Photo by Troy R. Bennett
On June 11, journalist Troy R. Bennett visited a Thursday-night contra dance to do a story on PICD’s ten-year anniversary. He took some great photos. His story is published on his substack here.
On June 15, contra dancer Pierce Kempkes interviewed Dugan Murphy for his podcast, Between the Piers. They mostly talked about contra dancing, but also a tiny bit about Portland’s little-known connection to Maryland County, Liberia. The interview is available on Spotify here.
After our 5.25-year pause (March 2020 to June 2025), we are now celebrating weekly contra dances since June 26, 2025. We are looking forward to 2026, which (pending any new, worldwide pandemics) should be our first full year of weekly contra dances since 2019.
The PICD board of directors is so thankful for everyone who is volunteering, performing, and dancing, to make our splendid community come right back together like no time had passed.
Gus LaCasse and Pepin Mittelhauser playing awesome music, Oct 2026
Portland Intown Contra Dance will finally resume on Thursday June 26, 2025. Check out the schedule for details on upcoming weekly dances. We are jazzed.
Nuf sed? Nuf sed.
See you beautiful people soon. 👋
Hello, dancers!
It's been on all of our minds: when, oh when, will Portland Intown Contra Dance open again?! Our goal is clear: we plan to reopen when it's safe for everyone to return to dancing — with masking optional and no clear need to require vaccine proof at the door. Though we're getting closer and closer to that possibility, the epidemiological consensus is that we're not there yet.
We'll continue to hibernate through this winter, paying close attention to impacts of COVID-19, the flu, and other viruses over their busy season. You'll hear from us here just as soon as we begin hosting live events again. If you want to stay in the loop, sign up for our email newsletter on our homepage.
While we're waiting for the COVID-19 death rate to fall in line with the flu, a different group of organizers in Portland, Common Floor Contra, are hosting dances now. To mitigate coronavirus spread, they require proof of COVID-19 vaccination, high quality masks, and, starting in January 2023, proof of the latest available COVID-19 booster shots. Folks who feel it's safe to contra dance under those conditions are gathering monthly.
In North America, fewer than a quarter of all dance series that were operating prior to the pandemic have resumed dancing.
No two contra series are alike! Every contra dance is independently organized by volunteers and, as a result, each organizing team makes their own decisions: weighing risk, determining what policies work best for their community, and plotting the direction they'll take. Decision-making around safety is complex and we're all doing our best.
We're wishing you and your families a joyful, cozy, and healthy season. ❄️ Expect an update on contra hosted by PICD in the new year!
We miss you,
Portland Intown Contra Dance
We’re watching the vaccination rate climbing and the number of positive COVID-19 diagnoses declining both in Maine and across the US. And, of course(!), we’re looking for our opportunity to start dancing with you! Finally, the end of the coronavirus pandemic seems possible.
But(!) as you can imagine, contra dancing is the absolute last thing on the list of activities to resume as a pandemic ends. There’s almost no better environment for the coronavirus to spread! So we are waiting for absolutely all other activities to be considered low risk before we think about starting back up with our favorite activity.
What does that mean? Basically, if live concert venues are not running at max capacity with consensus support from the epidemiological community, then doing the same thing with aerobic activity and hand-holding thrown in doesn’t look very safe.
We will start booking bands and callers and inviting you back for face-to-face events as soon as it is deemed a low risk for the general public, regardless of individual vaccination status, to gather like we do: close together in big groups doing an aerobic activity.
Waiting for all smiles and full green in both columns; what we do is below the bottom line of this graphic in the “least safe” category.
Source: US CDC
Right now it appears that the end of this pandemic is tied to national and international COVID-19 vaccination rates. The more people who get their shots, the closer we get to contra dancing! Please get a vaccine yourself and help others to do the same.
We are following updates to guidelines from health officials like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as regulations from the City of Portland and the State of Maine. At this time, we are not considering restricted-access events only for vaccinated dancers. Once we resume, everyone’s invited! But not until that’s more safe.
We can’t wait to dance with you! Here’s hoping that conditions improve enough—and soon—so we can resume in-person events.
We miss you!
Source: City of Portland, Maine
Since March we have been been unable to host events because of the coronavirus pandemic, which means we haven’t been able to enjoy performances from so many local and visiting musicians and callers.
These folks would appreciate any support you can send their way!
Cecilia Vacanti of Boston, Massachusetts offers online lessons in various style of viola and fiddle playing. You can contact her by email at cvacanti@berklee.edu or through her website: www.ceciliavacanti.com.
Cecilia was scheduled to play August 13 with Kingfisher.
Gus La Casse of Mount Desert Island, Maine has music and information about online appearances on his website: www.guslacasse.com. He accepts tips via Venmo at @reneaugustus.
