Safe Risks & Radical Aspirations
How to Re-think a Folklife Festival during a Pandemic by Dr. Maribel Alvarez By definition, festivals entail risk. Best known as “occasions for feasting, revelry, conviviality,” as the dictionary defines…
More Than It Seems
Seamstresses Stitch Love and Culture into Masks and Clothing by Kimi Eisele Growing up, Grace Beltran, who was raised by her grandmother in the City of South Tucson, would look…
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…
Harvesting Cholla: The Pleasures of Intangible Heritage
by Kimi Eisele For hardy desert dwellers, springtime means foraging for food amidst the cactus spines. Cholla buds are rich in calcium and magnesium and, like nopales, fall low on…
Reinventing the Pour: A Love Letter to My Favorite Tucson Watering Holes
by Lisa M. O’Neill I cannot count the number of cups of coffee I have consumed at Exo Roast Co., a coffee shop just a few blocks from my home…
Mila’s Meditations: Finding New Rituals in Confusing Times
by Ruxandra Guidi Stay-at-home measures and school closings mean families and children are stuck at home, looking for ways to stay both active and calm in the midst of uncertainty….
Wired to Serve: Making Essential Workers Visible
Occupational folklife reveals the customs, traditions, lingo, and superstitions of the job and often brings visibility to those who labor behind the scenes or in fields too often unacknowledged or…
Power of Plants: Staying Well During COVID-19
Spending time with plants, avoiding sugar, eating fermented foods, applying pressure points—these are all tried and true tactics for promoting good health. In this moment of pandemic, we wondered how…
Sounds and Songs of the Pandemic: A Global Coronavirus Playlist
by Kimi Eisele What does a pandemic sound like? Like applause, like song, like handwashing, like mourning. For ethnomusicologists, the sounds of coronavirus reveal a diverse display of culture, creativity,…
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…