The American South
odd: label: Introduction
content: The Olympic Games join athletes from across the globe in the highest levels of competition and excellence. The games have included, since their inception, a cultural component, but never before as extensively as in Atlanta in 1996. The Centennial Olympic Games brought together musical and dramatic performances, exhibitions, and artists from around the world. But most importantly, the Olympic Arts Festival highlighted the American South.

Southern culture was born from the interactions over past centuries of Native Americans, European settlers, and peoples from Africa. In the South, various forms of expression have arisen and transcended boundaries of race, gender, religion, and geography. So powerful have these expressions been - jazz, blues, gospel, rock 'n' roll, civil rights songs, Southern oratory, and food - that they have constituted unique American contributions to world culture. At the 1996 Festival on the National Mall, these forms of expressive culture were celebrated. Later the same summer in Atlanta during the Olympic Games, the program was the core of Southern Crossroads, a festival of Southern culture mounted in the new Centennial Olympic Park - the gathering spot for several hundred thousand visitors a day and billions more through television coverage. An Enhanced-CD Smithsonian Folkways recording with Internet connections and other educational material derived from the Festival program reached countless more after the Olympic Games.

The 1996 program not only exposed regional cultural roots but also showed how many of them have become part of traditions known to America and the world. Technology amplified the stories and songs of Southern rivers and roads, travails and struggles - as documenters recorded, disk jockeys broadcast, and performers toured these cultural expressions, helping them bridge race, gender, class, and ethnicity and producing forms of music now identified with American culture as a whole.

The world of Southern culture celebrated in the 1996 Festival was one of family, home, and community. The program explored new points of juncture and the evolution of new identities. In these could be discovered in today's South the roots of a new, evolving American culture.

Philippa Thompson Jackson was Program Curator and Phyllis K. Kimbrough was Program Coordinator.

The American South was made possible by and was produced in collaboration with The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad and in cooperation with the Southern Arts Federation. Additional support was provided by The Recording Industries Music Performance Trust Funds.
label: Presenters
content: Dori Addison, Tara Browner, Katherine Hagedorn, Joyce Jackson, Worth Long, Derek Lowery, Tim Patridge, Henry Willett Ill, Otis Williams, Joe Wilson
label: Particpants
content: Performance Traditions

BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET

Jimmy Breaux, Acadian accordion, Lafayette, Louisiana

David Doucet, lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, Lafayette, Louisiana