Gus was scheduled to play on July 30.
THANK YOU if you are able to financially support any of these performers.
What is the hidden history of American Folkways? Why was it hidden?
We’re continually asking ourselves these questions, and doing a lot of reading to better understand the true history of the folkways we practice. Part of loving something is seeing it for what it has been and is, and we believe it’s critical to examine the ways folk dance and music have been used as oppressive tools in order to genuinely practice these folk arts in new, transformative ways that enable social justice. We invite you to join in the learning and growth.
This list isn’t exhaustive, and it isn’t expertly curated. It’s simply a place to start looking:
Books
African Banjo Echoes In Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions by Cecelia Conway
Hoedowns, Reels & Frolics by Phil Jamison
City Folk by Daniel J. Walkowitz
Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein
African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway
Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music by Benjamin Filene
The Music of Black Americans: A History by Eileen Southern
Race In Country Music Scholarship by Olivia Carter Mather
Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (Race and American Culture) by Eric Lott
Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World by Dale Cockrell
Culture On The Margins: The Black Spiritual and the Rise of American Cultural Interpretation by Jon Cruz
Hidden In the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music by Diane Pecknold
The Guitar and the New World: A Fugitive History by Joe Gioia
The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology, and the English Folk Revival by Georgina Boyes
The Invention of Tradition Edited by Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger
Fakesong: The manufacture of British ‘Folksong’ 1700 to the present day By Dave Harker
Articles & Online Written Work
Addressing Racism as a Dance Community by Dela Murphy at Portland Intown Contra Dance
”Square Dance Calling: The African American Connection” by Philip A. Jamison
“The Anti-Semitic Origins of Henry Ford’s Arts Education Patronage” by Emery Warnock
Rhiannon Giddens' Keynote Address at IBMA Conference: Community and Connection
Article featuring Rhiannon Giddens, part of which is about Frank Johnson (one of the most popular Americans and fiddlers we've never heard of)
”Ethnicity and Class: Black Country Musicians in the Maritimes” by Neil Rosenberg
”The White Fear of Taking Racist Songs Out of Music Education” by Martin Urbach
“Dinah Put Down Your Horn: Blackface Minstrel Songs Don’t Belong in Music Class” by Katya Ermolaeva
“The Music I Love is a Racial Minefield” by Michael Mechanic
“Accessing the Inside of the Tent: The Optics of Inclusivity in Music Education” by Christopher Mena
“Black Artists Built Country Music - and Then it Left Them Behind” by Andrew Chow
Listening & Watching Online
Cultural Appropriation in American Folkways conversation with Kafari and Jake Hoffman
Uncivil podcast "The Song", which explores appropriation and structural racism through the history of the song "Dixie"
American Songster Radio Podcast, hosted by Dom Flemons“American Songster Radio is a monthly look at the roots of American Popular music. It’s hosted by world renowned musician and folklorist Dom Flemons who playfully refers to himself as The American Songster.”
1619 Podcast Episode 3: The Birth of American Music
Rhiannon Giddens and Francisco Turrisi video with Live with Carnegie Hall
Giddens and Turrisi go “through the music and history of minstrelsy—the most popular form of entertainment in America during the 1800s and a major influence in the creation of the American cultural identity. The two restore minstrelsy to its global context through the journeys of the banjo and the tambourine, and in tracing those journeys show what there is to reproach versus celebrate in the birth of American music.”
American Folk Podcast featuring Jake Blount, hosted by Cindy Howes
“Country Music” documentary series with Ken Burns
The first several episodes relate the stories of early Black originators of country music traditions.
”Wood That Sings: Indian Fiddle Music of the Americas” album featuring Various Artists
“This anthology of Indian fiddle music of the Americas features performances by Indian musicians from Nova Scotia and Manitoba to North Dakota and Arizona, to Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere in Latin America. Using this most popular of instruments as a way to explore the great variety and creativity of Indian musical traditions—from chicken scratch to the indigenous Apache fiddle—this recording expresses the capacity of Native cultures to adapt and synthesize non-Native influences.”
Online Exhibits
History of Minstrels: From “Jump Jim Crow” to “The Jazz Singer”
”An online exhibit from the University of South Florida on the history of blackface minstrelsy, highlighting the creation and rise of America's first popular music and stereotypes from the art form that persist to this day.”
"Musical Passage"
“Musical Passage tells the story of an important, but little known record of early African diasporic music." "Enslaved Africans and their descendants revolutionized global music historical records tell us far too little about their earliest practices. In this site we offer a careful interpretation of a single rare artifact, from Hans Sloane's 1707 Voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Tucked away in this centuries-old book, are several pieces of music that make it possible to hear echoes of performances long past."
