ELDERS' WISDOM, CHILDREN'S SONG
Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song incorporates "the tools of community organizing, education and celebration through storytelling in songs and spoken word," writes its author, singer Larry Long, in the introduction. This new guidebook is issued by Sing Out!, publishers of America's foremost works on folk music. In this project, Long says, "children listen to the stories of community elders and develop songs and narrations from the words of the elders," which are written as first-person accounts of the elders' lives and performed for the community.
The 60-page spiral-bound guidebook-songbook was released this year along with a companion compact disc (CD), "Here I Stand: Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song," released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as part of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies in Washington, D.C. The book, CD and a new series of half-hour videos showing how community programs unfold are all produced by Long through his nonprofit organization, Community Celebration of Place, Minneapolis, Minn.
AMERICAN TROUBADOUR
The guidebook describes step by step how Long, whom author Studs Terkel has called "a true American troubadour," works with community schools nationwide, usually during a residency of several days. His model approach, which he began a decade ago, engages students in collecting oral histories from local elders and transforming these stories into musical celebrations of the older people. Each residency culminates in a public performance that honors participating elders. The book explains the critical steps of the process, such as finding and selecting elders, collecting materials, interviewing techniques, songwriting and developing performances.
Long told Aging Today that schools or community centers may adopt this process without his participation. Several schools have worked with different kinds of performing or visual artists: One school performed choral readings, another collaborated with a muralist to depict the lives of elders on its walls and a third published a book.
On the 71-minute "Here I Stand" CD, Long, who also recently recorded a song with Pete Seeger, sings 29 songs written with children at a community school in Alabama. He includes recorded portions of the interviews with the elders themselves.
Typical of the eight "Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song" videotapes, coproduced with David A. McDonald, is a recording of a November 1998 performance at the Whittier Community School for the Arts in Minneapolis. Wisely using no voiceover narration but only the rhythmic songs and the voices of elders, children and other participants interacting, the program demonstrates how in one week the lessons of elders flow down through the generations. More than15 older people are publicly honored, and the video focuses on four Minneapolis elders in particular: one originally from Puerto Rico, a former refugee from Somalia, an African American elder who had moved north from Tennessee, and a Minnesotan with Swedish roots. Each video documents the emergence of the residency project in different communities around the United States. The themes of work and multiculturalism run through everything that Long has done.
The CD with the guidebook is available for $30, and the videotapes cost $15 a piece. Both prices include postage and handling. Send orders or requests for information to Community Celebrations of Place, P.O. Box 581601, Minneapolis, MN 55458-1601. Long will answer questions from Aging Today readers about adapting his model for community organizations in aging. Contact him at (612) 722-9775; e-mail: long @tt.net; or check out his website at http://server.tt.net/larrylong. The CD alone can be obtained for $14 from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings at (800) 410-9815; Web: www.si .edu/folk ways.
CONVENTION MIRACLES
The BVA Bulletin (SeptemberOctober 1999) recently arrived in our mail bin adorned with a cover photograph of a costumed female dancer. A notice on page 2 read, "COVER PHOTO: Blinded veterans from as far away as Hawaii enjoyed the sights and sounds of Puerto Rico during the BVA's 54th National Convention."
American Society on Aging
71 Stevenson St., Suite 1450
San Francisco, CA 94105-2938
www.asaging.org
info@asaging.org
