Plan to Attend Keynotes and Community Events at the Annual Meeting

As you build your agenda in the Fourwaves conference app or on the conference website, make note of the keynote lectures and community events and add them to your agenda.

Keynote Lectures

• Don Yoder Lecture in Folk Belief and Religious Folklife – Tribute to Joseph Sciorra by colleagues and friends.
  
• Center for Craft and AFS Keynote Conversation: Craft Dinner Party – Opening Remarks from the Center for Craft by Stephanie Moore and Marilyn Zapf; “Craft Dinner Party” with Namita Gupta Wiggers and Pravina Shukla, facilitated by Kelley Totten.
  
• AFS Presidential Invited Plenary: While the Folklore Is Still Young: Field Notes from the Vernacular Life of Artificial Intelligence – Presenter: Maribel L. Alvarez; Facilitator: AFS President Jason Baird Jackson.
  
• Phillips Barry Lecture: Métis Music: From Erasure and (Mis)Recognition to Story, Visiting, Relationship, and Co-Creation – Monique Giroux, Hilary Warner-Evans, and Michael J. Bell.
  
• Francis Lee Utley Memorial Lecture: Folklore as a Practicing Profession, Public Practice as an Academic Companion – Lecture: Robert Baron; Introduction by Jon Kay; Discussant: Lisa Gilman.

Community Events

Tuesday, October 27

• Birthplace of Country Music Museum Excursion, Bristol VA/TN – Join Thomas Grant Richardson (WACultures) and Katy Clune (Virginia Folklife) on a tour of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in nearby Bristol, TN/VA.
• Opening Reception – With music by the Warren Wilson College Student Ensembles.

Wednesday, October 28

• Chardi Kala: Radical Optimism in a Time of Crisis
• Marshall, NC: Ballad Swap at the Old Marshall Jail
• Live Music in the Renaissance, including music by local band, The Nature Boys during university receptions, instrumental jam, and vocal jam.

Thursday, October 29

• Black Appalachian Storytellers Event – Hosted by Kelle Jolly, Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellow.
• Awards Reception – Music by the Warren Wilson College Student Ensembles.

Friday, October 30

• Asheville’s Chai Pani Restaurant: Indian Food, Artistry, and Community Building – A conversation among Professor Pravina Shukla, Chef Daniel Peach, and Co-Founder and Chief Cultural Officer Molly Irani.
• Appalachian Music Traditions and Community in Watauga County, NC – Featuring Mary Greene, old-time musician and music teacher; Elder John Jackson, Primitive Baptist preacher and song leader; and Lynn Patterson, gospel music researcher and member of the Junaluska Gospel Choir.
• Stories to Meet This Moment: Performance and Conversation with Sheila Arnold and Adam Booth, Facilitated by Kiran Singh Sirah – In this session, Kiran Singh Sirah engages storytellers Sheila Arnold and Adam Booth in performance and conversation rooted in traditions from Appalachia and beyond.
• Conjure and Folk Magic Social Hour – This event will be a time for networking among colleagues who share an interest in conjure, folk magic, traditional healing, spiritual work, and related vernacular traditions whether as researchers, practitioners, or both.
• Closing Party and Square Dance – Calling by Phil Jamison and music by “Jake Blount and Friends,” with Jake Blount on fiddle, Ben Nelson on banjo, Brandi Waller-Pace on guitar, and Meredith McIntosh on bass.

Special Programming with the Center for Craft

A series of events and activities have been collaboratively developed with the Center for Craft, which you can view in a designated track on the Fourwaves conference website (though, not on the app, which is still in beta mode). To view the Center for Craft track, click on the “filters” button just past the search bar on the Annual Meeting program, then select “Center for Craft” from the “tracks” dropdown menu.

Check out our FAQs if you have questions about using the Fourwaves conference website and app!