Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2009

Every year the Smithsonian holds a folklife festival at the mall.  It focuses on three different cultures and is a great opportunity to dabble in these cultures' music and foods.  This year the featured cultures were African-American (with a focus on the oral tradition), Central & South American (with an emphasis on music), and Welsh.

For my husband and me, one of the highlights was the Colombian band pictured above, Grupo Cimarron.  In fact, we are planning on going to their concert on July 3.    Here are a few links to their YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf4Ao4xHeQM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsviE6VzNo0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hTsdTPNqjs

For more information about the group, see this page:  http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/cimarron.aspx

The other group we saw was a Nuyorican group, Viento de Agua.  They are now based in Puerto Rico although they began in New York.

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/viento.aspx

In this video below, you can see people dancing to the music.  This is a more realistic representation as when we heard the band we could not see them because of all the people dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvy7N88WZok

These dancers from Austin TX's Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance and Cultural Center are performing the plena, one of the musical styles that Viento de Agua perform in.  For more information about this style, see this link:  http://www.prfdance.org/brochure/plena.htm



Of course, there was a lot more to the festival.  This is the overall introduction to Latin American music:

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/index.aspx

My husband and I have heard the Puerto Rican group Ecos de Borinquen elsewhere, and they are outstanding!  Here is their page at the festival website, complete with videos.

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/index.aspx

The Texmaniacs are always popular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1S1UFS3Nuo



Mexico was represented as well.  Here are links to YouTube videos of Arpex, a group that will make you think of the harp very very differently!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ezEBBSle0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjpHjyras8

Another Mexican group was Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano:
http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/camperos.aspx



Los Camperos de Valles' music is also appealing:

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/las_americas/valles.aspx



As much as I enjoy the music, the folklife festival was not just about Latin American music!  In fact, this summer in EN 202, you may find the African-American oral tradition more interesting.  The man pictured below is New England storyteller Len Cabral, one of the performers we watched.


Here is a link to a video of one of his performances:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhoYeJPNC88

This link will give you an overview of how the festival portrayed the African-American oral tradition.  We spent most of our time at the storytellers' tent, but there was so much more.  I would have liked to have seen the documentary on radio or listened to WPFW's broadcast from the festival.

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/giving_voice/index.aspx


Since I began this section with Len Cabral's picture, I will talk about his performance first.  He told a number of stories, mainly about trickster figures like Anansi, Coyote, and Monkey. He also encouraged the audience to participate.   For a little information about the trickster, see this article about this type of character (or archetype) from Professor Michael Webster at Grand Valley State University:
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tricksters.htm
Jennifer Smith's article focuses on American tricksters:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/14919/african_and_native_american_trickster.html?cat=38
If you don't mind a little coarse language in the opening quote, this article by Jo Beth Brixton is useful:  http://ualr.edu/jxbriton/folk.html

However, if you would just like to focus on Anansi, a West African figure who appears in African-American and Caribbean stories, follow this link:  http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/anansi.html 
If you would like some stories about Anansi, see these links:
http://anansi-web.com/anansi.html
http://www.afro.com/children/myths/wisdom/page1.html
http://www.africa.mrdonn.org/anansi.html

For more information about Coyote the trickster, see Dr. Kathleen L. Nichols' site:
http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html
She also includes some stories that feature him.  Here Coyote is stealing fire.



Brer Rabbit is another trickster who appears in storytellers' tales.  Here he is confronting the tar baby. 

http://www.americanfolklore.net/brer-rabbit.html


We also listened to two DC based performers, Christylez and Holly Bass.  Here is a link to a YouTube video of Christylez performing "Mambo Sauce," an ode to a DC condiment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko-SpdmThic
The sound on this video of "Wireless Signal" is better and shows that he encouraged audience participation as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5o6w6sBk4M

This video is long, but it has Christylez on his human beatbox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiowOzPNW-M

Here is a picture of the artist simply playing his guitar.  I was looking for a picture of him playing a mandolin...oh well!



Mustn't forget about Wales!

