MF 136 The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 136 The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront

Number of accessions: 15
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2005-2016
Time period covered: 20th and early 21st century
Principal interviewers: Kathleen Mundell
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: NA3598, NA3599, NA3603 (copyright was retained by interviewees)
Description: Accessions related to the American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront 2005 – current (after it ceased to be the National Folk Festival).

2005 American Folk Festival:
3850 American Folk Festival 2005. Official program: “The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront Official Program, August 26-28, 2005” (64 pages). Also included: 2 CDs with photographs taken at the festival and 4 positive prints of photographs. Text: official program. Photographs: P 9291 – P 9292, P 9310, P 9321.

2008 American Folk Festival:
NA3709 John Connors, interviewed by Chace Jackson and Pauleena MacDougall, July 6, 2008, Connor’s garage in St. Francis, Maine. This is a pre-festival interview for the 2008 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Recording: mfc_na3709_audio001- mfc_na3709_audio010 50 minutes.

NA3616 David Gordon Mott, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Mott, age 76, gives a secondhand account of the details surrounding the 1956 rape and murder case of a 13 year old girl, Katherine De La Perelle, near his hometown Dalhousie, New Brunswick; the role of the local sheriff in Canada; the hiring of John Ellis (the hangman for Canada); the history of the convicted man, Joe Richard; the details of the preparation for the hanging; details of the hanging itself; the ritual after the hanging; the affects the hanging had on his father and the other witnesses; the affect the hanging had on the town; and his own efforts to prevent a revival of capital punishment in Maine. Text: 18 pp. transcript. Recordings: mfc_na3616_cd2067_01 71 minutes.

NA3617 Stefano Tijerina, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Tijerina, age 38, talks about his life in Old Town, Maine; his bicultural roots; Colombia’s urban lifestyle; the magical quality of Maine; Latino culture; the family-like work relationships in Maine; keeping his culture alive through music and food; how his 7 year old son has grown up in Maine and what it’s like to get him to learn and appreciate his Colombian roots; Spanglish; how outsiders think of Hispanics; how Mainer’s are less stereotypical; first visits to Maine; and a brief encounter his family experienced in Texas that determined their move to a safer environment like Maine. Text: 9 pp. transcript. Recordings: mfc_na3617_cd2068_01 30 minutes.

NA3619 Veronica Dodge, interviewed by Nancy H. Dewey and Rob Rosenthal, August 23, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Dodge talks about her life in Little Deer Isle, Maine; experiences picking crabmeat; HASCP regulations; day in her business as a crab picker; her employees; getting crabs from fishermen in Bucks Harbor; the physical hazards of the job; health and safety; proper cooking temperatures; picking crabs for family income; help from family making wreaths on Thanksgiving; interactions with (clueless) customers; challenges to the future of the crabmeat industry; overfishing; lack of interest in picking from youth; tools used; effect on her hands from all her jobs; how 60 lbs picked is a good day; how much the girls pick; how much work goes into it; disposing of shells. Text: 12 pp. transcript. Recordings: C 2605 / CD 2070 30 minutes.

NA3620 Adam Daniels, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August 23, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Daniels, age 33, talks about changing his name; his current life in Orono, ME; ties to East Corinth, ME; differences between now and the past; stories about entertainment in East Corinth in the past; the importance of a sense of community; Maine as an example of broader American values and work ethic; the current poor economic conditions of Maine; his optimism for Maine as a beautiful environment with economic potential; job hunting; how he sees Maine as a photographer; Pat’s Pizza as a community business; his documentary of a Christmas tree seller as an example of Mainer’s working hard and trying to survive; struggle in Maine to keep businesses going; description of his maternal grandfather, John “Jack” Daniels. Text: 8 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2071 (CD 2071, Track 1-Interview with Adam Daniels (NA 3621), Track 2-Interview with Carrie Hickland (NA 3622), Track 3- Interview part 1 with Chace and Troy Jackson (NA 3620).)

NA3621 Carrie Hickling, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August 24, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Hickling, age 27, talks about her life in Littleton, Maine; her hope to have a self-dependable farm; breeding lionhead rabbits for show and pets; practicing rabbitry; breeding Californian rabbits for consumption; communicating with other breeders; COD (Certificate of Development) process; ARBA (American Rabbit Breed Association); the process for getting approved by ARBA; her business (McElfin Rabbitry); how rabbit shows are similar to other pet shows; relationship with her first rabbit Marigold; pet versus eating rabbits; experimenting with cooking rabbit; rabbits personalities. Text: 13 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2071 (CD 2071, Track 1-Interview with Adam Daniels (NA 3621), Track 2-Interview with Carrie Hickland (NA 3622), Track 3-Interview part 1 with Chace and Troy Jackson (NA 3620).)

