Smithsonian.com

Friday, July 3: Ramp it up: Skateboard Culture in Native America

Interested in flips, grinds and catching air? See the skateboarders of Native America Jam perform on a mini-ramp and show why skateboarding is becoming the most popular sport in Native American culture. Free. American Indian Museum, 12-12:30 PM, repeats at 2 PM and July 4 and 5.

Saturday, July 4: United States Air Force Band: Max Impact

Many actors have gained fame for their ability to inhabit completely different characters, but few have been able to continually improve upon their portrayal of the same role throughout their career. Roger Guenveur Smith is one of those rare few.

On July 4th and 5th, Smith will portray Frederick Douglass in a dramatic presentation of Douglass’ famed 1852 Fourth of July speech. But this is not the first time that Smith has played the famous abolitionist, editor and orator.

“I’ve been working on Douglass since I was an undergraduate at Occidental College, and as you know, the work of Douglass is voluminous. It can take a lifetime of study to get a handle on Douglass and that’s really what I’ve been doing,” Smith says, adding that he was inspired as a child by Hal Holbrook’s 1967 Mark Twain performance.

Smith’s past film credits have included roles in School Daze, Malcolm X and Summer of Sam. He has received an Obie Award for his solo stage performance in A Huey P. Newton Story, which he also wrote. With all of his characters, Smith integrates history and a heavy dose of imagination.

“I think with my Douglass, my Newton or even my Columbus, I’ve tried to personalize these larger-than-life figures to make them people that we can somehow relate to, beyond the history pages,” he says. “So, for example, my Christopher Columbus is still among us as a lounge entertainer with political aspirations who runs a travel agency on the side. My Newton does not live in the year 1966 exclusively, but in the present moment. My Frederick Douglass communicates with Harriet Tubman on his Blackberry. So I take imaginative license in trying to bring all of these characters into the present moment, because I’m not interested exclusively in nostalgia or simply historical recreation. I want these characters to live and breath in the moment.”

Smith will deliver an abbreviated version of one of Frederick Douglass’ best known speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” In 1852, Douglass was invited to speak at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He refused the July 4 invitation, and instead gave a sobering two-and-a-half hour speech the following day at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall.

“He begins by extolling the virtues of the American Revolution, but he ends by saying that the Revolution was not complete because one-seventh of the inhabitants of the country were [still] enslaved,” Smith says.

Time moves on, but 150 years hence, the measured cadences of Frederick Douglass’ speech that day resonate.

“One would like to think that Douglass would be kind of a dinosaur or a relic, but for better, and quite often for worse, what Douglass has to say about American civilization is still relevant in our present moment,” Smith says.

Roger Guenveur Smith performs at 4 PM on July 4 and at 2 PM on July 5 at the Oratorium tent as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. To read Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, please continue to the jump.

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Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Baba Jamal Koram and Valerie

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Fashion Drama with Lisa Pegram and Joni Jones

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry Workshop: Kenny Carroll and Sonia Sanchez

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Beauty Tales with Valerie Tutson

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Beauty Tales with Phyllis Stickney and Nothando

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Storytelling with Dianne Ferlatte and Thomas

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Hair Stories with Baba Jamal, Mitch Capel and

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM WPFW-FM Llive Broadcast: Voices with vision

12:00 PM-1:00 PM WPFW-FM Live Broadcast: Don’t Forget the Blues

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Me and My Radio

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Persona of the Black Deejay

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Vintage Black Radio Broadcast

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Me and My Radio

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel and Joni Jones

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater Folktales

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Storytelling with Diane Ferlatte and Victoria Burnett

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Drama with Anu Yadav

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue, Tejumola Ologboni,

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez

6:00 PM-7:30 PM Dick Gregory

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Neighborhood Poetry with Kenny Carroll and Toni

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Stoop Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss, Nothando

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Neighborhood Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry with Thomas Sayers Ellis and Toni Blackman

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Poetry with Lisa Pegram

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Neighborhood Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss and

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue

6:00 PM-8:00 PM Just Joking

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

12:00 PM-1:00 PM I Have A Dream Stories with Asante Children’s

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Asante Theater Workshop

3:00 PM-4:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Comedy Workshop: with Phyllis Stickney

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Tejumola Ologboni

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Huasteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

1:25 PM-2:15 PM La Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Mariachi Chula Vista

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Vocal Styles across Traditions

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Marimba de Chonta Workshop

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Mariachi Workshop

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Rhythm Guitars across Traditions

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús Garcia

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Joropo Llanero workshop

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Country Cousins: Música de Arpa Grande & Mariachi

