A book review of Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson
Valley by Jonathan Kruk.
Journal Articles
A Transitional Interpretation
The curator for the exhibition, A Transitional Interpretation” at the Folklife Gallery, Crandall Public Library, 2015, presents stories behind five photos on exhibit of Lyle Lovett, Frank Zappa, Mal Waldron, Dave Van Ronk, and Lucius by their photographers (Lawrence White, Enid Farber, Joe Deuel, Bryan Lasky, and the curator Andrzej “Andre” Pilarczyk.)
Reflections & Vision
NYF Presidents Gabrielle M. Hamilton (2010-14) and Tom van Buren (2015-17) share their thoughts about the organization’s infrastructure, its history and role in the state and the vision for the NYF.
An Inside View of Contra Dancing in Brooklyn, 2015
Brooklyn Contra is the latest addition
to a contra dance subculture that for over
half a century has been hidden in plain
sight among the glittering distractions of
New York City. The latest contra dance
growth spurt started some 15 years ago at
the Manhattan contra dance series, when
an influx of younger dancers arrived on
the scene and kept coming back every week
for more.
A Staten Island Education
The author shares a memoir of her days at PS22R in Staten Island, when wearing a peace button was controversial, and how she navigated the political culture in the fifth and sixth grades, learning about civil disobedience.
Voices of New York
Sara Milonovich, a brilliant fiddler, singer, songwriter, and bandleader, released her CD Daisycutter in 2009. Described as “rural roots with an urban/world edge,” this album’s songs and music encompass folk, bluegrass, Celtic, zydeco, and American roots-rock music.
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.
Artist Spotlight
George A. Olsen, Jr., practices the art of wood turning to craft tools, including rolling pins, spatulas, and pepper mills.
Upstate
Nothing
compares with being in the midst of a group,
singing with good courage. From my soprano
days in a boys’ choir to leading audiences
on choruses, it’s the most fun that I’ve ever
had and continues to be so.
Good Spirits
The author travels to Machu Picchu in Peru to experience adventure and mountain magic.
Advocating for Sunday Rock
Sunday Rock, a large boulder on the roadside of New York State Highway 56, just west of the hamlet of South Colton in St. Lawrence County, is an important landmark for locals and travelers alike…. Many places, however, still deserve national recognition and protection for their long-standing —and continuing— value to their communities, as part of the living heritage of life there. Such recognition may contribute to a sense of place not only for visitors but for local residents as well. To recognize that a place can be more than an example of an architectural style or site of a political or economic event really matters.
Good Read
A book review of Saratoga Springs: A Centennial History, edited by Field Horne.
Downstate
Most New Yorkers recognize … the heart of New York
City is not only found at the Met or Lincoln
Center, but in the hustle and bustle, the
c acophonous mix of ethnic groups, social
classes, folk, pop, and high art….With passionate interest in what’s distinctive
and local about New York, we have
issued, for the fifth year, the People’s City
Report Card 2015.
Good Spirits
Some Binghamton legends describe ghosts who struggle to reach their lost loved ones…. we think about connections between the past and the present, and bonds between the living and the dead. The column describes notes that Rod Serling’s ghost is said to haunt a carousel in his hometown of Binghamton.
The Danzaq of South Peru in New York
This article discusses, from the perspective of transnational cultural studies of performance-based symbolism, the practice of New York-based dancers, who learned the tradition in urban migrantcommunities in Lima and have practiced the dance there, as well as in the rural settings of their origin and now abroad in the US.