So Many Traditions, So Little Time: Reflections of a State Folklorist

An invitation to deliver the 2023 Richard M. Dorson Memorial Lecture at Indiana University's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology inspired Dr. Maggie Holtzberg to critically reflect on thirty-four years of working as a public sector folklorist. Here, in an edited transcript of the lecture, Holtzberg highlights some of the joys and challenges of working as a public sector folklorist in Alabama, Georgia, and Massachusetts over the last three decades. She touches on the many hats worn on the job as state folklorist--ethnographic fieldworker/filmmaker, photographer, sound recordist, archivist, writer, grants administrator, concert and festival producer, and exhibit curator. Aided by still images and film excerpts, she shares lessons learned along the way, like the importance of being a generalist, equitable public funding of individuals, why archival best practice matters, and, given that many people feel duty bound to pass on what they know, how apprenticeship programs can bolster the faithful transmission of traditional knowledge, skills, and artistry. She favors more collaborations among tradition bearers, artists, community scholars, and those trained in ethnographic fieldwork and grounded in the academic disciplines of folklore, ethnomusicology, and related fields of study.
The inspiration to critically reflect on thirty-four years of working as a public sector folklorist, from Alabama to Georgia to Massachusetts, was prompted by an invitation to deliver the 2023 [...]