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SPEAKERS BUREAU
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Dr. Michael E. Bell
Folklife in Rhode Island
Rhode Island's "folklife" is the traditional expressive culture that is rooted in the past and has been informally transmitted from generation to generation by word of mouth or through the imitation of customary examples. These cultural expressions occur in a vaiety of forms, including beliefs, folk medicine, folktales, legends, music, song, arts and crafts, foodways, customs, and celebrations. Folklife is rooted in communities based on shared identities, such as kinship, ethnic background, religion, occupation, and place of residence. Dr. Michael Bell presents a rich cross-section of Rhode Island folklife that he has collected as Rhode Island State Folklorist since 1979.
From Bullrakes to Clambakes
Explore the occupational folklife of Narragansett Bay's shellfishing industry with Dr. Michael Bell, who focuses on the traditional techniques, verbal expressions, material culture, and customs of work shared by Rhode Island's bullrakers. Activities covered in this talk include bullraking for quahogs from a skiff, selling out the catch, and the daily routine of shellfish dealers and restaurants specializing in shellfish. Photographs by Alexander Caserta are incorporated into this talk.
The Invisible World: Supernatural Encounters in Rhode Island
Since colonial times, Rhode Islanders have reported encounters with the supernatural realm. From spectral ships and moaning bones to contracts with the Devil and visitations from the dead, early Rhode Islanders glimpsed a world of remarkable apparitions. Although the folklore of this "invisible world" (as Puritan minister Cotton Mather termed it) was ancient even when it first arrived in the New World, it took on a new urgency in an environment that often seemed strange and hostile. You may have every reason to suppose that our rational age of science has cast out Rhode Island's eclectic mix of magic and religion, yet accounts with the supernatural have continued unabated into the present. The invisible world is till very much with us. What has changed is our interpretation of it---and therefore also our relationship to it. We may no longer see inexplicable occurrences as demonic visitations or divine providences, but they still haunt us and cause us to wonder. using visual and audio exmaples, Dr. Bell will discuss historical and contemporary accounts of contact with the invisible world from the perspective of a folklorist.
The Negro Elections in Pawtuxet Village
Drawing on oral and print sournce, Dr. Michael Bell presents an illustrated discussion of the early African-American community in Pawtuxet Village, who shared in a regional tradition known as the Negro Elections. This was an annual event in which the male members of the black community elected their own governor. Beginning about 1775 and continuing to 1837, "'Lection Day" was one of the big events of the year. Many of the African Americans who participated in the event lived in a community called new Guinea, which was located about one mile south of Pawtuxet Village near Cranberry Pond in Warwick. The first settlers there were several slaves given their freedom by the grandfather of Pawtuxet's well-known Civil War Genral, Elisha Hunt Rhodes.
Orchards in Ocean State
When you bite into an apple, do you think about the processes and people that have sustained such delectable moments since William Blackstone planted Rhode Island's first orchard in 1635? Dr. Michael Bell offers a window into the taken-for-granted world of apple growing families and orchard workers; a behind-the-scenes view of fruit stands, farmers' markets, and pick-your-own; of apples from the 'Yellow Sweeting' to the 'Honey Crisp' and activities from cider making to pie baking; of the yearly cycle of planting, pruning, spraying, thinning, harvesting, and marketing. The central story of Rhode Island's apple orchards is how growers have balanced the traditional approaches that were handed down to them by their parents and grandparents with changing technology and markets so that they can continue to succeed in a business that is fraught with economic uncertainty. The talk is illustrated with photographs taken by Alexander Caserta.
Vampires and Death in New England, 1784-1892
Close your eyes and imagine a vampire. The image that comes to mind probably is that of Bela Lugosi in the role of Dracula. Since 1897, when Bram Stoker published his novel, the Count has dominated our imaginations. But another kind of vampire survived in outlying areas of New England more than 100 years before Stoker put pen to paper. Dr. Michael Bell relates the stories of rural families who dug up the bodies of their loved ones and burned their hearts to save the living. These ordinary farmers, who wre confronted with an illness that medicine could neither explain nor cure, blamed the dead. Bell summarizes his quest for this authentic vampire tradition, detailed in his award-winning book Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires that has led him into the field to conduct interviews,find cemetaries and gravestones, and even investigate archeological digs. He also searched published local histories, colonial records in town halls, old newspapers on microfilm, and geneologies. In Vampires and Death in New England, Belltakes you on a journey where folklore and medical science meet to explain New England's vampire tradition. Your image of vampires will never again be the same.
Dr. Michael Bell was awarded a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University at Bloomington. For more than twenty-five years, Bell was the Consulting Folklorist at the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission in Providence. He has also taught folklore, English, and anthropology at several colleges and universities and has served as a scholar or consultant on numerous projects. These projects have taken many forms, including primary research and fieldwork, exhibits, publications, school curricula, workshops and lectures, festivals, performances, and media productions. Bell has completed a variety of publications and media productions. A new edition of his award-wining book, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires, will be published by Wesleyan University Press in the Fall of 2011.
Needs: Powerpoint projector or slide projector/screen and lighted lectern.