NEW YORI< FOLI<LORE newsletter Vol. 7, No.4

Winter, 1986

New York State Senator Tarky Lombardi Jr., a supporter of the traditional arts who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on the Culture Industry, showing Syracuse folk singer Elizabeth Cotten a portrait of her that he presented to the Onondaga County Historical Associa­tion during a ceremony in her honor on October 31, 1986. The portrait was taken by Senate staff photographer, Allen Schroeder, during a 1985 legislative hearing on arts funding. On the day of that legislative hearing, ''Libba ''Cotten was praised in a Senate resolution spon­sored by Senator Lombardi for her lifelong contributions to American folk music. At the Onondaga County Historical Association ceremony, Senator Lombardi noted that "Libba" Cotten, who has been a National Heritage Fell ow and who won a Grammy Award at the age of93 for her album Elizabeth Cotten Live, ''is a living treasure whose accomplishments and contributions to our community should be celebrated and long remembered in our community. ''(Photo by Daniel Franklin Ward, courtesy of the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County.)

2

SOCIETY NEWS: THE 1986 ANNUAL MEETING By Daniel Ward

The annual meeting of the New York Folklore Society was hosted on September 28, 1986 by the Anthropology Depart­ment of the State University College at Buffalo.

President Lydia Fish opened the meeting at 10:50 a.m. by thanking the faculty of Natural and Social Sciences for the meeting space and Robert Roush, Phil Stevens' student assistant, for all of his help in setting up the meeting and keeping the program moving smoothly.

Dr. Fish then reiterated her request in the summer Newsletter for an expanded membership. She reported on the work for Mr. Herbert Tinney, a professional database manager who is now working on the reorganization of the Society's com­puterized membership lists.

Secretary /Treasurer Daniel Ward read the minutes of the 1985 Annual Meeting. Lee Haring moved to accept the minutes as read. Nancy Groce seconded the motion. Ward reported that the Newsletter will continue to follow the for­ml}t of the most recent issue, which has been well received. Some new features, such as "book notes" and a "research notes'' section also eventually will be add­ed to the Newsletter. Ward reported that City Lore is starting a "Friends of CityLore" organization to accept dona­tions. Contributors of $24.00 or more to this City/Lore fund will receive the Newsletter from NYFS without joining. The Society will also receive a portion of the donation. Ward also reported that the Fall1987 meeting will be held in Syracuse on September 25-27 and will be co­sponsored by the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse anq Onondaga Coun­ty and the Regional Council of Historical Agencies. The Hotel Syracuse, the last of the great hotels in Upstate New York, will serve as the convention center. I -

Lee Haring suggested the need for a headquarters for the Society and Bill Nicholaisen moved that the officers of the Board, as a committee, look into the establishment of a headquarters. Phil Stevens seconded the motion and the mo­tion passed. Barbara Kirshenblatt­Gimblett questioned the value of a com­mittee on locating a headquarters and stated that the Society should instead look into paying a professional executive.

Editor Phil Stevens reported that New York Folklore is at last on schedule. He noted, however, that he has experienced a dramatic increase in his duties as Editor this year. He then reported that the Board had approved $400.00 for temporary ser­vices, as needed, for the editorial office. He expressed his concern that all members of the Society get involved in the marketing of New York Folklore and com­mended Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett for her many excellent suggestions on marketing the journal in New York City. Stevens reported that New York Folklore will be guest edited in 1987 during his sab­batical leave by Mary Twining and Mia Boynton.

NOMINATION OF OFFICERS Bill Nicholaisen presented the follow­

ing slate of nominations approved by the Board: Lydia Fish ....... .. ................ President Varick Chittenden .. .. ..... Vice-President Lee Haring ............ ....... Past President Daniel F. Ward ....... ... . Secretary /Treas. Phillips Stevens Jr. Ed. New York Folklore Mary A. Twining .Western Regional Rep. W.F.H. Nicolaisen .... Eastern Reg. Rep. John Suter ............. Southern Reg. Rep. Nancy Groce ................. Rep. at Large John Eilertsen ................ Rep. at Large Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett ............ .

Rep. at Large Michael P. 0 'Lear ... ... ... .. Rep. at Large Janis Benincasa ............... Rep. at Large Steven Zeitlin .......... Member ex Officio

New York Folklore Society P.O. Box 678

Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

EDITOR

Daniel Franklin Ward

Publication of the Newsletter is supported in part by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. Deadline for next issue: January 15, 1987

Phil Stevens moved that the nomina­tions be closed. Barbara Kirshenblatt­Gimblett seconded the motion. Lee Har­ing moved the slate o,f nominations. Bar­bara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett seconded the motion. The slate was passed by the members present without objection.

Bill Nicolaisen then reported on the Board decision to retain the Director of City Lore as a member of the Board, ex Of­ficio. He also reported on the Board deci­sion to co-opt Michael Licht and Mitzie Collins to the Board.

