Heritage Spotlight:
Traditions of the Dominican Republic
The New Jersey Folk Festival is excited to showcase Dominican American traditions at its 33rd annual festival. Comprising one-half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic traces its independence to February 27, 1844. The country's history is marked by struggle and perseverance of a strong and proud people, who sustained several foreign occupations and domestic tumult to create a strong national identity. Dominican culture is rich and remarkable, and the NJFF is pleased to share it with you.
The United States has influenced the Dominican Republic since the early twentieth century, but in the past five decades, Dominican influence has been making its mark on American culture. This influence is obvious in music, dance, literature, food, spirituality, and people. Latinos who identify themselves as Dominican or Dominican-American comprise the third largest Hispanic ethnic group in the United States, preceded by Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. This base has created a unique opportunity for Dominican-Americans to retain their native culture while influencing and being influenced by American culture, symbiotically adding to the richness of each.
Music and dance are fundamental aspects of Dominican culture, as they form a dynamic representation of an abundant culture. Many Dominican dances are accentuated by powerful African percussion which adds to the passion the dances convey.
Today at the festival you will be able to enjoy the vibrant vocals and powerful percussion of traditional Dominican song and dance. The salve is a ceremonial call and ( response form of singing dedicated to saints. This music is characterized by the use of African instruments, such as panderos, which resemble large tambourines, and atabales, or Caribbean kettle drums. Another sacred form of Dominican music, the palos, is performed with long drums, and has many regional variations. The New Jersey Folk Festival will also showcase traditional social dances, such as the celebrated merengue, pachimbe, valse, and sarambo. Although they began as folk dances, today these dances are performed by Dominicans living on the island and in the United States, as well as by admirers.
On behalf of the New Jersey Folk Festival, thanks for coming and have fun!
jGracias por venir y esperamos que se disfruten!
Heritage Area & Special Presentations
Basketry
MARY MAY, of Forked River, is a New Jersey Master Basket Maker teaching in the Apprenticeship Program of the New Jersey Council on the Arts. She is known for her traditional baskets made of hand-splint oak. A student of New Jersey master Esther Parker, she is an expert in South Jersey basketry thanks to her extensive research of traditional techniques at local historical societies, museums, and private collections. Her baskets were a featured exhibit at the Tuckerton Seaport, the Long Beach Island Arts and Science Foundation, and the New Jersey Forestry Interpretive Center.
MARY CARTY, a lifelong resident of Burlington County, demonstrates her Native American heritage through her handmade baskets. Many of her traditional baskets are shapes and styles with which her Lenape ancestors would have been familiar. A skilled teacher of weaving, Ms. Carty beautifully combines innovation with tradition in her craft. She stresses the importance of free-flowing creativity to her students, while instilling a deep respect for the conventional. She has researched and studied traditional Lenape basket weaving, and her mastery of the craft has been affirmed by many awards for her original and traditional designs.
Instrument Making
A Philadelphia native, DAVID FIELD is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He began woodworking with his uncles and got into furniture building after getting married. Mr. Field became interested in instrument making during the folk revivalist revolution of the 1960s. Even though he has no formal musical training, he built his first dulcimer in 1964 at the urging of a friend, and has since sold about 350 Appalachian dulcimers. In 1994, David Field began crafting harps, eventually making about 150 lever folk harps. Mr. Field has exhibited his craft in most of the Delaware Valley's juried craft shows such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Wheaton Village Craft Show, Appel Farm Music Festival, Potomac Celtic Festival, Middlesex County Fair, the Noyes Museum, Haddonfield Craft Show, and the Philadelphia Celtic Festival, among others.
MICHAEL TERRIS first became intrigued with instrument building when he attended the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. A former art student and veteran of the US Navy, Mr. Terris's first attempt at guitar making "created lots of firewood." His craft eventually was perfected through research on classical guitar construction, as many of the elusive techniques involved were finally revealed. In addition to classical guitars, Michael Terris builds flat-top steel string guitars, banjos, mandolins, and resonator guitars- a type of guitar barred with a steel slide as opposed to fretted. Each of his instruments is hand-built, which is evident in the unique detail of each striking piece. Mr. Terris prefers building classical guitars to any other instrument because of the delicacy of the instrument. The process is more challenging, and it takes many years of dedication and attention to detail to achieve the sought-after qualities that make the distinction between a mediocre instrument and a truly outstanding one
South Jersey Maritime Traditions-Tuckerton Seaport
Waterfowler FRED REITMEYER, of Pomona, carves his decoys using the tools and techniques he learned . from his grandfather, the legendary boat builder Carl Adams. He began carving at the age of twelve, making a rig of black ducks, his first decoys, from cork. Mr. Reitmeyer carves a classic Barnegat Bay decoy, but instead of gouging out his hollow decoys, he uses a resource-efficient, three-piece technique developed by his grandfather. This technique utilizes scrap plank ends, hollowing out the middle with a saber saw, and saving the refuse for a duck head or sandpiper. A regular demonstrator at Tuckerton Seaport, Fred Reitmeyer teaches youth carving classes and is an instructor at the Jersey Shore Folklife Center. He represented New Jersey decoy carving at the 2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and was one of six carvers in the state invited to participate in the 2004 Mid-Atlantic Decoy Competition. Mr: Reitmeyer is a New Jersey Master Decoy Carver teaching in the Apprenticeship Program of the New Jersey Council on the Arts.
