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.
What Is Folklore?: In Conversation with Folklorists Sarah Bryan & Emily Hilliard
Bitter Southerner guest editors April and Lance Ledbetter spoke with Sarah Bryan, executive director of the North Carolina Folklife Institute and editor of the Old-Time Herald, and Emily Hilliard, program officer, Folk and Traditional Arts at Mid Atlantic Arts and former West Virginia state folklorist at the West Virginia Humanities Council, about tradition, authenticity, validation, and building creative cultural communities in our digital age.
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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
Mountaineers are Always Free Book Launch
A new book by folklorist Rosemary Hathaway explores the history and potent symbolism of the iconic West Virginia University Mountaineer. The book launch for “Mountaineers Are Always Free: Heritage, Dissent, and a West Virginia Icon” ( WVU Press, 2020) will be held in the Event Hall at the WVU College of Law on February 24 at 4 p.m. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.
Hathaway, an associate professor of English, will lead a discussion about the Mountaineer with Travis Stimeling, associate professor of music, and Emily Hilliard of the West Virginia Folklife Program.
Learn more via West Virginia University’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
New Journal of American Folklore Editorial Team
“Lisa Gilman (George Mason University) is taking over as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of American Folklore on November 15, 2019…
An outstanding editorial team will collaboratively produce the journal through 2023.
Associate Editors: Debra Lattanzi Shutika, Benjamin Gatling, and Lijun Zhang, George Mason University
Editorial Assistant: Tanya Boucicaut, George Mason University
Book Review Editor: James Deutsch, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Exhibit Review Editor: Kelley Totten, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Film and Video Review Editor: Emily Hilliard, West Virginia Folklife Program
Sound Review Editor: Langston Collin Wilkins, Center for Washington Cultural Traditions
Digital Resources Review Editor: Natalie Underberg-Goode, University of Central Florida”
Learn more via the American Folklore Society