Erie County folklorist, Mia Boynton, presenting a research report to the New York Folklore Society at the 1986 annual meeting in Buffalo.

Under new business, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett proposed that the next Board meeting center on a vigorous look into the goals and purposes of the Society. A discussion followed but no ac­tion was taken. President Fish then re­quested that each Board member provide her with a position paper on the goals and purposes of the New York Folklore Socie­ty before the first of the year. President Fish also reminded the Board of Barbara Kirshenblatt -Gimblett 's recommendation at the Board meeting that the relationship between CityLore and the New York Folklore Society be made an agenda item for the Spring meeting.

Nancy Groce moved to adjourn the meeting. Varick Chittenden seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 12:32 p.m.

3

PROJECTIONS FOR 1987: NEW YORK FOLKLORE'S VOLUME XIII

By Phillips Stevens, Jr. During the 1987 calendar year, New

York Folklore editor Philips Stevens, Jr. will be on sabbatical leave from his posi­tion in the Department of Anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo. The routine affairs of the editorial office will be managed by editorial assistants, Robert Roush and Karen Overton. All correspondence will be answered and all orders for back issues filled. Both 1987 issues of the journal, which will be guest edited, will deal with the folklore of workers. An Ignored Cultural Resource ...

Mary Arnold Twining, folklorist at State University College at Buffalo and a member of our editorial board, is guest editor of The New Nomads: Art, Lore and Life of Migrant Workers (XIII, Nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring). All contributors to this special issue have had long and close association with various programs organized by the BOCES-Geneseo Migrant Center. Some disparate studies of aspects of the culture of migrant workers have been done elsewhere, but this special issue will be unique in its discussion, from first-hand and sensitive perspectives, of aspects of a generally ignored but vital American cultural resource.

Thousands of migrant workers migrate north in the late winter from the Caribbean and southern states, work in­tensively in the fields and orchards of New York and other northern states, then move south again in the fall. They bring with them elements of their traditional cultures, and in their association with workers from other backgrounds and in response to their physical and cultural isolation from local resident communities, they generate new cultural patterns and forms of expression. Personnel involved with the Geneseo Center's programs have come to unders­tand these patterns and in this volume their insights will now be shared, both with other public agencies, and with the public, the consumers of the migrant workers' products.

Contributions to this volume, and their tentative titles are: Gloria Mattera, Director of the BOCES-Geneseo Migrant Center, "Introduction;" Sue Roark­Calnek, Anthropologist at SUNY Col­lege, Geneseo, "Folklore of the Migrant Stream;'' Robert Lynch, Associate Direc­tor of the Geneseo Center, "Assembling the Haitian Kit;" Rosemarie Chierichi, Anthropologist at Hobart and William Smith College, "A Haitian Worker's Dream;" Mary A. Twining, "The Flower in the Boat: Folk Arts Among the Migrant Workers;" Sylvia Kelly, Coordinator of

the Center's Creative Artists Migrant Pro­gram Services (CAMPS), "Migrant Worker Poets and their Poetry;" Berrien Thome, founder and director of the travel­ing Neighborhood Museum of Music Making, "Songsmith to the Workers: An Itinerant Musician in Rural New York;" and a "Photo Essay" by Elizabeth Boet­tger, free-lance photographer from Rochester.

A mother and her family outside their room in a migrant camp. (Photo by Roger Smith, courtesy of BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center.)

An experimental marketing effort is being planned for this extraordinary volume. Mary and her contributors are working hard toward early Spring publication, so that the volume can be presented as a special offer at a State-wide migrant workers conference to be held at SUNY College, Buffalo, in March; and so it can be available to the 5000 registrants expected at the National Migrant Educa­tion Conference in Minneapolis, April 26-30.

A special offer will be extended to the National Rural Health Care Conference in Nashville, May 6-9, to the Western Stream Migrant Education Conference on the West Coast in early summer, and the Central Stream Migrant Education Con­ference in the late Fall. Publication of this special volume will contribute invaluably toward understanding the unique pro­blems and cultural responses of migrant workers in America, and members of the New York Folklore Society will be proud that their Society is responsible for it.

... And One Americans Cannot Igr..ore Absolutely vital to the economy of

our nation is the industrial worker, but established academic folklore studies have generally paid little attention to this population. The recent mass laying-off of workers, in Bethlehem Steel's Western New York plants, and elsewhere, have projected the lives and culture of the in­dustrial worker into the national spotlight once again. New York Folklore, proudly continuing the legacy laid down by Ben Botkin in the 1930s and 40s, plans a special issue under the guest editorship of Mia Boynton. Mia, Erie County Folk Art Consultant for the Arts Council in Buf­falo, has done extensive folkloric research among laid-off steelworkers in Lackawan­na, and has secured six contributors for a volume tentatively titled, Folklore in the Industrial Workplace, scheduled as XIII , 3-4, Summer-Fall. The contents will in­clude: Mia Boynton, introductory essay ; Jim Abrams "Occupational Folklore in Everyday Life: Some Recent Research Trends;" Mia Boynton, "A Woman in a Men's Sphere: Testimonies of a Woman Steelworker from Buffalo, New York;" Bob McCarl, "Accident Accounts: The Culture of Self-Protection on the Workshop Floor;" Rob Moore, "The Loss of a Sense of Craft in the Pipe Organ Factory;" Amy Skillman, "'Hey, Did You Check Out the Wiggle Molding We Just Got In?' The Humor of a Tradition­Bearer in the Lumber Yard;" Brenda Mc­Callum, "Songs of Work and Songs of Worship: Sanctifying Black Unionism in the Southern City of Steel."

A World War II Bethlehem Steel photograph of women lifting firebricks for the Lackawanna plant. (Courtesy of the collection of Jerry Soltis.)

Archie Green and Jack Santino will provide commentaries for the issue . Fur­ther details on these special issues will ap­pear in a 1987 issue of the Newsletter.

4

SOCIETY'S FOLK ARTS-IN-EDUCATION WORKSHOPS WELL RECEIVED

During the month of November, the New York Folklore Society sponsored a series of three workshops on "Folk Arts­In-Education" at the Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences in Binghamton; the Sand Creek Elementary School in South Colonie; and Teachers College at Colum­bia University. The seminars were funded by a grant from the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts, Folk Arts Program.

According to the seminar organizers, Paula Tadlock Jennings and Kathleen Mundell: ''The purpose of the workshops was to generate interest among schools and cultural organizations so that they might develop folk artists-in-the school programs in their own communities."

Approximately 75 people attended the three workshops. Most were teachers working in the public schools. Others represented historical organizations, museums, the PTA, and arts organiza­tions .

The seminar was organized into four parts:

* Overview of folk artists-in-the­schools programs around the country

* How to begin a folk artists residency * What happens in the classrooms * Curriculum development

There was also discussion of funding sources for folk artist residencies.

Dr. Marsha MacDowell, of the Michigan State University Museum, was the keynote speaker for the workshops in Binghamton and Albany. She opened the day with a discussion ofthe varied formats for folk artist residencies throughout the country. She also led a workshop on cur­riculum development, providing ex­amples from her highly successful ''FolkPatterns'' program at Michigan State University Museum. Many teachers found this session particularly useful. ''I hate to see people re-inventing the wheel - these curriculum materials will save a lot of time and also be a catalyst for teachers to do further development,'' commented Donna Colebeck, a teacher from the Marion Central School District.

Kathleen Mundell, of the Arts Coun­cil of Rockland, discussed the planning and development needed for a folk artist residency programs she directed in Nebraska and Rockland County, New York provided graphic background for her talk. In Albany, folklorist George Ward, of Rexford, talked about his field

research in the region and publications useful in conducting this type of project. The morning concluded with the viewing of a videotape, produced by folklorist Nancy Groce, on the Staten Island Folk Artist -in-Schools Program.

A school teacher from New York City remarked: ''The morning sessions helped me recognize the different cultures in my school neighborhood and how to possibly gain access to them."

One of the more useful sessions, ac­cording to participants, was the simulation of a classroom demonstration. Here, a folk artist, teacher and folklorist showed what it might be like in a regular classroom.

At the Roberson Center, folklorist Catherine Schwoeffermann introduced Rich Koski, a Finnish musician who has worked in the Newark Valley School with 4th grade teacher Gina Kuhlman. In Albany, folklorist Ellen McHale introduc­ed woodcarver Perry Cobb, who has

worked with 4th grade teacher Jane Mc­Clure. Ms. McClure has directed a highly successful Folk Artists-in-the Schools program in the Roundout Valley School System. At Columbia University, Dr. Groce presented Ismail Butera, an Alba­nian musician who has worked in the Staten Island Schools.

The Columbia program featured Mary Scherbatskoy of A.R.T.S . and W A YES: People and Cultures on the Lower East Side; Kathleen Mundell of the Arts Council of Rockland and Julia Leben­tritt, who is a collector of lullabies. Ms. Lebentritt presented three lullaby singers.

For many participants, the seminar provided an informative overview of how to develop a residency program. Suzette Lane McEvoy of the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University found: ''The en­tire day's program was helpful. It was par­ticularly nice to have the general introduc­tion followed by specific examples and by actual demonstrations by artists."

Finnish musician, Rich Koski, providing a sample performance for participants in the New York Folklore Society's Folk Arts-in-Education Workshop at the Rober­son Center in Binghamton. (Photo by Paula Tadlock Jennings.)

5

SOMETHING NEW

Folklorist Nancy Groce taste-testing a popular regional recipe, the original Buffalo-style chicken wing, at Frank and Teresa's Anchor Bar on Main Street at North in Buffalo. Also enjoying the Anchor Bar's fare is New York Folklore Society board member Michael Licht.

