What comes to mind when you hear the word folklore? For many, probably Taylor Swift’s 2020 album. In actuality, the field encompasses traditional customs and art forms, practices that are preserved among a people, often passed down and around through word of mouth. Today, people across the world are more connected than ever, and as society changes and evolves, so does folklore. Join four working folklorists—Zoe van Buren (North Carolina Arts Council), Timothy Duffy (Music Maker Foundation), Katy Clune (Virginia Humanities), and Emily Hilliard (Mid Atlantic Arts)—for a discussion about the past, present, and future of folklore. As Zoe van Buren says “It’s very hard to define. If it were easy to define it wouldn’t be so powerful… tradition, folklife - these are not things, these are conversations.” Join the conversation on Tuesday May 3rd at 6pm Eastern and on Music Maker Foundation’s Facebook and YouTube channel following.
West Virginia Folklife Collection Now Online Via WVU Libraries
I'm so thrilled that the West Virginia Folklife Program's digital archives collection, The West Virginia Folklife Collection, is now accessible online to the general public and available for research via WVU Libraries at https://wvfolklife.lib.wvu.edu/.
The original, ongoing collection consists of over 2,500 items and constitutes a significant part of our work in folklife fieldwork and programs since November 2015.
Those items include unique primary source material such as field-recorded interviews and other audio recordings, transcriptions, photo and video documentation, ephemera, and some material objects documenting the vernacular culture, beliefs, occupational skills, and expressive culture of contemporary tradition bearers, folk and traditional artists, and cultural communities across West Virginia.
Collection highlights include documentation of the 2018 WV Teachers' Strike, UFCW Local 400 Kroger workers during COVID, the Scotts Run Museum and Trail community, foodways and community celebrations in the Swiss community of Helvetia, Summers County collector Jim Costa’s collection of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, and participants in the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program.
Learn more via the West Virginia Folklife Program
Smithsonian Folkways Curated: Emily Hilliard
“Expertly curated selections, excellent listens, this time chosen by Emily Hilliard, West Virginia state folklorist and founding director of West Virginia Folklife Program.”
Read and listen to the annotated playlist via Smithsonian Folkways
Music Makers Lecture and Panel Discussion
October 3, 2019, 5pm at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, Charleston, WV
Led by curator Jessica O’Hearn, Music Maker Foundation founder Tim Duffy will be joined by West Virginia State Folklorist Emily Hilliard and Clay County Fiddler John Morris, to discuss the importance of supporting artists with opportunities and funding and preserving artistic and cultural history. Attendees will learn how the Music Makers Foundation and the West Virginia Folklife program have assisted many artists and practitioners to forge a path to success, and preserve musical traditions.
This event is free and open to the public.
Poster designed by Kin Ship Goods
Emily Hilliard Collection on West Virginia Ballad Singer Phyllis Marks Available via Library of Congress →
Hilliard was awarded a 2016 Henry Reed Fund Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for “West Virginia Folklife Presents Ballad Singer Phyllis Marks,” a public programming and documentation project highlighting the career and contributions of the respected octogenarian West Virginia traditional ballad singer Phyllis Marks. The documentation of this September 2016 free public concert is now among the holdings of the Archive of Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The collection includes audio recording, video recording, digital photographs, concert program, and oversize poster and is available for research and public viewing via the Library of Congress.