NAFF WORKSHOPS 2023
All workshops are on Saturday, September 9th.
12:00 Noon
"Destination Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Main Line Canal"
-Presented by Barb Zaborowski, Ph.D., located at 578 Philadelphia St, Indiana, Pa (next to Fox's Pizza)
Travel across Pennsylvania in the 1830's aboard the Main Line Canal, meet abolitionists and hear how a public transportation route assisted freedom seekers.
1:00 PM
PYSANKA (Ukranian Easter Eggs)
- Presented by Ann Orenak @ Woody Lodge Winery
Growing up next door to a Ukranian Catholic family, I always wanted to learn how to make pysanky and pierogies! Little did I know I would meet and later marry a Ukranian Catholic. Shortly after we married my new in-laws taught me to make pysanky. Once my children left the nest, I started in earnest to learn to make pysanky better and teach classes. I have attended several multi day workshops and increased my skills learning other techniques such as etching, scratch, Romanian, drop and pull, and stain glass style. And yes, I do make pierogies!
2:00 PM
Plant Walk
-Presented by Dana Driscoll (meet in front of the Indiana Theater for a Walking tour)
Trees and plants in the Northern Appalachian mountains, including here in the Allegheny Mountains have a rich history of folk use. From these plants we have everything from traditional root beers to medicines to crafts and functional objects like rope, glue, and spoons. In this plant walk, we will explore over 20 plants and trees in downtown Indiana, with an emphasis on their edible, medicinal, and folk craft uses. The plant walk will also cover the ethics of foraging and foraging safety.
"MUSHROOMS"
- Presented Chloe Drew, located on the old Jailhouse landing on North 6th Street.
An Introduction to Fungi: Backyard wine cap (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) cultivation with a step-by-step guide to creating your own wine cap bed, and an interactive, audience encouraged participation, lesson on they way fungi grow! A program suitable for all ages.
Chloe Drew is an outdoor educator with the Indiana Outdoor School, a vegetable farmer at Mother Earth Farm PA, and a citizen mycologist in training with a certificate of completion in the Community Mushroom Educator course through Cornell University.
3:00 PM
History of McIntyre, Pa
- Presenter by Susan Ferrandiz located inside of the Indiana Theater
McIntyre, Pennsylvania, was one of a number of coal mining company towns developed by the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company in Indiana County, western Pennsylvania, in the early part of the 20th century. During this period the United States was becoming a major industrial and world power due in part to the presence and mining of coal and other abundant natural resources in the country. Coal was used to produce coke for the steel industry, to heat homes, to run railroads, and as fuel for many industries. Many unskilled European immigrants, wanting to leave behind a life of poverty that promised little or no chance of upward mobility, were attracted to jobs in the mines and settled with their families in a number of western Pennsylvania towns. McIntyre is representative of the many coal mining company towns that flourished in western Pennsylvania during this period. The patterns of daily life found in McIntyre could easily be superimposed over other mining towns and, although it would not be an identical match, there would be many similarities.
4:00 PM
Strange and Unusual Phenomena of Western Pennsylvania
-Presented by Abigail Adams, located inside of the Indiana Theater
Meet Author Byron Hoot
- Located at The Artist's Hand Gallery, 732 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, Pa.
A 90 MINUTE Folk reading and discussion of poetry and images, this is a Northern Appalachia literature event, featuring WANA affiliated writers (“Writers of Northern Appalachia” )(https://writersassociationofnorthernappalachia.org/).
More specifically these are “Poets of the Wilds.” Poets located in and inspired by the Pennsylvania Wilds region. It pierces the questions “what is folk?” and “what is Northern Appalachian Folk?”
Prospective guests with Hoot and Clary for readings:
● Tabby Shaw, intersectionality of Appalachian and Pakastani folk literature and art
● Ray Bugay, founder of Quimby Pickford and Cheshire Publishing, and writes poetry under the pen name Gerard Tournesol. (https://girardtournesol.com)
● Wayne Swanger, a gardener, a grower, raised in a community of farmers and laborers. He lives close to the land, as so many of his poems attest. His book, Fields of His Heart, was published by The Watershed Journal Literary Group (2020).
African Americans in Western Pennsylvania
-Presented by Tim Konhaus - Time & location TBA