The best kept secret

I just got back from my favorite night out of the year. The National Endowment for the Arts presents around a dozen master artists in the traditional and folk arts with $20,000 and the lifetime honor of being a National Heritage Fellow. People are nominated each year for avocations as diverse as Carolinian stick dancing and building diving helmets.

This is an amazing free event and yet an incredibly well kept secret. The evening’s charm is the window it creates into the lives of people, usually aged between 60 and 100, who are preserving and practicing an incredibly diverse range of arts and crafts. Over the years I’ve learned about a tiny old man from Puerto Rico who carves exquisite wooden saints; a monk who creates temporary sand paintings with incredible care and accuracy, only to destroy them moments later; and a New Orleans plasterer who creates and preserves that city’s architectural heritage.

And every year it is inevitably the musicians who set the evening on fire. Chicago blues queen Koko Taylor would have had the crowd wang dang doodling all night if only we could have let her. Wanda Jackson was both fascinating and horrifying—she dated Elvis as a teenager and was a rockabilly queen until “her religious convictions would allow her to record only gospel songs,” but she rocked out for the crowd. The evening is beautifully MCed by Nick Spitzer whose knowledge of the arts and respect for these people draws out their stories.

While watching tonight’s event I tried to figure out why it is so powerful. I am just as much a fan of “high art,” however you want to define it, but when I see these Heritage Fellows, it seems that their art is the art of community, of everyday culture, of social history, and of emotional connection. And each artist, through age, experience, and creativity, seems to have found their place in the world. They’re all home.

Tonight’s highlights included Agustin Lira, a Chicano singer who advocates for immigrant workers through his songs, Elaine Hoffman Watts, a klezmer musician who was a crazy drummer – not often you get to see an elderly woman beating up the drum kit, and Julia Parker, a Kashia Pomo basket weaver who must be the youngest looking 78 year old I’ve seen in a long time.

The NEA’s website has a full history of the fellows—a great resource to discover new music—and this year, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of these awards, they published a commemorative book and DVD. It’s a searchable archive of bios, music clips, interview and videos. I had a quick look and it seems to be a pretty great encyclopedia of American folk arts—especially since it’s free.

So, if you’re planning to be in D.C. in the third week of September next year, look out for the August announcement of the event, get your free tickets and schlep out to Strathmore. Sadly, it involves a trip to surburban Maryland, but these beautiful people are worth it.

9 responses to “The best kept secret”

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  2. Tim Wager says:

    It’s remarkable and heartening that our federal government occasionally does support the arts (and such an interesting array, too). It gives me a little hope that perhaps we’re not entirely beyond saving from the lords of rapacious greed. Thanks, Stella, for the reminder.

    “This little light of mine! I’m gonna let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!”

  3. Dave says:

    I second Stella’s endorsement. This annual program is one of those nice little surprises of living in Washington.

  4. I’m intrigued. However, I’ve married a teacher, so this goes in my Ambitions journal as a possible birthday present for later years.

  5. hmm — what about your own earnings? maybe that ambitions journal isn’t ambitious enough …

  6. Bacon says:

    I have married Bacon. And am too lazy to change the comment name.
    Stella, I remember going to this event with you a few years ago…it was amazing and I had forgotten all about it. I am so glad you wrote this!
    I have a hangover from dining (and wining) with you last night…

  7. Oh, bof, Bryan. Leave me alone. I was merely suggesting it might be a trip for later in life. I made a note of it to save up for it and to not forget the idea.

  8. just busting your chops. no harm intended. you’re still great.