interview; and so on), but in this way lessons were learned and learned well. Many epiphanies occurred along the way, too, especially ones that resulted from the realization that one is learning how to enter a different cultural world. During the last few days of the course, the teams wrapped up their fieldwork; organized their tapes, slides, fieldnotes, photo logs, and other field data; and started planning their final presentations. On the penultimate day of the course, in the presence of some members of the local community, the director of the Ohio Humanities Council, a reporter from the Mount Vernon News, and the course instructors, the five teams presented their reports, which were complemented by the photographs, sound recordings, and artifacts they collected. Even though their time in the field was brief, the research and analysis the teams accomplished was impressive. For example, one team described the work process and equipment used by Amish furniture makers and its relationship to their beliefs. Another team described the various techniques farmers use to move water on and off their fields as well as the vernacular way of thinking about water management that guides their actions. The next day, after a session devoted to analyzing the whole field school experience, the teams turned over their documentary materials to Howard Sacks for deposit in the Rural Life Center's archive. Sacks and Taylor were delighted to see neat piles of items covering the top of a conference table 45 hours of taped interviews, over 1,300 slides, and some 500 pages of fieldnotes and tape and photo logs (on paper and also in computer files), plus signed release forms obtained from all the informants all properly numbered, organized, and otherwise ready for immediate deposit in the archive. Time will tell the extent to which participants in last summer's field school will apply the training they received. However, early indications seem very positive. For example, the Folklife Center has learned that two participants are using the training in connection with a major exhibition about workers' perspectives on manufacturing industries in Cleveland, another is using it to analyze historical papers from an ethnographic perspective, and another using it to better organize and preserve research materials gathered during previous research in her community. Back in Knox County, the impact of the field school is still being felt. Notably, the course has stimulated a number of new research projects at Kenyon College's Rural Life Center. Howard Sacks reports: "Students in my undergraduate fieldwork course are continuing to examine life along the Kokosing. Drawing on materials collected over the summer as well as their own research, the class is creating a cultural tour guide of the river that will include a booklet and audio recording. The summer fieldwork conducted on local food production has contributed to the creation of a guide to Knox County's food producers, part of an effort to build a local agricultural economy." "The initial work done in the field school has greatly aided our launching of these community projects," says Sacks. He also notes: "The surrounding community is receptive to our work as a result of the publicity associated with the school. The body of data collected by field school participants has helped us conceptualize our projects more quickly. And funding agencies are impressed by the groundwork accomplished in the school." What's next in the way of field schools? The Folklife Center has accepted an invitation from Indiana University's Folklore Institute and the Evergreen Institute, both in Bloomington, Indiana, to jointly sponsor a three-week-long field school in Bloomington this summer. Scheduled for June 11-July 1, it will follow the same model the Folklife Center used for last year's field school at Kenyon College. The focus of fieldwork during the Indiana field school will be the social and cultural history of Bloomington's town square. For more information about the course and how to apply to become a participant, contact the co-directors: Dr. Inta Carpenter, Director of Special Projects, Indiana University Folklore Institute, 504 North Fess, Bloomington, IN 47405; (812) 855-8049; carpente@indiana.edu; Dr. Philip B. Stafford, Evergreen Institute, 501 North Morton, Suite 210, Bloomington, IN 47404; (812) 856-5526; staffor@indiana.edu; or Dr. David A. Taylor, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540; (202) 707-1737; dtay@loc.gov. During a workshop on sound-recording techniques, Selena Lim, Gloria Parsisson, and Bob Thometz take turns setting up and operating the equipment. Photo by David A. Taylor Field school co-director Howard Sacks leads a discussion on various subjects that could be explored in addressing the field school's research theme, "Life Along the Kokosing." Photo by David A. Taylor The members of one of the field school's five fieldwork teams plan their research. They explored the creation of and the various ways people use the Kokosing Reservoir. Left to right: Bob Thometz, Susan Hanson, Norma Jean Loughrey. Photo by David A. Taylor Knox County farmer Art Cassell discusses crops he raises with field school participants. Left to right: Cassell, Linda Stoltzfus, Gregory Spaid, Susan Hanson, Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado. Photo by David A. Taylor Art Cassell describes seasonal variations of the Kokosing River, which runs through his property, to field school participants. Left to right: Eleanor Dahlin, Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado, Cassell, Gloria Parsisson, Gregory Spaid, Susan Hanson. Photo by David A. Taylor Field school participants and faculty pose for a group portrait on the last day of the course. First row (left to right): Mark Tebeau, Susan Hanson, Gloria Parsisson, Christopher Grasso. Second row: Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado, Eleanor Dahlin, Brenda Young, Robert Thometz, Linda Stoltzfus, David Taylor. Third row: Gregory Spaid, Howard Sacks, Norma Jean Loughrey, Lori Liggett, Paul Kulp, Elisabeth Nixon, Andrew Richmond, Ray Heithaus, Selina Lim. Photo by Inta Carpenter Back cover: During a field trip to the farm of Art and Joan Cassell, field school participant