The Folk Heritage Committee by Laura Boosinger Western North Carolina has a rich history in the traditional arts. While Marguerite Butler and Olive Dame Campbell were beginning the work of the John C. Campbell Folk School and Cecil Sharp was searching the Southern Mountains for English ballads, Madison County’s own Bascom Lamar Lunsford was combing […]

Etowah Christian Harmony Singing by Irene Moser Now in its 103rd year of celebrating the “sacred harp” of the human voice, the Etowah community in Henderson County remains a pivotal inspiration to the singers of western North Carolina. Participating in a tradition of reading music in shaped notes, extending at least to the English Renaissance, […]

Helen Cable Vance and the North Shore Historical Association by Alan Jabbour Together with my wife, Karen Singer Jabbour, and two colleagues, Philip E. Coyle of Western Carolina University and Paul Webb of TRC Environmental Corporation, I undertook a study in 2004 of the cultural tradition of cemetery decoration, sometimes known as Decoration Day. The […]

The Cockman Family by John E. Cockman, Sr. Born and raised in Sherrill’s Ford, North Carolina, the Cockman Family has preserved and presented old-time gospel hymns to audiences for nearly 25 years. Their traditional style features four-part family harmonies with the accompaniment of traditional bluegrass instrumentation. Since launching their performing career in February of 1988, […]

Student Action with Farmworkers: Labor Advocacy Group by April Leanne Simon Every year, hundreds of thousands of people migrate to North Carolina. These men, women, and children arrive with the harvest season to work in fields of fruits and vegetables, pine trees and tobacco, and meat and poultry processing plants. They are largely hidden away […]

The Heritage Quilters by Joyce Joines Newman The Heritage Quilters are a diverse group of women and men from Halifax, Vance, and Warren counties, North Carolina, who organized in 2001, based on their shared belief that quilt-making is one of the most widely known and personally experienced crafts for many North Carolinians. The more than […]

Green Grass Cloggers: Folk Dance Group by Leanne E. Smith The weekend of the North Carolina Folklore Society’s 2012 annual meeting in Greenville, NC, marked forty years since the Green Grass Cloggers debuted at the 1972 World Champion Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention on April Fool’s Day—a cosmic date for a group of hairy counter-culture college […]

Christine Wai and the Karen Planning Committee: Preserving Karen Culture in North Carolina by Flicka Bateman For almost a decade, the US Department of State has granted priority status for admission to refugees from Burma. Out of the annual quota of approximately 18,000 slots reserved for refugees from South East Asia, 17,500 have been filled […]

Hawkeye Indian Cultural Center: Education Hub and Resource Connector by Jesalyn Keziah Since 1997, Hawkeye Indian Cultural Center (HICC) has provided services vital to preserving, celebrating, and illuminating cultural traditions of the Native Americans of the sandhills in and around Hoke County. Their mission is to strengthen families, unite people through cultural enrichment, and enhance […]

Blue Monday Shad Fry: Longtime Traditional Foodways Event by John McElwee Fifty miles into North Carolina on the Cape Fear River, a string of modest houses and a couple of churches mark the rural communities of East Arcadia, Sandyfield, and Carver’s Creek, in Bladen and Columbus counties. Their small population comprises a cluster of African-American […]