Monthly Archives: October 2017

TAAP Artist Profile: Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim

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Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim is master Palestinian embroiderer. Born in the city of Safad in northern Palestine, her family fled to Syria and Jordan in 1948. After attending boarding school in Ramalla West Bank, Abbasi-Ghnaim returned to Syria to attend Damascus University, where she majored in art history. In 1980, her family immigrated to the United States. Abbasi-Ghnaim has dedicated herself to practicing and teaching her traditional craft. She has lectured and taught about Palestinian traditions at the University of Massachusetts, the Oral History Center of Cambridge, Portland State University, and Lewis and Clark College. She has collaborated with the World Affairs Council of Oregon and the Middle East Studies Center to participate in the “Teach the Middle East” forum, a set of workshop designed to train youth and K-12 educators about Middle East culture and arts. Since 2000, Abbasi-Ghnaim has taught workshops and classes in public schools in Beaverton, Milwaukie, Gresham, and Portland.

Palestinian embroidery features minute cross-stitching, most easily compared to counted cross-stitch. But the craft involves much more than a decorative art; stitches and design combine to tell stories with colors, symbols, and patterns. Abbasi-Ghnaim continues a centuries-old tradition that Palestinian women have employed to record their cultural observations. As Abbasi-Ghnaim explains, “Embroidery is the unwritten language transferring stories from woman to woman in silence. Needle and thread are the tools for documenting the history of their lives … The stories behind the patterns, the colors of the thread, and the fashion of traditional Palestinian dress are just as important as learning the cross-stitch and is something that can only be preserved through teaching and mentoring the younger generations.”

Abbasi-Ghnaim earned Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program awards with Oregon Folklife Network in 2012, 2014, and 2018 and worked extensively with the OFN’s predecessor folk and traditional arts programs in prior years.

To learn more about Feryal, check out her daughter’s book, Tatreez and Tea: https://tatreezandtea.com/

TAAP Artist Profile: Obo Addy

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Obo Addy (January 15, 1936-September 13, 2012), Ghanaian Drumming, Portland (Multnomah), 2012

Obo Addy was a dynamic musician, generous teacher, and gifted composer. The son of a Ga wonche (medicine man), Addy was designated a master drummer at the age of six in Accra, Ghana. His life’s work was to share his culture through music, dance, and drum.

During childhood, he recalled, “I was constantly surrounded by … drumming, dancing, and singing …. My siblings and I listened, observed, and helped as needed when my father performed various spiritual ceremonies and rites. From these proceedings I learned about the power of music, drumming, and rhythms. In rituals, I first learned to play bell. Later, I was allowed to play drums. In between these events and lessons with my father, I played on my own and with other musicians at social gatherings in town. As a small boy, I knew that I wanted to be musician.”

In 1969, the Arts Council of Ghana employed Addy as a Ga master of the national music. He and his brothers performed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and toured internationally until Addy moved to Portland, Oregon. Addy was one of the first native African musicians to bring worldbeat (a fusion of traditional folk music and Western pop music) to the west. In 1978, he and his wife, Susan Addy, created Homowo African Arts and Cultures to promote Ghanaian music. Addy, who taught at Lewis and Clark College, created programs and curriculum to demonstrate the connections between African and African American music and dance, which he taught and performed around the United States.

In 1996, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Obo Addy a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States. His numerous recordings include Wonche Bi (2002) and Afieye Okropong (2003), released on the Alula label. In 2011, Homowo became the Obo Addy Legacy Project to further honor his contributions.

