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Houston Institute for Culture
General Interest Meeting
7:30pm, Tuesday, August 6, 2002
Pappas Bar-B-Q (713-649-7236)
7050 Gulf Freeway (at Gulfgate, just inside Loop 610 on I-45 south)
As many of you know, I've been out giving presentations about regional culture and resources at universities around the country, and we have taken some groups on some great informal adventures. I'll describe them briefly below.
We have been fortunate to hear some exceptional music along the way and you can hear a sample on the World Music Show tonight from 7 - 9pm on KTRU, Rice University Radio, 91.7fm.
Educational Travel
Our latest informal adventures, that we call Field Trips, have been better than ever, taking us to destinations near and far. Some of these will blossom into organized Educational Adventures in years to come.
A volunteer from New York came to show us our own back yard in early June. Andy Campbell took us on a tour of historic Brazoria County, site of significant early Texas history, plantations, and the prison farm system that notoriously supplied labor to landowners following the Civil War. Other friends and volunteers joined us in Houston for the Juneteenth festivities and the Accordion Kings concert, featuring Mingo Saldivar and the Hackberry Rambler, among others.
For those interested in music produced in Texas prisons, we recommend:
Wake Up Dead Man by Various Artists, Rounder Records
As I had to give a presentation at a conference at Kent State, I managed to organize two informal tours in Ohio as bookends to the conference.
On the first weekend, we visited many Effigy Mounds and Earthworks of the Ohio River Valley, primarily near Newark and Chilicothe, Ohio. The magnificent earthworks date back at least 2,000 years and are the greatest man-made monuments on our continent. Some are sculpted burial grounds, while others are walled cities and corridors containing hundreds of acres. Sadly, farming, railroads, canals, army bases, and even golf courses, have devastated the majority of the great sites. Some, such as the Serpent Mound, which is not only a massive earthen sculpture and effigy, but also a calendar, have been preserved or rebuilt based on surveys from the early 1800s.
To learn more, a good introduction is:
The Moundbuilders by Robert Silverberg, Ohio University Press
We chanced upon the annual St. Joseph the Provider Festival in eastern Ohio, a horse-drawn canal boatride and many friendly Amish farms along the way.
At the conference...
Photojournalist Lee Marriner made a presentation on the vanishing way of life in New England. Stay tuned to his site: http://www.photojournalistas.com
Ron Kuntz, 50 years with UPI, now working with Prison Ministries, gave his unique observations inside TDC with Carla Faye Tucker.
The May 4 Memorial at Kent State very moving, and we were given a tour by faculty who were present during the time of the shooting. As you might expect, we heard the music of Neil Young on several emotional occasions around campus.
We went on additional tours of Severance Hall, Harry London Chocolate Factory, and the Amish Country, all very important to the culture and lifestyles of Ohioans.
Following the conference we went on another informal field trip, mainly with conference participants. We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Italy, the Italian Cultural Center, and an eclectic neighborhood with diverse shops and a counter-cultural atmosphere called Coventry. We toured Polish and Slovenian communities and visited Ukrainian and Indian temples in Parma. (Last time on the World Music Show, I played some music from this area, so I'll probably keep it to a minimum tonight.) We went looking for the Polka Museum in Parma and didn't find it. We'll be back!
The Big New York Adventure...
Ellis Island is a must for all Americans. Information and images I gathered there will be part of my presentation at University of Houston in September. We also visited the National Museum of the American Indian and viewed the Mohawk Steel Workers Exhibit. What's more exciting, we met a Mohawk Steel Worker in a Cuban restaurant. We stayed on the lower east side of Manhattan, in a predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican community, and made several excursions to Chinatown and Little Italy.
To see a more unexpected and unique side of the metro area, we traveled to the far east side of Queens, visited the Indo-Caribbean neighborhood called Richmond Hill, where we shopped, visited a Seikh Temple, ate at a Roti Shop and bought lots of local music. We found a great Indo-Caribbean musical massala the locals call Chutney Soca, with artists like Drupatee Ramgonai, and also bought some traditional Bhajans produced locally in the diverse Richmond Hill neighborhood. We then went to a world more familiar to us in Houston, the predominant Indian, Mexican and Central American cultures that make Jackson Heights a thriving independent business community.
In addition to the Chutney Soca, I plan to feature the music of Ensemble Maqam, a Bukharian Jewish folk group based in Queens, and music from Smithsonian CD Global Beat of the Boroughs (much of the music we bought is music we were lucky to see live when we traveled to Washington DC for the Folklife Festival).
We plan to return during Labor Day Weekend for the West Indian parades and to visit the Secret Museum of Mankind. Consider how exciting this time will be in New York.
The Washington D.C. Sidetrip...
We had the most exciting time at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival featuring over 400 musicians and artists from many cultures along the Silk Road. There was so much to see and learn about at this massive event sponsored by the Aga Khan Foundation that it will require me to write an actual article in the next few weeks.
The Asia Society Texas has a class on the Silk Road. You should look into this if you have an educational affiliation. It's posted on our calendar:
http://www.houstonculture.org/events
Here is our reading and listening recommendation:
The Hundred Thousand Fools of God by Theodore Levin, Indiana University Press
CD included (listen tonight for it and other music from the Silk Road), we have some of the visiting artists music on order and a wealth of film at the lab.
Also, The Silk Road by Various Artists, Smithsonian Folkways
While in DC, we frequented the ethnically diverse Adams Morgan district and had great Salvadoran and Ethiopian food. We have two occasions in mind to return to Washington D.C. for those who are interested. I personally can't wait to find out what the theme will be for next year's Folklife Festival, though I don't know how they will ever top what they did this year.
The August trips are the Canyonlands of Utah, August 16 - 29, and NYC West Indian Parades, August 30 - September 3. In the fall we will be back to our weekend trips in Texas. Remember, these are typically "at cost" trips.
http://www.houstonculture.org/fieldtrip
http://www.houstonculture.org/travel
Upcoming Meeting
General interest meetings take place on the first Tuesday of the month. The next is scheduled for Tuesday, August 6, 7:30pm, location TBA.
Send agenda items to: vols@houstonculture.org
Here are several current agenda items:
September 11 Cultural Literacy Project
Cultural Advocate of the Year
E-Culture newsletter
Internet logistics and navigation
For Meeting Updates:
http://www.houstonculture.org/meeting
Again, remember to tune in to the World Music Show tonight, and if you haven't already, be sure to send organization and artist listings to Ashley, listings@houstonculture.org, and calendar items to Janni, info@houstonculture.org.
Thanks,
Mark
Houston Institute for Culture is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting cultural education and awareness through cultural activities. Our goal is to provide free and low-cost events, services and classes for the community. The organization's sphere of interest is Houston, the regions that have affected Houston's cultural history and the international origins of Houston's diverse population. Membership is free and all events and informational resources are open to the public.
If you would like to learn more about our programs, please see our organization overview:
http://www.houstonculture.org/office/overview.html
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