How has cultural appropriation impacted our folkways?
Where do our traditions come from? Modern dancers new to contra dancing may not know much about the tradition outside of what we've learned attending our local series or the experiences we've had dancing. The living tradition we participate in is uniquely American and, like most American history, understanding it more deeply requires holding and sitting with multiple, complex stories of oppression. Facing our history means broadening our view to include the carefully omitted violence that shaped, and continues to shape, the world. Let’s learn more, together.
Kafari and Jake Hoffman will join Portland Intown Contra Dance Thursday, June 18th from 7-8pm on Zoom for a discussion on cultural appropriation and how it’s impacted our shared folkways, as well as impacted their personal journeys as musicians. They’ll offer their thoughts, as well as tunes that they’ll contextualize as part of this inquiry.
This free workshop is open to all who wish to attend. No registration is required. Zoom meeting details are below. Note that Zoom allows a maximum of 100 participants, so logging in early is recommended.
Kafari and Jake have facilitated this conversation in many community settings, and 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.
A framework for understanding cultural appropriation
Kafari encourages participants to watch the video “You Are Here: Exploring Yoga and the Impact of Cultural Appropriation” as a primer. It features 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.
THANKS FOR JOINING US!
Check out the recording of the workshop and a debrief here.