Mark Tebeau practices his photographic technique by photographing the Cassells in front of their barn. Photo by David A. Taylor Roots and Branches: Concert Benefits Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists Photographs by Robert Corwin Dubbed an event of "roots and branches" by Stephen Wade, the Henry Reed Fund Benefit Concert played to a packed house at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 1, 1999. Retiring American Folklife Center director Alan Jabbour proposed the fund and the concert to honor his mentor, the now-legendary West Virginia fiddle player Henry Reed. Members of the Reed family were present, many of them, along with Jabbour, also "in fine fiddle," (or fine guitar, or fine harmonica). Pete Seeger brought his grandson, Tao Rodriguez; and Christine Balfa (with husband, Dirk Powell, and Geno Delafose) put knowledgeable members of the audience in mind of her late father, the famous Cajun accordion player Dewey Balfa. Other performers on the program were the Washington gospel group Prophecy; Hazel Dickens and Dudley Connell; and Stephen Wade. The Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists will enable the American Folklife Center to provide support in the form of awards, stipends, or honoraria to folk artists of all sorts. The fund was conceived as a complement to the Parsons Fund (which supports the use of the Library's collections) and the Blanton Owen Fund (which supports fieldwork). In making awards from the Henry Reed Fund, the Center will give particular consideration to those artists who are featured in the programs and collections of the Center. Projects and activities supported by the fund might include honoraria and payments for concerts, workshops, and exhibitions; research using the Archive of Folk Culture; and the documentation of performances. To establish the Henry Reed Fund as a trust fund in the Library of Congress, the Center must raise $25,000. The benefit concert and a number of generous personal contributions have brought the fund near that goal. Persons wishing to contribute to this new effort to support folk artists should make checks payable to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board (or, simply, The American Folklife Center). Please write Henry Reed Fund in the comment line and send your contributions to the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. Contributions are tax deductible. Photographer Robert Corwin has been documenting the folk music scene and folk performers for the past thirty-five years. Photo captions: Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and his grandad Pete Performers onstage at the State Theater for a final number with Alan Jabbour and members of the Reed family. Backstage at the State Theater (clockwise from top): Pete Seeger, Alan Jabbour, Peggy Bulger, Stephen Wade, Tao Rodriguez, and Dirk Powell. Dirk Powell, Geno Delaphose, and Christine Balfa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congressional Reception Celebrates Center's Permanent Authorization Photographs by David A. Taylor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many persons contributed to the effort that resulted in permanent authorization for the American Folklife Center (which became effective October 21, 1998): notably the Center's board of trustees and many local supporters around the country who wrote letters and made calls to their congressional offices. The Center has also enjoyed the enduring support of a number of members of Congress, who worked to convince their own congressional colleagues of the importance of the Center and its work. The Center owes a debt, for example, to Rep. David Obey, Rep. John Spratt, Rep. Charles Taylor, Rep. William Thomas, Sen. Thad Cochran, Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Ted Stevens, and Sen. John Warner. On October 6, 1999, the Center held a reception in the Library's Madison Gallery to celebrate its new permanent status and to thank members of Congress for their help and support in achieving that goal. Photo captions: American Folklife Center director Peggy Bulger, board chair William Kinney, board member Janet Brown, and former Center director Alan Jabbour Center staff Nora Yeh (left) and Doris Craig (right) with Center board member Mickey Hart American Folklore Society president Jo Radner, National Endowment for the Arts chair Bill Ivey, Library of Congress Congressional Relations Officer Geraldine Otremba, and board member Jim Hoy Congressman David Obey (right) and Bill Ivey Congressman David Obey and Center director Peggy Bulger Smithsonian and Library of Congress Folklife Staffs Gather at Library Over the years, American Folklife Center (AFC) staff have grown used to having their programs and projects confused with the highly visible Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which has been staged on the National Mall since 1967. Similarly, the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (which manages the festival) often fields research inquires and other questions intended for the AFC. The two Washington-area folk arts agencies have different and complimentary functions, and many of the persons serving on the staffs are personal fiends as well as colleagues. On January 13, the Smithsonian and Library staffs (joined by Dan Sheehy and Barry Bergey from the NEA) met at the Library of Congress to discuss programs and share ideas. Participants formed discussion groups and explored five topics of common interest: 1. Cultural policy issues, community collaborations, and advocacy; 2. Education issues and initiatives; 3. Archives, access, and preservation; 4. Public programs, cultural representation, and interpretation; 5. Presenting, disseminating, and providing services on the World Wide Web. Stephanie Hall, automation reference specialist, describes the AFC's Web site for her discussion group, including Christa Maher (left), digital conversion specialist at the Library. Photo by James Hardin Smithsonian staff Mary Monseur, production coordinator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Marjorie Hunt, folklorist and education specialist; and Diana N'Diaye, folklorist, listen attentively to the discussion of cultural policy issues. Photo by James Hardin [END TEXT]