For this episode, Esty sits down with folk studies professor Tim Frandy to learn about the Sámi, the indigenous peoples of the Nordic countries. Over the course of the hour, they explore a wide range of topics, including Sámi history and lifeways, colonization and boarding schools, language, joik (traditional song), folk stories, and Indigenous activism […]
Show of Hands: Art in Education
Show of Hands: Art in Education will feature Nordic and Nordic-American folk artists, scholars, and community members at a symposium on traditional arts, material culture, and education. The symposium will include artist demonstrations of fiber arts, woodcarving, rosemaling, and more on Friday, May 2, as well as artist presentation about apprenticeships, sustaining traditions, and folks […]
The Legendary Witchcraft of Scandinavia
As Halloween approaches, the Wisconsin Historical Society digs deep into the origins of European witchcraft legends. On Tuesday, October 30 at 7:00 p.m., Halloween Eve — if you will — Amber J. Rose, a University of Wisconsin Ph.D. candidate in Old Norse and Swedish folklore, gives a presentation entitled “The Devil Goes North: Witchcraft Trials, […]
Black Jazz Musicians Find ‘Utopia’ in Denmark
Why is American jazz great, Ben Webster, buried in Copenhagen? That’s the question our next guest asked herself after stumbling across the legendary saxophonist’s tombstone while visiting Denmark. It turns out that hundreds of African Americans traveled to the tiny Scandinavian nation and found what many of them described as a sort of European utopia […]
