folklore

Festival management class puts students at the heart of cultural conservation and celebration in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Holland — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 16:00:36 +0000

Festival management class puts students at the heart of cultural conservation and celebration in Washington, D.C. Sarah Holland Tue, 07/23/2024 - 12:00

If you visit the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the last week of June, you’ll be greeted with the sights and sounds of a multicultural celebration at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Music and dance performances, cooking demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and education sessions: Every tent offers a view of the world from a different cultural perspective.

And for ��AV students in the cross-listed Folklore and Festival Management course, it’s the internship opportunity of a lifetime.

Supported by an Office of Student Creative Activities and Research Curriculum Impact Grant and led by Lisa Gilman, professor of folklore and English, Karalee Dawn MacKay, director of the arts management program, and Carole Rosenstein, professor of arts management, the course gives students hands-on, real-world experience in festival management.

Along with a term-length group project to plan their own festival, students also learn from guest speakers from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH), tour the CFCH offices, and complete applications for summer internships with the CFCH Folklife Festival.

Recently, the George Mason team established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Smithsonian Institution to formalize the partnership.

“The Folklife Festival is an international, national, and local event: a confluence you’re only going to get in Washington, D.C., where every neighborhood and community is a mix of international, national, and local,” explained Rosenstein. “Being able to leverage the connections of our George Mason faculty to national agencies and institutions all over the region gives our students unique opportunities that will set them up for success.”

“We want the folklore and arts management fields to mirror the populations we work with,” said Gilman. “Mason has this incredibly diverse student body, and through this course and our MOU we are creating real pathways for these students to work in the arts and culture sector.

“This course is only one piece of it,” she further explained. “There’s a lot of potential for collaboration around research and education in the future.”

Arts management and folklore studies are both necessary perspectives in producing this kind of large-scale cultural event. But, as Rosenstein noted, the two fields don’t often interact in an academic setting.

“It’s a unique opportunity for graduate students, in particular,” she said. “As an undergraduate, you know, you’re in classes with a variety of majors all the time. But for graduate students with more focused studies, it’s not often they get to share and learn across areas of expertise. And it’s great career practice, because arts management and folklore professionals will be working together at the same institutions in their careers.”

“We get into deep discussions about how each program would approach these same questions and challenges differently, as well as looking at how we have the same motivations and goals but are perhaps using different terminology or theories,” said MacKay. “It’s amazing to see how much they learn from one another.”

Because of the cross-disciplinary nature of the course, students and faculty engage with all parts of festival production at a much deeper level. Students might consider the theoretical concepts behind ethical and equitable folklore conservation and presentation one day, and the next they’re debating how many bathrooms will be needed for the predicted crowds.

“That’s one of the amazing things about this course and the focus on planning a festival,” said Rosenstein. “It gives them the opportunity to go all the way from high-level theory to what’s happening on the ground at any given minute of the event.”

Everything in the course comes back to building and sustaining relationships. From vendors to sponsors to performers to guests, students learn how proper festival management leads to long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships that support the access and preservation of artistic, creative, and cultural expression.

“This class opens up folklore and arts management students to so many different career possibilities in the arts and culture,” said MacKay.

“It’s an important reminder for students that there are all kinds of creative life and expression everywhere you look,” said Rosenstein. “It’s not just in big art museums or symphony orchestras: you can find it in every community.”

This summer, we spoke with three of the students who worked on the Folklife Festival.

Stephanie Aitken

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Master’s student in English with a concentration in Folklore Studies

What are you most excited for about interning with the festival?

Seeing it all come together. We’ve learned so much about it in class, and we’ve heard from so many guests who are directly involved in curating or producing the festival. So seeing it all come together in front of my eyes will be an incredible experience.

I’m not from this area, and I’ve never heard of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival before. Now I’m doing an internship. And I don’t think I would have gotten the internship without this class because of the connections we made to all these people related to the festival.

How did this course and the internship prepare you for a career in folklore studies?

I feel like public-sector folklore has grown more and more, especially with a more modern awareness of being respectful of cultures, reciprocity when engaging with cultures, particularly those of marginalized groups. So preparing students with those skills and that perspective is really valuable, and the opportunities it provides makes George Mason’s folklore program unique.

Chris Esswein

BA English and Economics ’24

What was your biggest takeaway from the course?

