A Fond Farewell to Laurie Longfield: Laurie was born and raised in Schenectady, but she has lived in many other East and West Coast locations. She joined New York Folklore in 2009, enriching the organization through her many prior years of learned experience in the...
On May 2nd, the email that I had feared arrived in my inbox. The evening before, I had read President Trump’s proposed budget for 2026 and seen his recommendation to defund the National Endowment for the Arts. I received the first email on May 3rd saying that one NEA...
For the second year in a row the NY/NJ Folk Arts Roundtable convened in Schenectady, NY! From May 5th to 7th folklorists, artists, arts administrators and tradition bearers gathered for the 42nd time! We kicked things off on Monday afternoon with Asiyah Kurtz, who...
The New York State Senate and Assembly are held a joint hearing on the Arts in New York State, on Tuesday 2/11 at 11:00 a.m. New York Folklore Executive Director, Ellen McHale addressed the committee, You can read a full copy of her testimony below. My name is Ellen...
This past weekend (Saturday, September 21,2024) , New York Folklore celebrated its 80th birthday! The celebration, held at the Jay Square in Schenectady, NY, was a fitting backdrop. Jay Street has been home to The New York Folklore Shop and Gallery since 1999. The...
Lalita Ramnauth was born and raised in Guyana where, at a young age, she and her family discovered her natural talent for singing. Having moved to the United States from Guyana in 1992, she eventually relocated to Schenectady.  Lalita possesses a large repertoire of...
For the 40th annual New York Folk Arts Roundtable, New York Folklore brought the Roundtable to our neighborhood in Schenectady, NY. For this big milestone we were joined by one of our largest cohorts ever! Things kicked off on Sunday, April 28th at the Arts Education...
Artists and organizations in New York State will receive a combined total of over $400,000 in grants thanks to direct assistance from New York Folklore. These funds that directly support artists and specific cultural traditions, come from twenty successful...
At New York Folklore's 38th annual New York Folklore Arts Roundtable, we were joined, for the first time ever, by our neighbors from New Jersey! Our expanded group convened in the Bear Mountain State Park, Tompkins Cove, NY. The only thing more impressive than the...
This blog post is courtesy of New York Folklore Board Member and Arab Artist, Nada Odeh. Learn more about Nada and her work on her website https://www.nadaodeh.com. Arabic Heritage Month One of the things that I like to celebrate as an Arab is Arabic calligraphy,...
Last month Staff Folklorist Anne Rappaport Berliner Interviewed Luthier Stephen Iachetta of Shaker Violin Repair. Check out an excerpt of their interview! ARB: How did you get into playing and making? SI: In third grade I started playing, at the age of 7. A...
Tashi Sharzur AKA Techung Techung began his study of Tibetan performing arts at the age of nine at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in India. After moving to the US, he co-founded the San Francisco-based Chaksampa Tibetan Dance & Opera Company in 1989,...
This blog post is courtesy of Mathilde (Tilly) Frances Lind. Director of Programs and Research at Traditional Arts of Upstate New York. Tilly is a PhD candidate in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington and a fiber artist who...
This From the Field Feature is courtesy of Hannah Davis, the founding director of Flower City Folk and a professor of practice in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Individualized Study. Learn more about this project’s progress on Instagram at...
Artists and organizations in New York State will receive a combined total of $225,000 in grants thanks to assistance from New York Folklore. These funds come from 21 successful applications submitted to the New York State Council on the Arts - more than triple the...