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Huasteco Music $ Dance Workshop

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús García

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Son Jarocho and Son Huasteco Traditions

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

A TASTE OF WALES

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Female Harmony Singing

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Stories with Music

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Singer-Songwriters

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Sild

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Harp and Voice

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Ceri Rhys Matthews, Christine Cooper

5:30 PM-7:00 PM Plygain Group

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories of Migration

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Welsh Poetry

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stories from the Welsh Landscape

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Song and Poetry Challenge: Giving Voice, Las Americas, Wales

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Festive Kitchen

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Festive Kitchen

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Festive Kitchen

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Festive Kitchen

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Festive Kitchen

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Festive Kitchen

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Festive Kitchen

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: Near the Border

11:45 AM-2:30 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: Global Connections to Wales

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Wales and the World: Welsh Art Goes to the World

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Mountains

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Coal and Slate

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Reimagining Community: Poetry and Community

3:30 PM-4:15 PM The Arts in Action: Animation and Film

4:15 PM-5:00 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Wool

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Planning for the Future: Agriculture

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Hennessys

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Welsh Dance Music

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Only Men Aloud!

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitar

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Crasdant

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Traditional songs reworked

5:30 PM-7:00 PM Only Men Aloud

Welsh Media

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

12:00 PM-1:00 PM

1:00 PM-2:00 PM

2:00 PM-3:00 PM

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

4:00 PM-5:00 PM

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

Bryna Freyer’s biggest problem with Disney’s 1994 film, The Lion King, was the lack of people. Sure, the animals could talk, but to Freyer, the film seemed to perpetuate the stereotype that Africa is a giant animal-filled savanah.

“Artful Animals,” a family-friendly exhibition opening today at the National Museum of African Art, examines how African artists create cultural objects inspired by domestic and untamed animals.

Freyer, who curated the exhibit, selected 130 works from the museum’s collections that would appeal to younger audiences—including a toy turtle made from a gourd, a mask in the shape of a hippo, and teddy bears made of mohair. To see ten of the artifacts on display in the show, check out this photo gallery.

Freyer wants visitors to realize that both Africans and Americans assign human-like characteristics to animals. Each culture’s values are exhibited in the way it represents animals. “How did we come up with dirty dogs, greedy pigs and sly foxes?” she says. In Africa, emblems for royal tribes rarely contain lions, a Western symbol of nobility and leadership. In the course of assembling the exhibit, Freyer even pondered the representations of animal mascots for sports teams, political parties as well as cartoon brands like Sonic the Hedgehog and Arthur the Aardvark. “He doesn’t even look like an aardvark! And hedgehogs don’t really move very fast…,” she notes.

And the portrayal of the snake as vicious or threatening is a Western ideal, Freyer says. Africans emphasize the snake’s patience as it waits on a path for a bird or small rodent to come along. Not to mention that a snake, like the gaboon viper of South-Saharan Africa, shows good judgment, in that it won’t bother people unless provoked. “They think these are qualities that a person, especially a ruler, should posses,” Freyer says.

Through a Smithsonian-wide partnership with the National Zoo, the National Postal Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Discovery Theater, “Artful Animals” will present African animals not only as works of art, but also the show will explore animals and their motifs through the lens of anthropology, history, science and the performing arts.

The National Zoo, for example, has produced an array of signs that identify zoo animals represented in the African Art museum’s show, like the gaboon viper. In addition, The National Postal Museum will highlight stamps from its international collection designed with African animals. The National Museum of Natural History, home to the largest African elephant on display, has developed activity carts on communication and elephants. Discovery Theater adds performances, dance and storytelling to the mix.

The celebration of “Artful Animals” will continue through February 21, 2010.

Gregory will speak with the Smithsonian’s Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as part of the festival’s program, “Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture.”

Gregory is known for incorporating messages about social justice and equality in his comedic performances. I had the chance to speak with Gregory by telephone about his development as a comedian and how audiences have changed throughout his 40-year career.

From your perspective, how does comedy relate to the Folklife Festival theme of “Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture?”

Comedy don’t. Satire do. It’s broken down into two things. Comedy is when you and I exchange something, talking about our pain. For instance, we’re friends all our life, and you hit your finger with a hammer and break a bone. You go to the hospital and they straighten it up, operate, put a cast on it. Five years later, we’re sitting together, and laughing, and talking about how stupid that was. That’s the comedy between you and me. Now, you decide one day you’re going to do a whole satirical play on all the stupid things people do to hurt themselves. So then, that’s different than just a one-liner.