I did a dual degree in economics and English with the hope of going to law school. But there was this looming feeling that I was going to go to law school, end up working for a Big Law firm doing work that I hated, only to burn out and leave after a few years. But this class and the internship opened up a whole new world of opportunity to me. I care deeply about the ethics of representation and public folklore festival management. I could see job possibilities in law at the Smithsonian, or any number of other public or private arts programs. Even in the class, I felt like my practical way of thinking was embraced and encouraged: asking about permits, security, costs, etc. There’s a place for economics and law and the practical in the world of the arts, and maybe there’s nowhere that needs it more than those areas.

Noelani Talamoni

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Master’s student in English with a concentration in Folklore Studies

What are you most excited for about interning with the festival?

I’m Indigenous Hawaiian, and although I’m very aware of my culture and my background, I haven’t had the opportunity to really work with people in my community. And because the festival theme this year is Indigenous Voices of America, the internship gives me the opportunity to get closer to a part of my heritage that I hadn’t had before, and a chance to uplift my community. It’s also an opportunity to put my research and my classroom experience to use in a very real, tangible way.

What was the cross-disciplinary class experience like?

I feel like we [folklore students and arts management students] learned a lot from each other that we can take into our careers. In our mock festival in class, for example, the arts management students helped me understand these very important, practical aspects of planning, like sound checking for musicians and land use guidelines for where stalls can be placed. And I helped them think through who we were inviting, what communities were being highlighted, how to support unheard voices. Cooperation and camaraderie are a huge part of putting together a festival. In my internship, I’m seeing how experts from multiple fields and backgrounds can work together effectively.

Study the tales and traditions of the world in the folklore program

Position yourself for a successful career through arts management

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Topics

Graduate Education

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

folklore

Summer Internship

Smithsonian

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

English Department

Students

Arts Management News

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song Leads Events Across Campus and Community

Zoe Harr — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 20:41:10 +0000

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song Leads Events Across Campus and Community Zoe Harr Fri, 03/29/2024 - 16:41

In This Story

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Learn About Mason's Artist-in-Residence Program

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song will perform at the Center on April 20. Photo taken by Gelée Lai, Tony Tsai, Samra Teague, and Kimmi Cranes.

Right before Earth Day, Small Island Big Song presents a "jaw-dropping" (Billboard) concert experience at the Center for the Arts on April 20, combining music, spoken word, and stunning projections to showcase unique oceanic grooves and soulful island ballads, while shining a light on the devastating effects of climate crisis on our world’s oceans. Indigenous artists from Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations mix their diverse styles to establish a contemporary musical dialogue between cultures as far afield as Madagascar, Taiwan, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, and Indonesia.

Co-Founder BaoBao Chen joins Small Island Big Song at the Center on April 20.

“For us, the goal of Small Island Big Song is to bring the audiences to some places that we might not have the courage of going alone, to celebrate, to confront, to inspire, to mourn, to feel hopeful. Our performance goes to all these emotions and shares the stories of ‘Our Island’, but ultimately, ‘Our Island’ is the one we all share,” notes BaoBao Chen, co-founder of Small Island Big Song.

Want to learn more about Small Island Big Song? Read more on the official website.

As a Mason Artist-in-Residence, Small Island Big Song will also deeply engage with the community through a series of education and engagement programs, detailed below:

Open-to-the-Public Residency Events

Climate Change: Our Response as Artivists on April 18 will explore ways in which artists can use their voices to expand global conversation on political, economic, social, and cultural questions at the root of the climate crisis. This event is co-presented with the Inclusive Collaborative Arts at Mason (ICAM) project with panelists BaoBao Chen, Co-Founder and Producer of Small Island Big Song; Mark Cooley, Associate Professor and Director of New Media Arts, Mason School of Art; founder of Green Studio; Moderated by Edward Maibach, distinguished professor at ��AV and director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication; and is a part of the Artist-Activist Speaker Series, an initiative of the Inclusive Collaborative Arts at Mason (ICAM) project. This event is free, but registration is required.
Small Island Big Song artist Sammy from Madagascar hosts "Trash to Music" on April 20.
On April 19, Small Island Big Song invites local students to experience a schooltime performance that includes participatory dance and rhythmic activities, as well as an open Q&A with students. This performance is free, but registration is required.
Also on April 19 and in collaboration with Mason Dining, Small Island Big Song artists will introduce Mason community members to a traditional island dish, fish curry. Led by Emlyn from Mauritius, the Cooking a Traditional Meal with Local Twists workshop will include food samples and musical accompaniment. The event is free to Mason students, faculty, and staff, but registration is required.
Led by Small Island Big Song artist Sammy and hosted by UpCycle Creative Reuse Center, Trash to Music on April 20 is an inspiring hands-on workshop demonstrating how to make musical instruments from trash, commonly recycled, and/or reused materials. Participants will be making a Malagasy-style berimbau and shaker. Recommended for ages 10 and up, minors must be accompanied by an adult. Limit of 20 participants with waitlist to notify if spots become available.

