Saturday, April 25th, 2015 - 10am-5pm
Dear Friends,
I joined the student staff of the New Jersey Folk Festival three years ago after taking a folklore class with its founder and director, Dr. Angus Kress Gillespie. I enrolled in that class not because I had a desire to learn how folklore was used to express the trials and tribulations of a cultural or occupational group, but because I wanted a fun class that would fill a graduation requirement. As a science major, I had only a limited exposure to the humanities and even less to its importance in our society. In my eyes, music, stories and art served only to entertain. When Dr. Gillespie asked me to join the staff, I thought it would provide me with practical internship skills that we in the sciences do not often get—I had no concept of the significance of the festival itself. That changed when our festival class began. The year I joined, the festival was featuring the Garifuna, a small cultural group based out of Central America. Through a combination of lectures and guest speakers, I learned how both the culture and language of the Garifuna was dying out, especially in the United States where younger generations had little opportunity to learn the language and customs of their ancestors. The Garifuna musicians, dancers and demonstrators that we were featuring at our festival were determined to change that. The art and material culture that they produced was not just a way to keep one another entertained—it defined the history of their people; the challenges that they had to overcome in order to create better lives for their children. Their culture represented their origins and who they were as individuals, and our festival was a way to keep that alive. On festival day, I witnessed firsthand the joy that these individuals experienced in seeing such an important aspect of their lives put forth into the eye of the public for the first time. This was truly an extraordinary moment for me, and it is the reason that I am writing this letter as Festival Manager today.
Established in 1975, the New Jersey Folk Festival is the oldest continuously run folk festival in our state, and its mission to preserve and protect the traditions that make New Jersey so richly diverse is one of utmost importance. We, as a student staff of fourteen Rutgers undergraduates, are responsible for continuing this mission. Under the direction of Professor Gillespie and our Associate Director, Matthew Hueston, our team has worked tirelessly throughout the year to put the festival together. This year our staff is proud to celebrate Maritime folk culture. Being a coastal state, New Jersey has a rich history of Maritime folk customs, stories, music and art that we will be highlighting at our stages and Heritage Area this year. We are also proud to honor Dr. Simon J. Bronner, founder of the Pennsylvania Center for Culture Studies, as our Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Through his dedication to teaching and his many award-winning publications, he has made vast contributions to the fields of both folklore and folklife. The role of Festival Manager requires confidence in one’s ability to lead a group that I did not think I possessed going into the job. It is because of the support and encouragement of our returning staff members and the positive, hardworking attitudes our new members that I was able find this confidence within myself, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation to every single one of them. I would also like to thank all of the volunteers who make our event possible each year. The festival has not just been a valuable part of my undergraduate educa-tion—it has been an avenue into personal growth that I will take with me for the rest of my life. It represents Rutgers’ mission of global reach and Jersey roots like nothing else that I have experienced here, and I am proud to have been a part of it for all these years.
Christine Ray
2015 Festival Manager