CITYFOLK MONTHLY - June 2008

At last year's Festival, you may have caught a glimpse of Venus Fly Trap (VFT)--an all-female street-dance crew--breakin’ it down in one of their street performances. This year VFT is back in full effect on the street and the dance pavilion, and will also lead kids in a “Hip Hop Roots Parade” through the festival grounds complete with rappers (MCs), graffiti art, and Kangol hats.

If one of the largest folk music festivals in the Midwest is bumpin’ out beats and rhymes, many must be wondering, “What’s hip hop got to do with FOLK?” In fact, quite a lot!

The term folk refers to traditional forms of art that are created among the common people as an expression of their everyday lives. Hip hop is a perfect example. It emerged from the inner city streets of the South Bronx in the early 1970s: a new style of music, instrumentation, dance, fashion, and visual art that together made up a rich and colorful expression of life for the people, place and time in which it was created.

Mainstream media named this new style “break dance” because those who practice the art form call themselves “break boys” and “break girls” or “b-boys” and “b-girls,” and what they do is “break.” But today most b-boys scoff at the term “break dancing” because it is associated with the co-opting and removal of breaking from the hip hop community and culture. In fact, thanks to mass media, what most people see as hip hop today is very different from hip hop’s origins, and its evolution.

Hip hop is not the only traditional form of art to experience this reinterpretation by the masses. Contemporary country music and ballroom dancing are both popular modifications of folk traditions. And like hip hop, some of these contemporary forms carry the same name as their traditional counterpart. For example, samba dancing could refer to the raw, authentic, hip-driven dance seen on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, or the smooth, elegant, partnering danced at ballroom competitions in the U.S.; the two look almost nothing alike. Similarly, the “hip hop” taught in most dance studios across the country today is a far cry from anything you would have seen at one of DJ Kool Herc’s block parties in 1975.

There is a vast community, often referred to as the “underground” hip hop community, which has separated itself from the over-commercialized world of today’s hip hop in an effort to keep hip hop's roots alive. They follow in a long line of passionate artists who work to revive traditional art forms that have fallen into decline.

While break dancing faded from sight after it reached its popular height in the 1980s, the underground community has grown much larger. In his book Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, Jeff Chang claims that it was no more than several dozen kids within a tiny seven-mile radius of the Bronx who created hip hop culture in the mid 1970s. The underground community is now international in scale, and its participants incorporate both originators and artists who were born into the culture, as well as outsiders who learned of the form through the popular media but are interested primarily in the preservation and protection of its original form.

The breadth of distinct styles included under the umbrella of 'hip hop' has also expanded, as the dancers who created them in separate communities and cultures around the world started to come together and share moves. Popping and locking both originated on the West Coast, and were considered a part of the funk music era long before they ever became associated with hip hop culture. And house dancing--the most recent style to become included in underground hip hop dance competitions--actually originated in the African American gay communities of Chicago and New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Most of the moves you can catch VFT doing at the Cityfolk festival come straight out of the parties and clubs of inner-city communities in the 1970s and 80s. They represents a new stage in the evolution of underground hip hop dance, as each member specializes in one or more of the core styles: popping, locking, breaking and house. Collectively they are the first all-female crew in the U.S. underground scene to battle (compete) in all four of these “original” street dances.

While b-boys and other underground street-dancers are concerned with knowing the original techniques and styles, and the history behind the moves, they are also constantly evolving and developing these art forms. This, in fact, is more hip hop than pure preservation ever would be. From the moment DJ Kool Herc turned a mere record player into an instrument that sparked the evolution of an entirely new genre of music, hip hop was about ingenuity and creativity. To this day, you must do something new in order to receive respect within the scene as a hip hop artist.

And just like other folk arts, the line between what is popular and what is traditional is quite blurred. What is clear is the vast diversity among what falls under the broad umbrella of folk, and the fact that every single one of these cultural forms involves a rich history, and a complex diversity of techniques and styles. And the artists who express themselves through these forms are just as diverse in where they fall along the rainbow of traditionalism versus contemporary, and everything in between.

So, when you see VFT rockin’ a street corner at the Cityfolk Festival, don’t let their hip urban flavor fool you, they have quite a lot in common with the other CityFOLK performers.

Nadeem Dlaikan’s first trip to the United States was a real eye-opener for the famed flute player. Now one of the most important and widely respected Arab-American musicians in the world, Dlaikan performed in a New York City bar “owned by an Arab” that featured not just the music of one country, but the music of the entire Middle East—the music of “Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Turks and Jews” all mixed together with no regard for borders or boundaries or politics.

