Community Folklife Documentation Training Program, African Immigrant Folklife Study, Syllabus and Coursework, 1994
Container:
Box 2 of 23
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Rights:
Restricted for 15 years; until Jan-01-2029. Boxes 1-3, 6-7, 11, and 20-22 contain materials restricted indefinitely; see finding aid. Transferring office; 09/14/2015 Memo, Wright to Bell/Adams/Strickland; Contact reference staff for details.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 15-341, Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Director's Administrative Records
File consists of "The Meaders Family: North Georgia Potters", Smithsonian Folklife Studies Number 1.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Precursor fieldwork activities include African immigrant folklife project (1994-1997), fieldwork, training program, and website. Post Festival activities include African immigrant exhibit panels and African immigrant education guide.
Related Materials:
Additional material related to the African Immigrant Folklife Program had been deposited in the archives in the past. A finding aid of these materials are located here: Q:\Archive\Finding Aids\African Immigrant Folklife Study. That finding aid was prepared by Janine Awai and Diana N'Diaye circa 2006.
File consists of rolodex cards, correspondence regarding Irish culture and Armenian, Arab and Japanese musicians, Urban Folklife Studies or How to Use the Washington Telephone Book by Forrest W. Meader, Jr. Correspondents include: Forrest W Meader, Jr., John A. K. Donovan, Ralph Rinzler.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
File consists of Working Americans: Contemporary Approaches to Occupational Folklife edited by Robert H. Byington and reprinted as Smithsonian Folklife Studies Number 3 from Western Folklore (Volume 37, Number 3), published by the California Folklore Society. Authors include: Robert S. McCarl Jr., Roger D. Abrahams, Robert H. Byington, Jack Santino, Archie Green. Inscribed "Ralph Rinzler Jan. 1979".
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Introduction:
The first in what later became a series of annual tributes to Festival founding director Ralph Rinzler featured two of his earliest collaborators in the folk revival - Pete Seeger and Mike Seeger - as well as Piedmont blues from the duo of John Cephas and Phil Wiggins and African American music of the Appalachians from Ed Cabbell and Melissa Cabbell.
Other special evening concerts provided a preview of an ongoing project concerning African immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. While many recent African immigrant communities shared some social characteristics with each other, with others of the African diaspora, and with immigrant groups in general, they also varied considerably in size, in the length of time they had been in the United States, and in the circumstances that brought them to this country. Some individuals came with scholarships to American universities; others fled oppressive political situations with "only the shirt on their backs," as one Ethiopian educator and cab driver explains.
In the process of building community life in the United States, African-born immigrants in America in the 1990s were creating new and unique forms of expressive culture patterned after but not identical to African forms; they actively and explicitly used the language of tradition - ways of cooking food, of dressing, of dancing - to define themselves as Africans, in the context of the United States, to each other and to the world.
Fieldwork by the project team - primarily constituted of community-based scholars - during the project's first year hinted at the richness of the material available: from Ghanaian drumming to Zairian soukous music; from Nigerian jollof rice to Ethiopian coffee ceremonies; from Senegalese hair-braiding to Somalian women's songs; from South African poetry of invocation to personal experience stories of immigrants' first encounters with American culture. The African Immigrant Study Group hoped that the activities at the 1995 Festival as well as the full program in 1997 would make their cultures more accessible and more valued as an important part of the Washington area's cultural heritage.
Emily Botein was Program Coordinator for the evening programs and special events. The African Immigrant Folklife Study Project was directed by Diana Baird N'Diaye, with Betty Belanus serving as Education Specialist, Roland Freeman as Fieldwork Photography Advisor, and Sulayman Nyang as Head Advisor. Project Advisors included Mary Jo Arnoldi, Hayelom Ayele, Laura Bigman, Camilla Bryce-Laporte, Roy Bryce-Laporte, Olivia Cadaval, Roland Freeman, Philippa Jackson, Portia James, Niani Kilkenny, Michael Licht, Phyllis May-Machunda, Deborah Mack, Sharon Rienken, Beverly Robinson, Fath Ruffins, Peter Seitel, and Addisu Tolesa.
