American Roots Music

April 16-17, 2010 -Mount Airy Museum of Regional History

October 15-16, 2010 - Mars Hill, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at Mars Hill College

Lead Scholar: Dr. Benjamin Filene, Director of Public History, UNC Greensboro and author of Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music (UNC Press, 2000)

How do our ears tell us that certain sounds are “real” and “authentic”?
Is there a telltale tremor or twang? Or do we need our eyes, too — to take a gander at the musicians and assess their posture and attitude? Or do we really need a biographical sketch? Is “authentic” — or “folk” or “roots” — a sound, a look, a feel, a state of mind?

This seminar explores how American music tells the stories of America’s peoples. Participants will examine how the stories we tell ourselves about American music reveal us as people. How and why do we remember certain musicians and not others as “the real thing”? How do these decisions shape our sense of ourselves — as individuals, as cultures, as communities, as a nation? We will explore these themes by examining the performers, promoters, producers, advocates, and oddballs who worked with missionary zeal to shape our collective vision of America’s musical traditions. Their work emerged from — and, in turn, shaped — ideas not only about music but about race, class, memory, and history. Can we look back to the past and learn how to shape a heritage for the future?

In both seminars, participants will tour Museum on Main Street’s New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music. This is a traveling exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution presented in collaboration with the North Carolina Humanities Council. Although the two seminars will be the same, each site will showcase its distinct musical traditions, for example

• Mount Airy’s annual Bluegrass and Old-Time Fiddlers’ Convention and radio WPAQ’s fifty-year history of broadcasting traditional mountain music; and

• The music collection of Bascom Lamar Lunsford in the Southern Appalachian Archives at Mars Hill College.

Application Deadline for April Seminar: March 4, 2010

Application Deadline for October Seminar: August 30, 2010

Appalachian Voices

June 20-26, 2010 – SUMMER SEMINAR - Glendale Springs, The Paul and Florence Thomas Memorial Art School

Lead Scholar: Dr. Patricia Beaver, Director, Center for Appalachian Studies and Dr. Sandra L. Ballard, Editor, Appalachian Journal – Appalachian State University; Dr. John Inscoe, University Professor, Department of History, University of Georgia

Using history, folklore, literature, films, and other expressions of culture, this interdisciplinary seminar offers participants the opportunity
to explore issues of diversity and identity in gender, race, ethnicity, and class in Appalachia’s rich culture.

The Appalachian region of North Carolina is a land of remarkable contrasts: grand forests preserved as state and federal parks and denuded by acid rain and imported insects; family farms, cities and towns, mansions and gated developments; Daniel Boone’s trails, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and interstate highways. Although Appalachian stereotypes are threaded through America’s consciousness, we need to challenge hillbilly images with knowledge. In North Carolina’s Appalachian mountains, the Cherokee and their ancestors have dwelled for thousands of years, and for 400 years diverse peoples from around the globe have met at Appalachian crossroads to trade, to practice their music and art, to share their stories, to contest the path and wrestle for power and truth.

The Florence School, with simple student quarters and ample classroom space, is located in Glendale Springs (Ashe County). The campus boasts a large deck overlooking a pond, meadows, and beautiful mountain views — an ideal place for Appalachian studies.

Application Deadline: April 12, 2010

Special Teachers Institute Opportunities

The Teachers Institute often provides special opportunities for North Carolina teachers. In 2010, they are

• Teachers throughout North Carolina may contact The Teachers Institute for information about obtaining a copy of a new K-12 Curriculum Enrichment Project on North Carolina American Indian Studies 2009©.  This packet contains rich resources and suggestions for incorporating NC American Indian studies into the curriculum and is aligned with the goals and objectives of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

Watch for other special opportunities in 2010 and beyond.