More Resources on the History of Slavery and the Pinkster Festival

 

Photo from Wycoff Historic House Museum Pinkster Festival 2022

Catskills Folk Connection's folklorist, Ginny Scheer, interviewed Chief Baba Neil Clarke (right, above) on Tuesday, May 24 on her WIOX radio program, Catskills Folk  (www.wioxradio.org).  The Chief, a well-known scholar in African American music and history, as well as a master drummer, described the efforts of white slave owners and their governments to "erase" African culture - its languages, religions,  music traditions, and family connections.  The people captured and transported from Africa could not bring any of their material culture,  But they could bring their skills, talents and aesthetics and eventually apply them in their new surroundings.  Given a chance, such as the freedom of the Pinkster Festival, when owners gave enslaved people the day off and even allowed them to travel to other communities, outlawed music instruments and other practices appeared   

Chief Baba Neil Clarke is one of the organizers of the Pinkster Festivals being celebrated up and down the Hudson River Valley, with Kingston the closest one to the Catskills Region.  See this blog's previous article and go to TransArt & Cultural Services for more information about the Pinkster Festival on June 4 & 5 in Highland NY and Kingston, NY.   

Audio recordings used in the WIOX broadcast with Chief Baba Neil Clarke came from two interviews done as part of a virtual Pinkster celebration at Wycoff Historic House Museum.  One, used as background for the radio program, examines the history of African slavery in America as context for the Pinkster Festival.   Melissa Branfman from Wycoff House and Meredith Horsford from Dyckman House interview Lavada Nahon, culinary scholar and interpreter of African American Traditions for the NYS OPRHP and Chief Baba Neil Clarke in this 49 minute recording:  Lavada Nahon & Chief Baba Neil Clarke

The second recording was excerpted on the air sharing brief interviews with musicians Orjeño Enrique Prince (fiddle) and Ayoudele Maarkeru (banjo) and a longer demonstration by Chief Baba Neil Clarke about drumming - how it fit in the Pinkster Festival and helped perpetuate musical traditions that were part of the development of jazz. This recoding is about 13 minutes long:  Virtual Pinkster Music

I hope you enjoy these links. Click on the words "TransArt & Cultural Services" to go to information about the June 4 & 5 Pinkster Festival.  The words are not underlined and are not in blue.  Click on the words "Lavada Nahon & Chief Baba Neil Clarke" for the longer, historical interview.  Click on the words "Virtual Pinkster Music" for the interview with the musicians at Wycoff House's virtual  Pinkster Festival.  Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing them.  Ginny: gscheer.mcs@gmail.com.