VOICE ONE:
This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program,EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans for the thirty-sixth yearlySmithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. It will be thefirst Folklife Festival that honors only one subject – the ancientSilk Road.
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VOICE ONE:
About two-thousand-five-hundred years ago, Asia and Europe werelinked by trade paths. Much later, these paths became known as theSilk Road, named for the most famous trade product, silk materialfrom China. The series of paths that made up the Silk Road stretchedthrough Central Asia from Japan to Italy. Goods, ideas, art andmusic were exchanged along this road for about two-thousand years.
This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is celebrating theliving traditions of the Silk Road, the evidence of the centuries ofexchange. It will also show the influence of these cultures onAmerican life today. The festival will be held for ten daysbeginning June twenty-sixth on the grassy Mall area in the center ofWashington. The festival is called “The Silk Road: ConnectingCultures, Creating Trust.”
VOICE TWO:
Richard Kennedy is one of the main organizers of this year’sFolklife Festival. He says planning began almost four years ago forwhat is the most complex and costly festival yet. About four-hundredpeople will take part in the festival. They are coming from morethan twenty countries that reach from the Pacific Ocean to theMediterranean Sea and from the United States. They includemusicians, artists, cooks, storytellers, dancers and presenters. Formost of them, this will be the first time outside their countries.
The yearly Folklife Festival was started in the nineteen-sixties.Mister Kennedy says it was a new way of considering what museumsshould be. The Folklife Festival used the model of the museumexhibit, but centered on living people rather than objects. It alsowas a way to try to increase the numbers and kinds of people whovisit the Smithsonian and take part in its activities.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Kennedy says the kinds of arts included in the FolklifeFestival are not the kinds of arts shown in national museums. Yet,he says many of the skills and arts of the people at the festivalare worthy of the same kind of respect as the art that hangs in amuseum.
Mister Kennedy says that organizing a Folklife Festival generallybegins with identifying artists who represent community traditions.Arts and traditions help hold a community together. Mister Kennedysays the feeling is that when these traditions and arts disappear,then the communities disappear. The Smithsonian Folklife Festivalsare a way to honor and support the surviving traditions, music andarts of different communities.
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VOICE TWO:
Visitors to this year’s Folklife Festival will be transported tothe ancient Silk Road. They will experience the sounds, sights andsmells of many different cultures. And they will see how East andWest were brought closer together through the exchange of culture,goods and religions.
What will this festival look like? Visitors will not see thewhite cloth tents that seem to appear each June like huge mushroomsrising from the green grass of the Mall. Instead, the majorperformance areas will be covered with beautiful cloth made inIndia.
Rajeev Sethi and the Asian Heritage Foundation designed thisyear’s festival. It will include five performance centers thatrepresent important stops on the Silk Road. Near each center will beareas where people demonstrate the creation of some of the majorproducts exchanged along the trade road.
VOICE ONE:
Visitors can begin to follow the Silk Road from either Italy orJapan. They will travel through five major structures that have beendesigned to look as though they belong on the Silk Road.
At the east end of the Mall, toward the Capitol building, will bea copy of the Nara Gate in Japan. At the west end, near theWashington Monument, will be a structure that looks like SaintMark’s Square in Venice, Italy. In between, visitors will movethrough the bell tower of Chang’un, now Xi’an, China; RegistanSquare in Samarkand, now Uzbekistan; and Hagia Sophia, a religiousbuilding in Istanbul, Turkey. Near each area, people from manycountries will demonstrate the making of some of the major productsexchanged along the Silk Road.
VOICE TWO:
What will visitors see and hear in each area? Music, art andhandmade crafts made in Central Asia are the main themes of thefestival. There will be musical instrument players, wanderingstorytellers, puppet shows and Sufi dancers known as whirlingdervishes. There will be weavers of silk, clothing designers andstone carvers.
At each of the five main areas, there will be demonstrations byartists and craftsmen throughout the day.
Visitors will be able to see how arts and skills that began inone area changed as they moved to other areas. For example,papermaking started in China and moved through Japan to Italy. Paperwas made in a different way in each country because of localmaterials and local needs. At the festival, papermakers fromFabriano, Italy, will demonstrate how they make handmade paper withspecial marks on it.
VOICE ONE:
For hundreds of years, traders who moved along the Silk Roadcarried cloth, jewelry, paper and woven rugs. Glass and stone beadsworn by women were always popular and were easy to transport.Festival visitors will be able to see jewelers from Syria, Turkeyand India and bead makers from Pakistan and Europe demonstrate theancient traditions.
Tribal nomads from Iran to Mongolia provided supplies andtransportation for the Silk Road traders. Nomads do not live insettlements. They move from place to place with their animals. Onthe Mall next month, camels will carry nomad houses called yurtswhich are easily transported from place to place. And a Pakistanitruck painted in bright colors will demonstrate that travelcontinues along the Silk Road today.
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VOICE TWO:
This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is being produced incooperation with the Silk Road Project. The world famous celloplayer, Yo-Yo Ma, started the Silk Road Project innineteen-ninety-eight. It is providing music concerts, culturalactivities and educational programs across the United States, Europeand Asia.
The Silk Road Project has severalpurposes. It shows how the Silk Road led to a mixing of arts,technologies and musical traditions. It identifies the people thatbest represent those cultural traditions today. And it supportscooperation among musicians and artists from the Silk Road countriesand the West. The Silk Road Project is supported by the Aga KhanTrust for Culture, Ford Motor Company and the German companySiemens.
Yo-Yo Ma says he hopes that the Folklife Festival will helpdevelop a sense of community among artists, musicians and visitorsfrom different areas. And he hopes it will create a strong interestin the cultures of the Silk Road.
VOICE ONE:
Music is always an important part of the Smithsonian’s FolklifeFestival. But this year it is even more so, partly because of thehelp of Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Project.
Richard Kennedy says there are two different music traditions inmost of the Silk Road countries. Courtly music is the traditionalmusic of cities and settlements. It is called maqam (MAH-cahm).Groups from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, China and Iran willperform different forms of maqam music.
Another kind of music in the Silk Road countries is called Aitys(EYE-tis). Musicians compete in storytelling, singing and playing ofinstruments. Eighteen singing storytellers will perform Aitys musicfrom nomadic groups along the Silk Road.
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VOICE TWO:
Children’s activities are a very important part of the Silk RoadFolklife Festival. Learning while having fun is the goal. All duringthe festival, the family activity shelter will provide children’sactivities. Children can try Chinese writing called calligraphy,watch Indian magicians and puppeteers, or make their own musicalinstruments from re-used materials.
Special passports will be given to young visitors. The passportswill include a map and interesting facts. Children can get a specialmark on their passports at each performance area.
Richard Kennedy says that this year’s Smithsonian FolklifeFestival will be a chance to celebrate the historic links betweenEast and West. It will show that the exchange that began centuriesago along the Silk Road still continues today.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christianoand directed by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes.This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.