Organizations & Projects
Starting this month, PICD will host a reading group focused on anti-racism. To participate, simply buy or borrow the book of the month, read it while using the reading guide for reflection, and participate in the Zoom call. There is no cost to attend, but pre-registration is required.
July's book is White Fragility by Robin Diangelo. Reading guide and Zoom link are available when you register. The Zoom gathering will be Thursday, July 30 from 7-9pm. Join us!
Thanks to everyone who joined PICD last night! Musician-activist-historians Kafari and Jake Hoffman joined us to discuss cultural appropriation, and how it shows up in America’s folkways. They talked abut their personal experiences, what distinguishes cultural appropriation and how each of us can take action to decolonize the folkways we practice.
As a majority white community, facilitating candid, constructive reflection on the position and privilege of white people and how whiteness functions is a core anti-racist action Portland Intown Contra Dance is committed to continually engage in together. Constantly dismantling racist structures and replacing them with healthy, anti-racist counter-narratives is critical to changing systems and racist behaviors, most of which have been habitually hidden from white view.
Institutionalized racism and structural inequity pervade and shape American folkways and all American systems. Understanding the living tradition we participate in more deeply requires holding and sitting with multiple, complex stories of oppression, broadening our view to include the carefully omitted violence that shaped, and continues to shape, the world. As we inquire into the tradition, we uncover the Black authorship of fundamental and emblematic modern music and dance practices. We uncover that our roots are in the structures of slavery, minstrelsy and other oppressive systems -- and acknowledge that this history shapes our present.
In contra dance and other American folkways, we uphold white supremacy when we continue to consume Black culture while remaining complicit in the story of its erasure in our tradition's history. We uphold white supremacy when we only engage at the surface, from a white-centered, exploitative perspective.
The work of inquiring, uncovering, and including our history allows us to genuinely engage. We must follow the lead of Black musicians, artists, practitioners, scholars, and other leaders who have contributed to, and continue to contribute to, these living folkways and to anti-racism work.
Recorded audio from the conversation is available here:
Kafari laid groundwork by distinguishing the process of colonization in which cultural appropriation is a key white supremacist tactic used to extract cultural resources and labor from Indigenous peoples for the benefit of colonizers. This process was outlined by Poka Laenui in the essay “Process of Decolonization,” which builds on the work of Virgilio Enriquez.
Image by Kafari | Content fom Poka Laenui's 2006 essay 'Processes of Decolonization,' which expounded upon the teachings of Virgilio Enriquez.
In their work, Laenui offers a process for Indigenous-led decolonization. Kafari and Jake offered strategies for decolonization that could be core approaches in the practice of folkways.
“We should be constantly interrogating race… We are all called to deepen, as anti-racist accomplices who don’t simply say ‘Black lives matter’ and then call it done, but prove through you actions that Black lives matter. Create game-plans to show that.” - Kafari
Kafari started by sharing the inquiry, “How do you know that an old-time space is anti-racist? When a Black person enters a space… what are the signs that would allow that Black person to feel they are safe, that they won’t experience harm?” From that open ended question, he and Jake distinguished some approaches for practicing decolonization in folkways.
Start by investigating whiteness. “Simply having people of different skin colors in a room can’t necessarily be the answer… [if] they continue to feel like outsiders in that space,” said Kafari. “Be aware that the norm is whiteness and debunking that whiteness is the norm is crucial.” What impact does whiteness have in your community? What have Black activists in the old-time space shared about the impact of whiteness on their experience? How does white fragility show up in you? How does the need to be a “white savior” show up in you? Notice your own bias. Notice the barriers that whiteness has created that get in the way of genuine participation by Black people.
See yourself in the system and in the history. Understand that our contemporary folkways rely on cultural appropriation and erasure. You you are perpetuating these systems. This will only change if we change.
Cultivate humbleness. Acknowledge what you don’t know about the practice. Acknowledge where it comes from. Acknowledge the aspects you’re sharing and what might not be being shared. We don’t have to know everything, but we can be humble about what we do and don’t know. This creates a collective curiosity.
Value the labor of Black people. Don’t force Black people in your life to educate you about racism. Do your own labor of identifying Black scholars, activists, authors, practitioners and others who offer their work to the public and pay them for the resources they’ve created. There are so many resources easily available.
Research the history of your art. Instead of simply playing music, performing dance or calling without knowledge of the history of the work you’re using, get on the internet and do the research. Start thinking of yourself not just as dancer or musician, but as dancer-historian-activist or musician-historian-activist. Make this inquiry part of everything you do, not simply something to engage in once in a while.
