Sep. 20, 2023
Tribute to Beverly Strohmeyer
Bev Strohmeyer speaks at a reception hosted by Mid-America Arts Alliance on October 23, 2014 in KCMO in anticipation of her 2015 retirement. Photo by Lisa L. Higgins Saturday, September 2, we woke to the news on Facebook that our friend and colleague Beverly Strohmeyer had suffered and survived a major cardiac event. Over the next two weeks, we followed the stories of her progress, her resilience, her setbacks, and her tenaciousness. Saturday, September 16, we woke to the news on Caring Bridge that Bev had died the previous evening. These last two weeks have been filled with posts on…
Aug. 14, 2023
Missouri quilters in Washington
At the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, we enjoyed meeting Ozarks’ own son Kirk Kramer who resides now in Cottage City, Maryland (originally of Greenfield, Missouri and Miami, Oklahoma). Kirk let us know he wrote the following story for the Greenfield Vedette, now picked up in Springfield’s News-Leader. As the great-grandson of an Arcola quilter (Elizabeth Killingsworth Hargis), Kirk was excited to meet and interview two contemporary Arcola Quilters,…
July 11, 2023
Tribute to Kim Lansford
In the midst of the celebrations of the Ozarks at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in D.C., we learned the sad news that Ozark musician Kim Lansford had died on Sunday, July 2, 2023. In anticipation of that day, our friend and former intern Sam Kendrick asked to write the tribute that appears below. Readers will understand why it was important for him and why we readily agreed. We share Sam’s tribute to Kim Lansford here and send love to all who miss and mourn her. Kim Lansford photo courtesy of Suzi Lindsay Vause A tribute to Kim Lansford (August…
June 28, 2023
Holsapple at Smithsonian Festival
Aaron Holsapple, White Oak Basketmaker, Jefferson City, Missouri Forester Aaron Holsapple is known as “the tree guy,” fitting for his love of the “tree to basket” tradition. He credits three Missouri Ozark families for guiding his craft: the Uhlmanns of Drury, and later the Dudenhoeffers of Linn, who spent decades learning from the legendary Currys of Salem. Aaron Holsapple demonstrated white oak basketmaking at the Museum of Art & Archaeology on October 6, 2018. Photo by Deborah A. Bailey In 2017-2018, Aaron refined his skills over the course of several months with the Dudenhoeffers through the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship…
June 21, 2023
Scrivner at Smithsonian Festival
David Scrivner, Ozarks Old-time Musician Springfield, Missouri To get good at any tradition you have to be really committed to it. David Scrivner, 2021 Many thanks to Ozarks old-time musician Nathan Lee McAlister for documentation he did in 2021 on behalf of Missouri Folk Arts and Mid-America Arts Alliance. Thanks to him, we have an awesome profile of his good friend and fellow musician David Scrivner. Both will perform at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Click on the link here in blue to open a PDF and read the…
June 20, 2023
Sisco at Smithsonian Festival
Marideth Sisco, Ozark Storyteller & Musician West Plains, Mo. “I was a storyteller before I had language. My earliest memories are front porches and firesides, the nighttime filled with the voices of my family conveying humor, love, and sadness, telling our stories.” That’s how master storyteller Marideth Sisco opened a self-portrait she penned for Missouri Folk Arts. We posted it here on our Show Me Folk blog in 2021, on the occasion of the Missouri Bicentennial. We have had the honor to know Marideth for…
June 9, 2023
Martin at Smithsonian Festival
Anthony Martin, Gigmaker Winona, Missouri As a child, Anthony played often near his late grandfather’s workshop, where the elder Martin turned out forged gigs, used for night fishing on Ozark riverways. Anthony mimicked his grandfather’s actions then, but the elder died before he could teach his grandson. Anthony now eagerly apprentices with a master gigmaker, who did learn from the elder Martin in the 1990s. Gigmaker Paul Martin sits with with grandson Anthony outside the workshop in this Nineties photo snapped by Jim McCarty of the Rural Missourian. Courtesy of photographer Anthony’s grandfather…
May 31, 2023
Selvidge Student Honored
Selvidge Middle School in Baldwin, Mo. announced that eighth-grader Shreenidhi Senthilnathan earned recognition for her participation in the 2023 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program with Guru Prasanna Kasthuri, who are pictured below with Folk Arts Specialist Deborah Bailey. https://www.rsdmo.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=31&ModuleInstanceID=99&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=315780&PageID=55 …
May 5, 2023
Mexico Ledger: Kenny Applebee
The Mexico Ledger, the only daily newspaper published in Mexico, Missouri and the surrounding rural area, announced on May 5, 2023, that local resident Kenny Applebee was an inaugural Living Traditions Sustainer Fellow. Kenny Applebee (right) accompanies Boone County old-time fiddler Pete McMahan on a bench on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s 1991 Festival of American Folklife. Photo courtesy Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association…
May 5, 2023
Carmen Sofia Dence, Living Traditions Fellow
Carmen Sofia Dence, St. Louis, Mo. Colombian Folkloric Dancer, Choreographer, Costume Maker, Founding Director–Grupo Atlántico Carmen Sofia Dence displays her hand-crafted plaque. Carmen Sofia Dence learned to dance as a child in her local barrio (neighborhood) in Barranquilla, Colombia from her mother, her aunt, local elders, and her peers. In her coastal state, the music and dances are imbued with indigenous, Spanish, and African influences. She is proud to share with others the vitality of dance from her hometown, the site of a spectacular four…