CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA
2000 New York Folklore Society Annual Conference
An Exploration of African American Music, Dance, Language, Fashion, and Spirituality
2000 Conference of the New York Folklore Society
September 15, 16, and 17, 2000
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
New York City
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Theme: The Dynamics of African-American Folk Culture
An Exploration of African American Music, Dance, Language, Fashion, and Spirituality
September 15, 16, and 17, 2000
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City
African American folk culture has been an enormously creative and powerful force in American life. Not only has it expressed and helped sustain the traditions, values, aspirations, and struggles of African American people over the centuries, it has also exerted a profound and continuing influence on American life as a whole, helping shape its music and dance, material culture, language, spirituality, and other dimensions of social life and cultural expression. Yet folklore as a vernacular concept and sociopolitical category is viewed with suspicion in much of the black community. Much of the scholarship by African Americans on folklore subjects is done under other disciplinary rubrics; the African American community is not well represented in terms of numbers in the folklore field; and the identification and funding of contemporary vernacular black culture as folklore has been problematic.
Under these circumstances there is a pressing need for conversation and exchange among African American scholars, artists, cultural workers, and community members, and between African Americans and non-African American scholars and others about African American folklore. The New York Folklore Society created opportunities for such dialogue at its 2000 fall conference.
Through this conference, we explored four major areas of African American cultural life. Taking a relatively narrow focus within each area, we looked at both traditional and emerging forms, and we explored their influence on and relationships with mainstream American culture.
- Music and Dance—Hip-hop culture and its antecedents
- Spiritual Expression—Burial customs, historical and contemporary, drawing on the work with the African burial ground in Manhattan
- Material Culture—Adornment, hair, youth fashions (hip-hop)
- Language and Narrative—Youth culture, African American linguistic creativity, influence on US culture
A central theme running throughout these discussions were questions of definition and support: What constitutes folk culture in African American life where folk forms are created in abundance and quickly find their way into popular culture? How is folklore as a concept understood and evaluated within African American communities? Who defines and sets the boundaries of folk culture? What are the effects of these processes on the support for organizations in black communities and elsewhere that are engaged in research and programming of African American traditions?
Participants in the conference sessions included scholars, grassroots community leaders, and tradition bearers. In addition to talks, panel presentations, and small group discussions, the conference included performances related to the themes of the conference, demonstrations and presentations of African American material culture traditions, and a special evening concert.
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In Partnership with
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLK CULTURE
DUTCHESS COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL
COOPERSTOWN GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSEUM STUDIES,
A program of the State University of New York at Oneonta
The conference featured panel discussions and special performances in key areas of music and dance; spiritual expression; material culture (fashion, hair, etc.); and language.
Guest curators:
Dr. Diana Baird N'Diaye, Dr. Beverly Robinson, Makelé Faber, Elena Martínez, and Mary Kay Penn
Keynote: Dr. John Roberts, Deputy Chairman, NEH
Special Friday evening performance:
Bluesman Olu Dara
Hip Hop artist Rha Goddess
Soul and others
The Conference was held at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,
a division of the New York Public Library
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York City
Telephone: 212/491-2200
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, site of our 2000 Fall Meeting, is one of the most widely used research facilities in the world devoted to the preservation of materials on black life.
SEE the CONFERENCE AGENDA
QUESTIONS? Please contact: Dr. Lisa Overholser, nyfs@nyfolklore.org, 518-346-7008
VIEW pages on previous conferences.
RETURN to the Main Conference Page.
Support was provided by
National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The Fund for Folk Culture Conferences and Gatherings Program, underwritten by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and
the Theatre Development Fund
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