December’s featured CD: æ
by æ (Aurelia Shrenker and Eva Salina Primack) Find out how you can join Voices of New York and receive this CD!
Read Q&A articles with the artists for previous months’ selections: Grupo Rebolú and the Dawnland Singers.JOIN OUR MAILING LIST to receive free monthly email updates of all the Society’s events and programming.
Donate to our work on-line by visiting ChooseYourCharity.net, the donor education and information website of the Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc. (CCSNYS).
The New York Folklore Society celebrates the extraordinary in everyday life, bringing focus to the traditions of our state’s diverse peoples. NYFS is the leading resource for folklore and folklife by disseminating research and information throughout the state. Find out more about us.
Join Now for 2012 and continue to receive Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore
The New York Folklore Society needs your membership more than ever! Please join now at the highest possible level.
The Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore has been delayed as we await much-needed funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. This grant support from the New York State Council on the Arts provides support for the preparation and printing of the journal. Our projected publication date for the Fall/Winter 2011 issue now falls in March 2012.
Your renewal at the basic level of $45.00 or the Harold Thompson level of $100.00 will help us to resume our publications and programs.
Please, won’t you renew for 2012 now?
Sincerely,
Ellen McHale
New York Folklore Society
P.S. VOICES IN NEW YORK is a Special Benefit to New York Folklore Society Members. See Special Announcement below.
VOICES IN NEW YORK—A Special Benefit to New York Folklore Society Members. We are excited to announce that this year when you join the New York Folklore Society, or renew your membership, you can be part of the CD-of-the-month program: Voices in New York. NYFS celebrates outstanding artists who honor the traditional repertoire, while presenting it in the highest quality, and/or interpret the traditional in an experimental form. Each month, we’ll drop the latest CD of one of New York’s master musicians, poets or storytellers in your mailbox! The January selection æ by æ (Aurelia Schrenker and Eva Salina Primack) offers “gorgeous Balkan and Appalachian vocal harmonies.” (Lucid Culture). Previous selections: Abrienda Caminos by Groupo Rebolú (October) and Honor Songs by the Dawnland Singers (November). You also receive a Q&A article with the artist-of-the-month. Find out more...
New York Folklore Society Wins Grant from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor’s Heritage Fund The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission, in partnership with the Erie Canalway Heritage Fund, awarded $43,700 in grants to assist organizations with canal-related education, preservation, and tourism projects. The New York Folklore Society, in partnership with the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, received $7,000 to present a two-day symposium, Music of the Erie Canal, exploring the connections between the Erie Canal and traditional music in New York State. The symposium will involve panel discussions, musical performances, and the development of a post-symposium interactive website. “The New York Folklore Society is thrilled to be able to partner with the Erie Canal Museum on this project, which wouldn’t have been possible without this support from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor,” said Ellen McHale, Executive Director. “The symposium will uncover distinct musical traditions that have been directly shaped and forged by the Erie Canal. We look forward to bringing these traditions to light.” Read the entire press release here.
BUY “LOCAL” AT THE NEW YORK FOLKLORE SOCIETY THIS
HOLIDAY SEASON
The New York Folklore Society has a New Location! We’ve moved to 129 Jay Street in downtown Schenectady. We’re still on the Jay Street Pedestrian Walkway—just one door away! Visit our Gallery here. The New York Folklore Society’s Gallery is a consignment gallery which supports the traditional folk art and craft of New York. Folk or traditional artists pursue an artform which is rooted in their community’s history and culture and which is intimately linked to their community’s sense of identity, pride, and self-determination. Sales of art in the Gallery directly benefits the artists and communities with whom we work.
New in Our Gallery Shop: New York Folklore Society member, Lucine Kasbarian, is an author and syndicated journalist who writes first-hand about Armenian culture and history. The Greedy Sparrow is an Armenian folktale that has been handed down orally in the author’s family for many generations.
Internationally known storyteller Milbre Burch performed her one-woman show on Sat., Nov. 12, 2011 at 6:00 p.m at Binghamton University (Academic A Building, Room G7). Her appearance was part of the one-day conference offered jointly by the English Department of Binghamton University and New York Folklore Society.
Changing Skins: Folktales about Gender, Identity, and Humanity, is performed research on the wealth and persistence of gender-bending folktales and cultural expressions around the world.
