Seattle Press on Line - Folklore Isn't Just Food and Music

Folklife

Folklore Isn't Just Food and Music

By Cindy Payne

May 23, 2002 -- Walking into the Folklife Festival, it's easy to lose oneself in pure childlike joy. Yippee! It's Folklife! Gigantic yellow flags waving hello! "Come in, come in, Come in!" they beckon. Under the enormous rainbow portals and around the aromatic Douglas firs, we step inside. And there it begins. People everywhere, multi-colored skirts, baggy pants. Bare belly buttons studded with gold rings. Tattoos, shiny beads and baby strollers. A guitar and banjo. A Japanese flute. A man with puppets that dance when he strums his guitar. Oooh, the smells! Popcorn, pizza, salmon and wood fires. Cotton candy. The pulse of drums, the roar of chain saws. Forest firemen in helmets and special jackets. A fish-pond to fish in, a story teller. A huge bear carved out of the log with a chain saw! Log rollers and high climbers. Little wooden boxes and handmade dolls. Glass baubles sparkling in the sunshine. Grill-striped hot dogs with grilled onions. Calzones dripping with cheese. Lemonade with a whole half lemon inside. Strawberry shortcake with a foot-high dollop of whipped cream. Maple syrup!

But behind all that, there's a bigger picture. Folklife is such a regional treasure because, more than any other Puget Sound festival, it relies on, nurtures and encourages community involvement. Programs are booked not by just a few people at the top of the food chain, but by community experts who truly understand and are passionate about their specific interests and heritage. Folklife is unexpected, not carefully orchestrated to look improvised. It IS improvised. Folklife is shoot from the hip. With a sparkle in his eye, Michael Herschensohn, Folklife executive director, puts it best: "Folklife is a rough and ready festival that gets by the skin of its teeth... That and community involvement."

The 2002 festival brings lots of changes, some subtle and some plain as the sunburned nose on your face.

Perhaps the most obvious one is that Folklife programmers have chosen a very specific theme, not merely a focus on a specific ethnic group as in years past. Here' s a mouthful for you: EMBRACING CULTURAL CONSERVATION: 2002 FOLKLIFE THEME "East Meets West: Forest and Woodlands Culture of the Atlantic Northeast and the Pacific Northwest". Wondering what that's all about? Just ask folklorist Jill Linzee, Folklife's director of Public Programs, who bandies around words like that all the time. Basically it means honoring and conserving the cultural treasures around us. The seed for this concept was sown a year and a half ago at a national meeting of folklorists, sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

And yes, this notion of cultural conservation is relevant to the general festival-goer. Think about it; look around you; read the paper. Just last week, the Bush Administration declared Central Puget Sound's Duwamish Tribe extinct (a bureaucratic snafu). How can a few mis-signed papers be a death knell to a people's heritage? This is precisely the focus of NW Folklife's Cultural Conservation--preserving the cultures that make up our communities. It may be a church downtown that's about to be torn down. It may be a gigantic tree that has been not only a "pillar" of a local community but the home and habitat of countless birds, squirrels, and bugs. It's language, regional idioms and accents. It's the bluegrass music that the Tarheels brought from North Carolina to Darrington when they settled here to work in the woods. It can be art: basket weaving, tatting or carving. And it's your grandmother's recipe for spaetzle, too.

Okay, okay, okay. This is fascinating and, at times, heart wrenching. But how is it physically manifested in a festival? Can cultural conservation entertain? And should it? Linzee could talk for hours on this one. Here's her nutshell: The festival grounds at Seattle Center will be literally and completely permeated with forest and woodlands stuff, from both the East Coast and the Pacific Northwest. There will be log rolling, chainsaw carving, storytellers and singing lumbermen, two plays, several authors, craft demonstrations, and art exhibits. Represented will be conservation groups, the timber industry, the Forest Service, the Department of Natural Resources the and Forest Firefighters, and Native Americans, Franco Americans, Hispanics who work in the forest in Forks and a host of others from both coasts.

For the special East Meets West project, Folklife has lined up some impressive support: the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Washington Commission for the Humanities, the King County Arts Commission and the Paul G. Allen Foundation for Music Northwest Folklife Funding are all involved.

More break with tradition: two very special concerts.

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill with Matapat: This is the very first time NWF has presented a paid concert, and it is, of course, a benefit show. Remember, Folklife is free and this is one way you can contribute to keeping the festival intact, as well as support Folklife's year-round programming. Besides, tickets are only $12. Featuring the internationally renowned Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and his collaborator, Dennis Cahill. The concert will be opened by Matapat, a Quebec-based trio, in keeping with the "East Meets West" concept.

Nazir Ahmed Ulfat: NW Folklife programmers respectfully acknowledge the events of 9/11/01 with this special appearance by this Afghan traditional rabab master. The rabab, a short-necked plucked lute, is the best known of all Afghan musical instruments.

And finally, what about the tie-dye, patchouli, flowing hippie skirt image that NW Folklife has seemingly been trying to shake for the last several years? Jill Linzee smiled and expounded. "I'm not sure I want to get rid of the tie-dye hippie factor," she said. "I sort of feel like, hey, I'm an old hippie, and that was the era when Folklife evolved. But more importantly, this isn't just about tie dye, it's about all kinds of people. Yeah, that's one piece of Folklife, and why shouldn't it be? It's part of the culture. Hippies played an important part in creating this festival, they're part of the tradition." And we're right back where we started. Cultural conservation."

So for the four days of the Memorial Day Weekend, keep your kid-eyes open and your adult-eyes thoughtful and cognizant, they're sure to be wowed both ways.

The Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill with Matapat show is on Saturday at the Mercer Arts Arena, 8:00-11:00 p.m. Advance tickets are available at Silver Platters', Northgate, Bellevue, and Southcenter locations through May 23. During the Festival, tickets are available Friday through Saturday afternoon at the main information booth, then at the box office Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Nazir Ahmed Ulfat will perform at the Mercer Arts Arena on Sunday, 8 - 10 p.m., and do an informal workshop presentation at the Charlotte Martin Theatre on Monday, 1 - 2 p.m.

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Denise Saedi	Oct 21, 2002	Bellevue,Wa.	Flight Attendant
Hello, I am hoping you will even recieve this this time of year, when your Festival isn't til May. But I am trying different sites to see if I can get some leads on cultural entertianment to bring into our Mddle School for our Cultural Fair!! I have a deadline to write a grant that would pay for the entertainment. I love the fact and focus of N>W> Folklife that you want to perserve the cultures. We are trying to bring in awareness and respect for clutures to our school. I would really appreciate any suggestions you might have......... We are open to all possibilities, then we can narrow it down to time and affordabilty. Cultural dancers, Chinese acrobats, Music etc. Thank You in Advance for any leads you or sugestions you can offer. Sincerly, Denise Saedi 425) 649-0562 or 425) 830-2408