Folk Arts of Social Change was a Philadelphia Folklore Project (PFP) exhibition project that aimed to explore the intersection of folk arts and progressive political and social movements in the Philadelphia area. The project reflects on how struggles for justice, equity and freedom depend on traditions passed on and developed within communities and out of collective experience. Researcher Teresa Jaynes and other contributors interviewed more than 100 Philadelphia activists representing a wide range of progressive issues and cultures. The resulting collection includes stories, photographs, sound and moving image recordings, ephemera and objects. Ephemera from demonstrations, community organizations, and other acts of activism include posters, song sheets, flyers, bumper stickers, buttons and community radical newspapers (from 1967-1973). The collection also includes Golden Venture (1995) paper constructions from Chinese immigrants detained at York County prison – art works crafted to communicate their plight and raise funds.
Folk Arts of Social Change fieldwork was presented in a 1999 exhibition at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial. During the exhibition, visitors recorded their own chants on individual audio recorders, now preserved in this collection. One section of the exhibition, “Big Shoes to Fill,” included actual shoes borrowed from participants and “shoe cards” (in the collection) in which participants shared stories about people in whose footsteps they were following, and answered the question “if these shoes could talk, what stories of social change could they tell?” Instructions for replicating this section of the exhibition were reprinted in the book Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching, published by Teaching for Change and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council (now Teaching for Change). An online version of the exhibition on PFP's web site included an additional section in which participants helped catalogue more than 600 anti-war signs and slogans sighted in demonstrations from 2003-2007. The web exhibit is available at http://www.folkloreproject.org/gallery/folk-arts-social-change-exhibition-1999
Some traditional artists featured in the "Tools of Struggle" section were re-interviewed, or materials were excerpted, from previous work with them: Edwin Arocho, Frito Bastien, Mogauwane Mahloele, Eang Mao, Bud Little Wolf and Chamroeun Yin. See related PFP collections for more information on these artists.
Some artifacts, ephemera and photographs documented for possible inclusion in the exhibition were not included and were returned to their owners. See FASC loan forms for more details about individual items.
After being presented in the exhibition, Bill and Miriam Crawford's dining room— an assemblage of 40 years of social change ephemera—was permanently reinstalled in PFP's building, where it is currently on display. The instructions for the dining room's installation are found in this collection. Later documentation of the dining room including additional interviews, can be found in the related Philadelphia Folklore Project collection C0015: Bill & Miriam Crawford's Dining Room, with edited interview excerpts online at http://www.folkloreproject.org/gallery/if-these-walls-could-talk-bill-and-miriam-crawford-dining-room.
All FASC interviews were transcribed. Teresa Jaynes' fieldnotes are interspersed throughout the collection. Articles from PFP’s magazine, Works in Progress, related to Folk Arts of Social Change can be found in multiple issues.
Philadelphia Folklore Project collections related to the content of Folk Arts and Social Change Collection:
C0002: Philly Dance Africa
C0006: Technical Assistance
C0009: Cambodian Community Documentation
C0015: Bill and Miriam Crawford's Dining Room
C0016: Eric Joselyn: Exhibition at PFP
C0019: PFP Slide-Tape / Videos - series 1 and series 2
C0021: General Folklife Documentation
C0028: In my heart I am a dancer
C0030: Thomas B. Morton
C0031: Miscellaneous PFP concerts, exhibitions and events
C0032: Works in Progress & other PFP Publications
C0037: Folk Arts and Multicultural Education (FAME)
C0038: PFP Admin
C0040: Sample tapes
Philadelphia Folklore Project publications:
Jaynes, Teresa. 1997. Bill and Miriam Crawford: "Freedom was my badge". Works in Progress 11(1):20-22.
________. 1998. Kiyoshi Kuromiya: "Building up our courage and our experience". Works in Progress 11(2/3):10-13.
________. 1999a. Bertha Waters and her daughters: "Our children told us to put our feet where our mouth was!" Works in Progress 12(1):6-9, 18-19, 22-23.
________. 1999b. "To speak up and tell the truth": interview with Jean Hunt. Works in Progress 12(2/3):10-13, 20-21.
________. 1999c. David Acosta: "Change was in the air". Works in Progress 12(2/3)16-19, 23-24.
Jaynes, Teresa, Mike Finley, and Denys Everingham. 1997. Facing down a death squad: a labor organizer in Honduras. Works in Progress 10(2/3):24-26.
Kodish, Debora, ed. 2000. Special “Folk Arts of Social Change” issue. Works in Progress 13(1/2)1-29.
Collection is open for research. Duplication and use of materials is dependent on permission from the Philadelphia Folklore Project. Contact PFP for access and usage information.