Additional Residency Activities for Mason and Local Community

Co-presented by the City of Fairfax and Center for the Arts, Small Island Big Song hosted a Friends of the Center for the Arts Artists in Conversation event, Our Shared Seafaring Heritage, Alive in Rhythm and Song, on April 2 at the Stacey C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax, VA. This lecture-demonstration provided geographical and historical background about the great oceanic migrations that affected the featured island nations of Small Island Big Song, and included musical demonstrations and an interactive Q&A.
Small Island Big Song artists Sammy, Yuma, Mathieu, and Small Island Big Song Co-Founder Tim Cole will visit Mason’s Dewberry School of Music program’s “Music History in Society III” course taught by Professor Greg Robinson.
In this Dancing Mauritian Sega workshop, approximately 100 second grade students from Hunters Woods Elementary School are invited to learn the Sega dance from Mauritius, led by Mathieu Joseph (Mauritius) with support from Sam Roem (West Papua).
Small Island Big Song artists and co-founders BaoBao Chen and Tim Cole will lead a discussion on the topic of “Artivism in Action - Managing Cultural Initiatives” with students of Mason’s Arts Management and Folklore programs’ “Folklore and Festival Management” course.

In addition to these special residency events, a pre-performance discussion with Small Island Big Song Co-Founders BaoBao Chen and Tim Cole will take place in Monson Grand Tier prior to the performance on April 20. The discussion will be moderated by Center for the Arts Programming and Engagement Manager Vic Adebusola.

Buy tickets to Small Island Big Song on April 20 and be transported to the musical islands that are just around the corner.

This engagement of Small Island Big Song is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Mason Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by the Wendy Frieman and David Johnson Fund.

The Small Island Big Song residency is supported in part by Eloise Stinger.

Thank you to the City of Fairfax Parks and Recreation Everybody Plays Grant program for making free tickets possible for the schooltime matinee program. This grant was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Topics

CFA

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

folklore

Center for the Arts

Friends of the Center for the Arts

Mason Artists-in-Residence

Mason Dining

Campus News

Sustainability

Mason Artist-in-Residence Silkroad Ensemble Leads Events Across Campus and Community

Zoe Harr — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:52:41 +0000

Mason Artist-in-Residence Silkroad Ensemble Leads Events Across Campus and Community Zoe Harr Fri, 10/27/2023 - 11:52

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Learn About Mason Artist-in-Residence Program

Returning for their second of three years as a Mason Artist-in-Residence, Silkroad Ensemble and Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens present the world premiere of American Railroad, an initiative that maps American music through the various communities involved in building the late-1800s Transcontinental Railroad and its connecting railways. In its description of the project, Silkroad explains that though corporations and the American government financed the railroad, the people who built it are the focus of this program—Indigenous and African Americans as well Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and other immigrant laborers whose contributions have been largely erased from history. American Railroad highlights untold stories and amplifies unheard voices from these communities.

“The American Railroad project has been years in the making, and the program we've created for our first tour is only the beginning. In it, we shed light on those who have been erased or overlooked throughout American history and merge with it Silkroad's unique ability to amplify voices from a multitude of backgrounds and cultures. The result is a tapestry of stories, traditions, and musics that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized,” stated Giddens.

Want to learn more about the American Railroad project? Read Silkroad Ensemble’s description.

As a Mason Artist-in-Residence, Silkroad artists will also work with the community through classes and workshops surrounding the performance, which are detailed below.

In a session with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), three Silkroad artists—Karen Ouzounian (cello/vocals), Shawn Conley (bass), and Kaoru Watanabe (Japanese flutes/percussion)—will lead a musical morning that includes individual demonstrations and a participatory Q&A with OLLI participants.
Silkroad Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens joins Silkroad artist Mazz Swift in a “Beyond the Note” Roundtable event, cohosted by the Dewberry School of Music, that includes conversation with BIPOC College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) students Darren Badley, Telah Harper, and Alyssa Cabassa, as they discuss the successes and challenges experienced by BIPOC musicians and artists.
As part of Mason’s Folklore Program, the course “Global Folklore” taught by Professor Debra Lattanzi Shutika will be joined by Silkroad artist Kaoru Watanabe (Japanese flutes/percussion) and guest artists on the American Railroad program Pura Fé Crescioni (lap-steel guitar/vocals) and Francesco Turrisi (frame drums/accordion) for a special class session that will include musical demonstrations and a participatory Q&A with more than 70 students in attendance.