THE VOLTA ENSEMBLE, GHANAIAN (EWE) COMMUNITY -- THE VOLTA ENSEMBLE, GHANAIAN (EWE) COMMUNITYAdult performersGodwin AgodoRad AkoriiJosephine AkuDavid Aku, Sr.William AyensonEric AzumaEvelyn AzumaFelly BlegeNana BlegeKenzie DamankeWilliam DzathorKwame Koffle-LartSteve NashGeorgina NuwameEmmanual SawyerGladys VodiChild performersDela AgodoEmefa AgodoGamell AgodoSesime AgodoCynthia AkuDavid Aku, Jr.Amanda AzumaSefe AzumaSelom AzumaEnyonam BlegeEyram BlegeSitsofe BlegeAlexandra NuwamePascal NuwameSharon NuwameAfi VodiMawuii Vodi
THE NILE ETHIOPIAN ENSEMBLE, ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITY -- THE NILE ETHIOPIAN ENSEMBLE, ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITYSetagne Atena, masinko (one-stringed fiddle)Abebe Belew, kebero drumsAlmaz Getahun, danceAshenafi Miteku, danceSelamawit Nega, vocalsAsaye Zegeye, kraar (six stringed lyre)
SOUKOUS
PAPA LOUIS AND LIZIBA, CENTRAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY -- PAPA LOUIS AND LIZIBA, CENTRAL AFRICAN COMMUNITYPapa Louis, lead guitarJoselito De Kashama, vocals"Stick" Malowdo, drumsMartino, guitarGelo De Mingongo, vocalsWilly Naweza, vocals"Petit" Sammy, atalakuZino "Synthe", keyboards
THE SENEGALESE SUPPORT SOCIETY AND GAMBIAN ASSOCIATION -- THE SENEGALESE SUPPORT SOCIETY AND GAMBIAN ASSOCIATIONAwa Ba, danceMariama Diop, danceMagatte fall, talking drumMare Gueye, ndere drumIdrissa Gueye, mbeung-mbeung drumBara Mboup, lamb drumCheikh Tahirou MBaye, ndere drumMame Khoudia Niang, danceSophie Sar, danceHaddy Mu Ndow Sekka, dance
BASOTHO PRAISE POETRY
LESOTHO-SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITY -- LESOTHO-SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITYMike Mvelase, poet
NORTH AFRICAN
THE NORTH AFRICAN REGION ENSEMBLE -- THE NORTH AFRICAN REGION ENSEMBLEMohamed Habibi, luteSayed Ismeal, oud, group leaderAdel Al Khadi, violinKhalid, DrumMahmoud Tutu, niy flute
NGONJERA (POETIC CONVERSATION)
THE ASSOCIATION OF TANZANIAN COMMUNITY IN AMERICA -- THE ASSOCIATION OF TANZANIAN COMMUNITY IN AMERICAEmanuel Bandawe, performerJessica Kamala Mushala, performerPrimrose Mushala, performerMartin Ngireu, writerGeorge Sebo, performer
PRAISE POETRY INVOCATION, CELEBRATORY DANCE, NIGERIAN COMMUNITY
IGBO POETRY OF INVOCATION, THE ANIOMA ASSOCIATION -- IGBO POETRY OF INVOCATION, THE ANIOMA ASSOCIATIONAugustine Nwabueze, president, responseTony Dunkwu, responseFidelis Iwugo, responseGeorge Nwabuku, responseFlorence Nwaonye, responseSonny Obidi, responseChief Raphael Ogbolu, invocationKunirum Osia, responseMr. & Mrs. Elias Uwandi, response
EWI (YORUBA PRAISE POETRY)
Abiodun Adepoju, poetry
Kemi Oriowo, dance
Tayo Oriowo, talking drum
CELEBRATORY DANCE
THE AKWA IBOM STATE ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA -- THE AKWA IBOM STATE ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAFrank Akanem, presidentJustina Ikpim, vice presidentElizabeth Akanem, danceFlorence Inwang, danceHelen Inwang, danceEdemekong Isema, drumIbok Isema, drumSamuel Isema, drumWilson Oduk, drumEno Okon, danceGodwin Udo, drumRose Williams, dance
PAN-AFRICAN IMMIGRANT GOSPEL MUSIC
MIXED CHOIR OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD -- MIXED CHOIR OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GODLeslie Hawkins, senior choir directorSamuel Gyermah, junior choir directorSamuef Agyepong-Mensah, band leader, lead guitaristJuliana Agyepong-Mensah, lead vocalsSamuel Jr. Agyepong-Mensah, bass guitarNana Busia, alto vocalsYau Cann, congasErnest Frimpong, congasKwabena Larbi, drumsInnocent Onyeanusi, drums, bass guitar
