SATURDAY: PFP's Birthday Bash and Fundraiser @ the Bride

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

0 comments

SATURDAY: PFP's Birthday Bash and Fundraiser @ the Bride

POSTED: Friday, June 1, 2012, 3:30 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Music

Kulu Mele

It is hard for Debora Kodish, founder of the Philadelphia Folklore Project to imagine they are actually celebrating 25 years with a party and their first awards ceremony Saturday night at the Painted Bride.

“We started as a project to honor the centennial of the American Folklore Society.” Kodish recalls that the original folklorists of the 19th century were English literature specialists and anthropology scholars who felt entire ways of life were disappearing and they needed to “save” them. “They were sympathetic outsiders.”

PFP has developed its niche as a support organization, no deus ex machina here wanting to swoop in to the rescue, rather sympathetic outsiders who want to pull back the curtains to reveal resources that are available to communities who know how to ask for them. “We were only supposed to be a [one-off] project.” Then it became apparent that, “The groups that were custodians of the work had visions and needed help to get them funded — it was clear that folklore was underfunded. We started doing grant writing workshops from the beginning. We were trying to change the equation.” The figures she provides sound like success. PFP has expedited grants of “3.2 million dollars over the 25 years, going to over 350 artists.” Kodish notes that PFP has more than 1100 artists in their data base for researchers who need information on folklife of all nature in and around Philly.

The first projects for PFP were artisans in the Italian-American community around their original home at the Fleischer in South Philly. If you’ve ever gone through the main entrances of the old Wanamakers flagship store — now Macy’s — you’ve seen the mosaic art of Salvatore Cernigliaro. Those extravagant renderings of the JW initials were done by him during the building boom in the early days of the last century. Boom turned to bust, Cernigliaro turned to tailoring. His grandkids didn’t even know he’d ever done mosaics. This is the kind of honor and preservation that PFP promotes.

Kodish philosophizes: “We are a really little organization, [at] the place where folk arts and social change cross, both artist and activisits have a part. We want to amplify the voices. It’s been an incredible privilege.” Describing the genesis of a permanent exhibition at the PFP headquarters on 50th Street she continues, “When we were doing field work for the Folk Arts in Social Change we visited activists Bill and Miriam Crawford in their home on Parkside Avenue. Bill had been making a collage of all their rallies and protests on their dining room wall for over 50 years. We were lucky to raise the funds to save the collage when they moved out. The conservators loved the challenge! It has been featured in their journals.”

Plenty of party between the awards celebrations at this fundraiser: Kulu Mele with African dance and drums, Terrance Cameron, steel drumming and Elaine Watts Klezmer with Katt Flagg on accordion.

Sat., June 2, 6:30 p.m., $65, Painted Bride Art Center 230 Vine, PFP for info, 215 726 1106. More info here.

Posted by Mary Armstrong @ 3:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

0 comments

Comments (0)

PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: