“Weaving Across Time: Contemporary Cherokee Basket Making, Land, and Identity” is open now through April 22 at the Center for Craft in downtown Asheville. The exhibition features the work of nine contemporary river cane and white oak basket weavers from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: ᏚᏍᏓᏯᎫᎾᏱ Gabriel Crow, Faye Junaluska, Lucille Lossiah, Ramona Lossie, ᏯᏗ ᎺᏂ Betty Maney, ᏗᎳᏂ Dylan Morgan, ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary W. Thompson, ᏎᎳᏂ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Sarah Thompson, and Patricia Welch, who are active in the creative resurgence of basket weaving in Cherokee.

Eastern North Carolina is home to many excellent African American musicians. Wilbur Croom is one of them. A 1950 graduate of historic Adkin High School in Kinston, Croom has traveled the world as a musician and vocalist. He also served in the United States Air Force, where he honed his musical skills, until his retirement in 1976. Croom is featured in the African American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina. Tomorrow - December 2 - Croom will share his story at The Front Porch series, a storytelling series that celebrates community members who have shaped Lenoir County. This event is hosted by the 1901 Building Group and Ms. Choci Gray at the 1901 Building in downtown Kinston and is sponsored by the N.C. Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Details below: Location: The 1901 Building, 129 N. Queen St. Kinston, NC Time: 5-7pm.

Ballad singer and storyteller Bobby McMillon passed away on November 28th at the age of 69. We have lost a stalwart keeper of Appalachian songs, stories, and memories, and a man of humor and generosity with all he knew. Bobby was a 2000 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient, and in 19-20 he was a mentor in our Folklife Apprenticeship program. Bobby wove history, plant-lore, genealogies, and the land itself into his performances to give his listeners the fullness of rural culture and life. With Bobby’s friends and family in our hearts, we share this excerpt of his Heritage Award biography: . Born in Lenoir in 1951, Robert Lynn "Bobby" McMillon was heir to numerous strands of Appalachian culture. From his father's family in Cocke County, TN, he learned Primitive Baptist hymns, and traditional stories and ballads. From his mother's people in Yancy and Mitchell Counties, NC, he heard "booger tales, haint tales," and legend. In Caldwell County he went to school with relatives of Tom Dula, and heard ballads, gospel songs, and Carter family recordings. He was always drawn to old songs and stories, but as a teenager he discovered the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore and got a glimpse of the historical background and significance of the things he knew. This inspired an enthusiasm for folklore documentation that has made him an invaluable resource to his community. By the age of 17, he was recording family members, neighbors, and friends who knew old songs and stories. His greatest gift is his rare ability to convey a feeling for the world from which the stories come. "The real storytelling," he says, "was so intertwined that a bear tale or a fish tale or a witch tale or a tale of some history that had really happened—a family tale—they were all equally believable." When he tells a story, he draws upon deep memories of the people who told it to him. "Paw made the tale come alive for me," he says. "I can still see him in his chair, knocking ashes from his pipe, and hear his voice conveying pictures in my mind through the melody of his words. And now Paw and his tales live on in the memories and lives of his children, grandchildren, and me."

At the Center for Pioneer Life in Burnsville, 8th generation Yancey County resident Dylan Wilson practices the traditional agricultural and construction skills he learned from spending time with his elders as a youth. As the farm manager for the property, Dylan has built examples of an early settlement cabin, spring house, shed, and hog pen using only hand tools and the draft horses he also still uses to plow the land. “I wish I’d asked even more questions,” he says of the older people he grew up with, but it’s now his knowledge that the Center is hoping to preserve and pass down. . @centerforpioneerlife #ncfolklife #yanceycounty #cabinbuilding #vernaculararchitecture

