Mid Atlantic Forum

Essays penned by mid-Atlantic folklorists are currently distributed to 250 academic and public sector folklorists in the region. Topics vary widely from field research on tobacco farming in southern Maryland to the challenges of sustaining a folklore program in nonprofit settings. The Foundation initiated this series to further the exchange of information and ideas among folklorists and their peers.

Forum pieces that have an accompanying podcast are indicated with an RSS button.

These documents are in Word format

January 2010	Rediscovery Fieldwork – Folklorists as Community Neighbors, Fieldwork as Gift-Giving Maryland State folklorist Cliff Murphy uses his research with the family of traditional musician Ola Belle Reed as a case study in rediscovery fieldwork, the evolution of a family’s traditions through time, and the uses of archival documentation.
July 2009	How to Folk with Web 2.0 David Dombrosky, Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Arts Management & Technology, gives advice to folklorists on how to use Web 2.0 technology to further their work and expand their audiences.
June 2009	Cultural Sustainability at Goucher College Rory Turner is the Director of Goucher College's new graduate program in Cultural Sustainability. The program, which launches in spring 2010, will focus on “actively identifying, protecting, and enhancing cultural traditions through activism, fieldwork, academic scholarship, and grassroots communications.”
April 2009	Spanning the Globe: Fieldwork in Northern Virginia’s Suburban Communities Arlington folklorist Chris Williams writes about the challenges and rewards of identifying and cultivating "festival-ready" traditional bearers.
March 2009	Building and Painting Ship Models Steve Rogers is a nationally recognized ship model builder, has written five books on the subject, and teaches at the Woodenboat School in Maine.
November 2008	Bad Side, Good Side: A Personal Conversation about Island Superstition Elaine Jacobs is a public school educator in the St. Thomas/St. John School District and an adjunct faculty member at the University of the Virgin Islands. Elaine Jacobs Bad Side, Good Side Podcast
October 2008	First Hand: Tradition Bearers in a Museum Setting Jaclyn Stewart is Director of the Jersey Shore Folklife Center at Tuckerton Seaport.
September 2008	From Grants to GRAMMYs: Leveraging Cultural Energy Dr. Daniel Sheehy, Director & Curator, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and its initiative, Smithsonian Global Sound. Dan Sheehy From Grants to GRAMMYs Podcast!
February 2007	Kara Rogers Thomas is a Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Studies at Frostburg State University. Her forum piece, Between Scylla and Charybdis: Charting the Course for a Folklore Hybrid speaks to a tension that lies within many folklorists as they try to balance their many hats. Click here to download Word Document
January 2007	Bau Graves is Executive Director of the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, Virginia and author of Cultural Democracy: The Arts, Community and the Public Purpose... Click here to download Word Document
December 2006	Bob Stone is the longstanding statewide Outreach Coordinator for the Florida Folklife Program. This article is a sample of his research on Florida cow dogs... Click here to download Word Document
November 2006	John Lilly, Editor/Folklife Director for West Virginia Division of Culture and History's Goldenseal magazine... Click here to download Word Document John Lilly Reads His Shetland Essay in this Special Podcast!
October 2006	Gerry Milnes, Folk Arts Coordinator, Augusta Heritage Center, Elkins, WV... Click here to download Word Document
August 2006	Varick Chittenden, director of Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, and "retired" (to use the term loosely) Professor Emeritus of English, SUNY Canton College of Technology... Click here to download Word Document
July 2006	Glenn “Kwabena” Davis was born and raised in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. A storyteller for over thirty years, Glenn continues to offer workshops on the art of storytelling and this month writes about "Storytelling: A Folk Tradition Fighting Back"... Click here to download Word Document
June 2006	Margaret R. Yocom, a folklorist who specializes in family folklore, oral narrative, material culture, and gender studies writes about "Living Words: Folklorists and Creative Writers"... Click here to download Word Document
May 2006	Marco Antonio Hernandez heads the group Katari based in Delaware, a group "impassioned" by folk music from Latin America. This is the first forum essay written by a traditional artist.... Click here to download Word Document
April 2006	Simon Bronner, Professor of American Studies and Folklore at the Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies, PA... Click here to download Word Document
March 2006	Jon Lohman, Director, Virginia Folklife Program... Click here to download Word Document
March 2006	Sally Van de Water, Folklife Program Coordinator, Bayshore Discovery Project, Port Norris, NJ... Click here to download Word Document
February 2006	Harold Anderson, Independent Folklorist/Ethnomusicologist, One World Living Art, Greenbelt, MD... Click here to download Word Document
January 2006	Laura Botinelli, Deputy Director, Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, MD... Click here to download Word Document
October 2005	Michael Miller, Manager, Delaware Folklife Program... Click here to download Word Document
August 2005	Nancy Solomon, Executive Director, Long Island Traditions, Port Washington, NY... Click here to download Word Document
July 2005	Iveta Pirgova, Director of the Down Jersey Folklife Center... Click here to download Word Document
June 2005	Betty Belanus, Education Specialist, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage... Click here to download Word Document
May 2005	Jon Loman, Director, Virginia Folklife Program... Click here to download Word Document
April 2005	Terry Liu, Arts Education Specialist, National Endowment for the Arts... Click here to download Word Document
March 2005	Kelly Armor, Folk Art Coordinator and Education Director, Erie Art Museum... Click here to download Word Document
February 2005	Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Folklife Specialist/Archivist, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress... Click here to download Word Document
January 2005	Carrie & Michael Kline, Independent Folklorists, Talking Across the Lines, WV... Click here to download Word Document