VOICE ONE:
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. is famous aroundthe world. Each summer, the Smithsonian organizes a celebration ofcultural traditions. It is called the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. We tell about the recent SmithsonianFolklife Festival on our report today on the VOA Special Englishprogram, THIS IS AMERICA.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
Visitors to Washington usually spend some time on the open grassyarea called the National Mall. The United States Capitol building isat the east end of the Mall. The monument honoring America’ssixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, is at the west end. Museumsand Smithsonian Institution buildings are on the north and southsides of the Mall.
Usually, the Mall is a place where people walk, sit or play. Butfor ten days each summer, part of the area is crowded with unusualsights, sounds and smells. That is when the Smithsonian holds itsFolklife Festival. Today, we bring you some of these sights andsounds.
((CUT 1: CHINESE OPERA MUSIC))
VOICE TWO:
That is the sound of Chinese classical music performed at theSmithsonian Folklife Festival this year. It was just one of manykinds of music that Festival visitors enjoyed.
People have been visiting The Smithsonian Folklife Festival eachsummer for the past thirty-five years. The word folklife describesthe cultural traditions of a people. It includes their music andart. Their stories and celebrations. The things they make for theirhomes and to sell.
These cultural traditions are passed from old people to theyoung. Few traditions are taught in schools. Young people learn themfrom living within a cultural group.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and CulturalHeritage organized the festival. It ended on July eighth. Eachfestival is about different cultures and people. This year, thefestival presented the cultures of New York City and the islands ofBermuda.
VOICE ONE:
Bermuda includes more than three-hundred islands in the middle ofthe Atlantic Ocean. About sixty-three-thousand people live on twentyof the islands. One of these islands is also called Bermuda. Aboutfour-hundred-thousand people visit that island each year.Presentations at the Folklife Festival showed some of what thosevisitors see.
Three-hundred artists and crafts workers showed the differentkinds of work performed by people in Bermuda. These included abeekeeper and his bees and boat builders with their boats. Onegrassy area of the Mall was covered with small Bermudan boats andflowers common in the islands. Bermudan athletes played cricketwhile announcers explained the sport and told stories about it.Visitors saw a small Bermudan house. They learned about weddings andpreparing food. A large tent sold traditional food from Bermuda.
On the musical stage, Bermudan musicians performed native music.These included Bermudan jazz, religious songs, calypso and reggae.Here the calypso group called the Bermudan Strollers performs thesong “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
((CUT 2: DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY))
VOICE TWO:
New York City was the other culture represented at the FolklifeFestival. Festival officials decided to show the city as its ownpeople see it. So the festival included people who demonstrated howstocks and bonds are bought and sold on Wall Street in the financialarea of New York. The festival also included explanations anddemonstrations of the different kinds of transportation used in NewYork. Visitors saw an underground rail car or subway. They also sawa taxicab and a city bus. New York City bus driver Tony Palombellatold stories about his eighteen years driving a bus in New York. Andhe cooked some Italian food at the festival, too. He learned to cookItalian food from his mother.
VOICE ONE:
Another kind of food that is culturally linked to New York Cityis the bagel. A bagel is a thick, round piece of bread with a holein the middle. Old stories say the bagel was first developed inPoland and brought to New York by Polish Jews. Bagels have becomeextremely popular in the United States. You can buy them just aboutanywhere in the country today. But many Americans say the bestbagels are made and sold in New York City.
Steve Ross probably would agree. He has owned a bagel shop in NewYork for more than sixty years. At the Folklife Festival, hedemonstrated how to make bagels and another kind of bread, a bialy.A bialy is also a round piece of bread, but it is thinner than abagel and has no hole in the middle. Instead, it has onions in themiddle.
VOICE TWO:
The Folklife Festival representation of New York City was reallya celebration of many different cultures. Each culture represented agroup of people who came to the United States from a differentcountry and settled in New York City. These people include Greeks,Indians, Chinese, Albanians, Caribbeans, Africans, Europeans,Lebanese, Ukrainians and many others.
The Festival presented music of these different groups. Many NewYorkers still perform and enjoy this music as a way of keeping theirculture alive. Here is an example — Romanian-Gypsy music.
((CUT 3: MILLINO KOLO))
VOICE ONE:
Artists were also represented in the New York celebration at theFolklife Festival. One group is called Tats Cru. It is a six-persongraffiti organization. Graffiti is artwork painted on the subwaycars in New York. Teenagers would paint the cars and the stationwalls with bright colors, words and pictures. Such graffiti has beenillegal in New York for many years.
The three founding members of Tats Cru started painting graffitiin New York twenty years ago. Tats Cru is now a legal business. Itpaints pictures on buildings. The artists have worked in the UnitedStates, Canada and Europe. At the Folklife Festival, they painted alarge picture on a special wall.
VOICE TWO:
The musical shows presented on Broadway in New York were alsorepresented at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. People who makeclothes for performers in Broadway shows demonstrated their skills.So did a theatrical wig maker, a person who makes false hair forpeople acting in plays. Actors and singers showed how a Broadwaymusical is prepared. We leave you now with some music from thatshow, “Guys and Dolls”.
((CUT 4: “GUYS ANDS DOLLS” OVERTURE INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME))
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Itwas produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherreport about life in the United States on the VOA Special Englishprogram, THIS IS AMERICA.