North Carolina has lost another of its most beloved artists this week. H Ju Nie of Greensboro, backstrap weaver and recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Heritage Award, passed away on October 19 at the age of 76. Ju received the award along with fellow weaver H Ngach Rahlan. Their works are among the finest of North Carolina’s weaving traditions, and together they held a world of knowledge and culture alive for their community. We mourn Jue Nie’s passing and hold her family and friends in our thoughts. Learn more about her in this excerpt from her Heritage Award bio. . The stunningly intricate designs and dark fields that distinguish the fine weaving of women from the Central Highlands of Vietnam have become a unique part of Greensboro’s textile history. There are more Central Highlanders in Greensboro than anywhere, except the Central Highlands themselves. The Rhadé, Jarai, Koho, Bahnar and others known as Montagnards or Dega, experienced continual warfare as the French battled Vietnamese nationalists. The victory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1975 spelled death or imprisonment for Montagnard-Dega soldiers and civilians. H Ju Nie’s husband escaped across Cambodia to Thailand, arriving in Greensboro in 1986. Ju joined him in 1993. H Ju Nie and H Ngach Rahlan continue to warp their backstrap looms and weave the baby carriers, blankets, shirts, skirts and bags that still identify ethnicity and rites of passage in the Montagnard-Dega community. Although few wear traditional clothing regularly, its meaning as ceremonial and celebratory dress has increased in importance for many. H Ju Nie, a Rhadé from Ban Ma Thout, recalls learning weaving from her mother and other village women at age 15. She is accomplished at warping complex geometric patterns and can create reptiles, birds, rifles and airplanes with supplementary warp patterning and alternating warp floats. H Ju Nie sends weaving patterns back to relatives in Vietnam who have lost continuity with the tradition due to disruption and relocation. In Greensboro, the vivid weaving of both women represents an entire culture for many who are too young to remember the mountains of their heritage.

“If you wanted to be good, you listened to Arvil.” —Bryan Sutton, musician . We are so saddened to hear of the passing of North Carolina Heritage Award recipient Arvil Freeman, of Madison and Buncombe counties. Arvil left his mark on the music traditions of the mountains through a lifetime of dedication to his fiddle and to the many students he mentored over the years. So many are reflecting today on the gift of teaching that Arvil gave to them. . We’d like to share Arvil’s biography from the Heritage Awards as our thoughts turn to his family and many, many friends. . “Fiddler Arvil Freeman of Buncombe County has performed and passed on his traditions for over fifty years and is known for his smooth and melodic long-bow style. Born into a musical family in the Paw Paw community of Madison County, Arvil grew up playing local parties and dances with his brother, Gordon, and their friend Ralph Lewis, a former member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. Arvil learned many tunes as a boy from Tommy Hunter, a 1989 North Carolina Heritage Award recipient. Arvil plays somewhere “in between” old-time and bluegrass, and he respects the traditions' shared repertoire. “Those tunes have always been around,” he said. He has won countless fiddling competitions, including the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, Union Grove, and Georgia's Official State Fiddlers’ Convention. He has a reputation as the fiddler in the Asheville area, having performed for decades with the lead band at the annual Shindig on the Green, and at numerous festivals and concerts in the region. Now Arvil devotes his time to teaching rather than performing and he instructs his students by ear, the old-time way. Pupils praise his calm and patient teaching style and demeanor. Many of them, including Josh Goforth, Emma and Bryan McDowell, and Danielle Bishop used the knowledge and skills they gained from him to become professional musicians and well-known contest winners themselves.” . @ncartscouncil

The North Carolina Pottery Center, one of our folklife State Arts Resource partners, hosts the annual NC Potters Conference at the Historic Luck’s Cannery in Seagrove, one of our state’s most significant and historic communities of potters. Mark your calendars for the upcoming conference, March 3-6, 2022! . This year’s theme is “Korean Influences”, highlighting traditional and contemporary Korean potters, techniques, and styles and their influence on pottery in North Carolina. . Demonstrating Artists include Master Lee Hang Koo, Yeonoon Kim, and more, with speakers Steven Young Lee, Sunkoo Yuh, Yoonjee Kwak, and Seo Eo. Learn more and register at www.ncpottersconference.org

Recommended reading- “What is Folklore Today?” up on the @bittersoutherner now. Our friends Sarah Bryan of @ncfolklife and Emily Hilliard (recently of @wvfolklife and now with @midatlanticarts) joined Lance and April Ledbetter of @dusttodigital in conversation about how we define and support folklife/folklore in the 21st century. It’s a wonderful discussion exploring the expansiveness of the idea of folklore and the dynamism of the cultural knowledge and practice of everyday life.

#Repost @ncartscouncil ・・・ We are pleased to announce that five traditional artist teams from western North Carolina have received the third annual North Carolina Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship awards. ⁣ ⁣ Richard Bowman of Mount Airy will mentor Chad Ritchie of Taylorsville in the old-time fiddle tunes he learned from his community in southwestern Virginia and the Round Peak area of North Carolina. The two are pictured in photo one. (The duo is pictured in photo one, Richard on the right, and Chad on the left.)⁣ ⁣ Asheville’s Rodney Sutton will mentor Willard Watson III of Boone in the flatfoot dancing style of Watson’s great-grandfather, Willard Watson Sr., and in the percussive dance styles of Sutton’s long-time dance group, the Green Grass Cloggers. ⁣ Luthier and musician Joe Thrift of Elkin will mentor Ben Masterson of Winston-Salem and Kelly Sivy of Elkin in instrument-making for the old-time music tradition.⁣ ⁣ Marshall resident Josh Goforth will mentor Tim McWilliams of Asheville in the traditional music of the Madison and Buncombe county region. ⁣ ⁣ Luthier James Condino of Asheville will mentor Zach Dease of Advance in the traditional crafting of stringed instruments, particularly guitars. ⁣ ⁣ The N.C. Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeships program, launched in 2019, supports 12-month apprenticeships in the folk and traditional arts of the many cultural communities within the state’s Appalachian Regional Commission counties. South Arts funds the program through its In These Mountains: Central Appalachian Folk Arts & Culture Initiative.⁣ Mentor artists are tradition-bearers committed to the perpetuation of a traditional art form or practice of their cultural heritage. ⁣ ⁣ Mentor artists are recognized by fellow artists and their own community members as skilled and dedicated practitioners. Apprentices are dedicated students whom mentor artists have chosen for a sustained period of study in their art form or practice. Throughout the apprenticeship, the mentors and apprentices document and publicly present their work together within their communities. Photo by N.C. Arts Council Folklife Director Zoe van Buren.

The spirit was moving in the gospel tent yesterday at the @ncfolkfestival , but a camera can’t capture the energy of the moment Almeta Ingram Miller of the Legendary Ingramettes got on the mic with Charlotte-based shout band Mangum & Company. Festivals are all about these moments of collective joy we have been missing for so long. . #sparktheartsnc

2021 marks the 75th anniversary of the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual in Cherokee, one of the oldest American Indian artisan cooperatives in the nation. At an open air market outside the co-op's building in downtown Cherokee, member artists like Bill Radford, Mary Thompson, Betty Maney, and the Goings family came to celebrate this important anniversary with demonstrations and work for sale. The member-led co-op was formed on August 23, 1946 amid the growing national interest in Appalachian crafts now known as the Craft Revival. It sought to provide a place for enrolled Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians artists with a “place for ready sale” in an era when craftspeople often had to walk over mountains to bring their goods to market, and when collections rarely credited traditional craft objects, especially those made by indigenous artisans, to a maker’s name. Now with over 300 current members, visitors can find the work of some of the most accomplished craftspeople of the Qualla Boundary, steps away from the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. But the co-op was not only established for commerce. Through workshops, artist directories, exhibits, archival collections, and collaborations with land trusts and environmental groups to secure sustainable access to materials, the co-op hopes to keep the knowledge of craft and all its processes central to the cultural life of the community. “After 75 years, our mission will continue to encourage the development, production, and marketing of Authentic Indian Arts & Crafts produced on the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, NC,” says the co-op's director, Vicki Cruz. “As we move into the future, community involvement is crucial to our success.” . Visit www.quallaartsandcrafts.com to learn more about the history and artists of the co-op. . #northcarolina #traditionalarts #cherokee #ebci #sparkthearts #qualla #ncfolklife #crafts

Tune in to WPAQ (106.7 FM) this Saturday August 7 at 4 PM to hear 20-21 Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship mentor Paul Brown and apprentice Trevor McKenzie give their final presentation on air with Wayne Erbsen hosting. You can listen online here: https://www.wpaq740.com/listen-online/ . For those who aren’t familiar with the history of WPAQ, check out their “About Us” page or its section in the Blue Ridge Music Trails guidebook to see why this is the perfect venue (not to mention the original form of socially distanced programming) to cap off this apprenticeship. . Paul and Trevor met on Zoom every week for a year to study the older fiddle styles of the NC/VA border region, with lots of storytelling and words of wisdom from Paul on the music’s complex history, the evolution of tradition, and the lives of the people he learned from. They conducted almost the entire apprenticeship over Zoom, without ever being able to play their instruments simultaneously until recently. Congratulations to Paul and Trevor on a year well done! . The In These Mountains Appalachian Folklife Apprenticeship grant is offered by the @ncartscouncil thanks to the support of @southartsorg . Learn more about the grant at the link in our bio. . #ncfolklife #folklifeapprenticeship #appalachia #oldtime #surrycounty #wpaq #fiddle #traditionalmusic #folklife #northcarolina #ncacfunded #sparktheartsnc