As you can see from the map above, Wales is a part of Great Britain or the U.K..  The picture above the map shows that Wales can be a very picturesque and rural area.  Of course, some of it is quite urban or suburban.  We also learned from a member of the Centre for Alternative Technology that the Welsh have been very active in the environmental movement, keeping his organization going throughout the 1980s and 1990s to today.

Here is the Smithsonian's overview of Wales:

http://www.festival.si.edu/2009/wales/index.aspx

Although Wales is part of the UK, many people living there speak Welsh as their first language.  Here is some information about this language:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/welsh.htm

http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/welsh.php

http://www.omniglot.com/songs/welsh/index.php

We went to a performance of Welsh singers...and the first performer sang in Welsh!

This singer Cerys Matthews was not at the festival, but I think that her video will give you an idea of what a song in Welsh might sound like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIKnNJyLFDA

OK, this is the singer we heard, Gareth Bonello.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPJYD1LpkA0

Later on Gai Toms played:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNGundye6RQ

Sian James is more traditional, singing and playing the harp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DfCA0aP7yQ

Wales is also known for its choral music.  Here is a link to Only Men Aloud, a choir that won the BBC's Last Choir Standing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xYIGH-pI8

I didn't get to experience either, but I was told that the Welsh storytelling and cooking demonstrations were fantastic. 

Here are links to videos of storytellers and poets.  The first is Hugh Lupton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozzHxn8q9U

The next is David Ponkey retelling part of the Welsh epic, The Tale of Taliesan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2vyDsWqCM4

Mab Jones is a performance poet.  This video is "Wales in Pictures."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszEbwULJ7M

Unfortunately, Gillian Clarke is not reading her own poem, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zlUQEWrRE

Below is a picture of Cader Idris, the mountain she mentions in her poem.


We'll finish with some links to Dylan Thomas' poetry since we may read him at the end of our summer session.  He was famous for his readings, so I am going to look for recordings of *him* reading his poems!

The first poem is "In My Craft or Sullen Art."
http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/dthomas1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIoXV-HXobo

The next is "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night," which we may read.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWiE1vNSxU

"Fern Hill" is also wonderful, but it is not read by Thomas. 
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15378

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-_ah0JfhU

More Local Theater...August Wilson's Radio Golf

If I were to put together an anthology of world literature, I would like to include one of August Wilson's plays from his Pittsburgh Cycle.  In fact, if I teach EN 202HM again, I would assign one of these plays as the extra reading.  I would be interested in seeing how Gem of the Ocean or Fences or Joe Turner's Come and Gone or even Radio Golf would work with our readings, both the African and African-American works as well as our plays.

Compared to Mother Courage or Gem of the Ocean, Radio Golf is a fairly traditional, straightforward play.  It emphasizes Harmond Wilks' interactions with the other characters (his wife, Mame; his business partner, Roosevelt Hicks; his old schoolmate and current employee, Sterling Johnson; and Elder Joseph Barlow, a seemingly homeless man who turns out to be Wilks' cousin).  Wilson seems to have been wrapping up his cycle in this play.  Elder Joseph Barlow is the son of Citizen Barlow and Black Mary from Gem of the Ocean.  Black Mary was the protege of Aunt Ester (who died in the 1980s), and Elder Joseph (or "Old Joe") is fighting to preserve Aunt Ester's house at 1839 Wylie Avenue.  Harmond Wilks, on the other hand, is the grandson of Caesar Wilks, the black police constable in Gem of the Ocean.  Harmond is a real estate developer with plans to demolish 1839 Wylie Avenue and replace it with a condo complex complete with Barnes and Nobles, Whole Foods, and Starbucks.  He is also running for mayor of Pittsburgh.  If he's successful, he will be the first African-American mayor of Pittsburgh.


Here are a few images of the various characters in Radio Golf.  The play, by the way, is set in 1997.

In this poster from a Broadway production of the play, we see Harmond and Mame together.



On the other hand, Chicago's Goodman Theater depicted the couple in this way.  The actor playing Mame looks quite young.

This picture of the irrepressible Roosevelt and Harmond together comes from the Boston University Theater's production from 2006.  BTW, the actor playing Roosevelt (he is wearing glasses) looks a little like my ex-boss from the 1990s.

Or you may prefer this picture of Roosevelt in his golf outfit.  He is obsessed with golf!  This picture is from a British production.

