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2005 Botkin Lectures
Online Archive of Past Benjamin A. Botkin Folklife
Lectures
All of the materials from the Botkin Lectures are available
to visitors in the Folklife Reading Room. Selected materials will be
made available
online as digital versions are available and as permissions from the
authors can be obtained.
The PDF files of the event flyers on this page require Adobe
Acrobat Reader (free from Adobe).
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
at Noon
Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor Madison Building
Sara
M. Davis, a New-York based writer and former researcher in the Asia Division
of Human Rights Watch discussed her book, Song & Silence,
in which she reveals how Tai Lües are reviving and reinventing their
culture in ways that contest the official state version.
Read the event flyer
essay
Carefully avoiding government repression, Tai Lües
have rebuilt Buddhist temples and made them into vital centers for the
Tai community to gather, discuss their future, and express discontent.
Davis also describes the resurgence of the Tai language evident in a renewed
interest in epic storytelling and traditional songs as well as the popularity
of Tai pop music and computer publishing projects. Throughout her work,
Davis weaves together the voices of monks, singers, and activists to examine
issues of cultural authenticity, the status of ethnic minorities in China,
and the growing cross-border contacts among Tai Lües in China, Thailand,
Burma, and Laos.
For more information see:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023113/0231135262.HTM (Columbia
University site)
Thursday, November 17, 2005 at Noon
Madison Hall 1st Floor Madison Building
"Collecting
and Performing Traditional Song in the Republic of Georgia"
In this webcast ethnomusicologist,
scholar and performer Malkhaz Erkvanidze talks about collecting traditional
sacred and secular music in the Republic of Georgia. Members
of the Anchiskhati Choir assist him with performance of material
he and the members of his ensemble have collected.
Read the event flyer essay
View the webcast of this lecture and
performance
Malkhaz
Erkvanidze is a world authority on Georgian polyphonic choral
music. He has spent his life rescuing the church hymns and prayers that
were suppressed under Soviet communism. His four books of Georgian hymns
have been published with CDs; and he has written many articles about
the distinctive musical structure of Georgian polyphony. He leads the "Dzveli
Kiloebi" or Old Modes group within the Anchiskhati choir, dedicated
to preserving the authentic Georgian tuning system with the traditional
singing styles. He teaches at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, the State
Seminary and the Academy of Theology; and is the consultant to the Patriarch
of Georgia, Ilia the Second, on liturgical chant.
The Anchiskhati Choir is the world's leading
exponent of Georgian polyphonic choral music. Members of the Anchiskhati
Choir come from different regions of Georgia where they have absorbed the
unique singing traditions of their parents and grandparents. Singing weekly
in the famous 6th century Anchiskhati church in Tbilisi, Georgia, the ensemble
collaborates as a group of expert and passionate ethno-musicologists, who
collect, teach, hold workshops and regularly perform in Georgia and abroad.
For more information see:
http://www.awonderfulchoice.co.uk/anchiskhati/main.html (Anchiskhati
Choir site)
http://www.northernharmony.pair.com/concerts/anchiskhati.html (Anchiskhati
Choir site)
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at Noon
Mumford Room, 6th Floor Madison Building
"The
Beautiful Bridge: Crossing The Span Between Oral Tradition and the Written
Creative Word" — by Frank Delaney author of the New
York Times
bestseller "Ireland: A Novel"
Read the event flyer essay
Scott Simon, NPR's Peabody-Award-winning correspondent and host of Weekend
Edition Saturday introduced the speaker.
One of the most interesting bridges in cultural life crosses
the span between the oral tradition and the written creative word, linking
the spoken history of peoples to the literature they produced when they
began to write. This lecture guides people across this bridge from
the oral to the written. Describing first the principles of storytelling
in ancient Irish communities and then making connections between Irish
traditions of myth, saga and legend, award-winning novelist Frank Delaney
demonstrates how the writers of Ireland relate to the country's past.
Learn
more about Frank Delaney (Frank Delaney's Personal Web site)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at Noon
West Dining Room, 6th Floor Madison Building
The
Beat: Go-Go's Fusion of Funk and Hip-Hop — ethnomusicologist
Kip Lornell discussed the book he coauthored with Charles C. Stephenson
Jr.
Read the event flyer essay
The Beat: Go-Go's Fusion of Funk and Hip-Hop is
the first book to explore the social, cultural, and musical phenomenon
of African-American music largely known for its spirit, its energy, and
its vitality. Sometimes locally known as "the most evolved form of
funk," it is the funkiest form of black popular music unembraced by
the cultural mainstream, perhaps known as well in Europe and the Far East
as it is across the United States. Recognizing that music cannot be separated
from the culture from which it derives, the book is equal parts black life,
youth culture, local politics, the mass media, hip hop culture, urban aesthetics,
entrepreneurship, and the struggles of everyday life. In addition to the
narrative, the book includes a list of recommended recordings, as well
as a selected list of articles concerning Go Go music published in a variety
of periodicals. A CD featuring tracks by many of Go Go's key artists has
been released by Liaison Records in conjunction with the publication of
this book. Kip Lornell was joined in the audience by recording artist,
D.C. music legend, and 2005 NEA National Heritage Fellow Chuck Brown.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at Noon
West Dining Room, 6th Floor Madison Building
Read
the event flyer essay
Tales of the Jersey Devil — an Illustrated
Lecture by Stephen D. Winick, Ph.D., of the American Folklife Center.
The Jersey Devil is New Jersey's answer to Bigfoot or the
Loch Ness Monster: a mysterious creature said to inhabit the remotest part
of the State. Over the years, many stories have been told about this creature,
from firsthand sightings to campfire tales, and from a highly-developed
origin myth to reports of hoaxes and scams. The Jersey Devil also persists
in contemporary New Jersey lore as a mascot and an icon of the State; the
New Jersey Devils hockey team is the most famous example. From 1999 until
2005, folklorist Stephen D. Winick directed the Delaware Valley Folklife
Center in southern New Jersey--prime Jersey Devil territory. He investigated
the famous creature's presence and persistence in both folklore and popular
culture, and curated a traveling exhibit entitled Tales of the Jersey Devil.
In this lecture, he tells us many strange and wonderful stories about
this monster, recounts the history and development of the tale, and shows
us many unusual Jersey Devil artifacts.
Thursday, July 21, 2005 at noon
Room 139, Madison Building
"Bridles,
Bits and Beads: Folk and Fieldwork from the High, Wide and Handsome State
of Montana" — an illustrated lecture by Dr. Alexandra Swaney
of the Montana Arts Council
Read the event flyer
essay
The fast horses and Indians you see conjure up a stereotypical
landscape of the Old West. It's an image from the Real Bird family's re-enactment
of the Custer's Last Stand. There still are cowboys and Indians in Montana -- those
are some of the peoples who live there and many still do practice their
traditional arts. But as everyone who lives there knows, Montana is changing
rapidly and becoming more of a playground for people of means, and less
of a bread and beef basket to the country. In addition, there are traditional
folk in Montana that defy many of the usual characterizations we have in
mind.