Michael Doucet, lead vocals, fiddle, Lafayette, Louisiana

Al Tharp, vocals, banjo, bass, fiddle, Lafayette, Louisiana

Billy Ware, percussion, Lafayette, Louisiana

THE BIRMINGHAM SUNLIGHTS

Reginald Speight, tenor, Birmingham, Alabama

Barry Taylor, bass, Birmingham, Alabama

James Taylor, light tenor, Birmingham, Alabama

Steve Taylor, bass, Birmingham, Alabama

Wayne Williams, tenor, Birmingham, Alabama

CALLIOPE HIGHSTEPPERS

Henry Freeman, dancer, New Orleans, Louisiana

Johnny Stevenson, dancer, New Orleans, Louisiana

James Taylor, dancer, New Orleans, Louisiana

THE FREEDOM SINGERS

Betty Mae Fikes, 1946-, vocals

Rutha Harris, vocals

Charles Neblett, 1941-, vocals

Cordell Hull Reagon, 1943-1996, vocals

GENO DELAFOSE & FRENCH ROCKIN' BOOGIE

Geno Delafose, diatonic, Acadian & piano accordion, vocals, Eunice, Louisiana

Bobby Broussard, guitar, Eunice, Louisiana

John Espre, bass, Eunice, Louisiana

Germaine Jack, drums, Eunice, Louisiana

Steven Nash, rub board, Eunice, Louisiana

IFÉ ILÉ

Philbert Armenteros, congas, Miami, Florida

Rodolfo L. Caballero, vocals, Miami, Florida

Catalino Diaz, dancer, Miami, Florida

Ruben Romeu, congas, Miami, Florida

Luis E. Torres, bata, congas, chekere, Miami, Florida

Neri Torres, lead dancer, Miami, Florida

Tony Littleturtle Clark, Lumberton, North Carolina

Kat and Ray Littleturtle, Lumberton, North Carolina

Willie Lowery, Lumberton, North Carolina

MAGGIE LEWIS WARWICK WITH TILLMAN FRANKS' OLD TIME LOUISIANA HAYRIDE BAND

Maggie Lewis Warwick, guitar, vocals, Shreveport, Louisiana

Jimmy Day, lead guitar, Shreveport, Louisiana

Tillman Franks, acoustic bass, Shreveport, Louisiana

Paul Griffith, drums, Shreveport, Louisiana

John Peck, fiddle, Shreveport, Louisiana

Felton Pruitt, steel guitar, Shreveport, Louisiana

Kenny Bill Stinson, keyboards, Shreveport, Louisiana

NEW COON CREEK GIRLS

Dale Ann Bradley, guitar, Renfro Valley, Kentucky

Kathy Kuhn, fiddle, White Creek, Tennessee

Vicky Simmons, bass, Berea, Kentucky

Ramona Church Taylor, banjo, Wilkesboro, North Carolina

Eddie Pennington, Princeton, Kentucky

Douglas Quimby, 1936-, Brunswick, Georgia

Frankie Quimby, Brunswick, Georgia

Arnold Richardson, London, Kentucky

SKEETER BRANDON & HWY 61

Skeeter Brandon, vocals, keyboards, North Carolina

Chris Grant, bass, North Carolina

Armand Lenchek, guitars, North Carolina

Kelly Pace, drums, North Carolina

Rusty Smith, trombone, North Carolina

Wally West, tenor saxophone, North Carolina

TREME BRASS BAND

Benny Jones, Sr., snare drum, New Orleans, Louisiana

James Andrews, trumpet, vocals, New Orleans, Louisiana

Lionel Baptiste, bass drum, vocals, New Orleans, Louisiana

Kirk Joseph, tuba, New Orleans, Louisiana

Frederick Shepherd, trumpet, vocals, New Orleans, Louisiana

Gregory Veal, trombone, New Orleans, Louisiana

ULALI

Pura Fe Crescioni, Cherokee-Tuscarora, vocals, rattles, hand drum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jennifer Kreisberg, Cherokee-Tuscarora, vocals, rattles, hand drum, Hartford, Connecticut

Soni Moreno, Aztec-Maya, vocals, rattles, hand drum, Staten Island, New York

Craft Traditions

David Allen, cane carver, Homer, Louisiana

Anna Branham, potter, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Monty Branham, potter, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Nola Campbell, potter, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Melissa Darden, Chitimacha basket weaver, Charenton, Louisiana

Mary Jackson, sweetgrass basket maker, Charleston, South Carolina

Eric Miller, potter, Brent, Alabama

MISSISSIPPI CULTURAL CROSSROADS (MCC)

Essie Buck, quilter, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Patty Crosby, quilter, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Geraldine Nash, quilter, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Mary Ann Norton, quilter, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Shirley Motlow, patchwork clothing, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Donnie Tolson, biblical carver, Winchester, Kentucky

Elsie Trivette, rug maker, Zionsville, North Carolina

Alvin Wood, basket maker, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Trevle Wood, basket maker, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Foodways Traditions

Larry Frey, food demonstrations, Eunice, Louisiana

Julietta Garcel, food demonstrations, Miami, Florida

Lucky Grissette, food demonstrations- Mountain View, Arkansas

Johnny Kallus, food demon¬strations, Katy, Texas

Steve Orsak, food demon¬strations, Katy, Texas

Larry Wietstruck, food demon¬strations, Katy, Texas

Sara Wilson, food demonstrations, St. Helena, South Carolina

Gospel Sing

THE CHAPLIERS, UNION CHAPEL BAPTIST CHURCH

Rev. Jimmy Strickland, minister, Pembroke, North Carolina

PROSPECT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH CHOIR

Rev. Bill James Locklear, minister, Maxton, North Carolina

Harold Dean Jacobs, diatonal minister, Maxton, North Carolina

THE SPIRITUAL TONES, WEEPING MARY FULL GOSPEL BAPTIST CHURCH

Rev. Henson F. Brooks, pastor, Salisbury, Maryland

Rev. Russell Campars, Sr., Salisbury, Maryland

Timothy Waters, II, manager, Salisbury, Maryland

WESLEY TEMPLE GOSPEL CHOIR, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Rev. Grant Johnson, minister, Salisbury, Maryland

Diane West, choir director, Salisbury, Maryland

Mary Winder, pianist, Salisbury, Maryland

Janet Ames, president and business manager, Salisbury, Maryland

WHITE HILLS FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH CHOIR

Rev. Jerry Locklear, minister, Maxton, North Carolina

Eddie Carter, music director, Maxton, North Carolina
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1996 Festival of American Folklife
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.1996, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials