The Preservation of Folk and Documenting Change
Selections from the Alan Lomax Archives
By Meghan Mahar, BLOCK Magazine, August 31, 2006
"During most of man's history contact between peoples did not usually mean that one culture swallowed up or destroyed another," wrote Alan Lomax in his 1972 essay "An Appeal for Cultural Equity."
Lomax, America's leading folklorist, spent over 70 years studying and documenting folk culture around the world. He and his father, John Lomax, are credited with first recording such legendary musicians as Muddy Waters, Woodie Guthrie, and Leadbelly. "Lomax saw folk music as fundamental to human existence as mating rituals or kinship patterns," explains Nathan Salsburg, co-organizer of the Alan Lomax Archive.
Lomax began his career when, at the age of 17, he accompanied his father on a recording trip to the American South. "It was on this trip that young Alan Lomax committed himself to preserving the traditional music and expression of all cultures, and in doing so, altered the course of music history," says Jessica Lin Cox, director of Brooklyn Fire Proof Gallery in Williamsburg. Cox believes that this show's timing is just right for Williamsburg.
"The neighborhood is changing so quickly, we can see it happening right around the corner from BFP. There are nearly 10 luxury developments popping up around McCarren Park. We have had a few school groups come through the exhibition and we have encouraged young people to consider the folklore of their own families, the stories they have been told about the neighborhood and their family history."
Lomax believed it was vital to preserve and represent "homegrown styles," especially coming into the 21st century. "In our concern about the pollution of the biosphere we are overlooking what may be, in human terms, an even more serious problem," writes Lomax. "A mismanaged, over-centralized communication system is imposing a few standardized, mass-produced, and cheapened cultures everywhere."
In addition to the exhibition of Lomax' work, Brooklyn Fire Proof has organized a summer concert series in Lomax' memory. "We have had a wide variety of musicians come through, some of whom have folk influences that are not obvious in their music-making, and some who are very loyal to traditional music," says Cox, "It's been a really interesting mix of musical groups." This segment of the exhibition draws on a key component of Lomax' vision. "Today, artists, everywhere are losing their local audiences, put out of countenance by electronic systems, manipulated from without, rather than from within, their communities."