WiseFolk Productions, LLC

Folk Cited Recap: Zora Neale Hurston, Fieldwork, and Florida Folklore

Black and white image taken from a film by Zora Neale Hurston of African American children playing games and dancing. Text on the image reads "Folkwise Live. Folk Cited: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston." There are also small symbols in just black of pears, a mule, and an old fashioned audio tape player.

It’s the middle of summer; what season could be better to read folklorist Zora Neale Hurston’s renowned Their Eyes Were Watching God? The heat, ethnography, and Dr. Dom’s position as the current State Folklorist of Florida inspired us to explore the history of folklore in this Southern state through the legacy of Hurston for this month’s episode of Folk Cited.

Folk Cited Recap: Queer Mycology and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

An image of a stack of books with two 3D printed slugs on top. There are also plants and a sign in the background that reads “Folkwise is Alive @ Twitch.tv/Folkwise. Worm theory.” The texts included are: “Mushroom at the End of the World” by Anna Tsing; “Entangled Life” by Merlín Sheldrake; “The Multispecies Salon” ed. by Eben Kirksey; “Performing Environmentalisms” ed. by McDowell, Borland, Dirksen, and Tuohy; “Finding the Mother Forest” by Suzanne Simard; “Radical Mycology” by Peter McCoy.

Mycology is the study of fungi, which includes mushrooms and yeasts. This is an interdisciplinary field most notably carried out in hard sciences and biological fields, but has branched out into other disciplines and collaborations, including grassroots and community movements. These groups work together with fungi to help us better understand the influence of fungus on our collective worlds. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake is this episode’s catalyst for questions and discussions related to the wonderful worlds of mycology and folklore, and was an opportunity for our community of viewers to share emerging ideas about what these two areas can say about each other.

Frantic Fanfic: Co-narration and Chaos!

Last week on Folkwise Live (02/15/22) we got a few members of the team together to play a group game of Frantic Fanfic (and it’s free and uses a web browser to play!). This creative writing game gives players an opportunity to author parts of a fanfiction narrative based on somewhat randomized pairs of characters. Fanfiction is typically considered pieces of ammeter-styled writing based on existing characters and works of fiction. This folkloric writing genre has taken off online, and has been a source of joy for our team, especially Shirley, Chrissy, Kaitlyn, and Dom. It was fun to have an opportunity to co-narrate some silliness together!

Below are the verbatim fanfics resulting from our gameplay. Please enjoy this absolute silliness! Folkwise Live streams on Twitch every Tuesday night from 7PM to 11PM.

Folkwise will be at the American Folklore Society’s Annual Conference!

Find us talking folklore throughout the event!

This year’s AFS Annual Meeting (October 18th-23rd, 2021) has given the Folkwise team a unique opportunity to assist with hybridization this year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic lingering far longer than any of us had hoped, AFS has chosen to hold a part-virtual (hosted through an online portal) and part in-person (Harrisburg, PA) annual meeting. In an effort to help this conference feel less like two different experiences and more like one unique event, Folkwise has been hired to assist in making the experience feel more hybridized for conference attendants. Members of our team will be hosting virtual events and experience live on Twitch as well as in-person for audiences at home who could not attend the in-person Harrisburg portion. We will also be hosting live-streams of the plenary addresses and large lectures so the audience watching from home can feel as much a part of the experience as possible throughout the event. Find us online or at Harrisburg in a few weeks away!

***To view events not streamed Live on Twitch, you must register to attend the American Folklore Society Conference. Registration information linked here!