New York State

From the Editor

When my sister and I rediscovered gardening and canning as teens, my Mom couldn’t understand our fascination with this work. She associated these activities with long, hot summers, some when she was very pregnant—work that had to be done for the family. Sue and I did it for the satisfaction of producing our own homegrown pesto or chutney or jam, perhaps as a connection to our past, but not necessarily to feed our families.

From the Director

The New York Folklore Society has a long history of publishing, both in journal form and book-length manuscripts….The newest volume, soon to be released by the New York Folklore Society, is an edited volume of articles chosen by Elizabeth Tucker and Ellen McHale. The New York State Folklife Reader, soon to be published by the University of Mississippi Press, will be available for purchase beginning in October 2013. This edited volume presents some of the best writing about the folklore and folklife of New York State, as gleaned from Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore.

Good Spirits

Upstate and downstate, New Yorkers can
find bars with reputations for being haunted.
New York City has more haunted bars than
any other metropolis, but there are haunted
bars all over the state. Something about bars
invites ghost stories, especially when the bar
is in an old building. When people drink and
hear stories about the dead, strange things
may happen.

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.

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.

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.)

Artist Spotlight

George A. Olsen, Jr., practices the art of wood turning to craft tools, including rolling pins, spatulas, and pepper mills.

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.

Artist Spotlight

Joe Crookston defines himself as “an artist,
writer, singer, guitar picker, painter, claw
hammer banjo player, fiddler, eco-village
member, and believer in all things possible.”

Downstate

High banter is a key ingredient of folk culture andfamily folklore. It’s also the essence of the poetry duels… Both on street corners and stages, poets riff off each other in rhyme, participating in traditions ranging from extempo in Trinidad, in Portugal, contrasti in Italy, freestyle rap in the US, and repentistas in Brazil. The banter between couples and others is also reminiscent of what happens when jazz musicians riff off one another.

Upstate

What was on the minds of Adirondackers in 1906? Through its weekly column “Neighborhood Notes,” The Warrensburgh News gave simple sketches of what mattered. The author wandered away from a genealogical search to discover the flavor of everyday life in upstate New York over a century before.

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.