I attended the Folklife in the South Conference in Lake Guntersville, Alabama in June 2023.  It was a gathering of community leaders, folklorists, traditional artists, educators, documentarians, and other cultural workers. We came together to hear the stories of work in the field, explore different avenues of folklife in the South and to meet and […]

I attended the Folklife in the South Conference in Lake Guntersville, Alabama in June 2023.  It was a gathering of community leaders, folklorists, traditional artists, educators, documentarians, and other cultural workers. We came together to hear the stories of work in the field, explore different avenues of folklife in the South and to meet and mingle with like minded people.

The three days were full of opportunities, presentations, stunning views, and the arts. I took notes at the sessions I attended and will attempt to recap for you now.

Alabama Textile Traditions

This panel of women spoke to Alabama’s long history of women working within both the formal and informal economies to provide for their families through sewing.

Fiber arts have long been a source of creativity, a declaration of self-determination, and a cornerstone of care.

Bib and Tucker Sew op https://bibandtuckersewop.org/

This business is unique not only in teaching the fiber arts, but being advocates for the industry and women. Recycled Runway is a program for Birmingham Middle and High School students. Their fashion show was in April, all items made from repurposed materials.

The March Quilts began in 2015 to commemorate the march from Selma to Montgomery marches. They decided to repeat it each year. Members  choose a civil or human rights theme and facilitate open sewing sessions and discussion.

Viola Ratcliff, program manager, 205-386-0575 viola@bibandtuckersewop.org

Black Belt Treasures Arts and Culture https://www.blackbelttreasures.com/

This is a nonprofit business in Camden, AL. They began in order to stimulate the economy with heritage arts and culture. They represent over 450 different artists.

One of the things I loved to see was the rehabilitation of an old car dealership where they now hold their classes. It’s a fabulous idea. There are many empty car dealerships in small towns, this is a great way to use the space.

Loretta Bennet https://www.facebook.com/lorettapbennett/

Loretta is an artist who said, “I was quilting before I was born.” She’s one of the quilters of Gee’s Bend. The quilts of Gee’s Bend are internationally renowned hand-made quilts made by a group of women and their ancestors who have lived in the isolated African-American community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The residents of Gee’s Bend are direct descendants of enslaved people who worked the cotton plantations of Joseph Gee established in 1816. The quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend goes back beyond the 19th century and some of the quilts have been exhibited at many notable museums.

Loretta shared that she is a participant in Vacation with An Artist Program.  (www.vawaa.com)  You can spend a week with her and sister and they teach the old methods. She shared they do quite a bit of work using old clothes from deceased people to make quilts in remembrance.

Takeaways from the panel:

1. Art, hands on textile art, is important to tourism, there are bus tours from all over the world that come for quilt tours.
2. Creation of this art and turning it into economic development benefits from the Idea Friendly Method.
3. Storytelling is done in many different methods. Quilting is one of those. There are barn quilts with tours in the Midwest, quilt shops that created an entire town in Missouri and it started from a youtube site that simply gave instruction.
4. Creating, quilting, is a good way to bring people together around a common theme. What else can be accomplished at these gatherings?

Small steps for work as a textile artist:

• Find fabric
  • Donated clothing and fabric
  • Work with the culture arts center
• Sell on Etsy
• Work together
  • Packing/shipping together
• Funds from vacation with an artist

Discuss your prices for handmade items:

• Labor
• Time
• Materials
• Love

Remember, it’s art. Price accordingly!

Foodways in Alabama

Sponsored by the Southern Foodways Alliance, this panel features Sarah Rodriguez, Southern Foodways Alliance’s lead oral historian, in conversation with three women who teach, preserve, and document diverse and changing foodways in Alabama.

Southern Foodways Alliance

A major theme at this conference was the importance of telling the stories of folklife in the South. Southern Foodways Alliance is capturing the stories. They are exploring the oral traditions and finding ways we are sharing our food stories. Visit their website, Southernfoodways.org and check out the videos.

Jai Williams, Southern Foodways Alliance

Jai specializes in culinary, travel, and cultural photography and was recently named as a Nathalie Dupree Fellow for the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA.) She’s studying Black land ownership and cultural foodways throughout the South as well as documenting Mississippi’s rich history through visual media.

Again, the theme of telling the stories arises. Another way to do that is through photography.

Contact: Jaithephotog.com @iamjaithephotog

Lauren Murphy, seed saver, Hillfolk Pharmacy

Lauren is a young farmer and a seed saver. She realized while raising her special needs son that there had to be a better way to feed him. Food is medicine after all. She noticed that the seeds she had from the past were not as badly affected by the drought. gut-healing herbalist, soil-steward and traditional foods enthusiast trained in Southern Folk Medicine by Phyllis Light at the Appalachian Center for Natural Health, and in Sociology from Florida State University.

