| a_s1576_01_c77-011 | Bill Butler interview | Sound | Interviewing
Interviews
Performers
Performing arts
Oral narratives
Life histories
Jamaican Americans
Parades
African Americans
Bands (Music)
Musicians | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Bill Butler interview
- Date
- 1977-01-25
- Description
- One audio cassette. Recorded at Butler's Key West home. Butler discusses the woman who formed the band; the instruments he plays; the kind of music the band plays; playing for funerals and parades; nicknames for people in the band; the origins of the band's name; and discusses his brother and father.
- Collection
| a_s1576_01_c77-012a | Mrs. Walsh interview on cigar making | Sound | Interviews
Cigar making
Cigars
Oral narratives
Tobacco
Cigar makers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Mrs. Walsh interview on cigar making
- Date
- 1977-01-26
- Description
- One audio cassette. Walsh owned a cigar making factory in Key West. Walsh discusses when and how she opened her factory, the mechanics of running her business, how they make cigars, and she describes her sole steady employee, George Culmer.
- Collection
| a_s1576_01_c77-012b | Al Boza interview | Sound | Folk dance
Interviews
Carnival
Oral narratives
Festivals | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Al Boza interview
- Date
- 1977-01-26
- Description
- One audiocassette. Boza describes his personal history and the Comparsa carnivals in Key West. He helped train the dancers and musicians who participated in the carnivals.
- Collection
| a_s1576_01_c77-020 | Interview with Lee Whyms and Ken Rahming of the Key West Junkanoo Band | Sound | African Americans
Calypso music
Interviews
Musical instruments
Life histories
Oral histories
Music performance
Bands (Music)
Musical groups
Musicians | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Interview with Lee Whyms and Ken Rahming of the Key West Junkanoo Band
- Date
- 1977-01-28
- Description
- One audio cassette. Whyms played the saw with a butter knife, and Rahming was a conga drum player. Interviews on side 1, recorded music on side 2. Whyms describes how he learned how to play the saw from Blackshirt, an old man from Key West; when the band was formed; how Marion Stevens discovered the band in an alley in Key West; how he plays the fine tooth crosscut saw. Rahming describes how he played the "coon-hide" drum (which was heated by fire to tune) when he first learned to play the drums at age sixteen; how his father came to Key West for the sponging industry; when he came home at night; how the Nassau-like parades began in Key West; how he visited Nassau and bought Calypso records, influencing his style of Calypso music to reflect Cuban and Bahamian characteristics; how he learned the limbo from Bill Butler; how Calypso is usually only played by men. On side 2 they play examples of Calypso recordings, not included here due to copyright restrictions.
- Collection
| a_s1576_01_c77-021 | Interview with conch shell player Rev. Thurlow Weed | Sound | Shells
Interviews
Oral narratives
Musical instruments
Life histories
Music performance
Oral histories
Musicians
Preachers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Interview with conch shell player Rev. Thurlow Weed
- Date
- 1977-01-30
- Description
- One audio cassette. Interview on side 1, music performance on side 2. Thurlow describes how he doesn't use music notes to play the conch shell; how shells are used for communication on boats in Key West, Bahamas, Hawaii; how he holds a BA in music; and how he plays the instrument. He also demonstrates playing the conch shell.
- Collection
| a_s1576_t86-247 | WPA field recordings in Key West (January 1940 recording expedition) | Sound | Fieldwork
New Deal, 1933-1939
Interviews
Public service employment
Folklorists
Public welfare
United States. Work Projects Administration
Bahamian American
Sea songs
Bands (Music)
Performing arts
Horn music
Music performance
Singing
African Americans
Accordion music
Musicians
Singers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
WPA field recordings in Key West (January 1940 recording expedition)
- Date
- 1940-01-23
- Description
- One reel to reel. These recordings were created by Florida folklorist Kennedy and photographer Cook in January 1940. They created a total of eighteen 12-inch acetate records that month. On this recording Rolle plays with his band on several Bahamian folk songs. For more detailed information on the recordings, see S 1579, box 3, for copies of the original LOC indexes. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) — after 1939, the Works Projects Administration — was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the Roosevelt Administration that employed over 8.5 million people between 1935 and 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included the Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, but later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for preservation of folk traditions for future use. In Florida, the FWP was based out of Jacksonville, and directed by historian Carita Doggett Corse. Folklorist Stetson Kennedy directed the Florida Folklife section. Seven recording expeditions were conducted in Florida. Two were conducted between 1935 and 1937, before the creation of the Florida Folklore Section: one by Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston, and the other by John and Ruby Lomax. After 1939, five more were conducted by Florida's FWP staff: Kennedy, Hurston, Robert Cook, Alton Morris, Corse, Robert Cornwell, John Filareton, and Herbert Halpert (of the Joint Committee on Folk Art's Southern Recording Expedition.) Recording equipment was loaned to Florida's WPA program by the Library of Congress' Archive of the American Folk Song (later the American Folk Center). The field recordings were made on acetate disks, usually recorded at 78 rpm (although occasionally at 33 rpm). Because these disks were shipped from Washington DC to Florida, then to the recording site, and then back to Washington, these disks often were not of the highest sonic quality. Several had surface scratches and many had various recording speeds. In 1986, the FFP staff made copies of many of these recordings onto reel to reels for inclusion to the Florida Folklife Archive. The originals are still housed with the Library of Congress.