NA3622 Troy Jackson, interviewed by Chace Jackson (his son) and Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Jackson, age 47, talks about his life as a state legislator and logger in Allagash, ME; memories of his father as a logger; problem of low wages in logging: annual nine month work season, no health insurance, wages tough on families with responsibilities; equipment costs; landowners, contractors, and employees conflicts; production up while wages dropped; loggers working harder individually instead of standing together against corrupted business practices; efforts to raise awareness of the problem; Canadian labor; Canadian road blockage; becoming a leader at meetings; working with mechanical equipment; becoming a state legislator out of frustration to give a voice to loggers; his approach to being a representative; advice for his sons. Text: 17 pp. transcript. Recordings: mfc_na3622_audio001, mfc_na3622_audio002 40 minutes.

NA3623 Michael Corbin, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August 23, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Corbin, age 47, from Madawaska, Maine, talks about his ownership of Café de la Place; his youth; growing up in a French family in Grand Isle, ME; being raised by a single mother as one of six kids; close community ties and generosity; being Acadian; visiting France; traditional Acadian food; kitchen parties; shopping in Canada; his passion for food; how watching his grandmother cook and neighborhood gatherings inspired his love of food and cooking. Text: 8 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2073 (CD 2073 Track 1-Chace and Troy Jackson, Track 2-Chace and Troy Jackson, Track 3-Michael Corbin.)

NA3624 Natalia Bragg, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Bragg, age 58, talks about the her 40 years as a herbalist; ownership of Knott II Bragg Farm; her family’s six generations of traditional healing practices; how traditions are dying out from being ignored; lack of interest from her children and grandchildren to learn the craft; how she feels responsible to pass on the practice of herbal medicine; sinus oil (making and use); collecting; the history of how her family came to the town of Wade in Aroostook County, ME; interactions with the public; her 80 acres of farm where she collects her ingredients; being in contact with her ancestors; the stories behind the crafts; apple pencils and gum books; the ethics of being a herbalist; and her training. Text: 9 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2074, CD 2075.

NA3625 Rodney C. Richard Sr., interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Rodney (The Mad Whittler) Richard Sr., from Rangeley, ME, talks about his life as a whittler; learning to whittle from his father; tools of his craft; feeling naked without a jackknife and block of wood; his work on display with the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service and DeCordova Dana Museum in Lincoln, MA; how he was hired by Poulan to travel the country whittling; mass merchandising forcing carvers out of work; his work on tour; the rabbit carvings he has given away (25,000+); his membership in the touring artists through the Art Commission in ME; teaching hundreds of kids to whittle; the satisfaction of making people happy through his carvings; whittling for kids at the Children’s Hospital in Boston; and how he got his nickname. Text: 13 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2075.

NA3626 Patricia “Patty” Zavaleta (mother) and Julia Zavaleta (daughter), interviewed by Patricia Zavaleta, Rob Rosenthal, and Julia Zavaleta, August 23, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Patty and Julia interview each other; Julia, age 9, talks about what it is like living in Bangor, Maine; being part Irish and part Peruvian; home school; trips to Peru, Spain, and Ireland; and how Bangor is in-between a small town and city; Patty talks about growing up on a farm in Hancock, Maine; what she likes about Bangor; her favorite spots around town; community traditions; the Hispanic community; giving her daughter world citizenship; and the diversity of her family. Text: 10 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2439.

3627 John Connors, interviewed by Chace Jackson and Rob Rosenthal, August, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Connors, age 75, from St. Frances, Maine, talks about his childhood memories of 1930s and 40s Depression era; the lack of jobs and social programs; how being in a rural area meant they had some resources; how his grandparents raised him; life on a homestead farm; having to walk a mile to school; how times have changed and the importance of conserving energy today; New Deal programs like the WPA and the CCC; the economic changes brought about as a result of WWII; the atomic bomb; how everyone contributed to the war effort (he salvaged 8 pounds of lead); what the draft was like; and the importance of the current generation understanding how thing were then. Text: 10 pp. transcript. Recordings: mfc_na3627_audio001 35 minutes.

NA3628 Nancy Arlene Nelson, interviewed by Rob Rosenthal, August 24, 2008, at the Story Bank Folk Festival, Maine. Nelson, age 53, talks about life in Millinocket, Maine; stories of her grandmother Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Robinson; life on Robinson Farm in the late 1800s in Dyer Brook; life on the farm in Bingham, Maine later; her grandparents’ generosity; picnics; butter for burns; how the mills and better economic conditions changed life in Millinocket in the 1960s; how the hard way of life was more satisfying for her; how people have lost something because of modernization; and picking potatoes. Text: 11 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2437.