A Tribute to Ralph Rinzler: July 2nd Evening Concert
Ed Cabbell, vocals, Morgantown, West Virginia
Melissa Cabbell, vocals, Tahens, West Virginia
John Cephas, vocals, guitar, Woodford, Virginia
Phil Wiggins, harmonica, Washington, D.C.
Mike Seeger, vocals, guitar, banjo, autoharp, Lexington, Virginia
Pete Seeger, vocals, banjo, guitar, Beacon, New York
Collection Restrictions:
Access by appointment only. Where a listening copy or viewing copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a processing fee. Older papers are housed at a remote location and may require a minimum of three weeks' advance notice and payment of a retrieval fee. Certain formats such as multi-track audio recordings and EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) may not be accessible. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1995 Festival of American Folklife, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
106.32 Cubic feet (87.5 cubic feet of papers, 18.82 cubic feet of audio)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Field recordings
Correspondence
Phonograph records
Notes
Business records
Audiocassettes
Photographic prints
Black-and-white negatives
Audiotapes
Date:
1890-2011
bulk 1950-1994
Summary:
This collection, with bulk dates from 1950-1994, documents the life of Ralph Rinzler and his professional activities as Director of Field Programs for the Newport Folk Festival, Director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (formerly the Festival of American Folklife) and the Office of Folklife Programs (now the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage), and the Smithsonian Institution's Assistant Secretary for Public Service. Includes personal papers, business records, correspondence, notes, photographs, audiotapes and field recordings.
Scope and Contents:
The Ralph Rinzler Papers and Audio Recordings encompasses a wide range of materials from Rinzler's prolific personal and professional life. Predominantly consisting of clippings, collected texts, correspondence, meeting notes, photographs, and production materials, this collection charts Rinzler's role in the mid-twentieth century emergence of community-based and institutional efforts to preserve, sustain, and amplify cultural heritage. As an assemblage of materials from all aspects of his life, the Ralph Rinzler Papers also reflect the many integral relationships he developed throughout the years with his colleagues, contemporaries, family, and friends.
Arrangement note:
The collection is currently arranged in 9 archival series as follows:
1. Biographical
2. Collected Texts
3. Correspondence
4. Events
5. Fieldwork
6. Meetings and Organizations
7. Notable Figures
8. Publishing and Production
9. Audio
The papers and photographs contained in the first 8 series are processed at an intermediate level, which means that all material was rehoused in archival folders, with folder-level arrangements and descriptions. Individual items within folders may not be fully arranged or described, due to the collection's level of complexity when it was deposited in the Archives.
When possible, folders were arranged alphabetically within series and subseries.