Sneakbox builder Gus HEINRICHS of Tuckerton is a fourth generation wooden boat builder. His grandfather, Sock Hemnchs, owned and operated a boat yard and marine railway on Tuckerton Creek until the 1940s and his father, Gustav, built and sold sneakboxes until his death in 1972. ' Gus Heinrichs grew up helping out his father in Burton's boat yard until he began clamming in a 24-foot garvey made by his father. Before becoming a judge for the Ocean County Decoy and Gunning Show, Mr. Heinrichs won at least seventeen awards for his feather-edged sneakboxes. Today, his sneakboxes are in private collections. Gus Heinrichs also is a demonstrator at the Tuckerton Seaport where one of his sneakboxes is displayed alongside a sneakbox built by his father .
CARL TARNOW, of Belford, is a fourth generation retired commercia! fisherman ~ho clammed and fished pound net traps on the Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays. Mr. Tarnow s fam1ly ran its own seafood packing house m Belford, and he represented the area as a member of the Shellfish Council for several years. Carl Tarnow designed and maintains the model pound net maze in Marshall Meadows Exploration Park and is a valued speaker on pound net traditions. At the Tuckerton Seaport, Mr. Tamow works with Gus Heinrichs in Perrine's Boat Works, where he demonstrates net mending and shares stories and pictures of pound net fishing in the area. Mr. Tamow's pound net models can be found at the Tuckerton Seaport. He restored a model pound net for Barnegat Light Historical Museum, which was originally created by Axel B. Carlson, Jr. In 2004, Carl Tamow represented New Jersey commercial fishing traditions at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Long Island Traditions Folklife Festival.
Captain FRED KALM from New Gretna is a bay man who has spent most of his life making a living from the Barnegat Bay. A former charter boat captain, Fred Kalm used to run fishing parties on the Sapphire Lady, a boat built for him by his father Otto Kalm, a former tugboat captain. Over the years, Fred Kalm has tongued for clams and scallops, worked in the cranberry bogs, raised oysters and Springer spaniels, and served on the Philippine Sea during the Korean War. In 1991 Fred Kalm received the Hurley Conklin Award, presented to people who have lived in the Barnegat Bay Tradition. Today Fred Kalm is a full time clammer for Parson's Clam House and demonstrates tonguing as Captain for the Seaport's vintage charter boat, Melody II.
Commercial fisherman JIM RlCKMERS, from Waretown traces his yearning for the sea to his great- greatgrandfather, a whaling captain from Germany. In addition to working as a carpenter, Mr. Rickmers has made his living from the bay--clamming, peeling, shedding soft shell crabs, shrimping, and fyke netting for flounder and bait. He began fyke netting for flounder with an "old timer," and after a few seasons with him, Mr. Rickmers went out on his own. During the flounder fishing season, which runs from November 1 until February 19, he fishes eight fyke nets in the Barnegat Bay. Mr. Rickmers has demonstrated fyke nets as part of Tuckerton Seaport's Artist in Residence program, and has participated in Tuckerton Seaport's Baymen's Seafood and Music Festival.
THE JERSEY SHORE FOLKLIFE CENTER researches, documents, supports and presents the diverse communities and traditions of the Jersey Shore and the Pinelands. The Center provides professional oversight for folk art programs and exhibits at Tuckerton Seaport and manages the artist roster and guest demonstrator schedule, the Folk and Traditional Artist in Residence Program, the Jersey Traditions outreach program and the changing artist exhibits in J.C. Parker's workshop. Through daily demonstrations, educational programs, classes and exhibits the Jersey Shore Folklife Center celebrates the profoundly creative spirit of the region, its traditional arts, and its occupational and recreational folklife.
Korean Arts
JULIA IM, Executive Director of the Institute of Korean Arts and Culture, returns this year to present masks and mask dances developed in Korea in ancient times. Typically a form of Korean folk art, the masks can be categorized into two kinds: religious and artistic. The former were enshrined in shaman shrines and revered with periodical offering rites, and also were used to expel evil spirits. Artistic masks were mostly used in dance and drama. Color is an important identifier for the masks. Red, black, white and other primary colors are favored for the effective characterization of the masks, whether for the gender or the age of a character, or for the season or direction. Also on display at the Heritage Area today is Asian ink and wash painting, or hangul in Korean. Developed in China during the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907 CE), wash painting is a technically demanding art form, requiring great skill, concentration, and one which takes years of training to perfect. Artists grind their own ink using a grinding stick made of charcoal ash, stone, and water. Wash painting brushes are traditionally made from bamboo and animal hair.