It was a life-changing moment. Dlaikan had never encountered anything like that before in his travels—had never even imagined anything like that before—and when the bar owner invited Dlaikan to stay in the U.S., he eagerly accepted.

Nadeem Dlaikan, performing with the Dearborn Traditional Ensemble, will appear July 4-5 at the Cityfolk Festival, performing twice and hosting a workshop on Middle Eastern Music. The group includes Dlaikan, who plays the nye and related instruments, Abdul Karim Badr (oud), John Sarweh (qanun), Ossama Najah (durbeki) and Ibrahim El Saghir (tambourine).

A recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship in 2002 and a Michigan Heritage Award in 1994, Nadeem Dlaikan is internationally renowned as a player and maker of the nye, a reed flute common throughout the Middle East and prominent in Middle Eastern music for almost 4,000 years. Born in Lebanon and now living in the Detroit area, Dlaikan tours internationally, both solo and with the Dearborn Traditional Ensemble, performing traditional Arab music on the nye, mijwiz and munjarah flutes and the oboe-like mizmar.

Dlaikan was born in 1941 in Alye, Lebanon, a mountain town near Beirut. He made his first nye from local reeds after his older brother acquired one of the flutes but forbade Nadeem to touch it. The resourceful eight-year-old lad made his own and taught himself to play it. His parents tried to discourage Nadeem, as they were leery of the reed flute’s “lowly” historical associations with shepherds. Dlaikan finally won his parents over with his determination and talent, and it was with their blessings that he enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music. He attended the conservatory for seven years, studying with Naim Bitar, Lebanon’s leading flutist, and other traditional musicians.

Dlaikan moved to Beirut after graduating and landed a job accompanying Lebanon’s national folk dance ensemble. He toured the Middle East with the dance company and worked with several other artists as well, most notably the popular singer Tony Hana. He made his first trip to the U.S. in 1970, working with Lebanese singer Samir Tawfik. Dlaikan decided to stay when the tour was over.

He lived in New York for almost two years, playing with all kinds of ensembles, representing ethnic traditions and groups from throughout the Middle East. “[The nye] is the most popular in the Arab world,” Dlaikan says. “I started to work with all of them. I learned so much music. But all these cultures are so close to our culture.”

Dlaikan found that the nye was popular with audiences in the U.S. “It’s not something they’ve seen before,” he says. “It’s not a guitar or violin or keyboard or drums. It’s something unique, something you can’t see every day. It’s not like American flute. You have to make the sound with your fingers, from inside, from your feelings. You have to get the music from inside of you.”

His versatility and open-minded approach to making music served Dlaikan well when he moved from New York to Detroit, which has the largest, most diverse and most concentrated Arab community in the U.S. The community includes immigrants from 12 different countries, several religions and all generations. Despite that diversity, the multi-cultural enclave of first- , second- and third-generation immigrants is indeed a cohesive, organized community where people cross ethnic, national and cultural lines much more easily (and willingly) than they might in other parts of the world.

One of Dlaikan’s most important gifts is his ability to work with and move comfortably among the many different nationalities and ethnicities that make up the Arab community in Detroit. There’s a vibrant Arab music scene there, supporting both local groups and touring soloists and ensembles from the U.S. and beyond. The local groups play music at weddings, festivals, concerts and in bars and restaurants, and also accompany touring musicians in their local appearances. There is also a house concert circuit of sorts, where the musicians play classical and more traditional music to a listening (as opposed to partying) audience.

The Arab music scene in the Detroit area is like Dlaikan’s first New York City nightclub experience writ large. Not only are the bands composed of musicians from different countries and cultures, so are the audiences. Consequently, the musicians are expected to have a working knowledge of several different styles of Arab music. These groups also occasionally use non-traditional instruments like guitars and keyboards, but their hallmark is that the groups are versatile and wide-ranging, with eclectic repertoires.

In addition to his activities as a performer, Dlaikan is also an internationally acclaimed maker of the nye and related flutes. Using bamboo that he grows in his backyard—he transplanted it from California—Dlaikan makes nye (single reed with seven holes), munjarah (single reed, five holes) and mijwiz (double-reed) flutes, for himself, for his students and for a growing clientele of national and international players. Dliakan tours with a briefcase containing 12 flutes, each in a different key.