Biographical/Historical note:
Ralph Rinzler (1934-1994) was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and was interested in music at an early age. He was given a collection of ethnographic recordings from the Archive of Folk Song of the Library of Congress by his uncle, Harvard University ballad scholar George Lyman Kittredge, and they soon became his favorites. He became actively involved in the Folk Revival while attending Swarthmore College, organizing an annual festival on campus. He received his B.A. in 1956, and did graduate work at Middlebury College and the Sorbonne in French literature and language. Upon his return to the United States, he played mandolin for four years with the Greenbriar Boys, at times touring with singer Joan Baez. During the 1960s, he also studied, recorded, and worked with performers of traditional music, such as Doc Watson and Bill Monroe, both of whom gained international recognition in part through his efforts. In 1964, Rinzler accepted the position of Director of Field Programs at the Newport Folk Foundation, which involved the planning and programming of the Newport Folk Festival.
Rinzler came to the Smithsonian in 1967 as co-founder of the Festival of American Folklife (now the Smithsonian Folklife Festival) with James Morris in what was then the Smithsonian's Division of Performing Arts. After the 1976 Bicentennial Festival, Rinzler became the founding director of the Office of Folklife Programs (now the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage) to establish a center for research, publication, and presentation of programs in American culture and tradition. As Director, he initiated Smithsonian Folklife Studies, a publication series, and did research for the Celebration exhibit, which opened at the Renwick Gallery in 1982. Rinzler was appointed Assistant Secretary for Public Service in 1983 and Assistant Secretary Emeritus in 1990. Ralph Rinzler died on July 2, 1994.
Shared Stewardship:
Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process, tethered to the living people and cultures its materials represent. 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.
To view the Center's full shared stewardship statement, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Provenance:
The materials in this collection were deposited into the archives of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage over a number of years by Ralph Rinzler, Kate Rinzler, and Jeff Place in honor of the aforementioned. From the 1980s until Ralph Rinzler's passing in 1994, the Center received the majority of the audio tapes and photographs in this collection directly from Rinzler. With Rinzler's death in 1994, Jeff Place reviewed and deposited the majority of Rinzler's papers at the Center.
Until her passing in 2011, Kate Rinzler donated materials to this collection, with more continuing to arrive via her estate (as of May 2021). Many of these items were rehoused in the Kate Rinzler Papers.
Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for 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 1967 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: Fieldwork
Series 3: Photographs
Series 4: Audio
Series 5: Video
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 1967 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Division of Performing Arts.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
In 1966, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley engaged James R. Morris to serve as Director of Museum Services, soon to become a new Division of Performing Arts. Ripley charged Morris to develop a full program of performances on the National Mall - sound and light show, readings and concerts, films, live demonstrations, and special exhibitions. Morris, who had previously organized the American Folk Festival in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1963, proposed that the Smithsonian host a folk festival as the centerpiece of the outdoors activities. Through the Asheville festival, Morris had come into contact with key people involved in the Newport Folk Festival, among them Alan Lomax. It was Lomax who suggested that the Smithsonian hire Newport's then-director of field programs, Ralph C. Rinzler, to help plan a Smithsonian festival. The term "folklife", drawn from Scandinavian usage, was chosen over "folk" as the name of the new Festival.
The first Festival of American Folklife was held July 1-4, 1967 in two tents - one for crafts and one for sales - a music stage, and a performance area on the terrace of the Museum of History and Technology (later, the National Museum of American History). Fifty-eight traditional craftspeople and thirty-two musical and dance groups from throughout the United States demonstrated and performed at the first open-air event. Mountain banjo-pickers and ballad singers, Chinese lion dancers, Indian sand painters, basket and rug weavers, New Orleans jazz bands and a Bohemian hammer dulcimer band from east Texas combined with the host of participants from many rural and urban areas of the U.S. The entire event was free to the public, the expense of the production having been borne by the Smithsonian aided by numerous civic and cultural organizations, business enterprises and State Arts Councils.
