Voices Journal Volume 2013: 3-4

Have you ever heard of Peter Paul Wz8khalain? Probably not. But over the last several years, as I’ve become more familiar with his life story, the journeys he took, and the work he did during that complex span of some 90 years, I’ve come to consider him one of indigenous America’s most fascinating early writers and publishers. He also was a true Native son of New York State, born in the Adirondacks on the Raquette River around 1800.

You need to read this book [Annie Lanzillotto’s L Is for Lion: An Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir} because it’s the most powerful depiction I have ever read of how a human being can draw on her folk culture, her humor, and her poetic insight to pull life-affirming meaning out of the gutter like a lost Spaldeen.

Growing up, we ate homemade baked beans every Saturday night—because my family was from New Brunswick, on the east coast of Canada. Lots of people in upstate New York, New England, the Maritime Provinces, and Quebec still have a bean pot tucked away in a kitchen cupboard.

Through the lens of Clifford Oliver’s camera, the ubiquitous sights of the county fair are transformed into timeless nods to rural living.

What a blow to hear of Peter Seeger’s death on January 27, 2014 at the age of 94. I thought the man would live forever. What a champion of so many causes over the decades of his life, and a master of weaving music into this activism. I’m so glad to have joined recent celebrations of his life’s work.

A portrait of an important Puerto Rican traditional artist in New York City, Raquel Z. Rivera, told in her own words—through a conversational interview with folklorist Eileen Condon and through excerpts from Raquel’s creative and scholarly writing.

“(Re-)Making Irish Lace” attempted to understand how a particular art form has been interpreted by different groups of people, locally and abroad, for nearly 200 years, comparing past and recent practice...how the unfurling story of Irish lace is playing out in the daily lives of Buffalonians.

Karyl Eaglefeathers made significant contributions to the preservation of the folklore and culture of New York State, and the Catskill Mountains, in particular... Her research involved ethnomusicology, folk heritage, and museum studies....Communities around the region still benefit from her work documenting traditional dances and fiddling styles and facilitating the mentoring of a new generation of dance callers and musicians through the Catskills Folk Connection, an organization she founded along with fellow folklorist Virginia Scheer in 2006.

It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of friend and longtime New York Folklore Society member Pete Seeger. Pete contributed in many ways to the conversations and discussions of the Society.

TAUNY (Traditional Arts in Upstate New York) was awarded a grant to document, with oral histories and photography, changes that have occurred in work on dairy farms in northern New York in the last few decades. Eventually, 13 farms from four counties participated. TAUNY folklorists recorded over 30 hours of interviews with farmers and their employees on farms ranging in size from 35 milkers to one with well over a thousand.

Certain places grasp hold of hearts and imaginations of the people who live there. The cadence of language, the rhythms of daily life, the particular way the universal dramas of life, love, and death are played out in a place can lodge themselves under the skin, into the souls of a people. This intense experience of place is shared through the music of the Fraser family on their CD, Home of Our Hearts. For the Fraser family, two locations are “home”: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and the foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate New York.