Saturday, April 29, 2017 - 10am-5pm
Welcome to the 43rd Annual New Jersey Folk Festival! Our staff of fourteen undergraduate students has been working diligently with our directors to put this festival together, and we are delighted to have you join us. We hope you will find a place for yourself as we celebrate the music, arts, crafts, and folklore of New Jersey’s traditional cultures.
In the last year, our nation has engaged in heated debates around race, religion, and what it means to be American. We at the New Jersey Folk Festival hope that this event provides a glimpse into the traditions of various groups of people who call New Jersey home. On the Skylands Stage, you will find instrumental performances of Irish music, as well as a group of whirling dervishes performing the sema, a religious dance originating in Turkey in the Islamic sect of Sufism. The ethnic and religious traditions that you will see today show us that the way we perceive difference changes over time, and that we all have a lineage that may go marked or unmarked at a given historical moment. Skylands will also feature a pow wow ceremony by the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribal nation, whose continued presence reminds us that, while many New Jerseyans descend from immigrants, some were here from the very beginning. Whether you came to New Jersey or New Jersey came to you, I invite you to engage questions of difference and belonging as we showcase this state’s heritage.
Established in 1975 and run out of the Department of American Studies, the New Jersey Folk Festival has a unique place in the landscape of Rutgers University–New Brunswick. One of the founding pillars of Rutgers Day, the festival has been bringing people from Rutgers, New Brunswick, Highland Park, and other nearby communities together for over forty years. During my first year on staff as the Children’s Activities Coordinator, the most rewarding part of my position was meeting the children and families who came to my tent from only a few blocks away. Whether this is your first or fortieth time with us, I hope that you meet neighbors and make friends that you might not otherwise encounter.
As we strive to promote harmony and understanding across different backgrounds, I would like to acknowledge the people that make this event come together. I want to thank our executive director and founder Dr. Angus Kress Gillespie and our associate director Matt Hueston for all the work they do to facilitate the success of our student staff. I also have the deepest gratitude to the Department of American Studies for their continued support in this endeavor and in my education. Last but not least, I would like to recognize the truck drivers, custodians, food workers, groundskeepers, and all the other people whose oft-hidden labor makes this event possible. I hope you can join us as we celebrate community, arts, and culture at the 43rd annual New Jersey Folk Festival.
Amy Clark ’17
Festival Manager