The 1967 Festival drew a huge crowd - estimated at more than 400,000 - and strong interest from the press, Members of Congress, and Smithsonian leadership. In the Smithsonian's annual report for 1967, Ripley reflected on the success of the Festival:
Within - in the Museum - the tools, the products of craft work, the musical instruments hang suspended in cases, caught in beautifully petrified isolation. Without, for the space of a few hours they came alive in the hands of specialists from all over America.... It was a moving spectacle and one that underscored the principle that a museum, to be a museum in the best sense of the word, must live and breathe both within and without.
The 1967 Festival marked the inception of a fresh attempt at the evaluation, documentation and celebration of a hitherto unrecognized area of vigorous American expression. Concurrent with the first Festival, an American Folklife Conference was organized (with assistance from Henry Glassie) to address topics of American and international folklife studies, the relationship between folklife and history, applied folklife, and folklife in schools, museums, communities, and government agencies.
The Festival was organized by the Division of Performing Arts, under the direction of James R. Morris. Ralph Rinzler was the Applied Folklore Consultant and Festival Artistic Director, and Marian A. Hope was Project Assistant. No program book or schedule was published, but news articles, congressional remarks, letters from the public, and a list of participants were later compiled in lieu of a program book. That document can be viewed in Series 1.
Participants:
Crafts
Harry Belone, 1912-1986, Navajo sand painter, Arizona
Herman Benton, 1914-1994, scoop maker, New York
Mary Bowers, 1922-2002, Seminole patchwork, needlework, Florida
Marie Z. Chino, 1907-1982, Acoma pottery, New Mexico
Mildred Cleghorn, 1910-1997, Indian cloth dolls, Oklahoma
Maisy Coburn, apple face and corncob dolls, Arkansas
Margaret Coochwytewa, 1923-1995, Hopi, coil and yucca leaves basket maker, Arizona
Victor Coochwytewa, 1922-2011, Hopi silversmith, Arizona
Freedom Quilting Bee, Alabama
Taft Greer, 1908-1986, weaver, Tennessee
Joseph Grismayer, 1888-1970, willow basket maker, Pennsylvania
Dewey Harmon, 1900-1972, whittler, North Carolina
Bea Hensley, 1919-2013, blacksmith, North Carolina
Louise Jones, 1910-1973, coil basket making, South Carolina
Robert Keith, chair maker, North Carolina
Mrs. Robert Keith, chair maker, North Carolina
Norman Kennedy, 1934-, carder, spinner, weaver, Massachusetts
Clifford Lucas, Indian dolls, New Mexico
Lila Suzanne Marshall, 1908-1994, corn shuck dolls, North Carolina
Charles Mayac, 1906-1971, ivory carver, Alaska
Leo J. Meyer, scrimshaw carver, Maryland
Alice Merryman, 1906-2007, corn shuck dolls, Arkansas
Norman Miller, 1905-1972, southern pottery, Alabama
Mrs. Norman Miller, southern pottery, Alabama
Hazel Miracle, 1915-2001, apple face, corn shuck dolls, Kentucky
Homer Miracle, 1910-1980, hand-hewn bowls, carver, Kentucky
Ann Mitchell, corn shuck dolls, Maryland
Golda Porter, spinner, North Carolina
Edd Presnell, 1916-1994, dulcimer maker, North Carolina
Wade Ward (1892-1971) and the Buck Mountain Band, mountain string band, Virginia
Yomo Toro Band, Puerto Rican music, New York
Ed Young (1910-1972), G.D. Young and Lonnie Young (1903-1976), African American fife and drum group, Mississippi
Young People's Chorus from the Scripture of Church of Christ, gospel, Virginia
Dance
Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers, cloggers, North Carolina
Chinese Lion Group, Washington, D.C.