2009 American Folk Festival:
NA3583 Bill Mackowski, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 29, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Mackowski discusses snowshoes, particularly native snowshoes; how he began making snowshoes, the development of modern snowshoes; the importance of snowshoes to native cultures; meeting with native snowshoe makers and anecdotes from those meetings; decline of snowshoe making among native people; connection between Attikamek and Penobscot snowshoe weaving; his grandfather; and materials used in traditional snowshoes: babiche, sinew and hide. Text: 25 pp. transcript (.doc). Recording: CD 2003 Track 1, 50 minutes (CD 2003 has 2 interviews: Track 1 Bill Mackowski; Track 2 Carol Cottrill.), V 0312 (video of basket-making process filmed by Mackowski).

NA3585 Carol Cottrill, interviewed by Jessica Lockhart, August 29, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Cottrill discusses beekeeping; the process of becoming a master beekeeper; how she got involved in beekeeping; the importance of mentoring; caring for bees in the winter; colony collapse disorder and possible causes; how bees increase garden yields; differences between honeybees and native bees; components of a hive; extracting honey and a man who used a bicycle to do so; getting stung and why it usually happens; understanding that honeybees are not aggressive; and growing interest in beekeeping. Text: 13 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2003 Track 2 26 minutes (CD 2003 has 2 interviews: Track 1 Bill Mackowski; Track 2 Carol Cottrill.)

NA3586 David Spahr, interviewed by Jessica Lockhart, August 29, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Spahr discusses mushrooms; how he became interested in mushrooms; medicinal and ecological potential of mushrooms; varieties of mushrooms; his book, Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada; and his mushroom beer. Text: 6 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2004 (Track 1) 20 minutes.

NA3594 Ssippsis, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 29, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Includes reading from story “The Lease for Marsh Island, or, The Shaking of the War Club” and Ssippsis recounting her childhood on Indian Island; etching birch bark; finding suitable birch bark for her art; her writing; reads her poem, “Penobscot Puzzle”, and the creative arts in her family. Text: 15 pp. transcript. Recordings: CD 2007 (Track 1) 38 minutes.

NA3595 Richard Keezer, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell on August 29, 2009 at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine. Keezer talks about his woodworking; when he speaks Passamaquoddy; getting roots for his woodwork; animals he uses in designs; how to pound ash; rattles he makes; and pickup hockey games in his childhood. Text: 10 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2006 25 minutes.

NA3596 Tracey Neptune Ray and Pam Cunningham, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage, Bangor, Maine. Ray and Cunningham discuss their work as Penobscot basket makers; how they became involved in basket making; basket making as a community effort; basket making and bookmark making as healing activities; demonstrating commitment and learning from elders; work involved in preparing materials to make baskets; balancing basket making with raising children; how they got their Indian names; and identifying as Penobscot. Text: 12 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2007 (Track 2) 33 minutes.

NA3597 Doug Moore, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Moore discusses his work as a basket maker; learning to make baskets by watching his father; finding suitable ash trees; methods of peeling bark off trees; switching from making utility baskets to fancy baskets; average person’s awareness of the work required to make baskets; difficulties accessing ash trees; picking sweet grass; his grandmother braiding sweet grass; and the increase in value of baskets since the 1960s. Text: 14 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2004 (Track 2) 31 minutes.

NA3598 Karen Baldacci, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30th, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Baldacci, Maine’s First Lady, discusses the Blaine House gardens; history of the Blaine House gardens; vegetable gardens; her Blaine House Berry jam; technique for freezing basil; why she is interested in canning and preserving; and her favorite recipes. Text: 5 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2004 (Track 3) 10 minutes. Restrictions: Release not signed by Baldacci. Interview remains the property of interviewee and/or heirs.

NA3599 John Banks and Maria Girourd, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Banks and Girourd talk about their work for the Penobscot Nation as Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Director of Cultural and Historic Preservation, respectively; language programs; connections to Penobscot heritage during their childhood; the sovereignty of the Penobscot Nation and its relationship to the federal and state governments; the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement; how the environment and Penobscot culture are interrelated; importance of the brown ash tree to Penobscot; and the use of the Penobscot language among children. RESTRICTED. Text: 10 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2005 (Track 1) 35 minutes.

NA3600 Mona “St. Denis” Lothian, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Lothian discusses her Franco-American heritage and childhood in Lewiston, Maine; speaking French; vacations at her maternal family farm; ritual of saying the rosary; impact of mill closings on the French community in Lewiston; gradual loss of French language; Christmas tradition of Réveillon; French-Canadian food, particularly chicken stew and ployes; and how her grandparents got their farm. Text: 12 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2005 (Track 2) 35 minutes.