Dlaikan is a perfectionist as a craftsman and he occasionally rejects one of his flutes if it doesn’t meet his standards. “The quality of a particular reed, the nuances of the wood, even the craftsmanship don’t always match the particular pitch I am after,” he says. “I never sell an ‘out-of-tune’ flute, not even to students just starting out. Someday, when their musical ear develops, they’ll realize it. My ‘mistakes’ sell for a dollar at novelty Arabic shops around the city.”

Nadeem Dlaikan has recorded one CD of traditional Arab music. It is available for purchase at his website, as are handmade nye and mijwiz flutes, in both student and professional models. Dlaikan’s other non-performing activities include promoting concerts by touring Arab musicians, teaching and educational outreach work that he does on a national basis and broad-based cultural advocacy on behalf of the Arab-American community in Detroit and elsewhere in the U.S.

MATERIAL CULTURE--RIPS, CLIPS AND CREASES: Papercutting traditions

Believe it or not, the oldest known paper cut out is about 1500 years old: a symmetrical circle found in China. Like the art of paper making, the art of paper cutting stayed in China for decades before it spread to Japan, central Asia, Africa and eventually Europe and the Americas.

As with any kind of art, paper cutting can have religious or secular significance. Some artists fold the paper before cutting, creating symmetrical images. Think of the snowflakes and paper dolls you probably made as a child but much, much more intricate. Others go with freer designs, sometimes drawing the pattern first, and sometimes just letting their muse guide their hand. Regardless of their approach, paper cutting artists need an extremely deft hand and a very sharp knife or pair of scissors to implement their creative vision.

For centuries, Chinese paper cutting, or jian zhi was primarily used as decorations during holiday festivals. In rural China, the art was traditionally taught to girls, who were expected to master it before they were wed. However, most professional papercutters were male. Today Chinese papercutting decorate walls, windows and gifts as symbols of good luck and prosperity. Artists either use scissors to cut their design from up to 8 layers of paper fastened together, or they lay several sheets of paper on a soft foundation and cut the motif with a knife held vertically. The images are often symmetric, and usually cut from red paper.

Scherenschnitte (shear-n-SNIT-a), originated in Germany in the 1500s and came to America with the immigrants who became the Pennsylvania Dutch. It was a popular American folk art form in the 1800s, used to commemorate joyous occasions such as births, marriages and Christmas. Toledo-based artist Mary Gaynier creates works which from a distance appear to be doilies. Closer examination reveals some surprisingly whimsical scenes, such as auto mechanics at work or King Kong laying waste to a city.

In the Polish art of wycinanki (vee-chee-non-key), multiple layers of colored paper are folded and cut into symmetrical patterns and folk motifs. Traditionally, sheep shears were used to do this delicate work. Wyciananki also was a popular folk art in American in the 1800s, often decoupaged onto whitewashed walls and ceiling beams as an inexpensive way to bring cheery color to country cottages. Kaye Boiarksi of Columbus will demonstrate her skill at this art.

Mexican papel picado (pah-PEL pih-CAH-dough) designs are typically cut from a folded stack of tissue paper, using a guide and small chisels or small scissors. Skilled artisans can create as many as 40 banners at a time. Used as decorations for celebrations such as Easter, the Day of the Dead, weddings and quinceañeras, common themes include flowers, birds and skeletons. Modern day artists such as Catalina Delgado Trunk and Christopher Gibson of New Mexico have introduced modern images into their work, which can be found in museum collections and art installations in the region.

The form of asymmetrical papercutting which is probably the most familiar to you is French or English silhouettes. In the days before photography, silhouette artists carefully positioned their subject between a lamp and a light sheet of paper to create a clear shadow. The artist then used that shadow to cut the person’s image freehand. Silhouette cutting is enjoying a small renaissance today.

Want to know more?

CULTURE BUILDS COMMUNITY: Building Community at the Cityfolk Festival

Since its inception, the Cityfolk Festival has contributed to the health and vitality of the Greater Dayton community. For three days in a row, people of all ages, races, and abilities gather downtown to experience art, music and dancing from all over the world. It is a space where barriers break down between the East and the West, “First World” and “Third,” city and country…where hundreds gather to enjoy differences and discover commonalities through the customs, melodies and rhythms of the world.

Even as the effort to build community blooms organically at the Festival, Cityfolk is digging even deeper this year to begin a new trend of building intentional linkages between the Cityfolk Festival and the successful Culture Builds Community program.

In 2005, Cityfolk received a three-year grant from the Kettering Foundation to seed a new program called Culture Builds Community (CBC). Over the last two and a half years, Cityfolk has worked with partner agency East End Community Services Corporation to break down social barriers in the Twin Towers community by bringing residents together through the arts and culture. As CBC nears the end of its pilot phase, the residencies and cultural activities taking place through the program this summer mark the beginning of a new chapter that will join CBC and the Cityfolk Festival in an exciting new marriage. Here’s how we’re doing it:

Next year Cityfolk is planning to bring Culture Builds Community to more neighborhoods and make even stronger linkages between community building and the downtown festival. Stay tuned for more information about these exciting new Cityfolk developments.

TEACHERS CORNER: Welcome to Summer!

The school year has ended and summer has arrived! Its time to relax, renew and reenergize!

Mark July 3 – 5 on your calendar for the Cityfolk Festival. It is the perfect fit. The streets of Dayton are once again filled with a world of music, dance, crafts, art, food and culture. Check out Cityfolk's website for all the details, bios and sound bites you would like to sample.

The music, dance, art and performances are some of the best you will ever experience regionally and globally. Each day festival goers can travel across the country and around the world just by visiting the different stages, the dance pavilion, material culture displays, children’s areas and food booths!

The festival is also great for stimulating new ideas that you can take back to the classroom in the fall. The musicians and artists are true ambassadors of their music genre and art realm, as well as their region of the country and the world. You may find a new way to present your subject area by incorporating some of their music and art. You may want to think about bringing your students to one of Cityfolk’s performances or educational events during the school year. The Material Culture area showcases paper this year. You can meet artists who are masters of using and creating paper. Many of the artists have worked with schools and have great ideas that can be used by teachers. The Passport Stations will give young festival-goers a chance to try their hands at different kinds of paper art, reflect on the festival and take home a project. The Dayton Art Institute, Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and K-12 Gallery for Young People will all be presenting hands-on activities.

And don’t forget the Teachers’ Corner booth! We will have goodies and handouts for you. Make sure to sign up for the email newsletter at the booth. Throughout the year we send out ideas, resources and discounts to teachers.

So – come to the festival! Visit the Teachers’ Corner booth! Pick up your goody bag! And most of all -- enjoy yourself! See you July 3rd!

PROFILE BEHIND THE SCENES: 2008 Ohio Heritage Fellows

Every year since 2003, the Ohio Heritage Fellowships have been jointly sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Folk Arts Network and presented at the Cityfolk Festival. The Fellowships are designed to recognize and honor the finest and most influential Ohio folk artists. They honor Ohio master folk and traditional artists who carry forward the folk traditions of their families and communities through practice, teaching or advocacy. This year's awardees are bluegrass singer and guitarist Katie Laur, community organizer Faith Patterson and folklorists Howard and Judy Sacks.

Katie Laur, this year’s recipient of the Ohio Heritage Fellowship for Performing Arts, has performed at venues as prestigious as the Kennedy Center and as far afield as in Russia. A native of Paris, Tennessee, Laur has been a mainstay of the Cincinnati music scene for more than 30 years, breaking in with Jim McCall, Vernon McIntyre and the Appalachian Grass before forming her own band in 1975. One of the very few bluegrass bands of the time that was led by a woman, the Katie Laur Band had a central role in the thriving southwest Ohio bluegrass scene, playing clubs, concerts, major festivals, and holding court at Aunt Maudie’s Country Garden in Cincinnati. Laur has hosted the bluegrass radio program Music from the Hills of Home on WNKU since 1989.

Faith Patterson, the recipient of one of this year’s two Ohio Heritage Fellowships for Community Leadership, is a longtime community leader and arts activist in Yellow Springs and the driving force behind the annual blues and jazz festival held each fall in the village. Patterson was one of the founding members of African American Cross Cultural Works (AACW), a non-profit volunteer organization formed in 1991 to sustain the efforts of the African-American Cultural Week, a community initiative to improve cross-cultural understanding that began as an Antioch Student’s senior project. The Blues Fest, the AACW’s main vehicle for its work, was first staged in 1997 and has presented dozens of local and regional acts as well as such well-known national performers as Erykah Badu, Eric Bibb, Guy Davis and comedian Dave Chappelle, whose father, the late Bill Chappelle, was a co-founder with Patterson of the Blues Fest.

