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Southwest Folklife Alliance

Preserving and presenting the unique cultural and traditional arts, music, food and dance of our region

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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Who We Are
    • History
    • Funders
    • Media
  • Our Work
    • Tucson Meet Yourself
    • Master-Apprentice Artist Award Program
    • BorderLore
    • End of Life Programs
    • Documentation & Cultural Criticism
    • Learning Folklife
    • VozFrontera
    • Videos
  • Building Capacity
    • Cultural Planning & Development
    • Equitable Evaluation & Ethnography
    • Supporting Folklife
  • Give
  • News
  • Contact
You are here: Home / This Is Folklife

This Is Folklife

Dona Matilte making tortillas. Photo by Steven Meckler

2017-2018 Season:

Up Close: Sonoran Cuisine with Doña Matilde Santa Cruz and Folklorist Jim Griffith — Explore traditions of Sonoran cooking in Doña Matilda Santa Cruz’s outdoor kitchen. Folklorist Jim Griffith shares cultural context on the transfer of foodways traditions and heritage in the borderlands. “Big Jim” Griffith co-founded Tucson Meet Yourself, an annual festival celebrating Tucson’s ethic and cultural diversity, in 1974. He was named a National Heritage Fellow in 2011 by the National Endowment for the Arts. Matilde Santa Cruz, originally of Imuris, Sonora, has participated in Tucson Meet Yourself for more than 30 years demonstrating home cooking and tortillas Sonorenses.

Unpacked: Country Music with Ethnomusicologist Kathryn Alexander — Go deep into country music as a genre, from its European and enslaved African origins to its use of cowboy as masculine archetype to the development of “alternative countries” such as gay and drag country culture. Kathryn Alexander is ethnomusicologist and assistant professor in the University of Arizona Honors’ College. Her current work situates queer country music and dance culture as a site for the negotiation of regionally specific nexus of gendered, sexualized, and ethnicized identities.

Up Close: In the Studio with Traditional Artists Alice Manuel and Ron Carlos — Visit the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and experience hands-on learning in basketmaking and pottery from master artists Alice Manuel and Ron Carlos, both recipents of SFA Master-Apprentice Artist Awards. Alice Manuel is an Onk Akimel O’odham basket weaver who uses river willow, devil’s claw, and cattail in her work. Ron Carlos is Salt River Pima-Maricopa potter and educator working to pass on the traditional paddle and anvil techniques tradition to students.

How to Think Like a Photographer with Official TMY Photographer Steven Meckler — Learn how a camera “sees,” how light can tell stories, and how to translate the 3D world into a 2D image. Designed for students who want to make better photographs and who already know how to use SLR cameras. Steven Meckler is a Tucson-based professional commercial/ editorial photographer. He is the official photographer for the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival. Learn more about him at mecklerphotography.com.

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Who We Are

The Southwest Folklife Alliance is an affiliate non-profit organization of the University of Arizona, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. We are the designated Folk Arts Partner of the Arizona Commission on the Arts with the support of the National Endowment of the Arts.

Our Mission: We build more equitable and vibrant communities by celebrating the everyday expressions of culture, heritage and diversity in the Greater Southwest.

© 2020 Southwest Folklife Alliance · Site design by Kimi Eisele and Julie Ray Creative