Shaker Village Work Group

Last updated

The Shaker Village Work Group was a recreational summer camp and teen educational program that occupied historic Shaker land and buildings in New Lebanon, New York. The property was purchased by founders Jerome (Jerry) and Sybil A. Count from the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village community in 1946, and was opened to its first group of young "villagers" as the Shaker Village Work Camp in 1947. [1] [2] Around 1960, the Work Camp's name was changed to the Shaker Village Work Group. Operating until 1973, [3] the Shaker Village Work Group was noteworthy as a program that gave urban youths the opportunity to learn skilled hands-on work through folk crafts, [4] for its efforts to preserve Shaker architecture and culture, [5] [6] [7] for its role in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s, [8] and for its influence on the 1960s counterculture movement.

Contents

During its twenty-six year span the Shaker Village Work Group presented a microcosm of American work and political ideals, weaving together the Protestant work ethic and communitarianism of the Shakers, the labor movement's celebration of ordinary working class manual labor, and libertarian ideals of self-sufficiency and self-ownership.[ citation needed ]

Beginnings

The Shaker Village Work Group operated on land formerly owned by the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society, the Shaker community that built and occupied the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village from 1787 until its population became too small to make use of it. [9] Under the Shakers, the Village was organized into "Families" that occupied clusters of buildings sited around the property. [10] The Church Family site was sold to and is currently occupied by the Darrow School. [11] [12] The North Family site is currently owned, preserved and being restored by the Shaker Museum, Mount Lebanon. [11] [13] Jerry and Sybil Count purchased the South Family and West Family land for their planned youth work camp in 1946. [1] [3]

The "work camp" part of the Shaker Village Work Camp name is rooted in the 1930s. As part of government efforts to help the United States escape the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established and operated between 1933 and 1942 to train unemployed young men in useful manual labor job skills and also to provide employment for them in public works projects. Large scale CCC projects were sometimes accompanied by what were called "work camps," in which up to 200 workers were housed together and which operated under a quasi-military organization. [14] [15] During World War II, some of the work camps were re-purposed by the Civilian Public Service to provide conscientious objectors an alternative to military service. [16] After World War II, informed by these earlier public service work camps, many new "progressive work camps" were created for teenagers and young adults to let them "visit and labor in fields and factories," [17] to provide "work experience for youth under expert counselors," [15] "to help children understand the democratic roots of their country," [18] or to "teach neighborliness, public service, respect for manual labor, [and] self-government." [19] For at least some of these new work camps, the "word work in 'work camp' signified a solidarity with labor on the part of the affluent, progressive middle class." [20]

The Counts opened the Shaker Village Work Camp as one of these new progressive work camps. [20] [21] There, urban teenage boys and girls would learn manual skills for the purposes of building character and to preserve and celebrate the crafts and work ethic of the Shaker culture. [1] Some alumni of the work camp's early years have noted what Villager and artist Henry Halem called the "very socialist" [22] character of the Village. Describing his time at the newly opened Shaker Village Work Camp, philosopher Robert Paul Wolff wrote, "Many of the counselors had roots in the various progressive movements that had emerged during the depression, though whether any were actually members of the Communist Party I never knew." [2] Some later attending Villagers have stated that this character was not apparent by the 1960s, and that Jerry Count was more concerned with "work education" than "socialism for the sake of socialism." [21]

According to a participant in 1954–55, one very important element has not received sufficient attention: there was a definite utopian vision of the social organization of work, one which differed fundamentally from the official vision promoted by the communist party, which argues strongly against the Count's affiliation to that party, or at least their approval of the official line.

The emphasis on work received a very broad definition, including manual labor and intellectual, cultural, artistic efforts. In addition, very importantly, the work was very democratically organized, with emphasis on complete equality on all counts. At least during those years, tasks were distributed on a weekly basis, with functional chores for maintenance of the camp done in the morning, and more cultural or artistic work occupying the afternoons. The shifts changed regularly, through an extremely simple system, with sheets of paper posted inside the barn (the main indoor meeting place) designating the tasks and the number of people needed, on which all participants were to sign up for the various tasks and activities, with freedom of choice and incitement to change regularly.

There were also general meetings, under a large, central tree, at which a mayor was chosen (probably weekly), and all problems or decisions affecting the group were debated.

An unusual feature of the Shaker Village Work Group compared to typical summer camps was the extent to which the Villagers were autonomous, without direct counselor supervision. [22] For example, the Villagers were entitled to set their bedtime hour by voting as a community. [23]

Preservation of Shaker architecture and culture

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, known as the Shakers, were a small Protestant Christian sect that is known today primarily for their cultural contributions, particularly in music, furniture and folk crafts (particularly baskets and boxes). They tied religious devotion to hard work, as exemplified by one of their founder Mother Ann Lee's mottoes, "Put your hands to work, and your heart to God." [9] [10]

The Shakers' cultural traditions made them an excellent model for the kind of youth work camp that Jerry and Sybil Count were seeking to establish. "The Counts learned about the Shakers' high standards of conduct and workmanship, their forsaking of material ownership and pride, their fabled tolerance, gender equality, and non-violence. The Shakers learned of the Counts' plans and ideals for a youth camp and heartily approved sale [of the land] for that use. The Shaker Village Work Camp opened in 1947 not only with Shaker approval but also with frequent appearances of those Shakers who could still get around." [24]

