Ellen McHale

Taylor Swift Asks us to Reflect on the meaning of “folklore”

Taylor Swift Asks us to Reflect on the meaning of “folklore”

The July 23, 2020 release of Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore, begs the question, “What is folklore?”.  Refinery 29, the media and entertainment company dedicated to women’s perspectives, asks, “what does folklore mean anyway?”  Natalie Morin, writing for Refinery...

Business 101 Training for Folk and Traditional Artists

Business 101 Training for Folk and Traditional Artists

New York Folklore is offering a series of workshops related to teaching business and marketing skills to folk artists. This virtual series is open to twelve individuals/traditional artists and will involve online webinars conducted through Zoom. Each webinar will take...

New York State Folklore Covid-19 Relief Fund

New York State Folklore Covid-19 Relief Fund

New York Folklore is raising money to benefit the "New York State Folklore Covid-19 Relief Fund."  Your donations will make an impact. We hope to raise $10,000 by June 1, 2020 to assist folk and traditional artists with emergency grants. The Initiative: With the money...

May 2020: 20 Folk Artists/20 Days

May 2020: 20 Folk Artists/20 Days

On May 1, 2020, New York Folklore and folklore programs across New York State will launch a collaboration to present traditional arts and culture from throughout New York State. Each weekday in May, from 4:00 -4:30 p.m., traditional arts activities will be presented...

Altered States of Place

The “places” that are important to us are currently in a state of re-definition.  As we experience social distancing to address the Covid-19 pandemic, our work spaces and our personal spaces are now one and the same.  My kitchen table – that place where pies are...

Folk Tales and Fairy Tales in Performance

Folk Tales and Fairy Tales in Performance

Perhaps more than any other single aspect of the discipline of folklore, the collection, study, and analysis of narrative arts, storytelling, and storytellers has been a central part of folklore scholarship since the field was founded in the mid-Nineteenth Century. ...

75th Anniversary Year in Review

75th Anniversary Year in Review

As we close the books on 2019, I want to thank everyone for a fantastic and celebratory 75th anniversary year. New York Folklore was founded in 1944 by Louis Jones and Harold Thompson, two close friends and folklore colleagues who had a vision for a folklore...

The Birth of New York Folklore: 1944

The Birth of New York Folklore: 1944

Image: Louis C. Jones, 1950 New York Folklore celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1944. The New York Folklore Society was formed as an offshoot of the New York State Historical Association and had the blessing of then-NYSHA President, Ryan Dixon Fox, an...

Remembering the Founders of New York Folklore

Remembering the Founders of New York Folklore

As New York Folklore turns 75 in 2019, and our journal celebrates its 75th year of publication in 2020, I invite our supporters and readers to join us in celebration! This is also a time to look back on our rich history, and remember the people who helped us reach the...

NYSCA New York State Folk Arts Roundtable in Utica

NYSCA New York State Folk Arts Roundtable in Utica

This year’s NYSCA New York State Folk Arts Roundtable took place in Utica from April 3-5. The NYSCA New York State Folk Arts Roundtable is a professional development meeting and convening that draws the state’s folklorists and traditional arts professionals for three...