W.Va. Folklife Program to honor participants
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ELKINS -- The West Virginia Folklife Program will recognize 2022-2023 Apprenticeship Program participants Saturday at the Phil Gainer Community Center.
The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. with a demonstration hour. It is one of three WVFP events scheduled over the next three months and will present three showcases featuring this year's seven participating pairs.
This showcase celebrates fiber arts with Enrica McMillon (Randolph County) and her apprentice Barbara Weaner (Tucker County), soul food cooking with Xavier Oglesby and his apprentice and niece Brooklynn Oglesby (Raleigh County), and mushroom foraging with Sharon Briggs and her apprentice Anthony Murray (Hampshire County).
Those attending the event can meet the program participants. The formal presentation starts at 4 p.m., with West Virginia State Folklorist Jennie Williams leading a conversation with the pairs about their traditional art forms, apprenticeship experiences, and connections to their communities.
A reception will follow, featuring soul food prepared by the Oglesby family, who will also be making potato salad during the event.
The second Folklife event will be Sept. 30 at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University. That event will begin at 4 p.m. and will feature West Virginia old-time fiddle music with Gerry Milnes (Randolph County) and apprentice Annick Odom (Monongalia County), clawhammer banjo with Joe Herrmann and apprentice Dakota Karper (Hampshire County), and fiddle repair with Chris Haddox and apprentice Mary Linscheid (Monongalia County).
The final Folklife event will be Nov. 5 at the Robinson Grand Performing Arts Center in Clarksburg. The program will begin at 3 p.m. and will celebrate Appalachian storytelling with Bil Lepp and his apprentice James Froemel.
The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program offers a stipend to West Virginia traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form.
These apprenticeships encourage experts in their respective art forms to share their techniques and artistry, as well as the histories and traditions of these folklife practices. This marks the third year of the biennial Folklife Apprenticeship Program.
The West Virginia Folklife Program is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Folk & Traditional Arts Program.
For more information on the events and West Virginia Folklife Program, visit wvfolklife.org or contact Jennie Williams at williams@wvhumanities.org or 304-346-8500.