How did you learn to develop your style of satire?

Probably the most brilliant person at satire was the black minister. Think about it, the black minister does not have Hollywood writers and yet that black minister writes 52 sermons every year and never repeats. He doesn’t write the funny stuff in, but once he gets that rhythm—that humming—and then he starts talking about all the stupid things that have happened this week. I had a lot of people ask me how I learned. I was born before television. When the white comics came on TV, I didn’t identify with them. I thought that was some corny stuff they were doing, but they were the biggest things in America. Consequently, when people asked me where I learned it, I say I learned it from the black church. The black church wasn’t doing comedy, it was doing humor and social satire. They didn’t know it, but that’s what they were doing.

What was it like working in the early part of your career?

Hugh Hefner reached out and brought me in. Before that a black comic could not work a white night club. You could dance, you could sing, but you couldn’t stand flat-footed and talk. It was like a black person didn’t have the right to stand one-on-one and talk to white folks. But Sammy Davis, he could dance all over, sweat all over, and then stop and tell some jokes. But when Hefner brought me in, that’s the first time in the history of America that a black comic could stand flat-footed and talk to white folks. Now if you go back and listen to those records, we were hustlers—and I don’t mean hustlers in a negative sense—because it was all we were permitted to do. When Hefner cracked that color line, then the young comics that came up behind us weren’t hustlers, they had an art form.

More from Gregory after the jump.

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Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

GIVING VOICE

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue and Victoria Burnett

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Wit and Wisdom with Tejumola Ologboni and Baba Jamal Koram

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Beauty Tales with Lisa Pegram and Toni Blackman

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Storytelling with Diane Ferlatte and Onawumi Jean Moss

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Hair Stories with Baba Jamal Koram and Valerie Tutson

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Hair Stories with Thomas Sayers Ellis

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM WPFW-FM: Live Broadcast: Heal D.C.

12:00 PM-1:00 PM WPFW-FM: Live Broadcast: Don’t Forget the Blues

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Persona of the Black Deejay

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Me and My Radio

3:00 PM-4:00 PM The Power of Black Radio in the Black Community

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Diane Ferlatte; Dr. Deborah Smith-Pollard

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Holly Bass with Trio

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel and Onawumi Jean Moss

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Humor with Phyllis Yvonne Stickney and Branice McKenzie

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Circle of Love Storytelling Session

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Asante Children’s Theatre

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Stoop Stories with Valerie Tutson and Diane Ferlatte

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry with Kenny Carroll and Thomas Sayers Ellis

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Giving Voice to a Museum Building

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez, Toni Blackman, and Lisa Pegram

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Storytelling with Joni Jones and Tejumola Ologboni

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Stories with Brother Blue

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry Workshop with Sonia Sanchez

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Children’s Storytelling with Dylan Pritchett

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Workshop with Asante Children’s Theater

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Word Play Workshop with Kenny Carroll

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Dylan Pritchett

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Currulao

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Mariachi

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Chanchona

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Conjunto de arpa grande

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Grupo Vallenato

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Trovadores: Improvisation and Song

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Harps Across Traditions

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Currulao Workshop

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Song Stories

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Violins Workshop

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Music and National Identity (Mexican Identity in the US)

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Mariachi Aesthetics: Traje de Luces

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Mariachi Chula Vista

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Huasteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarron

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Tarima Workshop

WALES

Around the Table

No events scheduled

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Singer Songwriters

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Sild

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Ceri Rhys Matthews and Christine Cooper

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Harp and Voice

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stories with Music

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Linda Griffiths, Lisa Angharad, and Guests

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry with Song

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories from the Welsh Landscape

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Welsh Lesson: Greetings

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stories from the Mabinogion

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Poetry at Teatime

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Welsh Lullabies

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Pies, Pasties, and crumbles

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Bakestone and Cauldron Cooking

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Wild Foods and Game

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Preserving in Wales

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Soups with Spice

4:00 PM-5:00 PM A Twist on Welsh Tradition

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Teatime in Welsh Patagonia

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: Cardiff

11:45 AM-12:30 PM Reimagining Community: Artists & Musicians

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Heritage Sites: Buildings

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: Plant and Medicine Research

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Ty Mawr and Ty Unnos

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Wales and the World: Eisteddfod Goes Global

3:30 PM-4:15 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Waterways

4:15 PM-5:00 PM The Arts in Action: Mining for Welsh Language

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Planning for the Future: Ports

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitar

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Hennessys

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Crasdant

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Only Men Aloud!

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Welsh Dance Music

Welsh Media

No events scheduled