The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1988 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: American Folklore Society Centennial
Series 3: Festival Music Stage
Series 4: Ingenuity and Tradition: The Common Wealth of Massachusetts
Series 5: Migration to Metropolitan Washington: Making a New Place Home
Series 6: Music from the Peoples of the Soviet Union
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1988 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1988 Festival celebrated the centennial of the American Folklore Society, founded one hundred years earlier because of the need to document and study cultures that were seen as disappearing. Much of the Society's attention today, however, is engaged in the documentation and interpretation of emerging traditions and cultural expressions. Folklorists work in inner cities, conduct research on occupational groups, analyze processes of traditionalization and cooperate with other professionals in devising natural conservation and historical preservation strategies, which also promote cultural continuity, equity and integrity. Visitors to the 1988 Festival could learn about what it is that folklorists do and what impacts they have on the communities with which they work.
The other living exhibitions that made up this year's Festival also provided ample illustrations of this same view of the traditional. The Massachusetts program told a paradigmatic American story. Gay Head Wampanoag, Yankee settlers, Afro American migrants, and immigrants from Italy, Greece, Poland, the Cape Verde Islands, Puerto Rico, and Southeast Asia have not only preserved their traditions; through ingenious acts of individual and community creativity they have adapted them and endowed them with new meanings, as circumstances have changed. The Metropolitan Washington program pointed to the heightened consciousness of cultural issues associated with the migration experience. The program asked how immigrants from El Salvador, Ethiopia, China, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as domestic Anglo and Afro American groups historically migrating from nearby states, discard, reinvent, and reconstitute their traditions as they actively make a new place home. A varied contingent of musicians and performers from several republics of the Soviet Union demonstrated how truly ancient traditions nurtured in various pastoral, tribal, and religious environments have not merely survived but actually flourished in contemporary Soviet life. Also at the Festival were American musicians who, as part of a groundbreaking cultural exchange with the Soviet Union, would later travel to Moscow to participate in the International Folklore Festival in August 1988 and be reunited with the Soviet musicians participating in the Smithsonian's Festival.
The 1988 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan).
The 1988 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; the Program Book essays provided a larger context for the Festival presentations, extending beyond the traditions actually presented at the 1988 Festival.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Office of Folklife Programs.
Office of Folklife Programs
Richard Kurin, Acting Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Curator, Folkways Records; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Marjorie Hunt, Phyllis M. May-Machunda, Heliana Portes de Roux, Frank Proschan, Nicholas R. Spitzer, Folklorists; Jeffrey Place, Assistant Archivist
National Park Service
William Penn Mott, Jr., Director; Manus J. Fish, Jr., Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1988 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
This collection, which dates from circa 1961-2006, contains audiorecordings from the UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World, as well as related business records. Includes recordings of tradition and sacred music from Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Sudan, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Peru, Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, China, Korea, the Solomon Islands, India, Bali, Java, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Syria, and Turkey.
Biographical/Historical note:
The UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World included more than a hundred pioneering audio recordings of the world's traditional music published from 1961 to 2003 on a number of different recording labels. The series was launched in 1961 in collaboration with ethnomusicologist Alain Daniélou (1907-1994) and the International Music Council (created by UNESCO in 1949). The recordings in the Collection are mostly field recordings made in situ, in their original context. Each recording is accompanied by scholarly annotations and photographs. Together, these discs are a reflection of the immense variety of music making and of the position music holds within cultures around the globe.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1980 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 7 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: American Talkers
Series 3: Caribbean Americans
Series 4: Community Activities and Food Preservation
Series 5: Finnish Americans
Series 6: Folk Housing and Energy Efficiency
Series 7: Southeast Asian Americans
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1980 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1980 Festival was the third to use "community" as its over-arching theme, and the last to be held in October. As with recent Festivals, it was held on a site on the National Mall later to be occupied by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, between 14th and 15th Streets and between Constitution Avenue and Madison Drive (see site plan). It was also the first to be organized by the newly-established Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1992), successor to the former Folklife Program of the Office of American and Folklife Studies (1977-1980). The indoor programming in several museums that had characterized the 1977-1979 Festivals was discontinued and all activities were held outdoors.
When families and community groups gather to celebrate or to mourn, Festival Director Ralph Rinzler observed in the program book, they depend on traditional flavors, sounds, dances, and prayers to reinforce their sense of belonging, their group strength and cultural identity. At the annual Folklife Festival, the Smithsonian acknowledged the power of these traditions, which recall the value that Americans continue to place on being members of groups - familial, occupational, ethnic, regional, and religious. Festival organizers considered this recognition a step in the process of cultural conservation, in the belief that cultural variety, on a national and on a global scale, makes life itself more rewarding. Community and identity thus served as the twin poles around which Festival programs were organized.
The 1980 Festival (October 8-13) included a Caribbean Carnival with steel band and calypso competitions; Finnish Americans from northern Minnesota demonstrating a traditional "whip-sled" for children and such crafts as making Christmas tree ornaments from wood shavings; Southern carpenters building a traditional "dog trot" house; Southeast Asians demonstrating weaving, embroidery, stone carving, calligraphy; among others. The Festival asserted that rootedness is a tangible part of the fascination with history, our own or our country's or that of some distant place. This was seen as a part of life that everyone should value, and so the Festival not only celebrated customs and ways of doing things, but evoked the pride of being someone from somewhere. The 1980 Program Book provided information on each of the programs.