A CALL FOR RECIPES The Centennial Coordinating Council

of the American Folklore Society has ten­tatively approved the compilation of a Society cookbook modeled after the An­thropologists' Cookbook, which would feature regional and/or ethnic recipes sup­plemented by contextual enthnographic information, illustrations and historical support materials.

As presently conceived, each 1-3 page entry contributed by an individual folklorist would include reminiscences

about their fieldwork, information about how and from whom a specific recipe was obtained, and instructions for the prepara­tion of that dish.

The publication will be illustrated with fieldwork, photographs and, to em­phasize the centennial nature of the book, it would feature archival photographs and quotes about food and foodways that have appeared over the years in JAF. Although a wide variety of foods will be included, a North American focus will be maintained.

A major publisher is being sought to underwrite the costs of an attractive publication aimed at members of the general public. Any resulting profits will be donated to AFS.

One to three page descriptions of regional or ethnic specialties should be sent before February 17, 1987 to Nancy Groce at 338 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021. Please include as much con­textual information as possible with your submission.

6

ACO By Betty Shaver and Ellen McHale The Shakers, or "The United Society of

Believers in Christ's Second Appearing,'' had their origins in Manchester, England. There, Ann Lees (who was later to become the spiritual leader ofthe Shakers, Mother Ann Lee), was influenced by the religious society of former Quakers Jane and James Wardley. Their style of wor­ship included shouting, singing, and danc­ing, leading to their designation as "Shaker Quakers." Ann Lee eventually became a spiritual leader in this Society and, after years of religious persecution in England, she experienced a vision which led to her establishing the Shakers in America. The group which landed in August, 1774 included Ann Lee and her husband, John Hocknell and his son, James Whittaker, Ann Lee's brother William, and her niece Nancy Lees. It was three of the Believers, John Hocknell, William Lee, and James Whittaker who brought the Society in 1775 to Watervliet, now the town of Colonie in Albany Coun­ty, New York.

The principle tenets of their faith were confession of sins, celibacy, separtion from the outside world and common ownership of property. They also believed in the equality of the sexes, the absence of racial discrimination, pacifism, and devo­tion to industry and perfection. As Mother Ann had prophesied, by 1780 they were beginning to draw visitors and converts.

The Shakers were "gathered" or organized into four families, the Church, North, South and West. In Remembering Wisdom's Valley, Dorothy Filley re­counts, "Each family in a society was governed by a system of elders and eldresses, deacons and deaconesses, and both male and female trustees. Two elders and two eldresses, of equal status, were responsible for the spiritual affairs of the members of each family. These families were independent economic orders whose temporal affairs were managed by the deacons and trustees. ''

The Watervliet community was organized in 1787. According to the original Shaker organizational system, a First Order was to contain all members who had been leaders in setting up the Society and in it ''was preserved the stric­tist discipline." They were to reside near the community Meeting House and have the care of it. The became known as the Church family. Other distinctions set this family apart, such as rarely meeting with any other except the Second Order. When members of the Church Family walked with thosefrom other orders, they always walked on the right.

The 2nd order, which at Watervliet was

OF BELIEVERS: THE SHAKERS 01 later to become known as the "North Family," was a branch of the First Order, but managed the secular concerns of both. A community would also have a "Young Believers'' Order where the newcomers lived while they determined if the Shaker life was for them. At Watervliet, this became the South Family. When many converts were coming in and the South Family could not absorb them, a second Family was built, the West family.

Families were required by their cove­nant to keep a journal; journals which were kept from 1837 to 1922 give a per­sonal side to the Shakers at Watervliet. Rachel McDonald of the West Family records the visits of George Price and Caty Ferguson of the North Family in 1883 and 1884, presumably to use the West Family's large cooking apparatus to boil their "Mohawk Sauce." She also writes in July 1883 that lightning struck the office at the North Family and ''tore from garret to cellar. Sister Caty Ferguson and the girl that helped her were both knocked to the floor but not seriously injured." In November she tells of Sarah Neal coming from the North Family to have the West Family baker make some bread for her out of the North Family flour. "Some said the flour was good, some say it was bad, and she wanted another baker's opinion."

By 1875 many of the nineteen Shaker communities began to close their doors. As each community disbanded, its members were absorbed into the remain­ing communities. Dorothy Filley in Remembering Wisdom's Valley states,

"At Watervliet the pattern of decline in population was definitely set by 1875. Of the total Shaker group of 144 (56 males and 88 females), 23 were under sixteen and 59 were over sixty years of age; a count of 28 hired hands included their families." (Filey 1975:81).

Nothing specific is said in these journals about the decision to close the North Family being made, but on October 1st, 1892, Elder Isaac records that he went to Groveland (another Shaker community in Western New York), returning two days later. On October 12th he went to the railroad station to get a load of cows ship­ped from Groveland, and on October 28th, a railroad car of furniture. On Oc­tober 29th he says, "what few are left at the North Family are moved to the Church Family to make place for the Groveland people- 5 sisters and 1 brother move."