There the two men are with Elder Joseph (seated).  Roosevelt is trying to browbeat him while Harmond looks on.  This production is a very recent one from Detroit.


Then, in this picture, Harmond and Sterling (the painter) are with Elder Joseph.  Here Anthony Chisolm plays Elder Joseph.  This again is from the Broadway production of Radio Golf.

Pictures from Live Arts' Mother Courage (Charlottesville VA)

While I'm online today, I'd like to post some pictures from Live Arts' production of Mother Courage.  (Live Arts is a community theater group from Charlottesville, VA, and my sister-in-law and her husband are very much involved in this group.   )

Here is Mother Courage pulling her cart.

Mother Courage is selling a capon (or chicken) to the Cook.

Yvette sings a song about her affair with the Cook.

Mother Courage is doing brisk business at her canteen.
Yvette arrives with her husband who is going to buy Mother Courage's cart for her.

Am not sure which scenes these are:



Below looks to be the scene where Kattrin is killed.

Mother Courage sings a lullaby to her dead daughter.

Here you may see the stage where everything took place.

After Going to See Mother Courage!

At long last!  Today (6/7) I was able to see Mother Courage at the Clark Street Playhouse in Virginia.  I have wanted to see Brecht's play for a while.  My husband and I were actually supposed to go last Sunday, but the matinee was canceled...due to a bike race.  

The picture above is of Colleen Delany (Kattrin) and Nancy Robinette (Mother Courage).  By the way, the Post gave Ms. Robinette quite a rave review:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303294.html

Here's a picture of the theater.  It is incredibly hard to find either on foot or by car, so it's no wonder that the bike race could cut off access to it.



The inside of this playhouse is just as funky, which fits Mother Courage, a play set on the battlefields of the Thirty Years War.  Also, Mother Courage is not intended to be a painfully historical or realistic play.  Even though it is set in the 17th century, historical and geographical details are not that important.  Mother Courage and her children might as well be on a treadmill as the years go by.   I would also say that Scena Theater's production was particularly austere.  Compare these two productions below.  The first is from a 2004 production that appeared in several cities in the UK and was set in modern-day Africa.  Another is from Cambridge (MA)'s American Repertory Theater.

 

However, an elaborate set or central idea is not always a sign of a fantastic production:

http://tech.mit.edu/V121/N11/Mother_Courage_.11a.html

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/arts/theater/documents/00630946.htm

In Scena Theater's production that I saw, the play was staged on a concrete floor while the audience sat above in bleacher seats...ok...not quite bleacher seats.  The seats had backs.  The actors used all of the stage and more.  In fact, as the play began, the two army recruiters sat among the audience and spoke the first of their first lines there.  It was not until Mother Courage's sons Eiliff and Swiss Cheese pulled her cart out from the wings that the recruiters joined them on stage.  The cart was quite sizable, by the way.  It opened up so that Mother Courage and Kattrin could stand inside serving drinks in one scene.

Imagine the truck above without its engine and with a long pole with a long handle instead.

But what was it like to hear and see the actors performing the play?

I think that a performance of Mother Courage moves more quickly than one thinks if one has only read the play.  The scenes really fit together in performance.  Of course, this production showed information about each scene as well on screens well above the actors' heads.  However, watching the play, I saw how much the characters' situation changed and how much it remained the same.

Surprisingly, the songs did not jump out from this presentation, which detracted from more than one scene.  To compare, here is a link to Antaeus Theater's version of Mother Courage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUmpBu_qkD0

Probably the actors at Antaeus were miked.  Or Scena's taped music overwhelmed the singing of the live actors.  Or the Clark Street Playhouse is a little too intimate, which discourages the actors from projecting.  Mother Courage has been performed in more formal settings as in the picture of the University of Denver's production from 1985 (see below).  I'm not sure which.  It may even help to carry a tambourine as the actors at Antaeus do.



A number of scenes play differently in real life.  The scene right before Kattrin's death is a lot less sentimental than I imagined it.  The peasant woman telling Kattrin to pray is basically telling her to get lost.  Nancy Robinette's Mother Courage also seems to love her children more than I imagined her to, which affects the scene in which she is bargaining for Swiss Cheese's life or when she is reunited with Eiliff or when she responds to the attack on Kattrin.

