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[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Leedom Lefferts.
Thanks,
justin

The Folklife Festival this year focuses on the Mekong River
with the theme, "Connecting Cultures"

Today, Monday, was the first day for participants to gather
and prepare for their events for the next two weeks, following
their long plane rides from the other side of the planet;
tomorrow the Festival begins in earnest.  Participants will be
conducting demonstrations and performances from June 27-July 1
and July 4-8, 2007, open daily 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with
evening events at 6 p.m.

Through craft demonstrations, dance and musical performances,
and hands-on activities, Mekong River: Connecting Cultures
will introduce visitors to the diverse cultures of the Mekong
River. The Mekong region has been a cradle and crossroads of
cultures for many centuries and more recently has become
closely connected to the United States through the more than
two million Americans who trace their ancestry to Vietnam,
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Chinese province of Yunnan.
Visitors will experience the region's diversity firsthand
through the presentations of artists, performers,
craftspeople, cooks, ritual specialists, and presenters. Five
stages, including a family learning center, will feature
traditions as diverse as Vietnamese opera, Thai shadow
puppetry, Cambodian classical dance, and Chinese gourd flute
music. Exquisite Lao textiles, Naxi calligraphy, and mural
painting will be only a few of the Mekong craft traditions
presented. The Mekong has many different meanings to the
peoples of the region as well as to Americans who may know
little of its complexity. Mekong River: Connecting Cultures
will help broaden everyone's view.

This program is produced in partnership with the Ministry of
Culture and Information of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Thailand, the
People's Government of Yunnan Province of the People's
Republic of China, the Ministry of Information and Culture of
the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and the Ministry of
Culture and Fine Arts of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and in
collaboration with Aid to Artisans, Amrita Performing Arts,
China Yunnan International Culture Exchange, Connecticut
College, and the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology
Centre.

Major donors include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford
Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional donor
support from the McKnight Foundation, American Express, the
Asian Cultural Council, and the Smithsonian Women's Committee.

TLC members might like to know that not only is this the first
time Laos is present at the festival, as noted in an earlier
notice, but also Vietnamese and Cambodian participants are
here.  Thail had its day in the sun in 1994; this Festival
features participants from Northeast and North Thailand.

For  more information see:
http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2007/Mekong/index.html 

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu