1983 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL: NEW JERSEY AUDIO LOG SHEETS
About the Project
Audio documentation has played a crucial part in capturing the many stories, performances, exchanges, and demonstrations that have taken place on the National Mall as part of the Festival of American Folklife (now Smithsonian Folklife Festival). For each program, documentation volunteers generated detailed "class style" notes to accompany audio recordings which often include presenter and participant names, subject keywords, song titles, and brief descriptions of the events taking place in real time. These notes are often the richest (or only) source of information about who was present and provide key references for understanding and interpreting the recorded content. While the styles, formats, and spelling accuracy vary across logs, they nevertheless serve as fundamental link between what actually took place and what is documented in audio, photo, and, video formats. The 1983 Festival program brought a panoply of presentations from New Jersey to the National Mall, ranging from ethnic celebrations of African Americans, Japanese Americans, Italian Americans and others to craft demonstrations featuring skills and techniques of silk weaving, herbalism and glassblowing, and on to the diverse occupations associated with maritime trades and the sacred songs of menhaden fishermen. New Jersey is populated by a large number of ethnic groups, many of which have clustered in city neighborhoods. There is a Cuban community in Union City, a Portuguese community in Newark, a Hungarian community in New Brunswick, and a Japanese community in rural Seabrook Farms. For many ethnic groups folk traditions are their symbols of identity. Their ethnicity is expressed in foodways, language, music, dance, and festivals (often in ethnic costume). More information about the program including participant names can be found here.
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