Archie Green was a public folklorist unafraid to combine folklore and activism. He was instrumental in lobbying congress to pass the 1976 Folklife Preservation Act, which created the Folklife Center at the Library of Congress wherein countless stories and songs of America’s every day working people are preserved. But he did much more than simply document living traditions for the mere sake of preservation. He saw folklore as a living art, capable of articulating and addressing problems and solutions in our everyday lives. In documenting laborlore, (a term he coined for the stories and songs of working Americans), he actively fought alongside working people to improve working conditions.
In the closing essay to Cultural Conservation: A New Discourse on Heritage, Green notes that in much of academe the “term advocate has become a slur, implying departure from value-free norms.” But he questioned the moral nature of this assumption, suggesting such implications purposefully turn a blind eye to the daily life of the people who are creating the folklore we folklorists aim to collect: “Cultural conservationists cannot escape political action, whether testifying on local zoning laws or articulating outrage at the sight of oil-drenched otters in the Prince William Sound or oil-drenched cormorants in the Persian Gulf (249).” Rather than try and ignore the social and political implications of his work, Green jumped right in, taking a stance alongside the people with whom he worked.
This past week many people have written about Green’s life and work much more eloquently than I ever could. I have included a few links to recent articles below.
*NPR published a great, albeit short, piece about folklorist and activist Archie Green.
To listen go here.
*Mother Jones Magazine also published a piece with eulogy here.
An excellent post at the Daily Yonder blog. Read it here.
* Another great tribute published by Politico can be found here.
*You can find the New York Times obit here.
*And even CMT published a piece on their webpage here.
Do you know of more links? Please let me know and I will post them!
And a question for you:
How has Archie Green’s work had an impact on your life?