Houston Folklife Collection

Houston is the fourth largest city in the US. Known for its go-go sensibility and its astounding diversity, the city and the region is home to distinctive cultural, occupational, religious and ethnic groups whose traditions and lifeways distinguish them. These traditions provide a window into the character, beliefs and histories of its various citizens and communities. Given this pronounced diversity, Houstonians have grown increasingly eager to better understand their neighbors and to pursue opportunities to share more about themselves.

In light of this, public folklorist Pat Jasper joined the staff of the Houston Arts Alliance in 2010 to initiate an urban Folklife Program serving the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas. After months of fieldwork in the city’s and the county’s immense reaches and diverse neighborhoods and exurbs, speaking with and hearing from people throughout the city and county, a particular project with many outcomes emerged. The project, Seeing the Unseen, was a multi-part transmedia project exploring and presenting the artistic traditions – from architecture, to music, to dance, to storytelling, to decorative practices and ritual enactments -- emanating from a wide range of religious devotions practiced by Houstonians.

This site provides a broad outline of work that draws on that initial project but focuses most closely on the period 2011 to 2018. Over time, community-based relationships were further expanded and more fieldwork was conducted in selected neighborhoods and populations and many of the project outcomes are shared on this site. This was especially augmented by the assistance of Angel Quesada, who is largely responsible for overseeing, undertaking and often co-curating the digital representations of the projects detailed here. See below for simple descriptions of these projects and a hyperlink to each.

WEAVING HOME
2011 – 2012
Houston is home to refugee communities from around the world. They all bring with them distinctive traditions. The exhibition Weaving Home focuses on the weaving traditions practiced by women from one such community—a collection of Karenni families who now live in the city. Formerly from Myanmar (until recently known as Burma), the Karenni are a distinct ethnic community with origins in the country's mountainous region bordering Thailand.

STORIES OF A WORKFORCE
2011 – 2014
At the Port of Houston and along the Houston Ship Channel, for all of their one hundred years, knowing how to get the job done—whatever the job—has always been the priority. Over time, however, the knowledge and skills associated with the many jobs that make up a working port have been transformed. The introduction of automation, containerization and technology have drastically altered both the workplace and what it takes to do the work. Nevertheless, even in the face of change and modernization, the age-old practices of peer-to-peer learning and the development of local knowledge remain as important today as the newer kinds of training that a worker acquires in a classroom or at a computer terminal.

VOICES OF THE SPIRIT
2011 – 2016
Houston is a remarkably diverse city—and in no domain of city life is that more apparent than in its faith communities. Many immigrants to the city have created a sense of home for themselves through membership in churches, mosques, temples and the like. It is not surprising, then, that most of these communities have fostered rich sacred music traditions. The folklife program Voices of the Spirit concert was held annually at Asia Society Texas Center and ran a total of five iterations.

ANOINTED & ADORNED: INDIAN WEDDINGS IN HOUSTON
2012 – 2013
Anointed and Adorned explores continuity and change in the artistry and festivity of Indian weddings in Houston. A complex mix of East and West, ancient and modern, Indian weddings here offer participants the opportunity to enjoy the traditions of the mother country performed with nuances that reflect a Western environment. They celebrate the beauty that resides in the old and accustomed, alongside the appeal of the new and surprising.

HOUSTON SLAB PARADE & FAMILY FESTIVAL
2012 – 2013
Houston's first-ever official SLAB Parade and Family Festival comes to MacGregor Park! This family friendly event will celebrate SLABs, a vehicle art form that originated in the African-American neighborhoods of Houston, Texas.

WINTER CELEBRATIONS
2011 – 2016
Winter Celebrations is a trio of installations, (noted below by asterisks), including live performances and interactive events, centered on the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Lunar New Year and the African-American trail riders who help kick off the annual Livestock Show and Rodeo. These distinctive traditions share more than a season—they are all public, participatory, festive events involving parade-like processional activities, music and dance, and fancy garb or costume.

*CELEBRATING THE FEAST DAY OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE
2012 – 2015
The celebration of the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a powerful religious and cultural event in the Mexican and Mexican American Catholic community. This exhibition explores the artistic and cultural traditions that surround it on all sides—the music, dance, food, drink, special garments, altar building and storytelling.

*EXPLORING LUNAR NEW YEAR
2015 – 2016
The Lunar New Year celebration that is most popular in Houston is grounded in the Chinese calendar and is observed by the many nationalities with strong cultural ties to China. In Houston that is mostly the Chinese and Vietnamese communities. Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the single most festive and important holiday in these communities and its commemoration involves weeks of preparation.

*HONORING HOUSTON’S AFRICAN-AMERICAN TRAIL RIDERS
2015 – 2016
While the Rodeo is usually the one event where most Houstonians see the trail riders, these clubs and associations are active year-round. Some of their events draw thousands of people. Camping, riding, socializing, celebrating with music and food create bonds among family and friends that are usually forged for life and over generations.

STORM STORIES & SONGS
2016
Multimedia open mic featuring stories, spoken word pieces, poems and songs about Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.

JUNETEENTH: A TEXAS TRADITION
2016 – 2018
This collection of videos was presented as part of a joint venture with Miller Outdoor Theatre in 2017 and 2018 as part of its annual Juneteenth observance and concert. Individuals from throughout the city were invited to share their memories, thoughts, recollections and experiences about Juneteenth, past and present.

FOOD & FAMILY
2017 – 2018
Food & Family explores that starting place and then traces a journey with many stops along the way. By looking at the craft of recreating a prized, multi-generational recipe; or considering the traditional artistry of making food beautiful and enticing; or revealing the beliefs that inform the value placed on certain foods — all of these are signposts along the way in an individual’s developing connection to food. Family provides the original map and the primary way in which these attitudes and ideas and opportunities about food are delivered.