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Author: Paul (Page 105 of 147)

Tyndall Holiday Show

Sylvia pulled Sally and me out of the crowd and took a couple of pictures of us at the Tyndall Galleries Holiday Show on Sunday.
Later on Sylvia’s group, the Janes (no relation to Jane Tyndall), sang a set, then Sylvia and jazz pianist Chris Reynolds sang some duets. We had to run out before the duets really got going.
The great thing about the Holiday Show is that all the artists show up and hang out. And you get a good selection of all the work that Jane Tyndall represents.

Afro-Celts Talk

Michael Newton’s talk in the Afro-Celts were not only a good one but one that kept people talking during a long question time. And it drew an interesting collection of people who seemed to belong to every cultural configuration available including a sociolinguist who might be called Afro-American but is also Catawba and probably Scotts as well. A wonderful woman who sang “Motherless Child” in a duet with Michael whilst he sang a song in Gaelic about the Highland Clearances. Several people wanted to talk about geneology and several wanted to claim themselves as Scots-Irish which Michael would say is not a Celtic culture, but a culture of those who rejected Gaelic and who sided with the English rejecting the culture of the Highland Scots. For Michael, to be Celtic is to speak Gaelic and to embrace the culture of those who are Gaelic speakers; that is, Highland Scots and anyone who would be like them or better would be adopted by them. So that if an African were to enter into Scots culture and speak Gaelic then … There is plenty of evidence that Scots culture in music and in dance and even language (as well as mixing of Scots and Africans) happened often in North America and in the Carribean .

Triangle Bloggers Blast

Tucker and I are just back from the Triangle Bloggers Blast. It’s a school night and Tucker is underage and not going to hang out at a nice smokefilled pool hall/bar so we’re home earlier. The turnout was amazing. Over 70 folks were in the WUNC studios eating that good Lulu supplied food and seeing the new setup there. Anton got a great collection of people out and Joan and Keith and Kevin and the other WUNC folks were gratious hosts. The Blooker Prize got some great air from Jeremy, Jason, Peter and other Lulus. Folks from WRAL and BlogAds were buying drinks as we left.

I was impressed by the progress at the American Tobacco Historic District. I was last there a year ago for the Independent Holiday Party which was I think in the “Public Space” adjoining what is now the WUNC area. The whole place was lively for a Tuesday night in November. The balmy weather had folks eating outside at several restaurants and the water running through the place made it seem like an oasis of sorts.

The Lulus tell me that some great blooks are already submitted including Jessica Cutler’s The Washingtonienne: A Novel. I will not be swayed by her blog entries about the contest no matter how real her bribes might be.

“Lost Voices of the Afro-Celts” Thursday

What: “Lost Voices of the Afro-Celts”
Who: Michael Newton, PhD Celtic Studies
Where: Toy Lounge, Dey Hal, UNC
When: Thursday November 17th, 3:30 PM

Summary: Modern American consciousness is highly racialized: we are told implicitly and explicitly that our skin color determines our race, our identity, to whom we belong and what belongs to us. The reality of American history, even in the South, is not so easily segregated, however. There have been many fascinating exchanges and interactions between people of African ancestry and people of Scottish Highland ancestry.
African-Americans came to speak Gaelic fluently during the eighteenth century, and services in Gaelic lasted even longer in black churches than in white churches. African-Americans, as professional musicians in the South, played a variety of instruments and styles, including Scottish Gaelic tunes for dances. Like every other group of European immigrants in America, Scottish Highlanders took different roles in the institution of slavery: many Gaels, especially in the South, became slave-holders, while others were fire-brands agitating for
abolition. In both cases, Highlanders left their mark on the history of African-Americans. Those expressing the injustice done to Scottish Gaeldom, especially during the Clearances, made explicit parallels with the African experience.
This lecture will explore some of the forgotten connections between African-Americans and Scottish Highlanders and remind us of the rich cultural interactions between people of all ethnic origins in North America. Celtic heritage is not reserved exclusively for “white” people: it is an important element in the history of our nation and belongs to people of all colors.

More on Michael Newton:
Dr Michael Newton has a PhD in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh. He has written several books and numerous articles on Highland history and tradition, and has become the leading scholar on the culture and history of immigrant Highland communities in the United States. He is a fluent Gaelic speaker, a proponent of Highland song and dance, and a published creative writer in the Gaelic language.

Sponsor:
The Centering the American South lecture series of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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