The move from Groveland proceeded steadily, with Elder Isaac of the West Family doing most of the organizing and a great deal of the work.

West Family sisters, along with a cou­ple of sisters from the South Family, went to the North Family to clean the buildings and get them in readiness, and the Ministry Sisters came from New Lebanon to help. On October 30th, the Ministry fumigated the North Family with brimstone, and the next day the first Groveland people arrived, but were tem­porarily housed at the South and West Families.

On November 16th, Elder Alexander Work arrived in Albany with the main

The North Family Group, ca. 1912. Seat left to right are Elder Josiah Barker of the Church Family, Eldresses Lavinia Dutcher and Polly Lee and Sister Jennie Wells. Standing left to right are Esther Relyea, Irene Coburn, and Sisters Anna Stebbins and Ella Winship. Sister Jennie's dog, Tippy, is beside Elder Josiah Barker. (Photo courtesy of Jean Otten, Town of Colonie Historian.)

~WATERVLIET group of Groveland people. Elder Isaac hired a hack to bring out the aged sisters -Sophronia Dole (77), Susan Love (78), Jerusha Truair (77), and Lavinia Dut­cher, who was only 62 but always described as being frail. Although ''frail,'' she survived to move to the South Family in 1919 when the North Family closed for good and died in 1923 at the age of 93.

In November more Groveland horses and cows arrived and Elder Alexander went back to Groveland to gather up the rest of his flock. On the 26th, Ella Win­ship, Jennie Wells, Hamilton DeGraw, Byron Coburn and five others arrived. A total of twenty-nine people made the move, eleven of them over seventy years of age.

The North and West Families con­tinued to work together. The North Fami­ly, for instance, went every two weeks on Monday to the West Family to do their laundry until November 1893 when their new washouse was finished. They also helped each other in canning beans and tomatoes, and had Sunday meetings together .

By the 1905 State Census there are only sixteen recorded as living at the North Family . By 1910 there are only ten Shakers with Ella Winship the Head; Josiah Barker was now serving as elder for both the Church and North Families . It was a practice of the Shakers to care for the indigent, the widowed, and children who were left in their care. Living with the North Family by 1910 was the widow Eveline Reno and her two children, Marion and Gertrude, as well as five other girls, six hired men, and the tenant family of George Woods. An account book kept by Elder Josiah for the North Family shows their receipts for the year 1910 to have been $5,378, largely for milk sold, but also cows, calves , butter , eggs and garden produce. Expenses for that year totaled $5,352 so they had a small profit of $26.00. By 1913, their receipts totaled only $3,907 while their expenses amounted to $4,658, leaving a deficit of $778.00.

Hamilton DeGraw of the North Family apparently had a soft spot in his heart for the South Family members because Anna Goepper notes at various times over the next few years his arrival with something from his garden - a bushel of spinach, the first radishes in the spring, asparagus, a bushel of melons. Similarly, Eldress Anna Case of the South Family gave con­siderable moral support to Ella Winship in her chore of managing the North Fami­ly and Ella Winship and Jennie Wells would bring the young girls to the South

7

Shaker Brethren in front of the original Church Family quadrangle, c. 1860. Shaker Meeting House is on the right. (Photo courtesy of Jean Often, Town of Colonie Historian.)

Family for special holiday enter- Ministry called the members of the South tainments. During World War I, when Family together. Anna Goepper tells us , civilians were to have no more white ''They think it best for the North Family to bread but had to use ''Liberty Flour,'' move here as they would not go to the Jennie Wells came to the South Family to Church Family, and the Church Family find out how Anna Goepper made her did not want them. They felt they would bread because the people at the North not be treated right at the Church Family. Family couldn't eat Jennie bread at all. We were all asked and, while the majority Anna says she was mixing Libery flour were not so very anxious for the change, with part rolled oats, part barley flour and still no refused or was unwilling. The · part graham flour and she comments, Ministry thought it would be the cheapest "everybody says my bread is A No. 1, and easiest way on account of their aged they can eat it just as well as white.'' people . '' Anna goes on to say the North

By June 1919 there are only seven Family property is for sale, in order, "to Shakers at the North Family. On July 2, pay up Elder Josiah's debts at Church Anna Goepper notes, "There are rumors Family which he had run into in order to afloat to the effect that the North Family keep the North Family going. This is why here expect to disband, sooner or later. they broke up- high cost of living, pay-Time alone will prove the truth or untruth ing so many hired hands and the foreman of it.'' On July 24th she notes that Eldress $75 a month and he doing nothing but run Anna Case went to the North Family for about in his auto and taking the North the day. "There have been rumors for a Family's help to his own farm to keep his long time of the contemplation of break- own farm in fine shape. A pretty kettle of ing up the North Family on account of ex- fish, I say.'' penses. '' The North Family was sold soon after to

