VFC Holiday Gift Guide 2021
Looking for some suggestions for last minute holiday gifts? Our staff made you a list! Here are some of our favorites—old and new—that might just suit your needs.
We encourage you to seek these out from a local bookseller, but if you can't find them near home, or time is just too tight, we’ve provided Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate links for some of the items. VFC receives a small percentage of the sale when you purchase using the links below.
Books:
New from the VFC this year:
The Most Costly Journey
For the past several years the Vermont Folklife Center, along with UVM Anthropology and Marek Bennett’s Comics Workshop, has partnered in an ongoing public mental health project led by the Open Door Clinic and UVM Extension Bridges to Health—El viaje más caro/The Most Costly Journey.
El viaje más caro is an ethnographic cartooning and graphic medicine project that uses collaborative storytelling as a way to mitigate loneliness, isolation, and despair among Latin American migrant farm workers on Vermont dairy farms. Originally published in 2016 as a series of short Spanish-language comic booklets, this fall the project released The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists, a 252-page collection of these comics for an English-speaking audience. A Kickstarter campaign funded publication of this first volume. In coming months a second campaign will be launched to help cover the costs of printing a Spanish edition of the book.
Turner Family Stories
Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont is a graphic history collection featuring comics adapted from oral history recordings with Daisy Turner of Grafton, VT held in the VFC Archive. VFC founding director Jane Beck and Associate Director and Archivist Andy Kolovos worked with a group of New England cartoonists including Marek Bennett, Liv Bordeleau, Joel Christian Gill, Lillie Harris, Robyn Smith, and Ezra Veitch to illustrate a selection of stories from the Turner Family's epic saga. The book also features a foreword by Gretchen Gerzina, introduction by Julian Chambliss and a preface by Jane Beck.
The volume presents Daisy recounting her father's experiences in Virginia in the wake of the Civil War, his travels north and ultimate arrival in Grafton, as well as stories from Daisy's own life in Vermont and Massachusetts during the early 20th century.
Other Books
The Book of Ballads and Sagas
A marvelous collection of comics adaptations of Child Ballads drawn by the great Charles Vess and written by a host of well-known authors including Neil Gaiman. (Andy)
Shane, the Lone Ethnographer: A Beginner's Guide to Ethnography
Second edition of anthropologist Sally Campbell Galman’s terrific graphic introduction to ethnographic methods and theory. (Andy)
Anthology 2021: The St. Joseph’s Orphanage Restorative Inquiry Writers’ Group
Several years ago VFC began working with the St. Joseph’s Orphanage Restorative Inquiry to record and archive interviews with Inquiry participants about their lives. This summer members of the Inquiry Writers’ Group published a collection of poetry and prose sharing their experiences at the Orphanage and the life-long impacts of the abuse they endured. The work is painful and inspiring—an important testament to the resilience of these remarkable people. (Andy)
Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales
Mammoth collection of fairy tale adaptations by the legendary Pogo creator and Disney animator, Walt Kelly. Wow! It’s a giant volume of all ages awesome scanned from the original comic books. (Andy)
Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs
Wolfgang Mieder, a VT Folklife Center trustee and recently retired professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, is a key figure in the field of proverb studies. His Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs offers a glimpse into the history of American social and cultural attitudes through uniquely American language.
The book features nearly 1,500 proverbs with American origins, spanning the 17th century to present day, including an introduction exploring the history of proverbs in America, known authors and sources, and cultural values expressed in these proverbs. (John)
Into the Light Cellar
Photographer Suzanne Opton moved to Vermont in the 1970s and quickly became captivated by the community she encountered in Chelsea. Into the Light Cellar presents Opton’s stunning photographs from the period alongside text documenting the lives of eight families from the community. It’s a striking book from a gifted and insightful photographer.
This spring we will be presenting an exhibit of Opton’s photos in our Gallery–stay posted for details. (Andy)
Who We Are volumes 1 & 2
Green Mountain Support Services has produced two comics collections that explore the daily lives of GMSS Direct Support Professionals and of clients with Cerebral Palsy. They open a powerful window onto the experiences of these Vermonters. (Andy)
Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork
Thoughtful and readable introduction to the fieldwork methods and tools used by people conducting research into cultural heritage and expressive culture. (Andy)
The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore
As the pandemic continues to roll along, folklorist Andrea Kitta has become a go-to person to discuss conspiracy theories related to illness, vaccines and much more. Her 2019 book The Kiss of Death provides a deep dive into the intersection of folklore, belief and medical science. (Andy)
What Folklorists Do: Professional Possibilities in Folklore Studies
Ever wonder what folklorists actually do? Former American Folklore Society Executive Director Tim Lloyd pulled together essays from dozens of folklorists to help you answer that question. Including an essay by our very own Andy Kolovos on making ethnographic comics! (shamelessly plugged by Andy)
Music Recordings
The Listen Up Project
The Listen Up Project is an ambitious original musical by and about Vermont’s teenagers. It is based on eight months of interviews, workshops, conversations and listening sessions with more than 800 teens across Vermont and presents their thoughts on both how the world is, and how it could be.
The show, which was performed around the state in the summer of 2021, is a funny, honest, and challenging take on what it means to be a young person today. VFC staff member Eliza West says “this show gave me hope for the future. These amazing young people are committed to building a better world, one play at a time.” Former VFC Education staffer, Trish Denton, was the Art Director for this musical. Well done! (Eliza)
The Bird’s Flight
Pete Seeger said “A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no doubt continued after.” This stellar new album from Vermont-based musicians Timothy Cummings (Scottish small pipes and whistle) and Pete Sutherland (fiddle) joined by Maryland-based banjoist Brad Kolodner explores the link between the regional music styles of Scotland and Appalachia, presenting a flock of traditional tunes, which have been reshaped through the trio’s own process of “Appalachification.”
The result is stirring and delightful musical journey, not least because of the album’s accompanying liner-notes that will pique the interest of folklorists, ethnomusicologists, ornithologists, and lovers of lore alike! (Kate)
Ya Know, Ya Never Know - Pete’s Posse (2020)
Produced in 2020, this album is “an epic project for an epic year.” Pete Sutherland, master artist and mentor through the VFC’s Vermont Traditional Art Apprenticeship Program, along with his Posse, Tristan Henderson and Oliver Scanlon, deliver toe-tapping favorites and new material created “in the shadow of the pandemic.” (Mary)
Classes:
Fun with Fiber - Classes at the Marshfield School of Weaving
Know someone who likes to work with their hands? Help them take it to the next level with a gift pass to a course at the renowned Marshfield School of Weaving. A variety of offerings allows students to explore the ins-and-outs of spinning, working with natural dyes, weaving, and more! (Eliza)