Essays
ClimateLore
What does five more degrees mean to you?
How thinking like a folklorist—and Indigenous studies—helps communities plan for climate change Interview by Kimi Eisele When it comes to engaging communities in the Southwest…
“If the Land Goes, Our Identity Goes”
NDN Collective’s Jade Begay on Climate Justice, Cultural Organizing, and Indigenous Visibility Interview by Kimi Eisele Jade Begay is the Climate Justice Campaign Director for…
What a Basket Can Hold
A Tohono O’odham contemporary basket weaver on facing the climate crisis by Terrol Dew Johnson, as told to Kimi Eisele We’ve noticed a lot of…
Audio Stories
End-of-Life Care
A Great Mercy: A Death Doula on Grief and Transformation
Interview by Kimi Eisele ADRIENE JENIK is an artist, educator, and death doula living in the California desert near Joshua Tree. She is a faculty member at Arizona State University’s…
Possibilities at the Edge: David Fife on End-of-Life Comfort
Interview by Rebecca Crocker David Fife is Social Services Director at Casa de la Luz Hospice. As so often happens in Tucson, where a good dose of “old Pueblo” homespun…
Building an Archive: A Hospice Nurse on Working towards a Good Death
As told to Charlie Buck Marc Goodman works as a registered nurse case manager with Casa de la Luz Hospice, providing end-of-life care to patients in Tucson. Hospice care calls…
Master Artists
The Violin Will Remember
Armenian violinist Tamara Khachatryan on Arabic music, coming to the US, and the soul of the violin Interview by Kimi Eisele Tamara Khachatryan is an Armenian-born violinist who taught and performed in Syria until she fled the war and came to the United States. She plays both traditional and classical…
Figuring Out Who You Are
Mestra Luar do Sertão on art, science, and the beautiful challenge of Capoeira Interview by Kimi Eisele Anne Pollack, also known as Mestra Luar do Sertão, has trained and practiced Afro-Brazilian capoeira and traditional Afro-Brazilian music and dance over three decades. She trained with Mestre Marcelo Caveirinha until 1996, when…
Que Canten Las Mujeres
Vocalist Diana Olivares on mariachi, forming an all-woman band, and “las grandes” who came before her. Interview by Kimi Eisele Diana Olivares is a mariachi vocalist who has taught vocal workshops for the Tucson International Mariachi Conference, Mariachi Los Changuitos Feos, and Mariachi Atzlán de Pueblo High School. She is…
Thinking like a Folklorist
Folklife in the Age of Pandemics
by Maribel Alvarez As occupations go, folklorists are not usually in the top ten list of “first responders” most people think of when disasters or other major disruptions to everyday…
Reciprocity in Fieldwork
by Jim Griffith The relationship between folklorist and informant is, by its very nature, reciprocal. To start off, I don’t really like the word “informant” for the person who gives…
How Writing Docudramas Taught Me to Listen
by Milta Ortiz I came to playwriting from poetry, where I focused on writing from personal experience. When I started writing plays, I carried that along, writing from my own…
Remapping LA
by Alison M. De La Cruz On April 17, 2019, ArtChangeUS: Arts in a Changing America convened nearly 400 arts and cultural workers for ReMap LA, a Cultural Equity Summit at…