Share the history. Especially if you are playing music, calling or in another position of power as a practitioner, use opportunities to share the history of instruments, music and choreography, styles and other cultural elements when you perform or have conversations with others. Do the research and provide credit. Express the power imbalance if one exists. Actively debunk the myth that contra, old-time music, bluegrass, and other American folkways are culturally monolithic or Euro-centric.
Be critical of what you present. Context is everything. If you are presenting music or other content that is culturally appropriative or racist, always present the history (for instance, playing something from the minstrel catalogue in order to facilitate a conversation about white supremacy) or don’t present them at all.
Consider how your community looks and feels, starting at the surface. “How would your community look to a Black person who stands outside it, trying to decide whether to enter or not?” asked Kafari. “Interventions from the norm” at the surface level can help to indicate what kind of space you’re cultivating. For instance, are people wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts? Are there other signals that tell Black people this is a welcoming space?
Book Black artists and pay them. Provide the means for Black artists to continue to make art. If you are unaware of Black artists, do the research on the internet. Book people you enjoy and develop genuine relationships.
If you are presenting or booking Black artists, give up your power. Be a part of creating spaces in which Black performers feel safe to be themselves, as fully human and fully self-expressed. Black performers should guide content and lead in the presentation. Take the role of supporter, doing the labor in the background that enables their art.
Consider who is building the platform for presenting folk music or folk art. Jake asked, “Do Black people need to alter their appearance, sound or actions to fit within the standards set by the white audience?”
Consider where you’re investing. Which artists are you supporting? What organizations or platforms? How can you invest your money, time and labor to support decolonization efforts? Buy Black art. Donate to projects and organizations working on decolonization and reclamation in folkways. Have a conversation with an organizer or musician who is profiting from the exploitation of Black creative resources. Invest in dance and other folkways communities that are led by Black practitioners or who are actively practicing anti-racism.
Realize that “it’s not up to Black people to get white people to respect Black music and art.” It’s too common for Black people to have the burden of the emotional labor of coping with and dismantling structural racism. White people need to show up.
Practice consent in your conversations with Black people about racism. “If you are curious about the perspective of a Black person with respect to cultural appropriation [or race], try to be sensitive to the fact that it can be a hard conversation for Black folks to have,” said Kafari. It can be draining and contentious. Kafari shared that he’s “left conversations where the other person felt like they learned a lot and [he] felt like something was taken from [him] in the process.” A question like, “do you have the space and energy to talk about this?” can be a respectful place to start. Respect the answer they give.
Practice new traditions. Folk practitioners who know the healing power of folk arts need to reshape and develop new folkways that will fight for Black liberation and our collective liberation.
Kafari and Jake have facilitated this conversation in many community settings and make decolonization practices a core part of their concert presentations. They are seen in the video below at TEDx Dirigo in a talk titled “Bones and Banjo: Confronting Cultural Appropriation.”
Kafari is a pianist, beatmaker, and bluegrass percussionist, specializing in the rhythm bones – an ancient instrument played by holding two in one hand, flicking the wrist forward and backward to create sound. He first became inspired to play the bones three and a half years ago after seeing a concert that debunked his assumptions about bluegrass and exposed him to the African-American roots of traditional bluegrass and old-time music. A resident of Portland since 2011, Kafari enjoys teaching bones to passersby on the city streets and in classrooms across the state.
Multi-instrumentalist and singer, Jake Hoffman was raised on jazz and rock n roll and spent his adulthood studying American folk musics. He has toured in 20 states and 11 countries — performing and teaching ballads, gospel and dance music from Appalachia and the American South. A community arts and cultural exchange advocate, Jake lived in the Portland area from 2009-2019 and was most recently a teaching artist and program manager with 317 Main Community Music Center. He now lives in San Francisco, CA and is a teacher and outreach director at Blue Bear School of Music.
WATCHING:
“Bones & Banjo: Confronting Cultural Appropriation” at TEDx Dirigo featuring Kafari and Jake Hoffman
“You Are Here: Exploring Yoga and the Impact of Cultural Appropriation” featuring Nisha Ahuja, who gives context to cultural appropriation through the lens of yoga, sharing Tannis Nielsen’s five stages of colonization as a framework for thinking about appropriation
READING:
‘Process of Decolonization’ by Poka Laenui, consulting the work of Virgilio Enriquez
Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein
African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway
Article featuring Rhiannon Giddens, part of which is about Frank Johnson (one of the most popular Americans and fiddlers we've never heard of)
Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music by Benjamin Filene
LISTENING:
Uncivil podcast "The Song", which explores appropriation and structural racism through the history of the song "Dixie"
MORE RESOURCES:
The Black Banjo Reclamation Project on FB & GoFundMe
More on the members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops: Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, Hubby Jenkins, Adam Matta, Dom Flemons, Justin Robinson
Jake Blount, including a latest release and an interview with Kaia Kater