On August 9th, the New Lebanon a private family and today its grounds are Ministry called the members of the South the Shaker Ridge Country Club in Albany. Family together. Anna Goepper tells us, The Church Family, sold in 1924, soon "'~hey think it best for the North Family became the property of Albany County; to move here as they would not go to the the buildings and grounds now comprise Church Family, and the Church Family Albany County's Ann Lee Nursing Home. did not want them. They felt they would Of the former Shaker buildings and pro-not be treated right at the Church Family. perties, all have passed out of Shaker We were all asked and, while the majori- hands except the Shaker cemetery in ty were not so very anxious for the which Mother Ann Lee is buried. change, still no refused or was unwilling. Although the Shaker Meeting House (cir-The Ministry thought it would be the ca 1848) is owned by Albany County, cheapest and easiest way on account of trusteeship has been granted to the Shaker their aged people . '' Anna goes on to say Heritage Society, an organization con-the North Family property is for sale, in cerned with promoting the Shaker's con-order, "to pay up Elder Josiah's debts at tribution to the Albany area. Among their Church Family which he had run into in other projects, they will be working to order to keep the North Family going. renovate and rehabilitate this now decrepit

On August 9th, the New Lebano!J. building.

AN ACCESSIBLE AESTHETIC: THE ROLE OF THE

by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

What better way to convey to children the cultural nature of art and the rich ar­tistic traditions of their own community than through living practitioners, through the folk artists themselves? We take children to museums so they can ex­perience the power of the authentic, the original object, and not have to settle for facsimiles and reproductions. In a sense, the world we live in is a living museum, an opportunity to have primary experiences with aesthetically vibrant works and their makers. Folk artists in the schools provide children with the opportunity to ex­perience living traditions directly and in the round. In the presence of a folk artist, the objects, the tales, the songs expand to encompass the biography and culture of which they are a part. The child confronts an authentic maker and an authentic ob­ject, not a filtered rendition of it through a book or filmstrip .

Pedagogically, folk artists are effec­tive in ways that challenge us to learn from them. Working in Appalachia, Eliot Wig­ginton noted that the quality of learning outside of the classroom in interactions with members of the community is rarely matched by what generally happens in the school setting itself. He says: "I'm con­vinced, for example, that a student learned more about himself and life generally in three days spent with an Aunt Arie (who went no further than the fourth grade) than in four years of high school English .'' Children recognize the life-time learning, the integrity, and the commitment that make folk artists the compelling per­sonalities they so often are. And folk ar­tists in the school provide the same human element in teaching that was so essential in their own informal learning. They are a lesson in the art of lifelong learning, in learning that is self motivated, acquired through close attention, and nurtured by the support of others. Mrs. Catrino, an elderly Italian-American woman with a lifelong passion for needlework, remark­ed: ''I watched my mother do it, she did all her own sewing by hand; I was interested . .. So I enjoyed trying to learn. Whatever things I had to face, I either got informa­tion on it or watched . lfl was near anyone that did any kind of work, whether it was a man or a woman, whether it was fixing the gas stove, or outside ... and ... I had the

time to look ... I was always interested because I had to be the man of the house. " Folk artists are also model teachers, aware of how they themselves learned, and generally anxious to pass their knowledge along.

A major factor in effective education is the integration of what is learned in the school with the experiences children have in their homes and communities. An equal challenge is the integration of the culture of the community into the curriculum. While we want our children to be exposed to a variety of art forms and cultures, we do not want them to be alientated from their birthright, their own heritage. And their own heritage is valuable, not only because it is their own, but also because of the importance of a strong indigenous culture to the coherence of community life. Feeling for a place is influenced knowledge, and folklore and folk art con­stitute the traditional knowledge we have about the places in which we live. Folk ar­tists are our indigenous teachers.

For the folk artist, what he knows is truly part of who he is, part of a way of life. Those who carry tradition - and we all do in different ways - carry a living history. Oldtimers are eye witnesses to life in the region over an extended period of time. The younger folk artists dramatize the continuity of traditions in the com­munity. Each folk artist is a primary source of the culture and traditions of the area, and can be integrated into local history components of the curriculum.

Such an approach to history and social studies can help children to identify with their community and its cultures, and to be proud of the indigenous forms of expres­sion they may be expected to iriherit. Awareness of the past is an important ele­ment in the love of place, and folk artists can help children to develop strong affec­tive ties with the places they irihabit.

Let us consider how an adult ex­periences where he lives, in contrast with a child. In Topophilia, Yi-Fu Tuan noted that ''place can acquire deep meaning for the adult through steady accretion of senti­ment over the years. Every piece of heirloom furniture, or even a stain on the wall, tells a story. The child not only has a short past, but his eyes more than an adult's are on the present and immediate

future. His vitality fordoing things and for exploring space is not suited to the reflec­tive pause and backward glance that makes places seem saturated with significance."

Barre Toelken characterizes the folk arts, which he considers synonymous with folklore, in terms of their pervasiveness. He observes that the folkarts "are not ex­cerpted from everyday life for special scrutiny or elevation of taste or intellectual curiosity. On the contrary, what makes folk art different from fine art is precisely that it is based on the aesthetic perception, expression, and appreciation of the com­munity adventures of everyday life."

