Northwest Stories
During its forty years, Northwest Folklife has been involved with an extraordinary group of communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. Northwest Stories combines images and sounds that tell a community's story in its own words. The first group of Northwest Stories is a series of eight videos exploring communities that have long been a part of the annual Northwest Folklife Festival.
Watch Northwest Stories:
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The India Association of Western Washington celebrates Diwali - the Festival of Lights - in a different way in the United States than it would in India. The main focus of IAWW's Diwali is a day-long celebration of dance performed by Indian youth. |  |
Skandia Folkdance Society performed at the first Northwest Folklife Festival in 1972. Throughout the years, Skandia has been an integral part of the Festival, sponsoring the Saturday night Scandinavian Dance. This documentary tells the story of the Skandia Ball, the Society's annual fall celebration. | |
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"Each hula tells a story." Hawaiians in western Washington dance both the old- and new-style hula. Moodette Ka'apana and Gloria Fuji Nahalea explain the meaning of hula and the Aloha Spirit. |  |
Pastor Patrinell Wright founded the Total Experience Gospel Choir in 1973. A community choir that grew out of an African American gospel class at local high schools, it has expanded to a multicultural, all-ages group that over the years has performed on five continents and twenty-eight countries. | |
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Shape-note singing has been part of Seattle culture since the early 1970s in the form of the Sacred Cow Harmogenizers, a group that sang from The Sacred Harp songbook. In the early 1990s, thanks to introductions to the large and vibrant shape-note singing communities in the Southern United States, the community of Sacred Harp expanded so that it now extends throughout the Pacific Northwest. |  |
For the past few years, the Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society has been working steadily and enthusiastically behind the scenes to re-introduce the joyful activity of square dancing to Seattle. |
COMING SOON:
Seattle Labor Chorus
The All Ages Movement
Northwest Stories has been made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Local videographer Doug Plummer produced the videos along with Deborah Fant, Deputy Director of Northwest Folklife, and Kelli Faryar, Programs Manager.