Lauren is a natural teacher and storyteller. You can listen to her on this Native Habitat Podcast session.

Hillfolkfarmacy.com (and Instagram account)

Lauren Richards, Albertville High School Culinary Arts Program

Lauren shared about how her culinary school kids discussed traditions in food, then created fusion meals. They didn’t know that the old rules say you can’t do that. It’s exciting to see what our youth are creating while using the old traditions. Just another way to tell a story!

https://www.facebook.com/ahsculinarydepartment/

Takeaways from the panel:

1. Food is medicine.
2. Food is another avenue to storytelling.
3. ‘If we don’t eat, we don’t meat’ rings true.
4. Food allows us to be daring, to try new (and old) things.
5. Food is a safe place to gather, and to learn our stories.

 

A quick thank you and good bye to Bill Mansfield

Bill Mansfield, NEA leader National Endowment for the Arts is retiring. He told us he welcomes calls now through end of July for touching base and answering questions.

They gave out 28.8 million in 1,231 grants last year, many to Native Arts and culture. Bill said no one is perfect but keep trying. “I don’t master the work; I master the tools.”.

One of the stories he shared was how Charleston, WV triangle district was wiped out by highways. It was once the center of black music and culture. In 1974 the area was demolished. Thousands were forced to move, because of underlying racism.

Sadly, this is not a singular story. Black Wall Street in Tulsa was the site of a massacre, white on black, and they rebuilt. Then the highways were placed into that area and Black Wall Street was gone. San Francisco neighborhoods in the 1960’s were seized with imminent domain and razed, affecting at least 20,000 people. This federally funded urban renewal movement was not just in big cities either. Greenville, NC, Tupelo, MS, Demopolis, AL were all affected. Read more in this article in the Boston Review.

Bill, may you enjoy retirement and keep on being creative!

Folklife and the Future

Alabama artists and activists Sehoy Thrower, Mary Godfrey, and Susan Walker engaged in conversation around how their present work is shaped by a dynamic vision of their community’s future.

Sehoy Thrower, Poarch Band of Creek Indians

Sehoy spoke of how the Creek were moved out of their homelands. “Our diaspora got changed, against our will.”

They  used the native plants and are trying to bring them back. It’s hard to be optimistic when you look at their land. Biodiversity is plummeting. Rivercane is gone, invasive species bamboo overtook it

Folklife traditions are the thread that never ended

Creek are a people of fire, inner and outer. Creeks have one foot in the past and one in the future.

Mary Godfrey, Lowndes County Community Life Center

Lowndes County worked on the quilt project. They asked, ‘who are your people?’

Mary shared that in the quilting environment “only love [is] there.” Winnie McQueen said in a video “your name will never be forgotten.”

It’s not meant to harm; it is meant to heal, the telling of the stories. Quilters often sing when they sew.

“Happiness is very fleeting – joy lasts.”

Susan Walker, Sew Their Names Project

She restored a church from 1843, that her grandfather owned – along with the slaves. The Sew Their Names Project added the names of the slaves to the quilt they did. It was hard to find the names of slaves, sometimes just used numbers

Susan said, “Can’t have reconciliation without the truth.”

When you view the quilt, look at the left side– it’s happy white people. Then look at the right side – all slavery images.

A traveling exhibit of this quilt is coming and with songs. Then will be permanently displayed in Lowndes County.

Takeaways from this panel:

1. Will we ever learn? The treatment of the natives and the slaves was horrendous. What can we do going forward to rectify this?
2. You can’t have reconciliation without the truth. It begins with telling and hearing the stories.
3. We must take care of our Earth. We simply must, before we can’t.

Panayotis League, fiddler

Panayotis is from Tarpon Springs in Florida, and a Greek. He told of the Greek sponge divers and merchants from the Aegean islands who came to Tarpon Springs FL in 1906.

He shared songs on his fiddle. The melodies are associated with place, Kalimos and Kos. In Mobile AL were the Greeks from Crete. In New Orleans the Greek community were in the New World around 1760

“When my old people started dying was when I woke up to how amazing this music was” Panayotis said.  

Takeaway from Panayotis:

1. After he was done with his session, he went with a young man to a lobby area. He proceeded to teach him how to play his fiddle in the way of the location. In other words, he took a bluegrass song and played it like a Greek song. He was patient, kind, happy to be teaching.
2. He’s not just a fabulous musician, but a storyteller, a teacher and makes one love music even more.
3. The stories matter.

Real Meaning of Dia de Muretos

Mónica S. Sánchez, from the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group led this workshop. The Day of the Dead is a celebration of life.

“Music and food make everything better.”

Monica had set up an elaborate altar. The Altar is set up in 7 levels, and she shared what goes on each level.

Takeaway from Monica:

1. Her excitement as a theater person was engaging. Where else can we be that excited in our lives?
2. It’s important to honor the dead, in the way each of us does in our traditions.
3. It’s all about remembering the people and the stories.

Appleshop Short Film Stories

Ethan Payne frightenedmedia.com

He directed the Appleshop films we previewed. I was busy watching the films, and feeling just like I was back in Jackson County, KY. Here’s the description from the agenda:

Appalshop recently completed four short films documenting regional Appalachian traditional artists. This series captures, archives, and amplifies the stories behind the craft. Our focus was in the following mediums: traditional music, storytelling, crafts, woodworking, and foodways. Appalshop’s documentary work has from the beginning told authentic stories of Appalachia, working from within the community to banish stereotypes and misrepresentations. The short films in this series are:

Bright Morning Stars: The Johnsons of Hemphill

That Tree Lives On: A Film About Terry Ratliff

Lady D

Full of Wonder: The Art of Angie DeBord

Takeaway from the films:

1. It’s never too late to make a difference.
2. You are never too young to belong and do things.
3. The stories matter.

Music

I recorded a little bit from the performers I saw.

Greek Fiddle

Panayotis League 

Bluegrass

The Gary Waldrep Band performed an hour of traditional bluegrass music. Gary Waldrep, the founder, is from Kilpatrick, Alabama. He has participated in the Alabama State Council on the Arts apprenticeship program and touring arts program.

Gary Waldrep Band – Bluegrass

The Blues

For years, blues artists have not only performed the traditional art of African American Roots music but also utilized the methods of folklorists to preserve and share the Blues People’s narrative. This panel features Alabama’s traditional Blues artists who have participated in apprenticeships, created nonprofit organizations, and more to ensure preservation.

• 

  Blues Performance

  Jock Webb

• DieDra Hurdle-Ruff
• Keithen Ruff

Blues Musicians 

Follow FITS partners on social media and visit the websites for updates:

• South Arts
  • com/southarts
  • Instagram: @southartstradarts and @southartsorg
  • Twitter: @southarts
• Alabama Folklife Association
  • com/AlabamaFolklife
  • Instagram: @alabamafolklife
  • Twitter: @AlabamaFolklife
• Alabama State Council on the Arts
  • com/AlabamaStateCouncilontheArts
  • Instagram: @alabama_arts
  • Twitter: @Alabama_Arts
• American Folklore Society 
  • com/AmericanFolkloreSociety
  • Instagram: @americanfolkloresociety
  • Twitter: @afsfolklorists

Join the next gathering 2023 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, November 1-4, in Portland, Oregon.

 

If there is no accreditation on the photo, it means Deb Brown took it.

 

 

This fall, we will be participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Here’s your preview of what to expect from Nov 13-19, 2023.   The challenge of rural entrepreneurship Rural entrepreneurs and small town businesses face extra challenges including online competition, limited workforce and even finding a usable building. Today, creative entrepreneurs are using new innovative business […]

This fall, we will be participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week. Here’s your preview of what to expect from Nov 13-19, 2023.

 

The challenge of rural entrepreneurship

Rural entrepreneurs and small town businesses face extra challenges including online competition, limited workforce and even finding a usable building. Today, creative entrepreneurs are using new innovative business models to overcome these challenges and start businesses that reshape their communities for the better.

What you’ll learn – Start Smaller in Your Small Town

At SmallBizSurvival.com from Nov 13-19, 2023, you’ll discover articles, short videos, audios and more free resources focused on how smaller small businesses can succeed. Learn the Innovative Rural Business Models and uncover hidden opportunities, like business inside a business and more.

Contributors Becky McCray and Deb Brown will share their own entrepreneurial experiences, stories from international rural entrepreneurs and their materials from SaveYour.Town and Building Possibility.

Find this and other Global Entrepreneurship Week events listed on the official calendar at GenGlobal.

Once we get going, you can see all our stories tagged with Global Entrepreneurship Week here.

Share your own story

You can add your own story, too. What have you learned about rural small business? What’s working in your own business and your own community? What have you learned to avoid?

Leave a comment or use our contact form to share, and I’ll reach out to follow up.

This is global. Stories from anywhere rural are welcome.

Subscribe to SmallBizSurvival

Starting a laundromat involves a lot of up front expenses, unless you do it the Idea Friendly Way   Lots of small towns have no self-service laundry facilities, so it’s a smart business to start. It also adds a valuable service and amenity to build your community. Laundromats are notoriously expensive to get started, and […]

Starting a laundromat involves a lot of up front expenses, unless you do it the Idea Friendly Way

 

Lots of small towns have no self-service laundry facilities, so it’s a smart business to start. It also adds a valuable service and amenity to build your community.

Laundromats are notoriously expensive to get started, and rural businesses have to start with the minimum startup expenses.

The Idea Friendly Method was designed for these small towns and small business realities. An Idea Friendly approach to starting a self-service laundry place in a small town would be to:

Build connections to find what you need without spending any more than you have to at first.

Take small steps and experiment with extra services cheaply to find which ones people use.

 

Here’s what Building Connections could look like:

• Often, hotels and motels offer a laundry area, maybe just one washer and dryer pair. See if you can build on that.
• Or, ask churches if they have laundry capability and could open it further to the public even during limited hours.
• Deb Brown told me about a Chicago sports bar that offered laundry in the back room.

Ask around for other groups or people in town who might be good partners.

Here are some extra services to experiment with by Taking Small Steps:

• Reader Emily Karsjens Perry mentioned 24 hour vending machines and exercise equipment. (If your Idea Friendly mind went straight to asking around to find donated or thrifted exercise equipment, 5 bonus points!)
• Sheila Scarborough mentioned the combination businesses Frama Coffee at Tumbleweed Laundry formerly in Marfa, TX. (Idea Friendly version: single serve coffee machine?)
• Deb Brown said another laundromat in Thomasville, NC, was near a bingo parlor. Deb said you often saw folks waiting on laundry who would fill their time by crossing the parking lot to play bingo. (Idea Friendly question: could you try a pop-up laundry, maybe in an empty building near an attraction like bingo?)

What ideas would you throw in the wash?

Subscribe to SmallBizSurvival.

Guest post by Jeremy Zeller Do your homework – WHO WILL BE ATTENDING the event? Cater to that audience. Families, College students, Car enthusiasts, Cosplay…yes, even them. If you do not want to keep your store open, set up a SIDEWALK STAND or TABLE and sell there. An assortment of products and swag to just […]

Guest post by Jeremy Zeller

Do your homework – WHO WILL BE ATTENDING the event?

Cater to that audience. Families, College students, Car enthusiasts, Cosplay…yes, even them.

If you do not want to keep your store open, set up a SIDEWALK STAND or TABLE and sell there.

An assortment of products and swag to just give a little taste of what you offer for when they come back.

Bring the right FREEBIES.

This can be as simple as a bag with your logo on it, or a package of tissues with your logo on it. Chapstick, small notepads, microfiber cleaning cloths. It should be something that people use often and keep around either in their purse or car. Be sure to have your logo with the business name and what you are, address, and social media. Phone number is fine, but they are more likely to want to come back to visit or look you up first.

Hold a DEMONSTRATION.

Do you have a product you want to show off? Now is the perfect time to do so. If it is clothing, get a few models to show off your merchandise.

SURVEYS – 5 questions at max that will help your business succeed.

Examples: “How satisfied are you with the customer service you received?” “How satisfied are you with the price of our product/service?”
“What is the most memorable part of your experience?” “Where do you live?”

Collect video TESTIMONIALS or written testimonials.

People love to hear stories. Find customers that you have that can talk about a product they bought, how great it is, and maybe something that happened when they used it. Example: “I bought this Consuela Bag for my Mom on Mother’s Day. The quality is so great because we have used it while camping at Alabaster Caverns to Sand Dunes in Waynoka to visiting the Salt Plains and it still looks brand new!”

While on the topic of videos, get a video ENDORSEMENT. If it is a known official, local or state celebrity, nationally acclaimed, or organization; see if they will give approval to endorse your business and then promote it later.

Share COUPONS or vouchers.

Events a great time to get them to a bunch of people. “10% off” “Free Gift”. Be unique.

Create a SALES EVENT to take place the next day or week.

You have a chance to reach out to many people. So create your own event sometime after. Advertise it during the event taking place.

Create a POKER WALK during the event.

Work with other businesses open during the event. Do a 20% DISCOUNT SHARE. This means if they shop at one store and buy something, they get a 20% discount at another store. That store has it for another store. And so on and so on.

Be an event SPONSOR.

Before the event is happening, see what it takes to get your name on the advertisement.

Gather E-MAILS.

This is the perfect time to build up your client list. Use your phone to collect and store e-mails to increase your customer e-mail blasts.

About the Author

Jeremy Zeller is the Economic Development Director for Woods County, Oklahoma. Previously he worked 16 years for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce including the Main Street program. He holds a degree in film, video and photography from the University of Oklahoma.

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