Festival Staff
The Great Lakes Folk Festival is produced by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program/Michigan State University Museum
- Marsha MacDowell: Festival Founding Director
- C. Kurt Dewhurst: Festival Founding Director
- Jilda Anthony: Festival Associate Director, Administrative Services and Development
- Lora Helou: Festival Associate Director, Marketing and Communications
- Mike Secord: Festival Associate Director, General Operations and Management
- LuAnne Kozma: Festival Associate Director, Folklife Programs
- Julie Levy-Weston: Festival Associate Director, Technical Operations
- Patrick Power: Coordinator, Music Programs and Photographer
- Lynne Swanson: Curator for Folklife Programs
- Mary Worrall: Curator for Folklife Programs
- Sunny Wang: Coordinator, Computer Technology Services
- Pearl Yee Wong: Coordinator, Documentation and Photographer
- John McDaniel: Sound Coordinator
- Annika Otto: Volunteer Coordinator
- Tim Bugenske: Assistant, Technical Operations
- Dan Secord: Coordinator, Food Operations
- Daniel Chen: Assistant, Computer Technology Services
- Stephanie Palagyi: Assistant, Marketing and Communications
- David Cooper: Photographer
- Raymond Holt: Volunteer Photographer
- Ami VanAntwerp: City of East Lansing Festival Liaison
- Additional assistance provided by:
- Juan Alvarez, John Beck, Beth Donaldson, Francie Freese, Kaitlyn Hinman, Annie James, Lindsey Konzman, Katie Martinez, Sue Schmidtman
- Presenters:
- Tom Ball, Bob Blackman, Wanda Degan, Ron Eggleston, LuAnne Kozma, Steve Kwiecinski, John Moe, Doug Neal, Yvette Robinson, Eileen Roraback, Corrina Van Hamlin, and Mary Worrall.
The Michigan Traditional Arts Program at the Michigan State University Museum, a partnership program with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, advances cross-cultural understanding and equity in a diverse society through the documentation, preservation, and presentation of folk arts and folklife in Michigan. For more information, call 517-355-2370, email pr@museum.msu.edu or write Michigan Traditional Arts Program, Michigan State University Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1045.
GLFF Music Selection Advisors
Selection of performers for the Great Lakes Folk Festival is made by Patrick Power (singer /songwriter and former booking coorkdinator for the Ten Pound Fiddle) but he is advised by a group of music and cultural specialists from Michigan State University, Elderly Instruments, and The Ten Pound Fiddle, as well as other local and national advisors who are well acquainted with a wide array of traditional music forms and have extensive experience with the music forms GLFF audiences enjoy hearing. Local advisors usually meet once a year. Advisors include:
Rootsmon Bird
Bob Blackman, host- The Folk Tradition on WKAR-FM
(http://wkar.org/folktradition/)
Tony "Chayo" Cervantes, Host "Ondas en Espanol," WKAR-AM (http://wkar.org/ondas/)
Wanda Degen, East Lansing Arts Festival music programmer, musician
http://www.wandadegen.com/bio.html
Dr C. Kurt Dewhurst, Curator of Folklife and Culutral Heritage, MSU Museum and President, American Folklore Society.
Ronald Eggleston, Capital Area Blues Society (http://cabsblues.com/)
Irene J. Henry, Michigan Department of Management and Budget/Office of Design and Construction
Meegan Holland, Booth Newspapers and the Creole Gallery
Dr. Isaac Kalumbu, SU International Studies, ethnomusicologist (specialist in African music), musician
Dr. Peter Knupfer, MSU MATRIX/H-Net, Wisconsin champion fiddle player
Josh Kohn
Steve Kwiecinski, polka music specialist
Dr. Michael Largey, Assoc. Professor, MSU College of Music (specialist in Haitian music and music of the African diaspora in the Caribbean)
Dr. Jim Leary, Director, Upper Midwest Humanities Center/University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-producer, "Down Home Dairyland" radio program
Dr. Timothy Lloyd, Executive Director, American Folklore Society; (http://afsnet.org/aboutAFS/aboutAFS.cfm) former director of CityFolk Festival, Dayton; and board member, National Council for Traditional Arts
Dr. Yvonne Lockwood, Senior Folklife Specialist, MSU Museum (specialist in Eastern European and Middle-Eastern music)
Dr. Lucy Long, folklorist and musician
Dr. Marsha MacDowell, Coordinator, Michigan Traditional Arts Program
Dr. Richard March, Independent scholar and music specialist, co-producer, "Down Home Dairyland" radio program
Doug Miller, Director, Wisconsin Folk Museum
Doug Neal, Host, "Progressive Torch and Twang" WDBM 88.9 FM (http://www.msu.edu/~depolo/index2.html)
Phil Nusbaum,musical performer and educator, folklorist, teacher, radio broadcaster and producer Bluegrass Review (www.bluegrassreview.com/)
Julia Olin, Executive Director, National Council for theTraditional Arts (http://www.ncta.net/)
Chris Rietz, Multi instrumentalist musician, Elderly Instruments (http://www.elderly.com)
Yvette Robinson, a musician and Director of the East Lansing Public Art Gallery (located on the 2nd floor of the Hannah Community Center, East Lansing, Michigan).
Dr. Dan Sheehy, Director, Folkways, Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; ethnomusicologist and mariachi musician (http://www.folkways.si.edu/)
Dr. Laurie Sommers, Asst. Professor, Valdosta State University, Georgia; former ethnomusicologist/folklorist for Festival of Michigan Folklife
Dr. Deborah Smith Pollard, Asst. Professor, University of Michigan-Dearborn; Host, "Strong Inspirations," WJLB-FM 98; specialist in African-American gospel music
Dr. Nick Spitzer, Host, "American Routes" (http://www.americanroutes.org/)
Lisa Stafford, specialist in Cajun and Zydeco music
Dr. Mark Sullivan, Assoc. Professor, MSU Department of Music and Residential College of Arts and Humanities
Ami Van Antwerp, City of East Lansing
Stan Werbin, owner, Elderly Instruments (http://www.elderly.com)
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Suggestions?
The Great Lakes Folk Festival staff welcome your suggestions of traditional artists you think would be good for the festival. The core selection committee will review suggestions and, if appropriate, adds those suggestions to the list of potential artists. Please feel free to call or send your suggestions to Patrick Power, Booking Coordinator, at or glffbooking [at] gmail dot com
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