The 1980 Festival was again co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Music Performance Trust Funds. It was organized by the Office of Folklife Programs.
Folklife Advisory Council
Wilcomb E. Washburn, Chairman, Roger Abrahams, Richard Ahlborn, Richard Dorson, William Fitzhugh, Lloyd Herman, Robert Laughlin, Scott Odell, Ralph Rinzler, Peter Seitel, Richard Sorenson, Thomas Vennum
Office of Folklife Programs
Ralph Rinzler, Director; Richard Derbyshire, Archivist; Susan Kalcik, Folklorist; Jeffrey LaRiche, Program Coordinator; Jack Santino, Folklorist; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Thomas Vennum, Ethnomusicologist; Steve Zeitlin, Folklorist
National Park Service
Russell E. Dickenson, Director; Manus J. Fish, Jr., Regional Director, National Capital Region
Fieldworkers and presenters:
Steve Addiss, John W. Berquist, Charley Camp, Amy Catlin, Dennis Coelho, Héctor Corporán, Amanda Dargan, Richard Flint, Marjorie Hunt, Geraldine Johnson, Fred Lieberman, Howard Marshall, Von Martin, Maxine Miska, Bill Moore, Elliott Parris, Leslie Prosterman, Arthur Rosenbaum, Jack Santino, Marta Schley, Katherine Williams, Margaret Yocom, Steven Zeitlin
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1980 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Paredon Records audiorecordings consist of all 50 of the recordings released by Paredon, along with the master audiotapes. Many of the recordings have a file containing business records relating to their production. These business records include artist contracts, recording reports, various notes on records produced, photographs of artists, news articles both about and by Barbara Dane, Irwin Silber, and Paredon Records, correspondence by Barbara Dane, Irwin Silber and Paredon Records, and other miscellany. Many contracts are signed by both Paredon Records and the artist. Correspondence is primarily between business associates. A complete inventory of the business records is available.
Scope and Contents:
There are two main components of the Paredon Records audiorecordings: the master recordings and corresponding commercial records themselves and the paper files relating to these recordings.
Series 1: Papers is primarily made up of "production files"--files containing materials related to specific albums. These production files can include artist contracts, recording reports, photographs of artists, clippings, royalty statements, licenses, album cover proofs, and correspondence between Paredon Records and the recording artists. news articles both about and by Barbara Dane, Irwin Silber, and Paredon Records. Many contracts are signed by both Paredon Records and the artist. Also included in this series are articles by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber, a transcript of Daniel Sheehy's oral history interview with Barbara Dane, as well as miscellaneous ephemera.
Series 2: Master Audiorecordings includes all Paredon master tapes. Their corresponding commercial recordings are not described in this finding aid.
Arrangement:
Series 1: Papers (1970-2007, bulk 1970-1980)
Series 2: Master Audiorecordings (1969-1985, bulk 1970-1980)
Biographical / Historical:
Paredon Records was founded in 1969 in New York by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber, and its first recordings were released in 1970. Paredon released four records at a time. Barbara Dane, a singer/songwriter herself, produced the albums and recruited the musicians, artists who worked on the covers, and volunteers who translated foreign language material and contributed stories for the record booklets. Irwin Silber, a writer and editor for The Guardian newspaper, assisted Dane in all aspects of production. Irwin worked on business aspects of the label, such as distribution, orders, and editing and printing the record supplemental materials. Dane and Silber traveled to almost all of the countries mentioned in these records, as part of their work as activists and personally knew the musicians and artists.
According to the interview with Barbara Dane, "Paredon" means "a big wall" in Spanish. Paredon represents "a wall of culture defending us [listeners] against this 'sleazy' culture that's out there on the other side of the wall." The mission of Paredon Records was to use music as a tool to spread culture: the stories and experiences of those involved in protest and revolution movements all over the world, in order to increase dialogue among similar movements and peoples. Dane and Silber hoped these records would promote social and political activism, and that the uplifting power of music would inspire people to be agents of social change. The records reflect the most important socialist or liberation movements in world politics as well as domestic issues in the United States of the late twentieth century.
The 50 Paredon record albums constitute a unique historical documentation of the political protest and revolutionary currents in the world over the course of three decades. 31 of the 50 albums come from national liberation movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These include music, song, poetry and speech from Angola, Argentina, Chile, China, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Palestine, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Another five albums come out of the European oppositional political movements from; Greece, Italy, North Ireland and the United Kingdom. In all cases, the materials are performed and/or presented by the participants in these movements. A number of world renowned artists are among the performers, including Mikis Theodorakis (Greece), Marcel Khalife (Lebanon), Quilapayún (Chile) and Silvio Rodriguez (Cuba). Several important world political figures — Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Don Albizu Campos and Che Guevara — also appear on these records delivering seminal speeches. Not all of the political figures deliver their speeches, such as the Ho Chi Minh album, but were read by someone else. The other 14 record albums document political and social protest movements in the U.S. during this same period. The songs reflect currents in the civil rights, women's, and labor movements. Two albums document GI opposition to the Vietnam War. These recordings include a broad array of singers and songs associated with the political protest of the times. Albums by the band "The Men of No Property" and others were obtained clandestinely, as the movements often became dangerous. Smithsonian Folkways Director Daniel Sheehy interviewed Barbara Dane in 2007, the transcript of which is contained in the Supporting Materials folder in Series 1: Papers.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Provenance:
The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections acquired the Paredon Records audiorecordings in December, 1991, when Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber donated their record company papers to the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage agreed to keep the record titles available for purchase, and to accession and store the Paredon Records Collection in the archives.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1992 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: The Changing Soundscape in Indian Country
Series 3: Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Culture in the Americas
Series 4: New Mexico
Series 5: Workers at the White House
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1992 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The Columbus Quincentenary that was commemorated in 1992 gave pause to reflect on the forces that over the preceding 500 years had shaped social life in the Americas. The Festival programs on New Mexico, Maroons, and American Indian musics illustrated important historical and ongoing processes through which communities establish cultural identities in complex and dynamic social circumstances.
