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The New York Folklore Society board of directors is a diverse group of people, bringing a varied set of skills to the organization. Our goal to “recognize and incorporate the perspectives and contributions of diverse audiences/constituencies throughout every level of the New York Folklore Society, its programs, and services” necessarily includes those who serve on our board of directors. We continually seek greater ethnic diversity in our governance. In keeping with the original intent of the society’s founders, we also strive to include board members who represent the geography of New York State. Our board members come from throughout the state, including Genessee, Dutchess, Oswego, Broome, Warren, Nassau, Schenectady, and Columbia counties, as well as Manhattan and the Bronx. We include folklorists, archivists, arts administrators, business people, university professors, and a lawyer. Serving on our board of directors requires membership in the New York Folklore Society, as well as a commitment to the nurturance of New York’s cultural traditions. —Ellen McHale, Executive Director New York Folklore Society P.O. Box 764 Schenectady, NY 12301 518/346-7008 Fax 518/346-6617 nyfs@nyfolklore.org |
About the New York Folklore Society
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Dr. Wesley earned her doctorate from Columbia University’s Teachers College in Organization and Leadership: Adult Learning. She earned her Master’s Degree in Dance Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and her A.B., with honors, from Douglass College, the women’s college of Rutgers University. Sherre Wesley lives in Poughkeepsie, New York with her husband, Leonard M. Davis, Jr. Karen Park Canning, Secretary-Treasurer Karen Canning is a native New Yorker who has spent the majority of her childhood and adult years living in Genesee Valley. She holds a Bachelor of Music Theory from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, and a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Canning has studied Ghanaian drumming, Japanese koto, and Javanese gamelan, and currently performs in Panloco, a Caribbean steel band. Since 1997, Canning has been the director of a regional traditional arts program in the counties of Genesee, Orleans, Livingston and Wyoming. This program is administered cooperatively by the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, the Arts Council for Wyoming County, and the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts. A sampling of the program’s activities include presentations of traditional fiddlers, square dances, Irish music, ethnic accordion musics, Puerto Rican Three King’s Day celebration, Mexican Day of the Dead installation, demonstrations of rug hooking, quilting, wood carving, and Native American arts and traditionsall of which are found in the region’s communities. Ellen Fladger is head of Special Collections/Archivist for the Union College’s Schaeffer Library, Schenectady, NY. She holds a Master’s in Folklore from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Folk Cultural Studies and post-Master’s certificates form Columbia University’s School of Library Science. She serves as a consultant for archival projects throughout New York State.
Alice Lai is Assistant Professor in the Arts and Educational Studies at SUNY-Empire State College. She received a B.A. in Art and a M.A. in Art Education at California State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Art Education at The Ohio State University. At Empire State College, she develops and chairs an arts program. She also teaches courses regularly in the areas of art and art education. She is the author of several entirely online undergraduate courses including Artistic Expression in a Multicultural America and Images of Women. Collaborating with NYFS, she co-developed and taught a course for the Summer Field School Exploring Place: Documenting Your Community’s Culture and Traditions. Through teaching these courses, she invites students to research visual culture, material culture, folk traditions, and arts and craft in their communities. Her students have learned to interview local artists and identify and document local traditions. Through the lens of critical cultural study, visual cultural study, and multiculturalism, she has coauthored a number of articles investigating community based and place based artistic expression such as yard art in upstate New York and argues for the importance of place-based pedagogy for the arts and humanities. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Studies in Art Education and Pedagogy. (Sifu) Ken Lo is the founding Director of the Wu Mei Kung Fu Association and is the highest authority of Wu Mei Kung Fu worldwide. He is recognized by the Chinese government as an authentic traditional Chinese Martial arts master. He is also the founding Director of the China Arts Council, whose mission is to preserve and promote traditional Chinese cultural arts in the West. Through the China Arts Council, Sifu Lo has worked with: the Guggenheim Museum, the Prospect Park Alliance, the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, the Hammond Museum, the Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival, Families with Children from China, the Eldridge Street Project, and many other cultural institutions. Ken Lo has been studying Chinese calligraphy and Cha Dao (the Art of Tea) from Master Lo Chien Wu since 1994. Since 2007, Sifu Lo has been studying Poker Game Theory and is in training to become an international competitive Poker Champion using Chinese Martial Art principles. Elena Martinez received M.A.s in Folklore and Anthropology at the University of Oregon. As staff folklorist at City Lore: The New York Center for Urban Folk Culture she is the primary fieldworker and researcher for Place Matters, and the sub-project, the South Bronx Latin Music Project, conducting interviews with musicians from the South Bronx, photo and archival research, and producing public programs. She is also the co-producer of the PBS documentary, From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale. She curated the exhibition, "¡Que bonita bandera!": The Puerto Rican Flag as Folk Art, which traveled through the tri-state area, and co-produced the exhibition, A Float for All Seasons: New York Citys Ethnic Parades at the Museum of the City of New York. She is the Festival Coordinator for the Peoples Poetry Gathering, a major 3-day festival which explores literary poetrys roots in the oral tradition. As a student of Rosa Elena Egipciaco, a master in the art of mundillo, Puerto Rican bobbin lace, and National Heritage Award winner, she has also worked with and organized programs pertaining to this craft.
Libby Tucker discovered the field of folklore while working on an M.A. in English at Buffalo State College. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Ivory Coast for two years and then spent three years earning a Ph.D. in folklore at Indiana University. Since 1977, she has been a faculty member of the English Department at Binghamton University. She edited New York Folklore for several years and is currently on the editorial board of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. As one of the founders of the Children’s Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society, she has enjoyed chairing several AFS committees: the Newell Committee, the Opie Committee, and, most recently, the Aesop Prize Committee. Tucker’s main areas of interest include children’s and adolescents’ folklore, women’s rituals, folklore of the supernatural, and the folklore of folklorists. Her book Campus Legends was published in 2005; Haunted Halls awaits publication, and Children’s Folklore: A Handbook is at an early stage of preparation. Tucker spends much of her time with undergraduate students, as she is the Faculty Master of the Apartment Communities of Binghamton University. During free moments she likes to hike, cook, watch humorous movies, and travel. Mary Zwolinski, Past President Mary Zwolinski is a folklorist whose work focuses on occupational, visual, religious, and performance traditions. She has conducted ethnographic research on various occupations including boxing, firefighting, hair dressing, and surveying, and between January 2000 and July 2006 was the curator of the Knisely-Ayers Folk Arts Gallery at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, New York. She currently works as a consultant on folklore and history projects and resides in Portland, Maine, where she recently conducted a cultual assessment and survey for the State of Maine Arts Commission and the Tides Insitute and Museum of Art and History in Eastport, Maine. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, attended art school in Chicago, and received an M.A. in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University. HOME | ABOUT NYFS | PROGRAMS & SERVICES | PUBLICATIONS | RESOURCES | CALENDAR | WHAT'S FOLKLORE? | MEMBERSHIP | GALLERY | SHOP | SEARCH | CONTACT US © 2008, 2007-1998 New York Folklore Society |