NA3601 Nathan Howard and Dominic Williams, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Howard and Williams discuss growing up in Northport, Maine; what makes someone a true Mainer, music in Belfast, Maine; their band; planning to leave the state for post-secondary education; nearly getting shot while interrupting a neighbor’s target practice; and encounters with the psychic community. Recording: CD 2006 (Track 2) 25 minutes.

NA3603 Pamela Dean, interviewed by Kathleen Mundell, August 30, 2009, at the Story Bank Stage at the American Folk Festival, Bangor, Maine. Dean discusses Edward D. “Sandy” Ives; meeting Ives and how his fieldwork class changed her life and inspired her career; Ives’ relationships with his informants; his writing style; his clothing; how Ives’ work was new; the establishment of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History; and his sociable personality. RESTRICTED. Text: 6 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 2006 (Track 3) 25 minutes.

2010 American Folk Festival:
NA3660 Photographs from the 2010 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Photographs: P13348 – P13360.

NA3683 20th Anniversary Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program participants, recorded by Pauleena MacDougall, Dennis St.Pierre, Kathleen Mundell, Cindy Larock, August 28 and August 29, 2010, at the American Folk Festival held, Bangor, Maine. Recording of live presentation and lectures by Traditional Art Masters and their apprentices at the American Folk Festival: 20th Anniversary Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Interviewees discuss the history of the art forms; the tools; the skills and methodology of the art forms; demonstrations and teaching methods to the next generation of Traditional Artist. The arts covered in this program include carving; snowshoe making; drum making; basket making; music; dance.

2011 American Folk Festival:
NA3867 2011 American Folk Festival. Recording of the 2011 American Folk Festival narrative stage.

2012 American Folk Festival:
NA3682 Photographs from the 2012 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Photographs: P08484 – P08500.

2013 American Folk Festival:
NA3707 Photographs from the 2013 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Photographs: P13361 – P13391.

2014 American Folk Festival:
NA3708 Photographs from the 2014 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Photographs: P08501 – P08526.

2015 American Folk Festival:
NA3954 2015 American Folk Festival. Recording of the 2015 American Folk Festival narrative stage and photographs. Also included is the Bangor Daily News Program and a pocket schedule. Text: 7 pp. festival program and schedule. Audio: mfc_na3954_audio001 – mfc_na3954_audio011 446 minutes. Photographs: P13712 – P13752.

2016 American Folk Festival:
NA4235 American Folk Festival, August 27, 2016. Recordings from the Narrative Stage and photographs from both the Narrative Stage and the Demonstration Tent in the Folklife Area of the 2016 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Katrina Wynn moderated all of the sessions except the Harlan-Haughey panel. Also included: copy of 2016 AFF pocket guide and Saturday’s narrative stage schedule.

Narrative Stage lineup:
12:00-12:45 Jennifer Neptune, Old Town: Penobscot beader
12:55-1:40 Simin Khosravani, Glenburn: Kashkooli apprentice weaver
1:50-2:35 Panel: Melissa Winders (Yale), Mary Bird (UMaine), Susanne Grosjean (Susanne Grosjean handcrafted rugs), Sarah Harlan-Haughey (UMaine)
2:45-3:30 Panel: fiber communities, the local and the digital, Mary Bird (UMaine), Elisa Sance (graduate research assistant for MFC), Kavya Seshachar (Cape Elizabeth)
3:40-4:25 Kavya Seshachar, Cape Elizabeth: Indian crocheter
4:30-5:00 Fashion Show: asked the demonstrators and public to bring wearable homemade fiber art and show it off!

Text: 4 pp. schedule. Recording: mfc_na4235_audio001 – mfc_na4235_audio006 222 minutes. Photos: P14112 – P14149.

NA4236 American Folk Festival August 28, 2016. Recordings from the Narrative Stage and photographs from both the Narrative Stage and the Demonstration Tent in the Folklife Area of the 2016 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront. Katrina Wynn moderated all of the sessions except the Harlan-Haughey panel. See NA4235 for official AFF pocket guide.

Narrative Stage lineup:
12:00- 12:45 Stephanie Crossman, Vinalhaven: netting artist
12:55- 1:40 Kavya Seshachar, Cape Elizabeth: Indian crocheter
1:45- 2:15 Fashion Show: asked the demonstrators and public to bring wearable homemade fiber art and show it off!
2:25- 3:10 Panel: Melissa Winders (Yale), Mary Bird (UMaine), Susanne Grosjean (Susanne Grosjean handcrafted rugs), Sarah Harlan-Haughey (UMaine)
3:20- 4:05 Simin Khosravani, Glenburn: Kashkooli apprentice weaver
4:15- 5:00 Jennifer Neptune, Old Town: Penobscot beader

Recording: mfc_na4236_audio001 – mfc_na4236_audio006 237 minutes. Photographs: p14150 – p14205.