Students, faculty and community members from across North Carolina met April 4 in Elon’s Holt Chapel for the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Annual Conference, which included a presentation by three Elon students who are documenting the cultural heritage of the Cowee community in western North Carolina through the analysis of people’s stories, local traditions and cultural landscapes.
Work by Kirsten Rhodes, Michael Sadler and Clementine Wall is part of a multi-year, interdisciplinary, collaborative research project supported by PERCS: Elon’s Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies.
With one of the largest number of attendees in the history of the conference, the meeting offered in-depth analysis, informal discussions and general appreciation of folk traditions throughout the state and country.
Other highlights of the conference included a panel discussion by graduate students in folklore from across the state and their research into klezmer music, southern humor, hybrid hip hop, and conservation efforts in Appalachia. Members of Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies program also presented ethnographic work from the town of Bladenboro, North Carolina.
Society president Tom McGowan and Appalachian storyteller Orville Hicks provided the keynote addresses. With humor and insight, the men discussed and performed the multiple, complex identities constructed between folklorist and folk during the process of fieldwork in Appalachia.
Hicks returned in the evening with fiddler Jim Vipperman to perform traditional storytelling and bluegrass music.
For many, however, it was the presentation of the Brown-Hudson Awards that excited the most interest. The awards—given to folk artists, community organizations, and folklorists in the state who have significantly contributed to the appreciation and understanding of folk traditions in North Carolina—were awarded to the following:
Sid Luck, traditional Seagrove Potter
Ruben Olmos, founder of the Lowyalty lowrider car club
Jim Vipperman, bluegrass musician
Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center
Sappony Heritage Youth Camp
Kirsten Mullen, folklorist
Olmos and his Lowyalty car club brought their cars to display during the meeting while Sid Luck brought pottery to display and sell.
For more information about PERCS and the North Carolina Folklore Society, click on the links to the right under E-Cast.
– Submitted by Tom Mould, associate professor of anthropology