Come join us for our Oregon Culture Nights series highlighting our current year’s Traditional Apprenticeship Artists Program awardees. The Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a yearly program that offers a $3,500 stipend to traditional master artists and culture keepers to aid in the teaching of their traditional arts to an apprentice from their same community. Each year, a select few are given this funding to pass on their traditions to others, at the end of the program the artists are required to showcase the work they have been doing with their apprentice. The Oregon Folklife Network offers them a spot in our Oregon Culture Nights where we can showcase their work to our community.
August 10th Sreevidhya Chandramouli:
The series will begin in August where we will start off the event with Sreevidhya Chandramouli who is a tenth-generation descendant from the illustrious Karaikudi Vina Tradition of South India. The Vina is a traditional Indian stringed instrument. Sreevidhya’s apprentice this year is Nidhi Yadalam who has been working with Sreevidhya for a few five years. They will be giving a performance and Q&A on Thursday, August 10th at 6:00 pm.
August 17th Antonio Huerta:
Please join us to welcome back Antonio Huerta, who will perform the following week, the week of August 17th, where he will perform traditional charrería, a traditional skill in horsemanship, cattle work, and sophisticated rope work. Antonio grew up in Jalisco Mexico where his family made their living farming and raising cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs, and chickens. He learned charrería and his horsemanship skills from his father and grandfather and hopes to pass on these traditions to others. His apprentice this year is Miguel Ruiz Topete, Jr. a young Charro from Corvallis, Oregon. Miguel learned from his father, who trained horses and inspired his passion for riding, roping, and cattle work. Antonio will be showcasing his rope skills during his performance and giving a demonstration on charrería, before opening the floor for a quick Q&A.
August 24th Kumu Hula Andrea Luchese:
Next up in the series on Thursday August 24th, is Kuma Hula (Master teacher) Andrea Luchese, the founder and teacher for for Hālau Hula Ka Pi’o O Ke Ānuenue “the arch of the rainbow,”, a Hawaiian cultural dance school. She learned under the teachings of Kumu Hula Raylene Haʻaleleʻa Kawaiaeʻa and Kumu Hula Keala Ching in the hula traditions of Halau ʻO Haʻaleleʻa and Na Wai ʻIwi Ola. Her apprentice is Tia ‘Ohi’a Lehua Kumakua ‘Ahihi McLean, born and raised in Maui. She began her schooling in Hula at age five, reignited her passion for it as an adult, and began learning from Kuma Hula Andrea in 2010. Please join us to hear Kuma Hula Andrea and her apprentice Tia for their performance and Q&A.
Each Performance will start at 6:00 and last the full hour, with a fifteen-minute Q&A.
dinator. Timothy recently graduated with a PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Oregon and has previous experience as a program coordinator for Centro Latino Americano. In addition to bringing deep skills for working reciprocally with communities, Timothy is a Spanish speaker. He will be the primary contact for the Traditional Arts and Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), the Cultural Keepers Roster, Culture Fest, and the Statewide Survey.
egree in Folklore at the UO. She spent her summer internship at OFN coordinating Oregon Culture Nights events and interviewing and documenting Ukrainian folk artists in Oregon – weavers, singers, embroiderers, pysanka artists, and doll makers. Iryna wishes to express her deepest gratitude to OFN for offering her the opportunity to reconnect with her homeland’s culture while being so far away from home, and for allowing her to learn first-hand how public folklore organizations such as OFN can help amplify the voices of underrepresented and oppressed communities, and help one find meaning during the darkest of times. Iryna hopes to continue her internship with OFN and her work with Ukrainian artists in the fall term.
is a MA student in the folklore program at the University of Oregon. She is interested in areas of vernacular culture in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Her research is focused on the performance of folk religion within a number of Sufi orders in Tunisia. Before turning to folklore, she worked as an instructor of English at the University of Gabès. She holds a B.A. in Anglo-American studies from the Ecole Normale of Tunis and an agrégation degree from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities of Manouba.
Culture. She completed her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Humanities with a Minor in Music at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests center around studying decolonial theory in storytelling, myths, and legends, and how individual experiences influence the collective memory of history. In her free time, Erin likes to ski, paint, and play music.
master’s degree in Folklore and Public Culture at UO. She got her bachelor’s degree from Western Oregon University in cultural anthropology and linguistics. As a descendant of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Pechanga, she is interested in cultural sustainability and language revitalization within native communities and hopes to work with those native communities in the future. Her work here at OFN has given her inspiration and experience for working with folklife and amplifying indigenous voices. Her interests in folklore are ever-changing and evolving and she looks forward to researching the connection to folklore in our identity and expressions.