Folk artists are connoisseurs of eloquent talk, storytelling, wit and humor, apt metaphor, the crafted object, fine wood, the well-orchestrated celebration. In a word, folk artists are connoisseurs of the arts of living.

Verbal art, the art of speaking well, takes many forms. Curriculum in language and literature could be enriched by the inclusion of traditional raconteurs, who know how to spin fantasies with nothing more than the •;poken word . The rich traditions of spett:h metaphor and rhyming couplets in Afro-American com­munities would provide an alternative perspective on the resources of non­standard English.

Traditional songs, sung for genera­tions, express deep feeling and deeply felt values. Exposed to popular music through the media, and to classical music through the schools, students need to encounter the musical traditions of their communities through folk artists who still carry them.

Encounters with folk artists can help students to understand the range of evaluative judgements that can constitute their aesthetic, an aesthetic that may con­trast sharply with ones encountered in the study of classical music, English literature, art history, or ballet. Folk ar­tists, working within a local and com­munity canon of taste, offer an especially rich opportunity to explore the relation of the individual talent to tradition.

There are many dimensions to the ac­cessible aesthetic that folk artists ex­emplify in the standards of excellence that they apply to their metier. For many folk artists, to succeed is to produce an ex-

I

OLK ARTIST IN THE CURRICULUM

cellent performance within a traditional form, rather than to create a unique item. Individual genius is realized in the produc­tion of the quintessential quilt or basket. Individualism and originality may not be valued per se, though folk artists do in­novate and do pull community sensibility with them in new directions.

For other folk artists, value is placed on the metaphysical resonance of a form or motif. Ida Moffett prefers Easter eggs decorated with a wheat design. She says, "There's something about the wheat/sym­bol that I like . Maybe it's because I remember Mother's scolding if we drop­ped a crumb of wheat on the floor, 'cause wheat meant a lot to people in Europe. That was life, and as long as we had wheat, we had nothing to worry about. Mother always said it was life, 'cause wheat was life to her. 'Cause I know when we kids would drop even a crumb, we had to pick it up. We could not throw a half a slice of bread away to the dog because she used to say, ''As long as you have wheat, you can life." Metaphysics and biography are in­tertwined in Ida Moffett's account.

Indeed, biographical resonance is a particularly important part of the aesthetic of many folk artists. Speaking of the ten big bags of scraps she had accumulated for making quilts, one woman said, "Dif­ferent ones of my family are always ap­pearing from one of these bags. Just when you thought you'd forgotten someone, well, like right here ... I remember that pa~t;h. That was a dress that my grand­mother wore to church. I sat beside her singing hymns, and that dress was so pret­ty to me then. I can just remember her in that dress now. "

This year, CITY LORE will be developing a city-wide artists-in-the schools program. We plan to design each of our major programs from the CITY LORE summer festival, to our gospeal recordings project and our Hispanic music concerts so that a component of the pro­gram can travel into the schools. We see this as a way of bringing folk arts to a new generation of community audiences. A sense of place, an appreciation for the ar­tistry indigenous to local communities and neighborhoods - this is what we hope our folk artists can bring to life in the classroom.

JOIN THE FRIENDS OF CITY LORE

For a contribution of $20.00 you will receive discounts at

our events, all our mailings and your choice of the following:

Tradition and Community in the Urban Neighborhood:

Making Brooklyn Home, a neighborhood study by Maxine

Miska and I. Sheldon Posen.

Subway Art, a colorful folk art study by Martha Cooper and

Henry Chalfant.

Caught, a novel about the sport of pigeon flying by Jane

Schwartz.

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10

OF INTEREST TO MEMBERS

Council for the Humanities Offers Free Programs

The New York Council for the Humanities is offering free-of-charge pro­grams of interest to readers of New York Folklore Newsletter. Through its com­petitive grants program, the Council makes awards to non-profit organizations - such as museums, libraries, and com­munity groups - to encourage programs in a broad spectrum of disciplines that in­cludes history; literature, philosophy, comparative religion; ethics; the theory, history and criticism of the arts; linguistics; languages; archaeology; and humanities-based aspects of the social sciences. The Council's primary goal is to bring together outstanding humanities scholars and public audiences for the critical analysis of ideas.

Programs funded by the NYCH in­clude conferences, lecture series, panels, symposia, interpretive exhibits, films, videos, slide/tape and radio productions designed for public presentations, walking tours, and performances.

In the past year, NYCH has funded a conference on Iroquois Communications; the exhibition "Woodsmen, Moun­taineers and Bockeys: The People of the Ramapos ' '; a planning grant for the traveling exhibit ''In Praise of Agriculture: The History of the New York State Fair"; a radio series, "Songs from Heaven - Songs from Earth" which ex­plores Native American culture through its music; a "Survey of Finnish American Immigrant Saunas"; and a series of sym­posia on "Polish Emigre Literature."

