(1) Girsa—pronounced geer-sha
and meaning “young girls ” in Gaelic—is
a group of eight Irish American teenagers,
two generations removed from the Emerald
Isle, who live in and around Pearl River in
Rockland County. Their new, eponymous
compact disc is as refreshing as a cool drink
of spring water on a sweltering summer day. (2) “Seeking out a region’s folk tales and
legends offers more than entertaining reading,”
Melanie Zimmer explains in Central
New York and the Finger Lakes: Myths, Legends,
and Lore. “It offers a piece of ourselves.” This book is a celebration of the
regional identity of central New York as
developed and preserved through folktales.
Review Essay
Books-to-Note
(1) Pauline Adema draws us into her world of
culinary superlatives, localism, and celebrations…By means of a comprehensive case study
of Gilroy, California—the self-proclaimed
garlic capital of the world—the author skillfully
guides the reader to consideration of
competing perspectives: resident/tourist,
exotic/classic, commodification/production,
personal/communal, global/local, dynamic/
stable, self/other, everyday/special,
contemporary/traditional. (2) Although it is well known that Kurt
Schwitters (1887–1948) created collages,
poems, and artistic installations in the 1920s,
1930s, and 1940s, his darkly satirical fairy
tales have been less accessible to scholars
and general readers. Lucky Hans and Other
Merz Fairy Tales not only gives us the tales,
but also provides a wonderful selection of
illustrations and helpful notes. (3) Sightings of large, elusive, hair-covered
bipeds in remote parts of the Northeast go
back to colonial times. Bigfoot: Encounters in
New York and New England is a useful and
well-researched collection of reports, from
both written and oral sources, of those
sightings.
Reviews
Masterfully arranged by the editor, the
articles in this book comprise a sterling
collection of Italian American folklore
research. The organization of the work
provides seamless transitions from essays
on foodways to material culture, cultural
landscape to explicit art forms, and largescale
ceremonial events to religious belief,
all situated in diverse locales from New York
to California.
Book Review
Koenig describes becoming aware that, though he had initially traveled to Bulgaria to study traditional dance, he believed it was his responsibility to document all of the village culture he encountered during his fieldwork…. Voices and Images of Bulgaria is an important work because it captures a lost society and at the same time documents more than 20 years of committed fieldwork.
Good Reads:
Reviews of The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning, by Ben Raines and Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” by Zora Neale Hurston; and All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
Reviews
The Heart Has Reasons profiles 10 rescuers with whom [the author] Klempner met, and the book’s greatest strength is that—in true folk spirit—it allows each rescuer to tell his or her own story. Klempner doesn’t filter or paraphrase anyone, and there’s no reason he should want to. After all, these are feisty, colorful individuals who defied Nazi brutality to save the lives of Jewish children. They possess unique voices, full of humor and anger and life; being able to hear each one is a privilege…
Book Review
A book review of Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson
Valley by Jonathan Kruk.
Good Read
A book review of Saratoga Springs: A Centennial History, edited by Field Horne.
Songs to Keep
This essay describes the Traditional Arts of Upstate New York (TAUNY) project to share the documentation of traditional folk music of the North Country with recordings made between 1942 and 1967 by Marjorie Lansing Porter (1891–1973), with the production of a 40-page songbook, a 17-song CD, and a PBS documentary.
Good Read
Until the publication of Tahawus Memories, this old titanium town seemed as though it was destined to end up in the dustbin of history.
Mohawk Hudson Folklfe Festival
The 2021 Mohawk Hudson Folklife Festival is described, from planning to implementation.
Good Read
A book review of “Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking” by Toni Tipton-Martin.
Good Read
A review of “One Rough Life. Ted Aslaw: Adirondack Lumber Camp and Barroom Singer,” by Robert D. Bethke.
A Reading Life
A review of “Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle,” by Clare Hunter.
Good Read
A review of the book by Margaret Creighton.