Books in the Missour Folklore Society Journal series

When Reconstruction ended in 1877, tens of thousands of African Americans migrated from the Old South to the Midwest. Within a decade, they had established dozens of towns with churches, halls, and musical groups--and dozens of weekly newspapers which recorded both musical performances and attitudes toward a complicated set of musical traditions. Black Music in the Black Press begins with Reconstruction and ends with the Great Depression. Ethnomusicologist Marc Rice has combed huge collections of newspapers, from which he culled scores of editorial reviews, dozens of advertisements, and hundreds of articles, organizing them in ways which make clear the conflicts and changes. By keeping the focus on the articles themselves, he has brought readers first-hand accounts of the tastes and values black newswriters like William Kelly or music experts like Martha Broadus-Anderson debated and promulgated a century ago. And more, he has given current readers what they need to see, the stars: McCabe & Young, Walker and Williams, Scott Joplin, Sissieretta Jones, Ada Brown, Billy Kersands, W.H. Handy, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, Bill Bojangles, Irene and Vernon Castle, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong--and many many more.From Witchita to Kansas City to Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit, black editors praised or excoriated minstrel shows, cakewalks, and "coon" songs. Later, they debated the value of "ragtime," blues, and jazz. Black performers won audiences with spectacular minstrel shows, created their own musical comedies and operas, modulated spirituals into sorrow songs, developed orchestras and dance clubs. Newsmen like George Knox of the Indianapolis Freeman, "an ex-slave with progressive ideas," balanced what they recognized as musical genius against the potentially demeaning effect of racist farce. Some saw "refined minstrelsy" in the McCabe & Young Minstrels, for example or praised the "droll humor" of Walker and Williams' Mr. Lode of Koal as "clean, hearty, romping mirth." Yet, though black musicians proved their talents in a myriad ways, some reviewers seemed to value them insofar as they conformed to Eurocentric standards, reserving praise for "classically trained" black pianists and condemning popular comics for creating "noise" and "trash."In eight chapters, organized chronologically and featuring articles from both large and smaller newspapers, Black Music in the Black Press presents these multiple perspectives, tracking the ways in which tastes changed over the half century between 1880 and 1935. As the decades passed, minstrel shows faded. Ragtime, blues, and "jass" blossomed. Venues grew, as well. The first World War brought further changes--including recognition that European audiences responded positively to black music. The Great Depression, and Prohibition further changed the ways in which black music was presented and evaluated. And finally, the impact of new technologies--of radio and studio recording--on black musicians was carefully assessed by writers in the black press. Black Music in the Black Press is a treasure trove.

The Folklore and Heritage volume of the Missouri Folklore Society Journal, edited by Gregory Hansen and Michelle Stefano, contains 23 works by 18 professionals in fields related to Heritage Studies. It grew out of a consortium held in 2017 in Jonesboro, Arkansas--Connecting (to) Heritage Studies in the U.S.--which Hansen and Stefano organized. In Stefano’s words, “Heritage Studies examines questions like these: What is the official cultural heritage of a nation, and how is it constructed? How and where do we come to learn this official narrative? Who is in control of shaping that narrative—whether historically or currently? . . . Who is involved with identifying, designating, interpreting and disseminating heritage? And who is not?”Heritage Studies is intrinsically interdisciplinary, including everything from arts and brownies to video games and “zero-tolerance” policies. The essays in the volume were chosen to address heritage questions using particular disciplinary skill sets. They explore contributions which might be made by anthropologists, architects, creators of digital museums, environmentalists, geographers, students of local history. Where does—and where should—the funding go when a state or a nation wishes to celebrate (or simply to accept) its heritage? Particular essays focus tightly on particular fields. How does photojournalism, for example, shape a viewer’s sense of heritage? Gabriel Tait explains how his photo of a single shopper provides a “microcosm” of St. Louis’s “affluent, socially progressive, and trendy” Central West End. Kirstin Erickson explores how foodways in New Mexico affect and are affected by the state’s tourist economy—and much more. Ruth Hawkins studies how five specific heritage sites were chosen, developed, and promoted; she outlines challenges for each of the chosen sites, and sketches some of the practices which heritage studies professionals engaged in to address those challenges.The volume particularly celebrates the work of Barry Bergey, who founded the Missouri Friends of the Folk Arts, served as the state’s first folk arts coordinator, and went on to head the National Endowment for the Arts for many years. Bergey’s four included essays demonstrate a lifetime’s expertise in promoting traditional arts, practicing inclusivity, valuing cultural diversity and exploring what Heritage Studies professionals recognize as “intangible cultural heritage.”