June 13, 2015
(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th
years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)
 |
| Nakia Ballard (R) sits next to her mother Casalene Corbin at the Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival's crab picking contest. Nakia came in first with the most crabbed picked during the timed even. |
Crabs, drums, painted screens, Homes, Native
American flutes, faux finishing, racing pigeons, pisanki, Ethiopian coffee
ceremony, duck decoys and roasted pigs. What do they all have in common? They
were all spice in my day today. So much was happening in and around Baltimore
that it was impossible to savor everything on the banquet table.
Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival held at the
Creative Alliance is a small but full gathering of Maryland traditions in food,
music and art of all kinds. David and I spent the most time listening to a
blues group of the famed Wendell Holmes of the Holmes Brothers, apprentice
Brooks Long and drummer Eric Kennedy. What a treat! We also spent time looking
at Edwin Remsberg’s photos of Marylanders involved in traditional art. His
photo exhibit of traditions of the past was combined with a trend of the present
and future where viewers use an app—Arasma— that delivers a multidimensional
experience via a smart phone.
We then returned home to spend a little time at a
neighborhood picnic across the street from us, a mingling of people who differ
from us politically but share the same traditional philosophy of
neighborliness.
The night ended at Edith May’s Paradise, a house
concert and open mic where we heard some more good music. At the open mic, we heard one of the musicians play a variety of Native American flutes that floated haunting tunes
through the soul.
My
gift today was a smorgasbord.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can find links to my other
posts on this project here: 