Silkroad Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens joins Silkroad Ensemble at the Center on Nov. 5.

In addition to the activities above, multiple Silkroad artists have taken part in a semester-long Mason Honors College course for fall 2023, “The Silk Road and the Railroad: An artistic exploration of the Transcontinental Railroad in American history and culture.” Taught by College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean Rick Davis, this academic course explores the many cultures, histories, music, and narratives of the Transcontinental Railroad, providing context to Silkroad’s newest initiative. Earlier this semester, Silkroad artists visited the class for discussions and will offer an opportunity for students to watch a Silkroad Ensemble rehearsal prior to the November 5 performance.

To learn more about this fall 2023 Honors College course, check out a recent article with Professor Rick Davis.

Get your tickets today and join Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens on November 5 for the powerful world-premiere performance of American Railroad.

Topics

CFA

Mason Artists-in-Residence

Rick Davis

folklore

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) School of Music

Dewberry School of Music

OLLI

Honors College

Campus News

This PhD student is making her dreams become a reality

Colleen Rich — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 17:54:42 +0000

This PhD student is making her dreams become a reality Colleen Rich Mon, 12/13/2021 - 12:54

Tanya Boucicaut. Photo provided

As an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Tanya Boucicaut isn’t interested in just teaching her students.

“I am the type of professor,” she said, “who dreams with her students.”

That is why her pursuit of a PhD in writing and rhetoric at ��AV is so important to her. It is, after all, part of a dream for herself.

“I wanted something that would pique my curiosity, and a program that would help me beyond teaching,” Boucicaut said. “I believe I can do anything after this. It starts with Mason and me being my authentic self.”

For Boucicaut, being her authentic self includes gaining professional growth that will help her in the classroom, where she teaches first-year seminar classes that are similar to introductory English courses at Mason, and also propel her into the entertainment industry, where she said she wants to tell the untold stories within communities.

Consider her proposed dissertation.

Boucicaut wants to explore the nexus between hip-hop culture and Black Church culture in her native Virginia Beach, and she wants to do it in a documentary that looks at two major music festivals: the 1989 Greekfest, which attracted thousands of students from historically Black colleges and universities, and the 2019 Something in the Water Festival.

The Greekfest was marred by rioting and, according to media reports, inappropriate and excessive force by police. The Something in the Water Festival, which attracted a similarly diverse crowd and included a pop-up church, was peaceful and lauded by city leaders.

By doing her own research and interviews, Boucicaut said, she hopes to “interrogate the rhetoric surrounding the Black community,” and not accept at face value what the media has reported.

“The relationship between the church and hip-hop in many ways is unspoken,” Boucicaut said. “When you look at both entities, they are rooted in protest. They are rooted in identity affirmation. What I want to argue is the element of the church made that festival different.”

Boucicaut recently created a TED-Ed lesson about Zora Neal Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Last summer, she was a Television Academy Foundation development intern with The Jim Henson Company.

She also co-edited an issue of the Journal of American Folklore titled “African American Expressive Culture, Protest, Imagination and Dreams of Blackness.”

“Tanya brought incredible imagination and creativity in soliciting submissions and working with a wonderfully diverse group of Black contributors,” said Lisa Gilman, a professor of English and Folklore at Mason, and the journal’s editor-in-chief. “This issue would not have happened without her initiative and energy.”

Boucicaut’s ties to Mason run deep.

In addition to her experience at the Journal of American Folklore, which is currently edited by Mason faculty, Boucicaut was encouraged to apply to the Television Academy Foundation internship by Kevin Clark, professor emeritus in Mason’s College of Education and Human Development.

On a more granular level, “I didn’t feel the Mason [PhD] program was a professor farm or factory,” Boucicaut said. “My program really helped me think about digital rhetoric. What does that mean to talk to larger audiences? What is the role of social media? How can digital spaces be just as academic, and how can it be as rigorous as what we’ve seen before in written spaces?”

“As a professor, I’m still teaching,” she added, “but look where my dreams are taking me.”

Topics

College of Humanities and Social Sciences