Abstract: Jennifer Goodlander received a Fulbright fellowship to go to Bali, Indonesia, where she apprenticed herself to a shadow puppeteer (dalang). In doing so, she followed in the foot-steps of countless young men—most of them sons of dalang, carrying on their families’ occupational specialization from time immemorial—but very, very few women. In this book, she recounts her experiences as a fledgling dalang and as a researcher interested to see what a few women’s forays into a previously exclusively male domain might portend.Goodlander brings to her account a number of different approaches. First, she takes us through the often taxing steps that studying to become a dalang imposed upon her, primarily in the form of ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Brew yourself a nice strong mug of tea, settle into a favorite chair, and get comfortable. Thanks to Ray Cashman’s more than 15 years of conversation, recording, and analysis, we have the opportunity to hear Packy Jim McGrath tell a “brave lock” of stories, and you’re going to want to listen for quite a while. Cashman’s goal is to emphasize “how folklore, including personal narrative, illuminates a life” (p. 7), more than the reverse, while recognizing that the two are interwoven. Thus, while he introduces us first to the teller and then organizes Packy Jim’s oral narratives primarily by genre, this is not simply the study of a repertoire with the speaker’s biography treated as context. Over the course of eight ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Jón Karl Helgason’s Echoes of Valhalla has as its stated goal “to consider [the] connection between the eddas and sagas and their modern legacy . . . the way in which texts that were originally written many centuries ago have become part of our (almost) universal cultural memory” (p. 11). Although the majority of the adaptations have been Icelandic, the author wishes to expand the scholarly consideration of works to include modern adaptations that have been underrepresented (p. 11). To that end, Helgason discusses not only the representations of characters and tales from Icelandic eddas and sagas in contemporary films and comics but also earlier novels, plays, and films from Norway, England, and the United States. ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The dust jacket of Steve Zeitlin’s The Poetry of Everyday Life says that the book is “partly a memoir.” The book is not a memoir in the usual sense; that is, it does not attempt a continuous narrative of things remembered. It does bring up bits and pieces from the author’s past, ranging from the dishes eaten at Ubol’s Kitchen, a Thai restaurant in Astoria, Queens, to his extended family’s weeklong sojourn at the beach in South Carolina. These memories are all related to each other in that they are memories remembered through stories, but many are just memories, or so they seem to the reader. This is not to say that the book should not be of considerable interest to the folklorist. Zeitlin is a folklorist by ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: There is, perhaps, no one better to have written this book than Jane C. Beck, as she is a longtime Vermont resident, founder and now Director Emerita of the Vermont Folklife Center, and a folklore scholar. Her primary research focus—and the woman for whom the book is titled—is Daisy Turner, herself a woman with deep and broad roots in Vermont.Among other topics, this book explores what and how events and history are remembered. Beck notes that “personal reminiscences seldom endure beyond three generations or about 120 years” (p. 2). Highly unusual for keepers of oral tradition, “Daisy’s longevity extended this time span—from her grandfather’s birth around 1810 to her death in 1988—a remarkable 178 years” (p. 2). ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: When life stories place individuals and their experiences within a complex social web, they aid our ability to understand ourselves and others across time. The most effective biographies inevitably give way to broader social and cultural exchanges; Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics does this. Valuable contributions to American folklore studies from this book include “What Is a Folk Song'” and “What Is a Folk Revival',” two chapters that flesh out the philosophy and overall chronology of Western folk music movements and deserve serious consideration on cultural studies syllabi. Freedman traces folk music debates to Johann Gottfried Herder, the eighteenth-century German philosopher who coined the term ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The scientist asks: Why does it work'The engineer asks: How does it work'The economist asks: How much should it cost'The folklorist asks: Do you want fries with that'are festivals intangible heritage' You could ask the Japanese government; in 2016, UNESCO added no less than 33 Japanese float festivals (“held by communities annually to pray to the gods for peace and protection from natural disasters” [“Yama, Hoko, Yatai” 2016]) to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in a single new inscription. I have no argument with that, but I would add nuance: calling a festival “intangible heritage” is not to describe it, but to intervene in it. It is to impose upon the festival a particular ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: the first time i attended an irish music “session” in Michigan, at an Irish-themed pub near East Lansing, I found myself bewildered. I had decided to research participatory musical culture in my home state, and, armed with a pennywhistle and some musical knowledge, I sought out a gathering of local instrumentalists. We were situated near a fireplace, and three older musicians were trading tunes and longer medleys. I did not know these tunes, and I could not keep up well enough to learn them at that moment. In addition, I was stunned by the sheer number of tunes they played and wanted desperately to know what they knew. Years later, after picking up and sharing tunes in Irish and old-time musical repertoires, I can ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.brahot is a 50-year-old woman from tel aviv who has performed many pilgrimages to sacred graves in Israel and Morocco.1 During one such