Bridles, Bits and Beads was the first traveling folk arts
exhibit curated and toured throughout Montana by Alexandra Swaney in her
first two years as folklife director at the Montana Arts Council. Dr. Swaney
presented a slide show with commentary covering this exhibit along with
an overview of the Montana Folklife Program of the last ten years, accompanied
by audio selections. Artists discussed include:
Bill Allison, saddle maker from Roundup, Montana
Nina Russell, jazz pianist
Bill Ohrmann, visionary painter
Iris Allrunner, star quilter and porcupine quiller
John "the Yank" Harrington, Irish accordionist.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 12:00noon
Pickford Theater, 3th floor of the James Madison Building
"From
Virginia to Vermont: a Trek from Slavery to Freedom" — an
audio illustrated lecture by Jane Beck, Folklorist and Executive Director
of the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, Vermont
Read the event flyer essay
Jane Beck talked about the oral histories she conducted
with Daisy Turner from 1983-1988. Daisy Turner, born in Grafton, Vermont
on June 21, 1883 was the daughter of Alec Turner (1845-1923) a former
slave. When Beck first met her, she was 100. Over the next four and a
half years, Beck developed a relationship with Daisy, which resulted
in over 60 recorded oral history interviews. Beck was struck by what
a remarkable window Daisy provided on antebellum life in Virginia through
the stories she learned from her father Alec during these interviews.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 at 12:00pm
Room 119, 1st floor, Thomas Jefferson building
Stetson
Kennedy, now 89, talks about his life and work in conversation
with Dr. Peggy Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center.
Read the event flyer essay
Read
the News Release
View the webcast of
this presentation
Stetson Kennedy, has spent the majority of his life
fighting for human rights in the deep south of America. Crusading for
human rights, fighting the Jim Crow laws and helping equality take
hold in the south. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1916. As
a teenager he began collecting Cracker and African-American folksay
material while he was collecting ''dollar down and dollar a week''
accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. He left the University
of Florida in 1937 to join the WPA Florida Writers' Project, and was
soon, at the age of 21, put in charge of folklore, oral history, and
ethnic studies. Slowly becoming one of the pioneer folklore collectors
during the first half of the twentieth century.
During and after the late 1940's when Kennedy infiltrated
and exposed the Klu Klux Klan and other hate groups- Woody Guthrie,
Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du bois were among his friends. Kennedy's
far-flung multiracial experiences nourished and supported his love
and concern of humankind. The life Stetson has lead prompted FSU director
of Black Studies Dr. William Jones to predict that, "Kennedy may
well go down as the first investigative historian."
More information about Stetson Kennedy can be found
on his personal Web site at www.stetsonkennedy.com.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 6:30pm
Room 119, 1st floor, Thomas Jefferson building
Music
in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, an illustrated lecture
by Prof. Timothy Rice, ethnomusicologist, UCLA
Book signing will follow
Read the event flyer essay
Timothy Rice is founding co-editor of the ten-volume Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music and the author of May it Fill
Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music (University of
December 4, 2008
rous field trips to the
Balkans since 1969, has been published in major journals, including Ethnomusicology, Yearbook
for Traditional Music, and Journal of American Folklore.
He has also published articles on ethnomusicological methods, cross-cultural
music theory, and music education. Prof. Rice spoke about his
fieldwork in Bulgaria and the role of music in the postcommunist
transition in Eastern Europe.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 at 6:30pm
Mumford Room, 6th floor of the James Madison Building
"Between
Midnight and Day" — an illustrated lecture by Dick Waterman,
photographer, agent, manager, and promoter of traditional Blues artists.
Read the event flyer biographical essay
Read the
Media Advisory
Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues
Archive (Thunder's Mouth Press/Insight Editions, 2003) features
many of the most important photographs from Dick Waterman's unparalleled
vintage blues archive. Here Waterman presents rare images, many previously
unseen, and illuminates them with his own first-hand commentary offering
his unique perspective as an agent, representative, photographer, and
friend to some of the most influential figures in American music. Waterman
includes personal recollections and 120 color photographs of blues
legends like Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Chuck
Berry, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Son House, "Mississippi" John
Hurt, Skip James, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, Fred McDowell, Bonnie Raitt,
Otis Rush, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Mama Thornton, Sippie Wallace, Muddy
Waters, Junior Wells, Bukka White, and Howlin’ Wolf. Contributors
include critically acclaimed music biographer Peter Guralnick, Grammy
award-winning musician Bonnie Raitt, and author Chris Murray.
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