Monthly Archives: April 2018

Legend of Qu Yuan

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 24, 2018
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

The legend of Qu Yuan… Qu Yuan was an official in the government of Chu before being exiled. While he was exiled he wrote stories and poems about his love for his homeland. This part is fact. Where the story apparently differs is how and why he died. The most common belief is that he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River after learning of the fall of Chu. There are other beliefs that he was killed by enemies and even the river. Others believe he became lost and ran out of food, eventually “giving his body to the river”. Awu does not have a strong opinion on this, however his family taught him the suicide version.

 

The Best Banana Bread

Nationality: Indian American
Residence: United States
Performance Date: 04/23/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Telugu, Urdu, Hindi
  1. The main piece: The Best Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Bread

  1. Background information about the performance from the informant: why do they know or like this piece? Where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them? Etc.

“Basically, I have a sweet tooth, and, uh, my wife really loves me, and she knows I love banana bread. She meets a lot of people in her office, because she’s a physician. Even though she doesn’t like me to be eating desserts, one of her patients is a good cook, especially in baking, and when she found out she had a banana bread recipe from her mother, my sweet wife asked her for a copy.

“The patient gave my wife a printed banana bread recipe, and we never made a copy of that. Now, we’ve had it for 20 years, and it has all kinds of flour and oil stained on it. Whenever there’s a special event, like Father’s Day, we pull it out. In every bite, I smell my love for her!

  1. Finally, your thoughts about the piece

This piece of folklore is interesting because it combines a recipe with a physical artifact, used over and over and passed from person to person. The oil and flour stains on the photographed recipe show the great use it has been put to. The recipe has almost become a folk object, because instead of ever looking at a photo or copy of the recipe, the informant’s family must pull out this exact object when baking banana bread.

  1. Informant Details

The informant is a middle-aged Indian-American male, who grew up in an urban setting in India with three siblings. While he moved to the United States over 30 years ago from India, many of his family members still live there, and he enjoys maintaining his links with them through his heritage and Hindu religion.

How many times did I say your name?”(a Nigerian Saying)

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Abuja, Nigeria
Performance Date: 4/22/18
Primary Language: English

Michael Iluma, a senior studying International Relations and Acting at the University of Southern California, who hails from Abuja, Nigeria, provided three pieces of folklore for this collection.

The interview was run, within his bedroom, on West 30th Street in the outskirts of the University of Southern California campus.

Folk Performance: “How many times did I say your name?”(a Nigerian Saying)

Folk Type: Folk-Speech.

“Anything more about Nigerian Parents?”– Stanley Kalu

STORY: oh for sure, you could literally do your whole project on just that. The worst though is when they like say your name a bunch of times and then ask you how many times they’ve called your name. So i’ll be like “three?” then my dad will be like “that’s how many times i’m going to beat you. Go get a slipper.” How fucked up is that?

Background Information: Discipline is a huge part of Nigerian culture. The repetition causes psychological duress because you understand, from the beginning of the statement, that you are going to be hit with a slipper.

Context of performance: Michael performed this act, as many Nigerian children do, in an accent-heavy impression of his father. The Father, in Nigerian culture, is often the disciplinarian.

Thoughts: Nigerians should stop hitting their kids.

 

 

 

 

Grandpa Charlie, The Robin

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cornell University
Performance Date: 4/12/18
Primary Language: English

Spirit of our Grandfather as a Robin. 

This is an example of a positive premonition. My father always told me that whenever we see a Robin, we view it as my deceased Grandfather visiting us. Every time this happens, their Folklore of cardinals in time of need signifies a close one acknowledging your hardship. Whenever I see a Robin I always think of my grandfather, my grandmother told me this, my father told me this, and all my dad siblings think of this too. A premonition is to think about something and then see it come to fruition. If I am having a hard time, sometimes a Robin will randomly appear and I’m reminded that I will be OK. It kind of goes along with thinking about a higher power in the universe and accepting that there are people and spirits watching out for you. While spirits and ghosts are different entities, it is important to think about how spirits play a role in living society. This is similar to when you see a cardinal and it represents some kind of guidance and enlightenment. It can really be applied to any aspect of your life, but for my family, we have distinguished of Robin as my grandfather spirit visiting us.

The Governors Ball Music Festival

Nationality: Polish American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: NYC, USA
Performance Date: 4/6/18
Primary Language: English

‘My friend Rachel first told me about this music festival. She told me about how her sister had been to several festivals and told her to go experience a music festival. Music festivals our way to bond with friends and having experience of listening to so many musicians over the course of 1 to 5 days and even longer. These festivals in food live music of all sorts, however their specialties amongst different festivals. Every festival has food and beverage lineups, musical lineup, special festival vendors such as flower crowns and sponsored booths by big companies. I have found it so fun To experience festivals with my friends because we all enjoy the same music and get to experience it live with thousands of other people. There are so many different elements to a festival including learning music before (if you want to). Our first music festival was the Governor’s Ball music festival in New York City, our hometown. We wanted to go to a festival that was close to home in case anything were to happen and also because we love the musicians playing. We realized upon arriving that it was a festival where pictures were being taken left and right, and we got to experience the festival life. Festival life usually entails consuming illegal substances and reminiscing about the Woodstock days. While there are many more regulations at festivals nowadays, it still was done by most festival goers. There festivals all over the world that pertain to many different events, such as Oktoberfest in Germany and the flying lantern Festival is in Asia. In America there is a huge interest in music festival is because of the experience link to it. While the Governors Ball is one of the most popular festivals to attend, There are so many other festivals to experience in the future.

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