Class Minutes - 01/19/11

Class minutes for January 19th:
• Sarah Milligan as guest speaker
• Paul Brown gives brief comments on his experience as an alum of CETA, stressing “working with,” not “for”.
• Sarah Milligan, folklorist, involved with the KY Folklife Program and the KY Oral History Commission (the only state funded commission of its kind).
• Folklore-identifying, documenting, and preserving tradition (while they change over time) through oral tradition, giving a sense of community and identity.
• Recorded through oral history, photography, observations and other methods.
• Briefly discussed assimilation of other cultures into communities: 2nd and 3rd generations of immigrant families forming their identities as not Italian or American, but as Italian American.
• Mention of PlaceMatters site and the general study of “sense of place” (a study of the physical and cultural influences that determine how we see our environment; “what you notice without noticing”).
• Brings up the question of how one is to determine “people’s [cultural and community] attachments”.
• Brings up the question of how to document a community in transformation.
• Patrick brings up distinction between cultural idiosyncrasy and community.
• Sarah clarifies that community can translate into any group of people with an element of cohesion.
• Kurt and Kremena assign Folklore Project.
• Kathleen shares her experiences as a CETA alum (Spalding’s Bakery and Mr. Needham).
• Collective setting of neighborhood boundaries: Race to Broadway, Loudon to 3rd.
• Sarah makes suggestion to ask questions around neighborhood in order to find important voices.
• Paul makes suggestion to speak with old real estate agents.
• Patrick suggests a contact list legacy, and to call people repeatedly if necessary.
• Griffin mentions Guy Huguelett.