To learn more about the Obo Addy Legacy Project, check out their website: http://oboaddylegacyproject.org/

Two contract folklore positions! RFP: Due Nov 15, 2017 

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Oregon Folklife Network RFP: Due Nov 15, 2017 
Folklore Fieldworkers for Willamette Valley
January – August 2018
 
The Oregon Folklife Network seeks to hire one early career (1-3 years’ experience in public folklore i.e., non-degree focusedfolklife fieldwork) AND one mid-career folklorist (at least 3-7 years’ experience in public folklore) to conduct folklife field surveys and documentation of cultural, occupational, regional, and religious traditions in the Willamette Valley counties of Polk and Benton and much of Marion, Linn, and Lane counties, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (fieldwork regions will be divvied up based on the experience and backgrounds of those selected). OFN Executive Director, Riki Saltzman, will supervise this project; Saltzman and the mid-career folklorist will mentor the early career folklorist as well as an emerging folklorist during fieldwork and for presentations. This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works.
 
The Willamette Valley stretches along 100 miles of the Willamette River, from just south of Portland in the north to Eugene in the south; it covers all of Polk and Benton and much of Marion, Linn, and Lane counties, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This region includes about 45% of Oregon’s population and is bordered by the Cascade Range (east), the Coast Range (west), and the Calapooya Mountains (south). Formed by the Ice Age Missoula Floods, this highly fertile region is known for its wineries (19,000 acres of vineyards and over 500 wineries), microbreweries, hop yards, orchards, farms, rivers, and fishing.
 
The Willamette Valley includes three major cities—Salem (capital), Eugene (University of Oregon), and Corvallis (Oregon State University)—plus small towns, rural areas, several rivers, and populations from a diverse range of ethnic and regional backgrounds, including a large settlement of Russian Old Believers. This project will cover regional, ethnic, and occupational folklore, including but not limited to Asian and Pacific Islanders (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Hawai’ian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Vietnamese), Latino (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican), Native American (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde), and European (Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Scotch-Irish, Scottish, Swedish) as well as logging, hunting, railroad, sheep and dairy farming, orchards, viticulture, brewing, hops growing, fishing and fishing guides, boat building and other waterways traditions along with foodways, music, storytelling, and other relevant traditional expressions.
 
Documentation will include a needs assessment for regional folk arts, recommendations for OFN’s roster, a list of potential partner organizations, and programming suggestions, thus providing direction for OFN’s network function. Folklorists will also provide public programs for each county and Grand Ronde; those presentations palpably demonstrate the value of traditional arts and result in further connections and feedback.
In addition to fieldwork, each contract folklorist will also be responsible for presenting two 1-hour public programs featuring 2 documented artists in counties where the research has occurred (OFN provides assistance).
 
The fieldwork portion of this work should take place any time from January – May 2018, though April – May would be preferable; public programs (see above) must occur no later than July 2018. Pre-fieldwork contacting of culture keepers and others may begin any time after December 15, 2018. All paperwork must be completed and turned in by August 31, 2017. Fieldwork days need not be consecutive, but fieldwork times must be coordinated with Saltzman.
 
The successful applicant should have at least an MA in folklore or related discipline, such as cultural anthropology or ethnomusicology. Early career applicants should have at least 1-3 years’ professional experience in public folklore and/or folklife documentation; mid-career should have at least 3-7 years’ professional experience in public folklore and/or folklife documentation. Please note that this does NOT include work conducted as part of a degree program. 
 
Qualified applicants must have access to, experience with, and technical competence with digital equipment (camera, audio recorder, computer/laptop) and their own transportation. OFN will not cover transportation to/from Oregon.  
 
Required RFP materials:
a cover letter detailing qualifications and relevant experience as well as how the applicant will conduct the work for this projectc.v.3 relevant reference letters (no exceptions)representative work samples (please submit only digital and/or online work samples) to include recorded audio interviews (1-2 excerpts of no more than 3 minutes each). Note: interviews should be in English and on topics relevant to folk and traditional artsa self-recording (audio) with applicant’s personal introduction along with a summary of qualifications (no more than 3-4 minutes)photography (10-20 images, jpg format, with metadata: subject, date, place, purpose of original photo). Note: we are looking for ethnographic/fieldwork type photographs with contextual information as part of the photo. Simple portraits and landscapes do not qualify, and we cannot accept video. fieldnotes (5 pp max)1 published professional writing sample (festival catalogue pieces are more than fine).
 