nightly pilgrimage in 1999, she complained about the responses by those around her to her participation in faith-related travel:My husband thought that I was acting silly. He doesn’t believe in any of this spirituality. My neighbors said that it was just my 40s crisis. My co-workers were sure I was becoming religious and warned me about “the slippery slope.” But I knew. I felt it was right and that I was not doing it for anyone, just for myself. So I did it, and here I am. People can think that the good things that ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Isidore Okpewho died on September 4, 2016, a day after my birthday. The news hit me hard. We first met in 1982 at a social gathering at the University of Ibadan. I had approached him with some trepidation. In 1980, my review of his 1979 book The Epic in Africa appeared in Africana Journal, and it was not a raving review. I had criticized him on several issues, and now I had to face the author. To my relief, our conversation was relaxed, friendly, and substantive. He accepted some points of my criticism and rejected others, standing his ground with profound knowledge and logical counter-argument. We became friends. Isidore was born in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria, a state that shares a boundary with Bendel State ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The folklore community lost a vibrant light with the passing of Carol Beth Spellman on January 26, 2017. Carol was a Western folklorist through birth, education, and employment. She specialized in folklife and education, filmmaking, and Irish music. Carol exuded vitality with a defining joie de vivre despite living with a serious illness since 1997.Carol was born October 19, 1951, in Oakland, California, to Edmund and Helen (Heber) Stone. She lived briefly in Hayward, California, and grew up in San Leandro, California, graduating from San Leandro High School in 1969. While enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, she travelled in Europe in 1971 and met her future husband, Kevin ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Roger D. Abrahams died June 20, 2017, in Sunnyvale, California, at the age of 84.1 Born in Philadelphia in 1933, Abrahams graduated from Swarthmore College in 1955, then earned an MA in Literature and Folklore from Columbia in 1959 and a PhD in English and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961; during his student days, he also performed as a singer in the folk song revival. He began teaching in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin in 1960 and chaired that department and also directed the new African and Afro-American Research Institute before leaving in 1979 to become Kenan Professor of Humanities and Anthropology at Scripps and Pitzer Colleges. In 1985, he returned to the ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In her ethnography of Somali Bantu teenagers in a Midwestern US city, Sandra Grady begins with a story from a trip to Nairobi in the 1990s. She was stuck in traffic with two local coworkers when the topic of the next soccer match came on the radio. The contest was between teams from Kenya’s two largest ethnic groups, the Kikuyu and the Luo. Working together, both groups had the potential to unite into a political force that could overthrow the country’s current leadership. But attempts to unify had been fraught with problems. One of Grady’s traveling companions was Kikuyu, and he explained what was at stake with the match. To the Kikuyu, this soccer match was critical; they could not lose. When Grady asked why, her ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Folk Art and Aging is a remarkable study of aging and the creative process. Featuring portraits of five elderly Indiana folk artists—woodcarver Bob Taylor, painter Gustav Potthoff, rug maker Marian Sykes, walking stick maker John Schoolman, and instrument maker Milan Opacich—the book explores how these artists draw on their experiences to create what Kay calls “life-story objects” and how their creative practice brings about a renewed sense of purpose and connection. Defining life-story objects as “works specifically crafted to assist in the structuring and telling of life experiences” (p. 6), Kay demonstrates how such works provide, for their makers, occasions for social engagement and strengthen connections to ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: My Music, My War is a wonderful addition to the scholarship on military folklore that Lisa Gilman and others have pursued since Bruce Jackson’s 1989 JAF special issue (vol. 102, no. 406) on Vietnam, a war that received considerable resistance both at home and on the battlefield. Building on the work of such scholars as Lydia Fish and Carol Burke on Vietnam, Gilman has given us an even greater understanding of the importance of music among soldiers who compose, record, and share their music-listening preferences while overseas. Unlike previous work, however, this study covers a time when technology now allows soldiers to access expressive forms in almost limitless ways. Gilman’s approach in this ethnography is based ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: When I read that Jeff Porter’s aim in Lost Sound was to explore how literary sensibilities both radicalized radio and were energized by the medium, I did not feel enthused. I feared a dry read that would inform me on matters about which I probably should want to learn, but did not. Fortunately, my apprehensions proved unfounded. Instead, I was treated to a fascinating perspective on broadcasting history, written in clear, often captivating, prose.The basic thrust of Porter’s argument is that certain characteristics of modernist literature were adopted and adapted by radio auteurs to such an extent that they revolutionized audio storytelling and stimulated radiophonic experimentation. To make his case, Porter covers ... Read More Keywords: Shadow shows; McGrath, Patrick James,; Folk poetry, American; Seeger, Peggy,; Jam bands; Folk music; Humanistic Judaism; Secularism; Zaddikim; Spiritual life; Spellman, Carol Beth,; Teenage refugees; Folk art; Iraq War, 2003-2011 PubDate: 2018-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
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