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Basil Yurchenco. Photo courtesy of Peter Yurchenco. New York’s folk arts community joins the world in mourning the passing of pioneering ethnomusicologist, radio broadcaster, and educator Henrietta Yurchenco, who died at 91 in Manhattan in December 2007. Yurchenco left behind a large legacy of publications on folk music and musicians, older and newer, as well as field recordings, including but not limited to documentation of the musics of isolated indigenous mountain peoples of Mexico and the ballads of Sephardic Jewish women of Morocco. On the radio for decades, she hosted Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Bob Dylan, and Woody Guthrie before their names were well known. Broadcasts Henrietta produced with co-host Eli Smith up until her death can be heard at www.downhomeradioshow.com. Her publications include a 1970 biography of Woody Guthrie and a musical memoir of her extraordinarily daring, dedicated, and insightful searches for singers and songs across several continents, Around the World in Eighty Years (2003). As a City College professor, Yurchenco nurtured relationships with students that lasted their whole lives—and hers—not only through classroom interactions and international fieldwork trips, but also through social activism and singing sessions hosted at her apartment. Daughter-in-law Ingrid Yurchenco (wife to son Peter) commented that Henrietta’s deep connection to her students contributed to her longevity: “Her students took care of her—helped her stay self-sufficient. During a power outage, they once walked up twelve flights of stairs to bring her gallons of water. She sustained them, and they sustained her.” Folklorist Hanna Griff-Sleven, director of the Family History Center and Cultural Center at the Museum at Eldridge Street, shares with Voices readers the following recollection of her visit, with students, to Henrietta’s Chelsea apartment last fall. I had the privilege of having Henrietta Yurchenco teach a class for me last fall. (It was the last class she taught, and I feel proud and honored that class was mine.) Steve Zeitlin and Amanda Dargan [folklorists at City Lore in Manhattan] had introduced me to her . . . when they turned their folklore class at CUNY’s Center for Worker Education over to me. One of their strong suggestions was that I take the class to Henrietta Yurchenco’s apartment and have her lecture to the class about her work and life. My class consisted of twenty-five people, mostly women of African American and Caribbean background between the ages of twenty and forty-eight. The Center for Worker Education program is designed for students who worked during the day and those that started school but had not finished. On a September evening my students gathered at her apartment on West 22nd Street. Henrietta’s home was beautifully filled with masks, paintings, and textiles from Mexico and other places. What charmed me the most was her collection of spoons in a holder on her dining room table, as well as her pretty ceramics holding jam and other breakfast items, for I had the same objets de folk in my dining room! When I walked in with the students she was hitched up to a mobile oxygen machine, but it didn’t daunt her a bit. “Come in, come in, Hanna!” she called from the bedroom. One of my students, Yasmin, had gotten there earlier, and she was perched on Henrietta’s bed talking away to her. “Help me move into the living room,” Henrietta said, as sprightly as ever. I took Henrietta’s arm and Yasmin got behind her tank and rolled it behind us, and we got her settled in a chair in the living room. The joy in her face as she looked around the room was contagious. My students had brought food and wine and made themselves right at home. She demanded that we fill her up a plate, and she greeted everyone and had everyone go around the room and introduce themselves. And then she held court: for about an hour and a half she regaled the class with her life story, her time at WNYC, her first trip to Mexico, and her subsequent fieldwork. The students had read part of her book in preparation, so they had egged her on and asked questions. She was funny and irreverent and feisty and warm. When she got tired she had her musician friends, Common Ground, come out and sing folk songs to the class (they had quietly arrived mid-class). Some students got up and danced, sang along. Henrietta grinned; the joy in her face at all the energy in the room was sublime. The students left, and Henrietta wanted to talk some more to me. We talked about the class and how great it had been; she wanted to know about my upcoming projects at work and my wedding. I had only met her once before, but I felt like I had known her all my life. I looked at the clock and it was past eleven, and I had to go. I kissed her goodnight. Steve Zeitlin told me she was failing, and I bought a card and had the students all sign and write notes of cheer to her. I believe it got to her the day she died. The students were really saddened to hear she had passed. That night in September—but particularly her warmth and interest in them and life—had inspired them throughout the semester. —Hanna Griff-Sleven Henrietta Yurchenco’s latest book, In Their Own Words: Women in the Judeo-Hispanic Song and Story, is available online at www.henriettayurchenco.com. Eileen Condon’s obituary of Henrietta Yurchenco was published in Voices Vol. 34, Fall-Winter 2008. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now.

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