Howard and Judy Sacks, the recipients of this year’s second Ohio Heritage Fellowship for Community Leadership, have dedicated their lives to the traditional arts and have shared their knowledge to document, preserve and present those arts to a wide audience. Howard Sacks, a sociology professor and director of the Rural Life Center of Kenyon College, and Judy Sacks, an affiliated scholar in Kenyon’s American Studies department, are lifelong collaborators, folk music scholars, performers (Howard on guitar, Judy on mandolin), co-authors of the award-winning book Way Up North in Dixie: A Black Family’s Claim to the Confederate Anthem and producers of the 1985 album Seems Like Romance to Me: Traditional Fiddle Tunes from Ohio. Fixtures at Kenyon College since 1975, Howard and Judy Sacks directed the Gambier Folk Festival for more than 15 years. Howard was selected in 1994 as Kenyon College’s first recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorship.

Want to know more?

Cityfolk Festival-goers are in for a rare treat this year on the closing night of the Festival, July 5. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans will be the penultimate band on the National City Main Stage that night “warming up” for the closing act of the 2008 Cityfolk Festival: Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band. Many of you know already of my deep affinity for the “Dirty Dozen,” but I’d like to focus your attention on the immense talents of Poncho Sanchez and his band, and their latest Concord Picante recording, Raise Your Hand.

Poncho was born in Laredo, TX and part of his legend is that his 13-year old mother fled to the U.S. after hiding under the bed as revolutionary Pancho Villa stormed her village. After moving to California, Poncho began his long musical career in 1975 as a conguero (conga player) and vocalist with lyrical vibraphonist Cal Tjader, branching out into collaborations with Hugh Masekela, Tower of Power, Mongo Santamaria, among many others. Poncho was rewarded with the Grammy for best Latin Jazz album in 2000 for his recording Latin Soul. Poncho has been voted as the #1 percussionist by Downbeat and JazzTimes readers over the past three years and along with his nonet has been recognized as the leading Latin Jazz band throughout the world.

Poncho’s latest release, Raise Your Hand, is an amalgam of Latin Jazz, Cuban and salsa sounds, along with some good ol’ nostalgic soul and funk courtesy of Stax recording legends; Booker T. Jones (Hammond B-3), Steve Cropper (guitar), and Eddie Floyd (vocals). Also along for the ride adding his signature style to the recording is legendary James Brown saxophonist Maceo Parker.

“Raise Your Hand,” the classic Motown tune “Shotgun” with Maceo leading the signature opening alto sax line, and “Knock on Wood,” are all classic soul/funk tunes capably handled by Poncho, his band, and the legends from Booker T. and the MG’s! Your feet will want to move and you’ll find yourself singing along to these classics given an added propulsive beat from Poncho and his band.

Latin Grammy winner Andy Montanez adds his Puerto Rican Sonero voice to the beautiful salsa song, “El Agua De Belen,” and another guest artist, Cuban legend Jose “Perico” Hernandez interprets the old Cuban tune, “¿Dònde Va Chichi?” Finally, Poncho leads his strong vocals to the Latin Jazz workout, “Amor con Amor,” (especially note the strong trombone solo and his clever quotes during the solo.)

Arguably the strongest cuts on the CD are the ones where Poncho and his nonet strut their stuff. “Tropi Blue” is a strong horn and conga driven piece with another powerful trombone solo from Sanchez band stalwart, Francisco Torres. “Rosarito” is a light, breezy, summery tune with a light, easy flute lead; “Maceo’s House” is a showcase latin jazz original for Mr. Parker based on a previous solo, and “Gestation” is another strong jazz melody with an extended Poncho conga solo and other strong solos offered by his band.

In explaining the genesis behind Raise Your Hand, Poncho readily admitted, “I love soul music -- the whole thing, from Motown and Stax to James Brown.” However, he will always stay true to the Latin jazz style he has come to master and define. “When we perform, I tell people, ‘This is Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band,’” strongly accenting the words “Latin Jazz.”

I encourage you to come listen (and dance!) to Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band at the Cityfolk Festival on Saturday, July 5 at 9:30 pm (or so). Even though I don’t think that Booker T. and the MG’s will be present, I guarantee that Poncho will present a memorable set of his songs and maybe, if we ask nicely, he’ll break into “Shotgun,” or “Knock on Wood,” that we can dance the 2008 Cityfolk Festival out on!

From time to time, stories on NPR, in the New York Times and in other places catch the eye (or ear) of the Cityfolk staff. These are stories about traditional music, handicrafts, ways of life...stories that deepen our understanding and appreciation for the folkways of the world. We will keep bringing as much of this to Dayton as we can; in the meantime, take a listen to this:

If you find a story that you'd like to share with other Cityfolk ENews readers, please send us the link and we'll put it the hopper for possible inclusion.

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