However, as this picture from Yale University's production shows, actors do represent Mother Courage as more emotional and less hard-bitten -- despite playwright Bertolt Brecht's strictures.



My impression of various characters changed as I saw them in performance.  Joe Baker's Eiliff seemed more hostile and less stiffly heroic.  Rashard Harrison's Swiss Cheese was more bumbling.  Of course, since she is mute, Kattrin's role enlarges in performance.  I was really surprised by how much she aged in this production.  At the beginning, she was very sprightly and childish, but by the end, she was quite weary and moved very slowly until of course she broke away from the peasants to beat the drum warning the villagers.  If I were to watch this or another company's performance, I would play closer attention to the actor playing Kattrin.   (I couldn't find another picture of Colleen Delany as Kattrin, but here is a picture of Hilary Burns, a British actor, in that same role.

I happened to see someone videotaping the production.  Perhaps some scenes will end up on YouTube.  They would be useful for someone wanting to see a professional yet less distracting version of Mother Courage.  I wish that I had been able to go to Charlottesville last year or to the American Repertory Theater back in 2001.

The Story of the Stone (part five)

Apologies for not posting sooner, but here is the final installment of The Story of the Stone. 

At the beginning of the story, Bao-yu still has not recovered his jade, so he has relapsed into a stupor.  Baochai's brother is still in prison despite the family's best efforts to bribe the officials into releasing him.  Bao-yu's father Jia Zheng has been posted to a job in the provinces where his naivety and rigor will get him into trouble...ironically...for corruption.  (His servants are notoriously corrupt, and one man has even convinced his master that servants expect to be able to make money from corruption in their position.  He said that if they are unable to do so, the master will not be able to do his job.)  The narrator also implies that the Jia family is out of favor with the government.  In fact, later in this volume, the family compound will be raided, and two senior members will have to go into exile.  Ironically, by then, Bao-yu's father will be working in the capitol at a job more suited to his strengths.

It goes without saying that at this point the garden (called Prospect Garden) is haunted.  Some of the family then become possessed by the spirits in this garden after You-shi (one of Bao-yu's aunts) takes a short cut through it.


By this time, hardly anyone is living there or even goes there.  Even the older women who were tending fruit and vegetable gardens there have left.

A number of characters also die in this volume.  The first is Xia Jing-Gui, Xue Pan's wife.  She appears to commit suicide, yet as it turns out, she was tricked into drinking the poisoned soup that she was about to give to Caltrop.  All this is revealed in an inquest.  The next is Ying-chun whose husband had been abusing her.  Grandmother Jia dies a while after the government raids the family's compound.  Ironically, she becomes ill at Baochai's birthday party.  Her protege Xi-feng is responsible for Grandmother's funeral, yet the family's finances, the politics within the family, and her own frailty make it impossible to carry out her duty.  She collapses during the funeral and dies but not before asking Grannie Liu, a poor woman from the country, to watch out for her daughter, Qiao-je.  This will be very important as after Xi-feng's death relatives will attempt to sell Qiao-je as a concubine to a Mongol prince.  Grannie Liu will then rescue the girl, hiding her at her own home in the country. 


Robbers also attack the Jia family compound in this volume, carrying off all the treasure that the late Grandmother Jia hid from the government.  Seeing Adamantina, a beautiful nun whose convent is within the compound, one robber kidnaps, rapes, and (probably) murders her. 

The tide begins to turn for the family towards the end of the book.  A mysterious monk returns Bao-yu's jade.  (As Adamantina predicted, the stone went into hiding at Greensickness Mountain for a time.)  Jia Zheng as head of the family continues to flourish in the capitol.  After all of her tribulations, Caltrop becomes Xue Pan's wife, not merely a "chamber wife."  Xi-feng's husband similarly "promotes" Patience after his wife's death.  Bao-yu and his precocious nephew Jia Lan take the civil service exam, enabling them to carry their weight in the family.  However, shortly after excelling on this exam, Bao-yu disappears.  As it turns out, he has become a monk, having completed what he was destined to do.