From VOICES: New York on the National Mall

Volume 27
Spring-Summer
2001

Return to Table of Contents

The staves of Manhattan’s wooden water towers are precision-cut in the Rosenwach factory buty must be assembled in situ. The working conditions lead naturally to camaraderie and a rich trove of occupational lore. Photo: Martha Cooper


Cathy Ragland, who serves a project coordinator for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, is an ethnomusicologist and folklorist. She thanks Drew Magrattan, who assisted with the interviews for this article. For more information on the Folklife Festival, visit http://www.folklife.si.edu/.

New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org

New York's contributions to American cuisine

New York City’s contributions to American cuisine are justly celebrated, and its street fare is world renowned. This summer the Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, will give visitors a taste of the city in a foodways section.
Photo: Martha Cooper

The Smithsonian Institution’s annual Folklife Festival will this summer celebrate the multitude of cultures found in New York City. Folklorists who have spent the past year researching aspects of life in the city will share their knowledge and coordinate presentations by musicians, actors, chefs, deejays, and many other specialists whose work—whether highly visible or behind the scenes—contributes to the vitality and excitement of life in the five boroughs.

The Giglio Tower

Each year in Brooklyn a street procesion in honor of St. Paulinus features the Giglio tower and the singing of "O Giglio e Paradiso." The popular song—a favorite among the city’s Italian Americans—is among the recordings now available on a new Folkways CD.

For the first time in the 35-year history of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the spotlight will be not on a state or region of the country but on one city: New York. The 2001 festival, which will run June 27-July 1 and July 4-8 on the Mall in Washington, will celebrate the diversity, excitement, and spirit that are New York by exploring the city’s music, culture, history, and folklore.

Homing pigeons

New York City’s pigeons are not all "wild" birds; many are specially trained homing pigeons that belong to competitive "mumblers." Photo: Martha Cooper

The goal of uncovering and presenting "New York as New Yorkers see it," as the festival program publicists promise, presented a complex, even unruly challenge to organizers and festival goers alike. "The festival will be a snapshot of New York culture at the turn of the millennium," said New York folklorist, author, and program curator Nancy Groce. "It will be a chance for people to explore serious aspects of city life and to understand how communities overlap and influence each other."

Gypsy Robe

On opening of Aida, chorus members reach out to touch the wearer of the Gypsy Robe for luck as he circles the stage. The robe is passed along from production to production, with performers adding decorations. The wearer of the robe is traditionally the chorus member who has performed in the most different shows. Perhaps it is the unpredictable nature of the theater, or the nature of the workers who make their careers in the theater, but few places are as rich in folklore and superstitions as Broadway. And no theatrical custom is more New York than the Gypsy Robe. In 1959, Bill Bradley, a dancer in the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, borrowed a tacky dressing robe from a chorus girl, or gypsy, as the singers and dancers in Broadway choruses call themselves. On opening night, he paraded through backstage, bestowing blessings on the production. The musical was a major hit, and a tradition had begun. Photo: Martha Cooper

How does one take such a snapshot? Who will be holding the camera? From what angle is it possible to capture the "real" New York? And which New York is that? The fashion world, Broadway stages, Chinatown and Little Italy, Wall Street, the music industry?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in the full article which was published in Voices Vol. 27, Spring-Summer, 2000. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now.