Maurice Flowers, square dance caller, Maryland
Los Gallegos d'Espana, Galician dance, New York
Glinka Dancers, Russian dance group, New Jersey
Jochim Koyuk, King Island Eskimo dancer, Alaska
Mrs. Jochim Koyuk, King Island Eskimo dancer, Alaska
McNeff Dancers, Irish dancing with Ceilidh band, New York
Henry Paterick, square dance caller, Virginia
St. Andrews Society Group, Scottish dancing, Washington, D.C.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1967 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 by appointment only. Where a listening copy or viewing copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a processing fee. Older papers are housed at a remote location and may require a minimum of three weeks' advance notice and payment of a retrieval fee. Certain formats such as multi-track audio recordings and EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) may not be accessible. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
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 1979 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: Caribbean Carnival
Series 3: Children's Area
Series 4: Folklife in the Museum - Folk Medicine
Series 5: Folklore in Your Community
Series 6: Medicine Show
Series 7: Native American Architecture
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 1979 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Folklife Program of the Office of American and Folklife Studies and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1979 Folklife Festival continued to take community as its theme, as had been announced in 1978. The Festival celebrated the creative genius of many cultural groups - some had been on American soil only for months, others for millenia. The point of the Smithsonian festivals and the museums' displays of diversity struck home to the people who came to the museums and reached out for reaffirmation of identity. People feared the loss of identity in the sense of anomie that came with being a cipher, a numeral, a set of digits, organizers believed; they feared big government, big business, megastates that might rule the world. Coupled with the fear of homogenization was the fear of the loss of one's own soul. One way to strengthen our sense of identity and to demonstrate our essential humanity, the Festival asserted, was the reaffirmation of the differences among us, the persistence of our traditions at the ground roots of life, a countercurrent for survival.
In 1979 the Festival welcomed the newly-arrived ethnic community of Vietnamese, who had brought with them rich folklife traditions. From the West Indies came immigrants who enliven our cities with the folk theatrical spectacle of Carnival. Native Americans from several tribal groups shared their knowledge of ways in which their housing has been adapted to local environmental conditions.The International Year of the Child was celebrated at the Festival in the program book cover and articles, and in the living presentations of children's folklife in the Children's Area, where Lumbee Indian children re-created a Field Day celebration, and several other children's communities enacted Halloween traditions. Occupational communities were represented by D.C. firefighters, taxicab drivers, and stonecarvers from the National Cathedral. Other communities represented, which had formed around particular interests or institutions, were a medicine show, mom-and-pop neighborhood stores, street criers, and CB radio clubs.
As with the two preceding years, the 1979 Festival (October 3-8) 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). Indoor activities including a symposium focused on folk medicine took place in the National Museum of History and Technology, in the days preceding the outdoor Festival (September 27-30). The 1979 Program Book provided information on each of the programs.
The 1979 Festival was again co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Music Performance Trust Funds. It was organized by the Folklife Program within the Office of American and Folklife Studies.
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, E. Richard Sorenson, Thomas Vennum
Folklife Program, Office of American and Folklife Studies
Ralph Rinzler, Director; Richard Derbyshire, Archivist; Susan Kalcik, Folklorist; Jeffrey LaRiche, Program Coordinator; Jack Santino, Folklorist; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Ethnomusicologist; Steve Zeitlin, Folklorist
National Park Service
William J. Whelan, Director; Manus J. Fish, Jr., Regional Director, National Capital Region
Fieldworkers and presenters:
Nicholas Bocher, Sylvia Grider, Glenn Hinson, Marjorie Hunt, Fred Lieberman, Susan Manos, Phyllis May, Robert McCarl, Maxine Miska, Peter Nabokov, Elliott Parris, Kate Rinzler, Betsy Seamans, Barbara Strickland, Katherine Williams, Peggy Yocum
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1979 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 by appointment only. Where a listening copy or viewing copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a processing fee. Older papers are housed at a remote location and may require a minimum of three weeks' advance notice and payment of a retrieval fee. Certain formats such as multi-track audio recordings and EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) may not be accessible. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