EVENTS & FORUMS Stitching Tradition: An Invitation to a Public Sewing Circle at The History Center of Tompkins County. The History Center of Tompkins County announces a public program, “Stitching Tradition: An Invitation to a Public Sewing Circle” on Tuesday, November 29 from 1-7 p.m. This program will be the public component of a traditional embroiderers’ exchange organized by the New York Folklore Society, and funded by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. The program will feature the handmade and collected work of Hungarian needleworker Eniko Farkas (Ithaca) and Ukrainian needleworker Vera Nakonechny (Pennsylvania). Free and open to the public. Read more here...
Stories for the Season with Joe (Alden) Doolittle. December 3, 2011 is Schenectady’s Holiday Magic Celebration. Downtown Schenectady will be full of activity with carolers, crafts demonstrations, children’s activities, food, and horse-drawn carriage rides. As a special event for the New York Folklore Society, storyteller Joe (Alden) Doolittle will be in the New York Folklore Society Gallery, regaling you with tales for the Holiday Season. 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.
GUIDE TO NYS TRADITIONAL MUSIC We highlight musical forms and artists with streamed examples, bios, geographical survey, and other resource materials.
FOLK ARCHIVES PROJECT NYFS takes a leadership role in the area of folklore collections and archives.
NEW YORK FIELD TRIPS Graduate Student Conference: Legends and Tales, November 12, 2011, Binghamton University A heartfelt Kudos to Dr. Elizabeth Tucker for a wonderful conference. The student panels were provocative and the afternoon presentations by Libby Tucker, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Kay Turner, and Connie Sullivan-Blum provided a focused look at New York’s Southern Tier and its narratives. Milbre Burch’s performance was spell-binding and was a wonderful conclusion to a very full day. In addition to paper sessions by graduate student scholars, the conference featured a panel discussion dedicated to public sector folklore entitled Folklore in Practice: Collecting Narratives after Disaster Strikes, with our two esteemed panelists to discuss their work, Dr. Kay Turner and Dr. Constance Sullivan-Blum. View conference schedule.
GALLERY OF NEW YORK TRADITIONS “Three Generations on the Erie Barge Canal,” subtitled “Photographs from the Graham Family Collection.” Opened on Downtown Schenectady’s Summer Night, July 15 through September 9, 2011 at the Gallery of New York Traditions, 129 Jay Street.
VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Voices, our membership magazine, features articles, stories, interviews, reminiscences, essays, folk poetry and music, photographs, and artwork drawn from people in all parts of New York State, folklorists and non-folklorists alike.
Back Issues New York Folklore Journal, New York Folklore Quarterly and NYFS Newsletter. Selected articles available on-line. Back issues and articles available for purchase.
Folklore in Archives A Guide to Describing Folklore and Folklife Materials and companion to Working with Folk Materials in New York State: A Manual for Folklorists and Archivists
I read every issue of Voices.
The taxpayers are hollering,
and the state’s contribution
to this wonderful little
magazine has been
drastically cut. Those of
us who read it all the way
through have to all chip in.
—Pete Seeger, musician and activist,
Beacon, New York
New York Traditions Our Gallery for New York Folk Arts: 129 Jay Street, Schenectady, NY, Open 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Monday-Friday; Saturday 10:00 a.m.-3 p.m. and Sunday (May-October) 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
New York Traditions On-line A great place to find that unique gift for someone special! Folk art, CDs, books, and handmade gifts!
AVAILABLE ON-LINE IN OUR GALLERY SHOP:
Membership
With support for practicing folk artists, professional development for those working within the field of folk and traditional arts, and the publishing of current scholarship, the New York Folklore Society is dedicated to New York’s vibrant, diverse, and influential artistic legacy and future. Please join us!
Check our new level of membership: Voices of New York with traditional music CDs coming your way each month!
There’s more than one way to
support the New York Folklore Society!
Send a tax-deductible donation directly to the New York Folklore Society. Your
dollars will support our many programs, including forums, the annual conference, and Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. Shop at the NYFS gallery. We have CDs, books, and handmade objects—all made in New York State and sold by consignment. Members receive a 10 percent discount.
Shop online through ShopforMuseums.com or through
www.Goodshop.com. Both of these platforms work with major brand retailers, with a portion of your purchase price going to a nonprofit of your choice. You can stipulate that a percentage of your purchases will go
to the New York Folklore Society. We appreciate your support!
Folk and Community Arts Organizations: Creating, Producing and Managing
Co-sponsored with Empire State College, this course is designed for students interested in non-profit community arts and folk arts programming, presenting, researching (field work methods), documenting, archiving and managing.
Find out how you can join Voices of New York and receive this CD!
The New York Folklore Society’s programs are made possible in part with public funds from the Folk Arts Program of the