"The Changing Soundscape in Indian Country," produced jointly with the National Museum of the American Indian, explored ways that Indian musicians and their communities creatively adapted elements from the musical traditions brought to this continent from Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. Although many of the forms of this Indian music are non-Indian in origin, the themes and performance styles clearly address Indian experience and aesthetic expectations. In their creative hands, as Festival visitors could experience first-hand, external musical influences became part of the self-definition of Indian identity and trenchant commentary on what had been happening in "Indian Country" over the past five centuries.
Nowhere is the connection between creativity and self-definition more clear than in the cultural identities of contemporary Maroon peoples, whose ancestors escaped plantation slavery in the Americas and founded independent societies. Faced with the task of constructing and defending their positions, Maroons creatively defined themselves from a variety of sources. While their political institutions, expressive arts, religions, and other social forms were predominantly African in origin, they drew from a broad range of African cultures, and from European and Native American cultures as well. Much of the aesthetic component of Maroon cultures - their vibrant traditions of verbal and visual arts, shared with Festival visitors on the National Mall - encourages the cohesiveness of their society and voices themes that embody common experience and interest.
The Spanish Conquest established the Western Hemisphere's European presence and its most widely spoken language. While the original conquerors' culture did not value the Native cultures it encountered, over the centuries segments of Hispanic and Native American and later English-speaking and other populations engaged one another, by necessity, in ways that gave rise to today's rich array of cultural identities. New Mexico's distinctive cultural landscape took shape in this way, represented by some peoples who sustain their cultural identities through centuries-old combinations of Indian and European forms of thought and action, and by others whose basis of identity lies in reaffirming the wisdom and relevance of ancestral ways. Festival visitors could witness how, in New Mexico, cultural identity reflects the changes that continue to be wrought from the varieties of these social encounters.
The 1992 Festival also marked the 200th anniversary of the White House. Not a king's palace but rather "the people's house," the White House is at once national symbol, executive office and conference center, ceremonial setting, museum, tourist attraction, and family residence. The Festival revealed the culture of White House workers, who supported this broad array of functions over a span of history shaped by remarkable events, people and social change. White House workers had made the White House work with their labor and dedication. The Festival's living exhibition presented some of the skills, experiences, and values through which they gave shape to their occupational identities, calling visitors' attention to an important human component of the 200 year institutional history.
The 1992 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 25-29 and July 2-5) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 13th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan).
The 1992 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; keynote essays provided background on the Festival and each of the four programs, with shorter essays spotlighting particular traditions and offering a forum for statements from Maroon spokespeople.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies.
Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies
Richard Kurin, Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Director, Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Olivia Cadaval, Director, Quincentenary Projects; Richard Kennedy, Program Analyst; Vivian Chen, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Folklorists; Ken Bilby, Marjorie Hunt, Curators; Carla Borden, John Franklin, Program Managers; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Betty Belanus, Frank Proschan, Nicholas Spitzer, Research Associates
Folklife Advisory Council
Roger Abrahams, Jacinto Arias, Jane Beck, Pat Jasper, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Bernice Reagon, John Roberts, Carol Robertson, Gilbert Sprauve, John Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez
National Park Service
James M. Ridenour, Director; Robert G. Stanton, Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1992 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Indonesia : music from west Java -- Laos : traditional music of the south -- Viet Nam : Ca Tru & Quan Ho, traditional music -- Hong Kong : instrumental music -- China : Chuida wind and percussive ensembles -- Mongolia : traditional music -- Japan : Shomyo Buddhist ritual ; O-Suwa-Daiko drums -- Cameroon : Baka pygmy music -- Côte d'Ivoire : a Senufo-Fodonon funerary vigil -- Central African Republic : Banda polyphony -- Switzerland : Zäuerli, yodel of Appenzell -- Sicily : music for the Holy Week -- France : bagpipes of central France -- Ukraine : traditional music -- Argentina : tritonic music of the north-west -- Brazil : the Bororo world of sound -- Canada : Inuit games and songs. (cont) Pakistan : the music of the Qawal -- North India : instrumental music of mediaeval India -- India : North Indian folk music -- Tibetan ritual -- Azerbaijan : Azerbaijani Mugam -- Turkey : the Turkish ney -- Iraq : Iqa'at, traditional rhythmic structures -- Syrian Orthodox Church : Antioch liturgy -- Egypt : Taqāsīm & Layālī, Cairo tradition -- Algeria : Sahara, music of Gourara -- Solomon Islands : Fataleka and Baegu music from Malaita -- Australia : aboriginal music.
