Hudson Valley

Jing Shuia

Jing Shuia

Tai Chi philosophy, one of the pillars of Chinese culture, is intricately connected to the theories of the five elements and Yin and Yang. These principles permeate various aspects of Chinese culture, including medicine, martial arts, and traditional painting. With...

Sara Milonovich

Sara Milonovich

Sara Milonovich is an award-winning songwriter and fiddler from the Mohawk Valley who performs nationally and internationally with her alt-country band, Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter. A 2023 winner of the Bluebird Golden Pick Contest (Bluebird Cafe/Taylor...

Maxwell Kofi Donkor

Maxwell Kofi Donkor

Maxwell Kofi Donkor is an internationally recognized artist and master cultural educator who is most known for his performances and teaching of African Drumming and Dance, through the Sankofa African Drum and Dance Ensemble.  For many decades, he has focused on...

Mateo Cano and Maria Puentes Flores

Mateo Cano and Maria Puentes Flores

Musicians Mateo Cano and Maria Puentes Flores are founders of the musical ensemble, Pulso de Barro, or "pulse of the clay," that performs the Son Jarocho music from the Mexican state of Veracruz.  Son Jarocho is a highly rhythmic musical style that came about through...

Set in Stone

Stonework must surely rank as one of
the oldest of folk arts, if only for the
longevity of the material used—hence its
presence in the historical record. While an
immense but finite supply of wood drew
Europeans to the shores of North America,
once they had exhausted local forest stands
through clearing, burning, ship building,
and construction, stone became the material
of choice. The ensuing works in stone
have been the longest lasting remnants of
vernacular architecture.

Mohawk Hudson Folklife Festival, 2022

The 2022 Mohawk Hudson Folklife Festival was a spectacular sequel to the first festival hosted in 2021. We were thrilled that Mohawk Valley-based photographer Kevin Hoehn made the trip to Albany to photograph our event. There he found the crafts, arts, music, and dance from the communities who have made a home from New York’s Montgomery to Columbia Counties.

Spirit Dolls (Muñequitas) in New York Puerto Rican Homes:

Forms, functions, and meanings of altars in Puerto Rican homes on the island or the US mainland are already well documented in association with Espiritismo and Santería, two forms of Caribbean religious belief and practice. Ethnographic descriptions of the roles that dolls play within these contexts of belief are less common. In the New York Puerto Rican homes in which I was welcomed between 2004 and 2007, as a participant observer in Puerto Rican Espiritismo, altars decorated with flowers, food, water offerings, and statues of the saints co-existed with mesitas and other doll displays. Mesitas are little tables, set with offerings for the dolls who sit beside them.

Oral History and Urban Renewal: Creating Richer Histories

The author offers an overview of urban renewal in the context of White Plains. He illuminates an eclectic past which requires the recognition of voices that were previously absent from the historical record in order to create a richer, more instructive set of materials for people to consult.