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Film, Video Old Cultures/New Contexts: Presenting the Traditional Music and Dance of Urban Immigrant Communities

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Old Cultures/New Contexts: Presenting the Traditional Music and Dance of Urban Immigrant Communities

Summary

  • Ethnographer and performer Ethel Raim, co-founder and artistic director of New York's celebrated Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD), discusses her five decades of work with community-based traditional artists in urban America. Beginning at a time when to most Americans "folk music" was practically synonymous with rural and Anglo-Saxon, Raim built on her own interests in Balkan music and dance to document and collaborate with a wide panoply of urban ethnic communities. These communities often had little in common with each other, except a strong commitment to their traditions and the presence of outstanding master artists. Through CTMD, Raim and her colleagues identified and documented performers and strengthened commitments and educational opportunities within communities. At the same time, they developed innovative approaches that introduced many previously in-group traditions to mainstream audiences. By educating Americans about the wealth of world cultures surrounding them, she literally and figuratively brought ethnic music from church basements to center stage. Raim shares stories about what it was like to be at the epicenter of the theoretical and applied folklore movements that rediscovered and revitalized numerous performing genres--including Irish, Albanian, Puerto Rican and Jewish klezmer musics--that are now integral to America's musical landscape.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2008-06-20.

Headings

  • -  Biography, History
  • -  Culture, Folklife
  • -  Culture, Performing Arts
  • -  Education
  • -  Performing Arts, Music

Notes

  • -  Classification: Education.
  • -  Classification: Fine Arts.
  • -  Classification: Music and Books on Music.
  • -  Classification: Social Sciences.
  • -  Ethel Raim.
  • -  Recorded on 2008-06-20.
  • -  Researchers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021688005

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division. Old Cultures/New Contexts: Presenting the Traditional Music and Dance of Urban Immigrant Communities. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -06-20, 2008. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688005/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division, S. B. (2008) Old Cultures/New Contexts: Presenting the Traditional Music and Dance of Urban Immigrant Communities. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -06-20. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688005/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. African And Middle Eastern Division. Old Cultures/New Contexts: Presenting the Traditional Music and Dance of Urban Immigrant Communities. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -06-20, 2008. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021688005/>.