Track Information:
101 Kacapi Suling: Semarang and Banjapan / Uking Sukri, Ono Sukarna, Lim Ibrahim. Kacapi (Lute),Suling (Musical instrument),Zither.
102 Lot Fay Tay Lang / Theo Salilath. Khene-Calebass.
103 Coi-Gau / Ba Manh, Tu Van, Son Ma, Van Tich. Flute,Violin. Vietnamese language.
104 Pu Pu Chiao.
105 Taizi You / Chinese language.
106 Music for the Horse-Veile / D. Zhantsanchoy.
107 Dai Hannaya Tendoku E / Japanese language.
108 Suwa-Ikazuchi / O-Suwa-Daiko (Musical group). Japanese language.
109 The Water Drum / Water-drum.
110 Li Fugo Nyige / Bolonyen Orchestra.
111 Eci Ameya.
112 Zauerli: Sung in the Inn / Swahili language.
113 La Quarta Spada / Italian language.
114 Le Retour du Jardinier / Jean Blanchard. Bagpipe. French language.
115 Arcan, The Lasso / Ukrainian language.
116 Toque Abrapampeno / Mario Mendoza. Clarinet.
117 The Bororo World of Sound / Portuguese language.
118 Inuit Games and Songs.
119 Ghazal / Sabri Brothers.
120 Raga Darbari Kanada / Asad Ali Khan, Gopal Das, Mohamed Sakalain. Vina,Pakhavaj (Drum),Lute.
101 Mukhalif- Maqam Iraqi / Muhammed Jrifani, Mullah Adnan Ensemble.
126 Communion Chant.
127 Sama'I El Aryan / Suleiman Takhalov.
128 Song of the Meherza with Tebel Drum / Drum.
129 Faa Ta Gwouna.
130 Morning Star/ Pigeon and Rain Songs / Didjeridu.
Local Numbers:
UN-COMM-CD-08100-7
UNESCO.8100
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
Paris, France Audivis 1971
General:
Commercial
"This compact-disc proposes a selection of 10 new recordings and extracts from 20 reissues [in] the collection, in three series: "Music and Musicians of the world", "Anthology of Traditional Music" and "Traditional Music of Today"--Insert. Compact disc. Description of the Unesco collection with discography (32 p.: ill.) inserted in container.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Listening only. No Duplication Allowed.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1995 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: The Cape Verdean Connection
Series 3: The Czech Republic: Tradition and Transformation
Series 4: Heartbeat: The Voices of First Nations Women
Series 5: Russian Roots, American Branches: Music in Two Worlds
Series 6: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1995 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1995 Festival featured American Indian women's musical traditions, the heritage of the Czech Republic and Czech Americans, music of Russian and Russian American groups, and the cultural life of the Cape Verdean community. These programs testified to the vitality of the human spirit, and to how people, ideas, and forms of cultural expression increasingly cross boundaries of geography, politics, language, race, and gender. Special events included evening concerts devoted to African immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C. area and a memorial concert for Festival founding director, Ralph Rinzler.
Heartbeat: The Voices of First Nations Women presented the musical culture of American Indian women. The program examined how these women express their identity through the use of a variety of musical forms - from traditional songs of home to contemporary songs of Indian life, from the appropriation of men's music to the fusion of root music with country, folk, blues, and gospel.
The Czech Republic: Tradition and Transformation provided a broad survey of the ways national, regional, ethnic, and local traditions have been defined in a complex state located at the crossroads of Central Europe. The "Velvet Revolution" of 1989 and the separation of the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993 have prompted further examinations of cultural identity, the relationship between the state and popular expression, creativity and tradition. Czech Americans, too, have looked at these changes and the reestablishment of relationships to their ancestral homeland.
A third program, Russian Roots, American Branches: Music in Two Worlds, explored the musical culture of Old Believers and Molokans, Russian religious communities created in the 17th and 18th centuries. The program united immigrant communities long established in the United States with those from Russia, and brought together people who, although separated by generations and different social environments, have nonetheless faced parallel issues with regard to cultural persistence and adaptation.
All these programs involved complex institutional arrangements, local-level research and documentation, and strong commitment to and pride in Festival representation. The Cape Verdean Connection program well demonstrated these processes. Cape Verde is an independent island nation and former Portuguese colony located off the west coast of Africa. Cape Verdean Americans, now numbering about 400,000, most born and raised here, historically settled in New England during the 18th century, playing instrumental roles in the whaling and cranberry industries. Cape Verdeans had an important story to tell about their role in American life, their immigrant and continuing transnational cultural experience, their multiracial heritage, and their enduring sense of community - a story with much to tell others as well. Cape Verdeans provided the impetus for the Festival program, carried out most of the research in concert with Smithsonian scholars, led the effort to raise funds from governments, foundations, corporations, and individuals through benefit dances, auctions, and other community events, and, as is fitting, joined with the Smithsonian to share their experiences with the American public.
The 1995 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 13th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured four programs and several special events.
The 1995 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; essays provided background on the Festival and each of the four programs.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies.
Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Director, Smithsonian/Folkways Recordngs; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Betty Belanus, Olivia Cadaval, Amy Horowitz, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Curators, Folklorists, Educational and Cultural Specialists; Carla M. Borden, John W. Franklin, Charlene James-Duguid, Program Managers; Felicia Erickson, Arlene L. Reiniger, Mary Van Meter, Program Specialists; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Kenneth M. Bilby, Roland Freeman, Ivan Karp, Corrine Kratz, Alan Lomax, Worth Long, Yook Jung Park, Kate Rinzler, Research Associates & Collaborators
Folklife Advisory Council and Folkways Advisory Council
Roger Abrahams, Jacinto Arias, Michael Asch, Jane Beck, Don DeVito, Pat Jasper, Ella Jenkins, Jon Kertzer, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, John Nixdorf, Bernice Reagon, John Roberts, Carol Robertson, Gilbert Sprauve, Jack Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez
National Park Service
Roger Kennedy, Director; Robert G. Stanton, Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1995 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
102 Griot Stories and Music / Djimo Kouyate. Kora,Balafon.
103 Bengali Folk Music / Ganga (Musical group). Dotara,Khmak,Tabla,Ghungru.
Local Numbers:
FP-1993-CT-0184
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, July 1, 1993.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
101 Griot Stories and Music / Djimo Kouyate. Kora,Balafon.
102 Bengali Folk Music / Ganga (Musical group). Dotara,Khmak,Tabla,Ghungru.
Local Numbers:
FP-1993-CT-0195
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, July 4, 1993.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1997 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: African Immigrant Folklife
Series 3: The Mississippi Delta
Series 4: Sacred Sounds: Belief & Society
Series 5: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1997 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
As the twentieth century neared its end, the entertainment industry dominated popular views of culture. Cultural enterprises including movies, television, theme parks, recordings, and video stores constitute one of the world's largest industries. Nevertheless, there is another world of culture created and sustained in homes, communities, places of work and worship. Our lullabies and hymns, liturgical chants and celebratory songs, songs of work, struggle, and mourning, are rarely heard in music stores or on radio stations. Yet it is those traditions and the cultures they represent that are highlighted at the annual Festival of American Folklife.
The 1997 Festival featured three major programs, complemented by the third annual Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert. Sacred Sounds brought together people from a variety of religious communities, from around the nation, Jerusalem, and from South Africa. Their songs expressed spiritual feelings and convictions connecting their lives to tradition. At the Festival, audiences could hear some of the ways in which music flows from the spirit of a diverse humanity to express its highest aspirations.
A second program, African Immigrant Folklife, illustrated the many traditions of recent immigrants to the United States from Africa. These immigrants participate in a changing culture, as people, families, and communities find their place in American society. Festival visitors could celebrate the enterprise and vitality of recent immigrants to the United States from Africa, who have brought their cultures across the Atlantic Ocean to the Washington metropolitan area.
The Mississippi Delta, the subject of the third Festival program, is a culturally rich region of the United States that gave birth to blues, jazz, rockabilly and rock 'n' roll, honky tonk, distinctive forms of gospel, oratory, marvelous stories, folk and visionary art, and an encyclopedia of river lore - not to mention barbecue and fish fries. Native, Spanish, African, French, and American people all merged along the Mississippi, just as many tributaries flow into one river. Beginning even before the arrival of Europeans, the Mississippi has been a source of food and irrigation, a highway for commerce, a strategic center for political power, a source of inspiration for song and spirit. The region's cultural expressions, continually shaped by the daily experience - the work, worship, home life, and recreation - of the people who live there, were shared with Festival visitors on the National Mall.
The 1997 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 25-29 and July 2-6) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 13th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured three programs, with special events that included the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert.
The 1997 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; essays provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies.
Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordngs; James Early, Director, Cultural Studies & Communications; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Olivia Cadaval, Chair, Research & Education; Betty J. Belanus, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Peter Seitel, Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; Carla M. Borden, Program/Publications Manager; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Cynthia Vidaurri, Coordinator, Latino Cultural Resource Network; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Brenda Danet, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Roland Freeman, Ivan Karp, Alan Lomax, Worth Long, Kate Rinzler, Luise White, Fellows, Research Associates & Collaborators
Folklife Advisory Council and Folkways Advisory Council
Roger Abrahams, Jacinto Arias, Michael Asch, Jane Beck, Don DeVito, Pat Jasper, Ella Jenkins, Jon Kertzer, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, John Nixdorf, Bernice Johnson Reagon, John Roberts, Carol Robertson, Gilbert Sprauve, Jack Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez
National Park Service
Terry Carlstrom, Acting Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1997 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 5 series.
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: Celebrating New Hampshire's Stories
Series 3: Gateways to Romania
Series 4: South Africa: Crafting the Economic Renaissance of the Rainbow Nation
Series 5: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1999 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
As of January 1999, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies was renamed the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The 1999 Festival hosted programs on New Hampshire, Romania, and South Africa. A central theme was the ability of diverse people from three continents, living with incredible societal changes, to use their own deeply held cultural traditions as a means of crafting their own identities, their own stories, their and our very future.
Celebrating New Hampshire's Stories pointed to the many ways people from that fiercely democratic state define their lives. The state's natural bounty is continually expressed in the arts and enjoyed with the help of varied crafts and skills that serve a vibrant recreational and tourism industry. Economic life illustrates ingenuity and a historic continuity with traditional manufacture, both in large corporate workplaces and smaller, high-tech, precision manufacturing shops. Community life reflects a strong investment in the historic preservation of the built environment and participation in institutions such as town meetings, contra dances, and soirées that bring people together just when other forces in society tend to keep them apart. And the life of our nation itself is dramatically shaped by the most contemporary of conversations that traditionally occur in New Hampshire cafes and living rooms during presidential primary campaigns. These stories were recounted to Festival visitors by the participants from New Hampshire.
Gateways to Romania was an apt title for what was, in effect, an opening at the Festival of relationships between the American and Romanian people. The Festival program, and the process of achieving it, represented an important collaboration between Romania and the United States. Following decades of political repression, Romanians at the end of the 20th century were seeking the means of realizing a democratic and humane society. The cultural correlates of such a society are freedom of cultural expression, and the ability to practice and preserve one's traditions as well as create new cultural syntheses. Romania had long been a cultural crossroads with Latinate, Orthodox, Balkan, Germanic, Hungarian, Roma, Turkish, and Jewish influences in music, song, dance, craftsmanship, sacred and culinary arts. The Festival provided both a showcase and a means for culture-rich Romania to use its treasures, for the benefit of its own citizens and to inform Americans about its people and heritage.
South Africa: Crafting the Economic Renaissance of the Rainbow Nation revealed the attempts of thousands of community-based craftspeople to enhance their economic development and civic participation through their artistry. Crafts in South Africa are as diverse as the Rainbow Nation itself, drawing upon the generations-old traditions of indigenous people and those of Asian and European immigrant communities, from functional crafts of everyday use to the arts of survival that developed in townships. For many, crafts have a civic as well as an economic role, expressing the identity of a community while at the same time earning income for a family's livelihood. The Festival was part of an ongoing attempt to build upon the knowledge and skills of local-level artists in order to help build a new nation based upon human and cultural rights and economic opportunity.
The 1999 Festival coincided with the Smithsonian-UNESCO conference, A Global Assessment of the 1989 UNESCO Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore: Local Empowerment and International Cooperation. At that important meeting, participants called for the creation of an international legal instrument to reinforce the protection of intangible cultural heritage, what later became the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The 1999 Festival took place during two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 13th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured three programs, with special events that included the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert.
The 1999 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; essays provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordngs; James Early, Director, Cultural Heritage Policy; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Olivia Cadaval, Chair, Research & Education; D.A. Sonneborn, Assistant Director, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Betty J. Belanus, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Peter Seitel, Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; Carla M. Borden, Program/Publications Manager; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Cynthia Vidaurri, Coordinator, Latino Cultural Resource Network; Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Stanford Carpenter, Roland Freeman, Dan Goodwin, Nancy Groce, Yanique Hume, Ivan Karp, Alan Lomax, Worth Long, René López, Kate Rinzler, Lynnell Thomas, Nilda Villalta, Fellows & Research Associates
Folklife Advisory Council and Folkways Advisory Council
Michael Asch, Phyllis Barney, Jane Beck, Don DeVito, Pat Jasper, Ella Jenkins, Jon Kertzer, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, John Nixdorf, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Gilbert Sprauve, Jack Tchen, Ricardo Trimillos
National Park Service
Robert Stantion, Director; Terry Carlstrom, Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1990 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: Musics of Struggle
Series 3: Senegal
Series 4: U.S. Virgin Islands
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1990 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
In the 1990 Program Book, Secretary Robert McC. Adams noted that the Festival of American Folklife, the annual extension of the Smithsonian onto the National Mall of the United States, was a long-lived national and international model for the research and presentation of living culture. Emphasizing the Smithsonian's commitment to cultural pluralism, Adams pointed to the Festival ais an example of cultural pluralism in research, exhibition development, and public education. In 1990, programs on the folklife of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the cultures of Senegal, and the Musics of Struggle presented people with much to say about the cultures they represented, but whose voices were not frequently heard in national or international cultural forums. Field research to develop those programs was conducted largely by academic and lay scholars from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Senegal, and the featured communities, and usually in close collaboration with local cultural institutions. Program interpretation was multivocal, as tradition bearers, local scholars, and Smithsonian curators spoke for themselves, with each other, and to the public. Together they created a rich, pluralistic, and knowledgeable perspective in the Festival presentations.
The 1990 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 27-July 1 and July 4-8) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan).
The 1990 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; the Program Book featured substantial essays laying out in depth the rationale for the Festival as a whole and for each of the three Festival programs, complemented by shorter pieces focusing on particular topics (not all of which were presented on the National Mall).
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Office of Folklife Programs.
Office of Folklife Programs
Richard Kurin, Acting Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Anthony Seeger, Curator, Folkways Records; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Olivia Cadaval, Director, Quincentenary Projects; Richard Kennedy, Program Analyst; Betty Belanus, Education Specialist; Diana N'Diaye, Jacquelin Peters, Curators; Marjorie Hunt, Ed O'Reilly, Frank Proschan, Nicholas Spitzer, Research Associates; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Jeffrey Place, Archivist
Folklife Advisory Council
Roger Abrahams, Richard Bauman, Henry Glassie, Rayna Green, John Gwaltney, Charlotte Heth, Adrienne Kaeppler, Ivan Karp, Bernice Reagon, John Tchen, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez
National Park Service
James M. Ridenour, Director; Robert G. Stanton, Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1990 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Ingane Kamalume (Zulu, South Africa) -- Shayisa Inkasa (Zulu, South Africa) -- Music of boatmen (Badouma, French Equatorial Africa) -- Orin Muritala Alhaji (Yoruba, Nigeria) -- Bara Sanaba-Bara (Ibo, Nigeria) -- Traveling song (Sudan) -- Festival song (Sudan) -- Bina Adamu (Swahili, Zanzibar)
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-10RR-0340
General:
Music from Zulu, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Equatorial Africa, Zanzibar, Brazil, Haiti, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Alabama and Mississippi.
