From the director.
McHale, Ellen
In the past few weeks, I have been strongly reminded of the value
of traditional arts and culture and their importance to the fabric of
our everyday life. As executive director of the New York Folklore
Society, I consider traditional arts and culture to be an important
aspect of one's sense of self, and a source of pride for a
community. It seems to me, without question, that one's knowledge
of one's own heritage provides grounding, which is essential for
the development of a whole person. In making the argument for the
importance of traditional arts, I frequently like to point to the
importance of culture and the arts for personal and community
development. However, in the last two days, two illustrations of the
generational aspect of culture and the arts, and their importance to
individual and community economies, came strikingly into view
The first illustration came about as the result of my attending a
celebration of the life of the late Yacub Addy, a traditional Ghanaian
drummer whose obituary appeared in Voices: The Journal of New York
Folklore, Fall-Winter 2014. Honored by the National Endowment for the
Arts as a National Heritage Fellow, Yacub Addy died in December 2014, at
the age of 83. On May 30, 2015, there was a private celebration on the
campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, organized by Yacub's
wife Amina Addy and other members of his family. While this was a
wonderful event due to the outpouring of love and admiration expressed
and the celebratory nature of honoring Yacub, I was also struck by the
important economic role that Yacub Addy had played in the lives of his
family and band members. As the family patriarch, Yacub Addy was the
senior "tradition bearer" of a family legacy of the renowned
Addy family of drummers, singers, and dancers from the Avenor
neighborhood in Accra, Ghana. This role as the elder statesman of the
tradition of drumming by the Ga people held great cultural importance.
However, it was also important from an economic viewpoint. Throughout
the decades of his involvement with Ghanaian drumming, (from before the
independence of Ghana in 1957 to the present), Yacub Addy involved at
least 62 band members in his ensemble, many of whom followed him to the
United States and became citizens and permanent US residents. As present
and former members of Yacub Addy's ensembles were introduced at the
celebration, as part of honoring of his life, the numbers on stage grew
and grew--not only with musicians but also with their spouses, children,
grandchildren, and other members of their extended families. As their
ranks ballooned, it was a poignant recognition of the incredible role of
traditional arts in the founding and maintenance of community.
The second, less dramatic illustration followed a few days later on
June 2, when I attended a Refugee Art Exhibit, organized by the English
as a Second Language (ESL) program of the Albany City Schools and the
Refugee Roundtable of Albany, NY--a group of volunteers who work with
newcomers to the Albany area. Hosted by the Honorable Kathy Sheehan,
Mayor of Albany, at Albany City Hall, the exhibition showcased artistic
productions of children within the Albany City School's ESL
classes. It was also an opportunity to recognize the work of adult
master weavers from the Karen and Karenni communities who have been
resettled in Albany from Burma and who are recipients of apprenticeship
grants from the New York State Council on the Arts to teach their
weaving to community members. Entrepreneurial in spirit, the weavers are
anticipating the day when they will be offering their work for sale in
retail establishments. Although the traditional art reflects Karen and
Karenni heritage and culture, it also has worth for the weavers'
economic participation within Albany and the greater Capital region.
While master weavers Sha Lay Paw and Kee Meh are newly at the center of
the weaving enterprise, it will be interesting to see what ripples they
make and what impact their weaving will have on the lives of their
families and associates in the next 50 years.
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Yacub Addy's legacy reached across two continents and hundreds
of people. The legacies of Sha Lay Paw and Kee Meh are yet to be
determined, but I can assure you, we will all be the beneficiaries.
Ellen McHale, PhD, Executive Director
New York Folklore Society
nyfs@nyfolklore.org
www.nyfolklore.org
