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Abstract
The article examines the process of promoting, with a view to safeguarding, the centuries-old Singing and Praying Bands living tradition, an African American musical and spiritual expression that is distinctive to the Chesapeake Bay region of the US. Discussed within the context of US public folklore, the process is understood as a co-intervention, representing an active partnership between the Bands’ community and public folklorists (including the authors) in attempting to reach new members as a means of keeping it alive. The article underscores the need for ‘bottom-up’ approaches in safeguarding living cultural traditions, bringing to light the potential strengths of public folklore work and the benefits its theories and methodologies can bring to the intangible cultural heritage discourse. Moreover, it analyses how community agency has been exercised, and community needs accommodated, through the dialogue-driven, collaborative intervention process. It also investigates how a nuanced view of ‘authenticity’ has been shaped, with regard to changes the living tradition has undergone, and is currently understood by those who embody it.
Notes
1. The term, ‘bands’, is misleading in the context of contemporary musical traditions; as David (Citation2007, 6) describes, it means ‘prayer bands’, deriving from ‘band society’, the organisational structure of early prayer meetings of Methodism, as coined by John Wesley, its founder.
2. Email from David on 11 June 2014; see also David Citation2007.
3. For a listing of the States Parties to the 2003 Convention, see UNESCO (Citation2016b). It is necessary to mention that US-based heritage professionals, especially those working within, and who have worked for, the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, have been instrumental in constructing the ICH definition and concept, and developing the 2003 Convention and various precursor programmes and documents; see Seitel Citation2001.
4. For a concise history of public folklore in the US, see Baron and Spitzer (Citation2007).
5. See the ACHS website: http://archanth.anu.edu.au/heritage-museum-studies/association-critical-heritage-studies.
6. Since August 2015, Murphy serves as the Director of Folk and Traditional Arts at the National Endowment of the Arts; Stefano remains running Maryland Traditions.
7. Mary Allen was interviewed at her home in West Baltimore in 16 May 2012. She has since passed away.
8. On 20 July 2012 David and Stefano travelled to meet and interview Reverend Keiford Jackson at home in Cambridge, Maryland and George Beckett at home in Frankford, Delaware, two members of different Bands groups.
9. From an in-person conversation with Reverend Colbert on 31 May 2012 in Baltimore. Also see Henkin and Murphy (Citation2012) and Carpenter, Henkin, and Murphy (Citation2012).
10. From an in-person conversation with David on 31 May 2012 in Baltimore.
11. Stefano attended Band meetings on 25 February 2012 and 26 July 2014 at Waymans Good Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church in Severna Park, Maryland.
12. The ‘Delmarva’ refers to the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia peninsula that extends south of the mouth of the Delaware River, and comprises the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
13. 26 July 2014, Severna Park, Maryland.
14. The National Heritage Fellowships were founded by the NEA in 1982, and inspired by the Living National Treasures of Japan programme (see Hawes Citation1983).
15. From the 25 February 2012 Bands meeting.
16. The project was financed in part by the Maryland Historical Trust through the assistance of Elaine Eff, who was their folklorist at the time, and subsequent co-founder of Maryland Traditions.
17. It ought to be mentioned that in addition to paying the Bands for their participation, as is the standard for most folklife festivals or related events in the US, their bus transportation was also included in the budget since it has emerged as an important component of supporting them.
18. From a conversation with Reverend Colbert on 31 May 2012.
19. At the group meeting, 25 February 2012.
20. Interview conducted by David and Stefano on 20 July 2012 in Cambridge, Maryland.