The Council has two deadlines a year for major grant applications - this year's are December 15, 1986 and June 1, 1987 - however, MINI-GRANTS for smaller requests (up to $1500), and SPEAKERS IN THE HUMANITIES grants (which support the costs of public lectures) may be applied for throughout the year.

The Council welcomes requests from small as well as large non-profit organiza­tions and looks forward to expanding its contacts with institutions throughout New York State. Those wishing more informa­tion are encouraged to write or call the NYCH at: 198 Broadway, lOth Floor, New York, NY 10038/(212) 233-1132 .

They 've overtaken the flamingos! According to an informal "windshield survey'' taken by the New York Folklore Newsletter, there are now more figures similar to those pictured above than plastic pink flamingos decorating the lawns of New York State. Will they overtake the bright yellow ''have a nice day'' smiling faces that make so many barns in Upstate New York distinctive? Newsletter readers want to know . ..

Memorial University Has Summer School In England

The Institute for Folklore Studies in Bri­tain and Canada is planning a Summer School for 1987 to be held at Memorial University 's campus in Harlow, England, some twenty miles from the heart of Lon­don. It is expected that the School will run for a six week period in July and August, and will be taught at the graduate level, of­fering two courses for credit towards the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

Courses offered in the Summer Schools will eventually cover all aspects of British folklore; initially offerings will focus on Traditional Drama, Narrative and Folklife. Teaching staff will be drawn from the Institute's two sponsoring universities.

For further information on this pro­gram, contact: Gerald Thomas, Depart­ment of Folklore, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada AlC 5S7.

THE FOLK REGIONS OF NEW YORK STATE

Proposals are invited for interpretive and groundbreaking scholarly papers con­cerned with any aspect of ''the Folk Regions of New York State'' to be presented at the 1987 annual meeting of the New York Folklore Society, which will be held in Syracuse on September 25-27, 1987. One-page abstracts should be submitted before April 15, 1987 to the New York Folklore Society, P.O. Box 678, Seneca Falls, NY 13148.

SPECIAL OFFER TO MEMBERS

Members may purchase back issues of New York Folklore (1975 to present), as available, at 20% discount, postpaid. Select issues of New York Folklore Quarterly (1945-1974) are available at $1 each, in lots of 2 or more, plus SOC postage for every 2 issues ordered. Write the Editor for a list of issues available under this special offer~ Dept. of Anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo 14261.

NEW YORK FOLKLORE SPECIAL OFFERS

The editor of New York Folklore is offering the following items from the back catalog at substantial discounts:

1. Fish, Lydia, ed., The Folklorists and Belief. (Special Issue, Vol. 8, Nos. 3-4), 1981. (reg. $6.00)

2. Fraser, Helen, ed., Cumulative Index to NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY (Covers Vols. I-XIV, 1945-1958). (reg. $3.50)

3. Nicolaisen, W.F.H., ed., Folklore: The State of the Field (Special Issue, Vol. 9, Nos. 1-2), 1983. (reg. $6.00)

4. Somewhere West of Albany ... A Festschrift in Honor of Louis C. Jones (Special Issue, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-2), 1975. This deluxe first edition is a hardbound collector's item. (reg. $6.50)

5. Stevens, Phillips, ed., Folklore in Buffalo (Special Issue, Vol. 10, Nos. 3-4), 1984.

6. Warshaver, Gerald E., ed., Folklife Contexts: Studies on the Spatial Matrix and Essays on the Tem­poral Reconstruction of Folklore (Special Issue, Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2), 1981. (reg. $6.00)

7. Wildhaber, Robert. A Bibliographic Introduction to American Folklife, 1965. (reg. $3.50)

8. Stevens, Phillips, ed., 40th Anniversary Issue (Special Issue, Vol. 11, Nos. 1-4, 1985. Original articles by 14 distinguished folklorists. (reg. $15.00)

9. Stevens, Phillips, ed., Marketing Folk Art (Vol. 12, Nos. 1-2) 1986. (reg. $10.00)

Postage is included in the price. Please make your check payable to:

New York Folklore Society: Department of Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo, NY 14261.

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____ 2. Index to NYFQ ...................... $3.00 ___ 7. American Folklife .................. $3.00

____ 3. Folklore: the Field .................. $5.00 ____ 8. 40th Anniv. Issue .................. $12.00

___ 4. Jones Festschrift .................... $5.00 ___ 9. Marketing Folk Art ··············~··$9.00

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:MEMBERSlllP APPLICATION

Members of the New York Folklore Society receive New York Folklore, a biannual journal, New York Folklore Newsletter, a quarterly newsletter, announcements about conferences, festivals and performances produced by the Societ:y, and requced admis­sion charge to selected Society events.

Membership Dues for 1987: $20- Individual $30 - Institutional $25 - Foreign Individual $35 - Foreign Institution $10 - Student (U.S. Only)*

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