Applications submitted without these items will be deemed incomplete and will not be considered.
 
OFN will provide:
·       preliminary contact information/introductions for several communities, folk artists, and organizations in Oregon’s Willamette Valley;
·       digital folklife fieldwork forms (audio log, photo log, general release, artist data sheet, release for internet materials); funds for disks, memory cards, batteries, etc.; funds for travel (in Oregon only) at the state rate;
·       pre-selected organizations in each county for public programs;
·       Early career folklorist: contract and fee of $300/day plus in-state travel expenses (food, mileage, lodging at state rates) for total of $9,700; and
·       Mid-career folklorist: contract and fee of $400/day plus in-state travel expenses (food, mileage, lodging at state rates) for total of $11,500.
 
The results of this folklife field survey will expand the OFN’s Culture Keepers roster; provide 6 public programs in counties where fieldwork was conducted (including one at the Oregon Historical Society); and provide cultural information, including field reports, to local cultural and arts organizations towards the creation of future programs as well as to OFN’s operational partners, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Cultural Trust, the Oregon Historical Society, Humanities Oregon, the Oregon Heritage Commission, and the Oregon State Library. As with all folklife materials, fieldwork documentation will become part of the Oregon Folklife Collection at the University of Oregon Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives.
 
Complete applications (including all reference letters) should be sent to: 
Oregon Folklife Survey, Oregon Folklife Network, 242 Knight Library, 6204 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6204OR as a PDF email attachment to riki@uoregon.edu (please put FOLKLIFE SURVEY in the subject line).
 
Complete applications must be received at the OFN by November 15, 2017.
This is NOT a postmark deadline.
 
For further information, please contact Riki Saltzman or Emily West Hartlerode at 541/346-3820 or riki@uoregon.edu or eafanado@uoregon.edu. Riki will be at AFS if you have questions.​

More Than $82 Million Awarded for Arts Projects Nationwide – Includes $80,000 awarded to the Oregon Folklife Network

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[Eugene]—National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects across the country in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $80,000 to the Oregon Folklife Network to support Oregon’s folk and traditional arts programming and research. The NEA received 1,728 Art Works applications and will make 1,029 grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.

“The arts reflect the vision, energy, and talent of America’s artists and arts organizations,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support organizations such as the Oregon Folklife Network in serving their communities by providing excellent and accessible arts experiences.”

“We are thrilled to have the NEA’s funding and endorsement of our efforts to engage with communities, organizations, and Tribes to document, preserve, and celebrate Oregon’s living cultural heritage,” commented Riki Saltzman, OFN’s executive director. “We are also pleased to have additional funding from the Oregon Arts Commission for this important cultural work.”

NEA and OAC funding supports OFN’s  Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, our statewide multi-year folklife survey, and our Regional Collaborative Partnerships. Since 2012, OFN has supported over 30 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship teams to teach and make public presentations. Master artists mentor apprentices from the same cultural community or Tribe in a chosen traditional art form such as rawhide braiding, Coos basket weaving, and Persian storytelling.

Our next and 5th region of our statewide folklife survey will be the Willamette Valley; during 2018 we’ll be out and about to interview river guides, musicians, storytellers, quilters, and more. Previous surveys have identified and documented hundreds of traditional artists in communities and Tribes in southern and eastern Oregon, the Gorge, and the Portland Metro.

Following each region’s folklife survey, OFN staff provides support to create or supplement projects that focus on and documented artists from that region. For 2017-18, we’ll be partnering with cultural organizations and Tribes in eastern Oregon for our next round of Regional Collaborative Partnerships.

Check out our ever-growing Culture Keepers Roster to discover and hire Oregon folk artists.  Many of those culture keepers have performed in Oregon parks, taken part in festivals, conducted public workshops, and been featured in exhibits.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring17, #Oregonfolk, and #thisisculture. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.

Follow OFN on Twitter @OregonFolklife and follow us on Facebook at Oregon Folklife Network.