Celebrate Spring at Fairmont State’s Folklife Center with Mending, Music, and More

The West Virginia Storytelling Guild ushers in spring at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center with five tellers for their spring concert on Friday, April 10, at 7 p.m. Featured tellers include Ilene Evans, Linda Durrett, Larry Jent, Jo Ann Dadisman, and Francene Kirk. Admission is free, and all are welcome.

"We're always thrilled to host the Guild and see what creativity and energy they bring," says Folklife Center Director Dr. Lydia Warren. "They do a wonderful job carrying on a community-based tradition, and this concert will be a nice way to say goodbye to winter!"

On Monday, April 20, at 5 p.m., the Folklife Center hosts a Mending Workshop. This workshop is free, but registration is required. Register by visiting https://www.fairmontstate.edu/folklife.

Costume expert Sherry Harper-McCombs will show archival examples of historical mending techniques and demonstrate some of the stitches used, along with weaving for darning. Attendees will make a sampler where they will put together stitches to create sashiko-style mending. This event is part of the Folklife Center's Accessing the Archives initiative, which provides scholars with funding to research and teach at the Folklife Center. Harper-McCombs is Professor Emerita of Theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Dickinson College.

"I think the main thing that has struck me as I have spent time in the archives with both the clothes and the written materials located there is how marketing has shifted around mending and our wardrobes in general," Harper-McCombs says. "Somewhere post WWII, there was a shift from mending and saving what you had was patriotic and the thing to do to an attitude that new is better. We currently seem to be shifting away from that model to a model where saving our clothes by mending is more sustainable. This focus on sustainability has made mending both more popular and more visible." Harper-McCombs will explore these themes and more in her workshop.

The Wartz 'n All Dulcimer Jam returns to the Folklife Center Saturday, May 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a lunchtime break in between jams. All are welcome to jam, try their hand at playing on a cardboard dulcimer provided by the Folklife Center, or just watch and listen. Musician Rob Lackey brought the longstanding event to the Folklife Center before his passing in 2023, and today Bob Snyder and Jim Fawcett keep the event going to honor Lackey's legacy.

In addition to these special events, the Folklife Center hosts monthly regularly occurring events that are open to the public, including an acoustic Old Time music jam on the last Friday of every month at 6:30 p.m., and a Craft Club on the last Wednesday of every month from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. for folks who enjoy knitting, crochet, coloring, and more in a social setting.

For more information about these or other events, please email [email protected] or call 301-367-4286.