Folkways 4500
CDR copy
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Ofori Ansah explains children in Africa like to make up stories, games, and songs about animals; he also explains folktales. Ofori Ansah and a group of children play the African game of tail or tail, and sing and dance to Kye Kye Kule. The children, dressed as animals, perform a folktale as told by Ofori Ansah.
Performance - music, dance, storytelling, and theater. Part of ACM Museum Events, PR, and Ceremonies Recordings. Related to Kwanzaa Programs. 17 copies of African Play. 16 black and white copies. 1 color copy [AV003553]. Some copies have audio and/video distortions. Transcribed from AV000841 - AV000845: Kwanzaa African Play. AV002231: dated 19910827. Remainder of the assets: dated 19780821.
Biographical / Historical:
Ofori Ansah was born in Aboasa, Ghana, 1944. Scholar of African and African American art and artists. Professor of African Art History at Howard University where he began a Ghana Travel/Study Program in 2005. Wrote book about children games and folktales from African tradition which were taught at the 1976 Festival of American Folklife, the Smithsonian Institution. Also known as Ofori-Ansah, Kwaku and Ofori-Ansah, Paul, 1944-.;Anacostia Community Museum's Education Department hosted Kwanzaa events, including Kwanzaa workshops and school events as well as Kwanzaa-related films, plays, and storytelling.
Local Numbers:
ACMA AV003195
ACMA AV003197
ACMA AV003199
ACMA AV003542
ACMA AV003544
ACMA AV003553
ACMA AV003566
ACMA AV003568
ACMA AV003571
ACMA AV003577
ACMA AV003579
ACMA AV000841
ACMA AV000842
ACMA AV000843
ACMA AV000844
ACMA AV000845
ACMA AV002231
General:
Title transcribed from opening credits of video recording.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: China: Tradition and the Art of Living
Series 3: Kenya: Mambo Poa
Series 4: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
For forty-eight years, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has gathered people from around the globe on the National Mall to celebrate the best of the human spirit. In response, millions of visitors have been inspired, challenged, and delighted by culture bearers manifesting the ordinary and the astounding. The Folklife Festival's history is a remarkable one in which creativity and culture have transformed grass, gravel, and trees into a vibrant landscape for exploration and exchange.
The 2014 Festival added another chapter to that history with programs illuminating the cultural heritage of China and Kenya. With song and story, movement and craft in tow, exemplars of traditional genres demonstrated practices that continue to resonate in our modern world. The alchemy of their presence and the curiosity of visitors is what drives the Festival.
The 2014 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 25-29 and July 2-6) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 12th Street, south of the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured two programs and special events including the Rinzler Concert.
The 2014 guide included participant lists for each program, a site plan, and daily schedules.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Michael Atwood Mason, Director; Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Sabrina Lynn Motley, Festival Director; Cristina Díaz-Carrera, Production Manager; Education and Program Support: Betty Belanus, Education Specialist, Evaluation Coordinator; Olivia Cadaval, Cross-Cultural Programs Coordinator; Marjorie Hunt, Family Activities Consultant (Kenya); Diana N'Diaye, Curator; Arlene Reiniger, Intern Coordinator; Arnie Malin, Foodways Coordinator; Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections: Jeff Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Photo Documentation Coordinator; Dave Walker, Audio Documentation Coordinator; Cecilia Peterson, Project Archivist; Greg Adams, Processing Archivist
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Advisory Council
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Chair; Cathy Sulzberger, Co-Chair; Bill Ivey, Dawn McCall, Susan Norton, Anna Maria Ochoa, George Papagiannis, Frederik Paulsen, Jennifer Cover Payne, Ann Elizabeth Sheffer, Deborah Wong, Council Members; Libby O'Connell, J. Scott Raecker, Honorary; Patricia Shehan-Campbell, G. Wayne Clough, Richard Kurin, Michael Atwood Mason, Daniel Sheehy, Ex Officio
National Park Service
Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director; Robert Vogel, Superintendent, National Mall and Memorial Parks
The Festival was supported by federally appropriated funds; Smithsonian trust funds; contributions from governments, businesses, foundations, and individuals; in-kind assistance; and food, recording, and craft sales.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: Mekong River: Connecting Cultures
Series 3: Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian
Series 4: Roots of Virginia Culture: The Past is Present
Series 5: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
At its inception in 1967, the Folklife Festival was conceived as an act of cultural democracy, a vehicle for cultural conversation, and a means of cultural conservation. Held on the National Mall around the Fourth of July, it provided an important forum where Americans and others could explain, express, demonstrate, and perform their cultural traditions. "Back home," the Festival would encourage traditions within practitioners' communities; stimulate cultural research and documentation efforts; boost sales of crafts, music, and food; lead to public recognition by government leaders and the media; increase tourism and economic development; and inspire educational programs in schools. The 2007 Festival continued in that mold, with three programs and the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert, dedicated to long-time collaborator Bess Lomax Hawes.
The Roots of Virginia Culture program helped mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. For the nation that subsequently emerged, Jamestown set in motion relationships among Native Americans, English, and Africans. They interacted through war, slavery, and strife, as well as through a growing economy and an unfolding democracy to define, in large measure, American culture and traditions. Musicians, artisans, cooks, boat builders, farmers, archaeologists, and genealogists from Virginia (including its Native communities), England (mainly Kent County), Senegal and Mali came to the 2007 Festival to demonstrate root traditions, cultural parallels, and the ways their expressions and those of later immigrants formed a dynamic American heritage. The work of many scholars and colleagues on three continents enabled the Festival to tell that story, including Jamestown 2007, the Kent County Council, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, who supported and guided the program.
Among early immigrants to Virginia were Scots and Irish from Ireland - people who contributed mightily to the new nation. The second program, Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian, focused on the cultural life of those "back home." The 2007 Festival program came at a very important time in the history of the island region. In the months preceding the Festival, leaders of the two major parties, Unionist (Protestant) and Republican (Catholic) had just agreed to form a self-government to help surmount "The Troubles" that had long plagued the region. Music, crafts, occupational traditions, and culinary arts were flourishing. Cultural expressions, often means of resistance and conflict, increasingly came to foster understanding, reconciliation, and the economy. This was particularly evident in a massive arts effort, "Rediscover Northern Ireland," which sought to acquaint Americans with the region. Numerous scholars, cultural organizations (led by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and the Northern Ireland Arts Council), and civic-minded corporate sponsors came together to design and fund the program, as well as its Washington presence at the Festival. Such public-private partnerships, increased American tourism, and economic investment should help to promote reconciliation and stability.
Similar sensibilities inspired Mekong River: Connecting Cultures, which brought together musicians, artisans, cooks, and other cultural exemplars from Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The program followed the 3,000-mile river from its highland origins on the Tibetan Plateau through Yunnan Province of China to the delta of southern Vietnam. Many Americans are familiar with the region because of war. But beyond the conflicts are rich, interrelated cultures. Although national identities are important and persistent, ethnic communities are distributed across national boundaries. Occupational and artisanal traditions, such as fishing, farming, and weaving, transcend citizenship. Religious beliefs have inspired a wide variety of performance and celebratory expressions. This is a politically, economically, and culturally dynamic area whose future is increasingly tied to global concerns. Millions of Americans from the region make their home in the United States - in the nation's capital, in Virginia, in Maryland, and in many other states. Americans and other visitors to the Festival were able to learn more about this important region thanks to the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan Province, China; the Rockefeller, Ford, Luce, and McKnight foundations; and institutional colleagues such as Thailand's Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Vietnam's Museum of Ethnology, Cambodia's Amrita Performing Arts, China Yunnan International Culture Exchange Center, and Connecticut College.
The 2007 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 27-July 1 and July 4-8) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 7th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured three programs and the Rinzler Concert.
The 2007 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; keynote essays and short features provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Diana Parker, Festival Director; Stephen Kidd, Production Manager; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Smithsonian Folkways Recordings: Daniel Sheehy, Curator and Director; Anthony Seeger, Curator and Director, Emeritus; D.A. Sonneborn, Assistant Director; Ralph Rinzler Archives: Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Cultural Heritage Policy: James Counts Early, Director; Cultural Research and Education: Olivia Cadaval, Chair; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist Emeritus; Betty J. Belanus, Olivia Cadaval, James Deutsch, Nancy Groce, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Peter Seitel (Emeritus), Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Research Associates: Robert Albro, Geri Benoit, Carla Borden, Patrick Delatour, Roland Freeman, Kip Lornell, Joan Nathan, Frank Proschan, Sita Reddy, Sam-Ang Sam, Preston Scott, Cynthia Vidaurri, Patrick Vilaire, Nilda Villalta; Fellows: Patrick Alcedo, Bill Anthes, Tressa Berman, Sara Broulette, Uma Chandru, Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez, Marie-Yvonne Curtis, Peter Glazer, Israel Lazaro, Julie McGee, Brett Pyper, Sita Reddy, Carole Rosenstein
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Advisory Council
Kurt Dewhurst (chair), Judy Mitoma (vice-chair), Michael Asch (ex-officio), Michael Doucet, Anthony Gittens, John Herzog (ex-officio), Debora Kodish, Enrique Lamadrid, Worth Long, Libby O'Connell, J. Scott Raecker, Robert Santelli
Smithsonian Folkways Advisory Board
Michael Asch (chair), Patricia Shehan-Campbell, Hal Cannon, Don De Vito, Ella Jenkins, Anthony Seeger, Fred Silber
National Park Service
Mary Boman, Director; Daniel N. Wenk, Deputy Director; Joseph M. Lawler, Regional Director; Stephen Lorenzetti, Acting Superintendent, National Mall & Memorial Parks
The Festival was supported by federally appropriated funds; Smithsonian trust funds; contributions from governments, businesses, foundations, and individuals; in-kind assistance; and food, beverage, recording, and craft sales. General support for this year's Festival came from the Music Performance Fund, with in-kind support provided by Motorola, Sprint Nextel, Whole Foods Market, WAMU-88.5 FM, WashingtonPost.com, Thermador, Propex Inc., Pegasus Radio Corp., and Icom America.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
