As part of the Virginia Folklife Program’s Apprenticeship Program, Isha M. Renta Lopez of Fredericksburg trained with a leader in bomba dance, Margarita Tata Cepeda, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The Virginia Folklife Program works to preserve traditions from eel-pot weaving to Gullah Geechee-style gospel singing via its Apprenticeship Program. Part of the commonwealth’s humanities council, Virginia Humanities, the Virginia Folklife Program’s 2022-23 Apprenticeship Program supported eight teams with funding for yearlong mentorships in a wide range of folkways and traditions to perpetuate that heritage and share it with the wider public. A new documentary that follows the eight teams as they learn folk traditions will premiere at the Library of Virginia on Friday, July 7. The screening is part of the two-day Celebration of Virginia Folklife held July 7-8 at the library as part of its yearlong 200th anniversary celebration.
“I would say what’s really different about this event is I feel like in the arts world, just because of the way our institutions are set up, you don’t often get to see community-based artists elevated at a venue like the Library of Virginia,” says State Folklorist and Director of the Virginia Folklife Program Katy Clune. “And the fact that you’re able to see these folks celebrated and having them come from all over, all parts of Virginia, and the film shows you everything from ballad singing in Rural Retreat to communities blues dancing in Norfolk, I don’t know what other program is doing work similar to ours.”
The event kicks off with the documentary screening at 5:30 p.m. on July 7 (the film will also be shown on loop during Saturday’s festivities). Members of four of the apprenticeship program teams will be in attendance, including D. Brad Hatch, who has trained with fellow Patawomeck tribal members David Onks IV and Reagan Andersen to weave eel pots, traps for catching eels; Kazem Davoudian and Alexander Sabet, who focused on learning the tar, an Iranian long-necked string instrument (update: Davoudian and Sabet will not be in attendance); Isha M. Renta Lopez of Fredericksburg, who trained with a bomba dance master, Margarita Tata Cepeda, in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Bernadette “B.J.” Lark, who mentored Alanjha Harris in Gullah Geechee-style gospel traditions.
“It’s essentially eight short documentaries about the eight apprenticeship teams, and it really gives kind of behind-the-scenes intimate insight into the cultural context of the traditions these folks are working on,” Clune says. “We wouldn’t normally be able to go into their workshop or all visit the tribal center.”
A stage presentation will follow the screening, and the attending artists will receive a certificate signifying the successful completion of their apprenticeships.
Participants in the 2022-23 Virginia Folklife Program Apprenticeship Program practiced Gullah Geechee-style gospel singing.
On Saturday, July 8, the Library of Virginia celebration from noon to 4 p.m. features performances, demonstrations and family activities highlighting past and present Virginia musical traditions.
“Our main goal Saturday is to have more of an open event where people can interact,” says Gregg Kimball, the library’s director of public services and outreach. “We’ll also be featuring some things from our collection that connect to the performances; obviously, the library is here because we have these enormous collections of Virginia history and culture.”
Performers include Richmond’s own Kadencia, presenting their bomba, plena and salsa sounds dedicated to preserving Afro-Puerto Rican music. Drummer Maurice Sanabria will be participating in the 2023-24 apprenticeship program, where he will train in plena drumming traditions with an artist in Puerto Rico. Eddie Bond will showcase his old-time fiddling talents. He’s the 2018 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship winner, which Clune says is “the highest honor that the federal government bestows on folk and traditional artists.” The Richmond Shape-Note Singers perpetuate the art of early American shape-note traditions, which are a social form of singing using music books printed in shape notes that utilize syllables (“fa,” “la,” “sol,” etc.) to indicate pitch more easily to the singer (think “Do-Re-Mi” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music”).
“Shape note singing is very collaborative, and there are people across the state and across the country who do it,” Kimball says. “It was the way that people learned how to sing in the early 20th century ... it’s participatory, and of course it’s primarily sacred singing; it’s based in religious traditions.”
Unique music-related items from the library’s collection will also be on display, such as the 1839 “Virginia Reels,” the first written collection of Southern fiddle tunes. Children’s activities includes music-themed coloring projects, crafting with quilt squares and even building a one-stringed didley bow instrument. An instrument “petting zoo” will expose kids to everything from ukuleles to mountain dulcimers.
Kimball says of the two-day experience, “We want to give people a flavor of the diversity of the state and its musical traditions. ... Sometimes we think of these as musics that have died off or are old traditions that don’t exist anymore, but there’s still plenty people in regions of Virginia playing these musics that are part of communities that have been playing them for hundreds of years ... these are living traditions, and the living tradition part is what the Apprenticeship Program is all about, is making sure that these traditions survive.”
Clune adds, “The point of the Virginia Folklife Program is to support artists and tradition bearers who are working today to reinvent and sustain cultural traditions that are centuries old in Virginia, or that they brought here when they moved to the state, and so documenting a moment in time of how these folks are practicing these traditions in their communities is very mission-centric, too.”
This will be the second year the Virginia Folklife Program has produced a documentary featuring the apprenticeship participants, but it is the first time the Charlottesville-based organization is hosting a screening and event in Richmond for the Apprenticeship Program. Clune hopes hosting more screenings will expose more people to the heritage they’re working to preserve.
“I think there is something to be said about the intimacy that format can offer,” Clune says of the documentary. “You get to see artists and tradition bearers talk about their expertise in their homes and workshops, the places that are important to them. And it’s also … a lasting document of their work that benefits their professional portfolio, but that also serves to connect their work to audiences around Virginia.”
The goal is to take the show on the road and screen the film in cities near where the apprenticeship participants reside. “We want to make connections with audiences around Virginia, as opposed to always just presenting the celebration in Charlottesville,” she says. The 2022-23 Apprenticeship Program marks the 20th year of the initiative.
Clune says of A Celebration of Virginia Folklife, “I think the takeaway for people will be really a sense of uplift to see the different ways these artists are doing meaningful work for their communities across Virginia, and those communities are all very different, but in the end, the values of keeping the best of the past relevant for the future and passing things on to the next generation and honoring our ancestors, those unite across the board, and putting a spotlight on that is what the Virginia Folklife Program is all about.”
A Celebration of Virginia Folklife will be held Friday, July 7, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, July 8, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Library of Virginia.