- Collection
| a_s1576_t86-248 | WPA field recordings in Key West and Jacksonville (January 1940 recording expedition) | Sound | Fieldwork
New Deal, 1933-1939
Interviews
Public service employment
Folklorists
Public welfare
United States. Work Projects Administration
Bahamian American
Sea songs
Bands (Music)
Performing arts
Horn music
Music performance
Singing
African Americans
Accordion music
Elderly, the
Tales
Narratives
Supernatural legends
Personal experience narratives
Musicians
Storytellers
Singers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
WPA field recordings in Key West and Jacksonville (January 1940 recording expedition)
- Date
- 1940-01
- Description
- One reel to reel. These recordings were created by Florida folklorist Kennedy and photographer Cook in January 1940. They created a total of eighteen 12-inch acetate records that month. On this recording Rolle plays with his band on several Bahamian folk songs in Key West; White telling stories and songs; and the 85 year old Barnwell, who grew up on a plantation in Nassau County. She tells stories of her 'mammies,' and sings songs from her childhood. For more detailed information on the recordings, see S 1579, box 3, for copies of the original LOC indexes. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) - after 1939, the Works Projects Administration - was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the Roosevelt Administration that employed over 8.5 million people between 1935 and 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included the Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, but later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for preservation of folk traditions for future use. In Florida, the FWP was based out of Jacksonville, and directed by historian Carita Doggett Corse. Folklorist Stetson Kennedy directed the Florida Folklife section. Seven recording expeditions were conducted in Florida. Two were conducted between 1935 and 1937, before the creation of the Florida Folklore Section: one by Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston, and the other by John and Ruby Lomax. After 1939, five more were conducted by Florida's FWP staff: Kennedy, Hurston, Robert Cook, Alton Morris, Corse, Robert Cornwell, John Filareton, and Herbert Halpert (of the Joint Committee on Folk Art's Southern Recording Expedition.) Recording equipment was loaned to Florida's WPA program by the Library of Congress' Archive of the American Folk Song (later the American Folk Center). The field recordings were made on acetate disks, usually recorded at 78 rpm (although occasionally at 33 rpm). Because these disks were shipped from Washington DC to Florida, then to the recording site, and then back to Washington, these disks often were not of the highest sonic quality. Several had surface scratches and many had various recording speeds. In 1986, the FFP staff made copies of many of these recordings onto reel to reels for inclusion to the Florida Folklife Archive. The originals are still housed with the Library of Congress.
- Collection
| a_s1592_06_tape24 | Earnest "Popeye" Thompson interview for the Maritime Heritage Survey Project | Sound | Field recordings
Interviews
Fish
Boats and boating
Local history
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
Racism
Race relations
Sea turtles
Sponges
Greek Americans
Musicians | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
| a_s1640_22_tape07 | Irene and Emelia Fernandez interview at the Florida Folk Festival | Sound | Fieldwork
Interviews
Dance
Performing arts
Arts, Cuban
Cuban Americans
Latinos
Life histories
Personal experience narratives
Comparsa tradition
Conga (dance)
Oral history
Family history
Costumes
Clothing and dress
Dancers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
Irene and Emelia Fernandez interview at the Florida Folk Festival
- Date
- 1991-05-25
- Description
- Two audio cassettes. Emelia Fernandez and her daughter Irene discusses their lives and the comparsas tradition. Fernandez founded a comparsas dance troupe in Key West. Danny Acosta led the band that accompanied the dances. The Cuban dance has African roots, and is usually performed in long conga lines. Dancers dress in elaborate, ruffled outfits. The tradition began in Key West in 1938. Emelia herself arrived in Florida in 1959. She and her daughter Irene revived the dance tradition in the early 1990s. For images of their performance, see S 1577, v. 60, slides S92-557 - S92-567. The Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program began in 1983 with a NEA grant of $22,000. The program provided an opportunity for master folk artists to share technical skills and cultural knowledge with apprentices in order to keep the tradition alive. Apprentices must have had some experience in the tradition and agreed to train for at least six months. The first project director was Blanton Owen, later replaced by folklorist Peter Roller. The program was continued each year through 2004.
- Collection
| a_s1717_02_tape003 | Meeting of the Florida Folklife Council, 21 November 1986 | Sound | Public officer
Musicians
Meetings
Folklife
Folklore
Arts administrators
Oral communication
Public officers
Public officials
Folklorists | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/catalog_audio.jpg |
Meeting of the Florida Folklife Council, 21 November 1986
- Date
- 1986-11-21
- Description
- Three audio cassettes. Held at the Days Inn in Key West. Council Members present: Pat Waterman (Chair), Ronald Foreman, Mick Moloney, Catherine Sugrue. Members absent: Beverly Carter, Jeanette Cypress, Bill Green; Florida Folklife Program Staff: Ormond Loomis (Director), Iris Green (secretary), Peter Roller (Folks Arts Coordinator), Merri Belland (Folklife Specialist); Visitors: Worth Long (National Endowment for the Arts). For minutes and details of the meeting, see the S 1717, box 1, folder 1. The Florida Folklife Council (FFC) was created by legislation in 1979 (79-322, SB 1203) within the Department of State to advise the Secretary of State on issues relating to folk arts and folk life as well as stimulate and encourage statewide public interest and participation in folk arts and folklore, sponsor conferences and workshops throughout the state, and make recommendations for the development of a statewide Florida Folk Arts program. The Florida Folklife Council consists of seven members appointed by the Secretary of State for four-year terms.
- Collection
Listen: The Assorted Selections Program