MARQUETTE, Mich.—A free multimedia performance event titled “Michigan Folksong Legacy” is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, in Forest Roberts Theatre at Northern Michigan University. It will feature music by the Lumber Jakki trio and presentations on folklorist Alan Lomax’s visit to Michigan in 1938. Lomax traveled from Washington, D.C. to record Michigan’s richly varied folk music traditions—from the ballads of miners, lumbermen and sailors to ethnic music in Detroit—for the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress.

            The event coincides with a related traveling exhibition on display at NMU’s Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center in 105 Cohodas Hall. “Michigan Folksong Legacy: Grand Discoveries from the Great Depression” brings Lomax’s field trip to life through words, song lyrics, photos and sound recordings. It explores the ground-breaking collection of folk music and what it reveals about Michigan history and culture.

            The exhibit is on loan from the Michigan State University Museum and runs through March 31. Beaumier Center hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Admission is free.

Both of these programs are made possible in part by a grant from Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support comes from the Michigan State University Museum and its Great Lakes Traditions Endowment; the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress; the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin; the Association for Cultural Equity; and the Finlandia Foundation. 

The Beaumier Center also received funding from a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs mini-grant administered by the Central Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

            For more information, visit the Michigan Folksong Legacy homepage.