The Brooklyn Folk Festival returns to St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, Clinton and Montague streets, this coming Friday evening, November 10, with performances continuing through Saturday and Sunday. There’s a complete schedule here. Among the performers will be long time Folk Festival favorites like Nora Brown (photo above by C. Scales for BHB), The Down Hill Strugglers, Feral Foster, and Jerron Paxton. “Poet musicians” The Fugs, two of the members of which appeared in the 2016 Folk Festival, will be on the Friday evening program. The Sunday afternoon program will conclude with a set by singer, songwriter, and Brooklyn native Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, still singing and playing at age 92. Tickets for the Festival may be purchased here.
Along with the performances on the Main Stage in the sanctuary, musicians will also be perfoming on a stage in the Parish Hall. There you will also find opportunities to try various styles of folk dancing, from squre dancing to South Texas conjunto and polka dances There will also be workshops on many topics, including the history and contributions to traditional music by Folkways Records and Alan Lomax, and Village history with Terri Thal, author of My Greenwich Village: Dave, Bob and Me. There will be a number of events celebrating the centenary of Harry Everett Smith, described in Wikipedia as “an American polymath, who was credited variously as an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic bishop.” Among these will be a Main Stage screening of a film, “Early Abstractios,” with a “live, improvised score” by Peter Stampfel and friends, at 11:15 pm Saturday. Folk Festival ticket holders will also be able to have a guided tour of the exhibit, “Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: the Art of Harry Smith” at 11:00 am Sunday at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 99 Gansevoort Street, Manhattan.
I can’t not mention the “fabled” Banjo Toss, which takes place Sunday at 1:00 pm at the Gowanus Dredgers Club, 165 2nd Street, Brooklyn. Gather at 12:30 at the entrance to the F/G station at 2nd and Smith streets to parade to the site.
For night owls, the Festival’s sponsor, the Jalopy Theater and School of Music, 315 Columbia Street, Red Hook, will host a after party beginning at 11:00 pm each night, Friday through Sunday, featuring live music performances.