Robert Paul Wolff, who attended for the first three years of the Village's existence, says that it "celebrated labor, along with folklore and the arts." He recounted his work restoring one of the old Shaker buildings: "The building was in very bad shape, so one of our major work projects was to renovate it. This involved not only pulling old plaster and lathe from the attic walls, but also making new pegs for the peg boards. ... I learned how to use a wood turning lathe and spent many happy hours turning new pegs." He concludes, "Shaker Village was unabashedly idealistic in its celebration of manual labor, community democracy, and folk culture." [2]

A 1962 Sports Illustrated article described the Shaker Village Work Group activities as "restoring the original village, repairing and rebuilding the historic buildings and reviving some of the Early American industries and crafts such as weaving, herb raising and woodcraft. The 'villagers' raise livestock, do farming and forestry work, landscaping and beekeeping." [7] As a teen, author and Harvard professor Marjorie Garber refused to attend the Shaker Village as her parents wished because, "Teenagers who attended work camps wore denim and flannel shirts and learned about folk songs, barn construction, leftist politics, and sex—so far as I know." [20]

In their 2004 book A Shaker Musical Legacy, Robert C. Opdahl and Viola E. Woodruff Opdahl provide some detailed descriptions of the Work Group's activities under Shaker tutelage, with an emphasis on Shaker music, but also including crafts, dance, and even the performance of a Shaker prayer service. [1]

The Shaker Village Work Camp (and later Work Group) produced two Shaker songbooks with scores (Songs of the Shakers, 1956; [5] Songs of the Shakers, 1962 [6] ), two phonograph albums of Shaker songs sung by the teenage Villagers (14 Shaker Folk Songs, 1959 [25] which featured an introduction by Shaker Brother Ricardo Belden; and Shaker Folk Songs, 1952), [26] and a book of Shaker recipes (Shaker Desserts and Sweets). [27] A book of Shaker songs, with some history of the Shaker Village Work Group, was released in 2004 by two alumni of the Village. [1] The Shaker Village Work Group was also featured [28] in a 1966 episode of the television series Tony Saletan's What's New [29] on National Educational Television (NET), the precursor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). An article was written by Roger Hall in 1996 about singing at the Shaker Village Work Camp. [30]

Role in the American folk music revival

During the 1950s, some folk musicians "looked to summer camps and resorts as areas ripe for the introduction of folk music," [31] and spent their summers touring among the rural camps, resorts and festivals. [32] [33] For example, folksinger and social activist "Pete Seeger used to come and play" at the Village. [22]

In 1954, Tony Saletan had been working as folksong leader at the Shaker Village Work Camp, and was searching the Widener Library of Harvard University for material to teach the Villagers that summer. He adapted the song Michael Row the Boat Ashore from the 1867 songbook Slave Songs of the United States to create the version that's well-known today. "I judged that the tune was very singable, added some harmony (a guitar accompaniment) and thought the one-word chorus would be an easy hit with the teens (it was). But a typical original verse consisted of one line repeated once, and I thought a rhyme would be more interesting to the teenagers at Shaker Village Work Camp, where I introduced it. So I adapted traditional African-American couplets in place of the original verses." [34] Saletan's adaptation was included in the Village's 1954 songbook, Songs of Work. [35]

That summer, Saletan taught Michael Row the Boat Ashore to Pete Seeger, who later sang it with the Weavers, [8] [36] [37] one of the most important singing groups leading the American folk music revival of the 1950s to mid-1960s. [38] A #1 hit-single based on Saletan's version was released in 1961 by the American folk quintet the Highwaymen under the abbreviated title, Michael. [39] Joe Hickerson, co-founder of the Folksmiths, credits Saletan for introducing him to the song Kumbaya in 1957 (Saletan had learned it from Lynn Rohrbough, co-proprietor with his wife Katherine of the camp songbook publisher Cooperative Recreation Service). [40] [41] [42] The first LP recording of Kumbaya was released in 1958 by the Folksmiths. [31] Folksinger Peggy Seeger was also taught several songs by Saletan, which she later recorded. [43]

Saletan went on to host a public television series for children, Let's All Sing with Tony Saletan, [29] with an associated album [44] mostly drawn from American folksongs, including those discovered and developed for teaching young Villagers. In 1970, he released an album, Tony and Irene Saletan: Folk Songs and Ballads with his then-wife, Irene (formerly and subsequently of the Kossoy Sisters), on Folk-Legacy Records. Saletan also released the albums I'm a Stranger Here on Prestige Records (1961 or 1962), [45] Song Bag with Tony Saletan and an associated teacher's guide and songbook, [46] Songs and Sounds of the Sea (National Geographic Society 1973), Revolutionary Tea (with the Yankee Tunesmiths, Old North Bridge Records 1975), and George & Ruth (songs of the Spanish Civil War, Educational Alternatives 2004).

Endings

After Jerry Count died in 1968, his wife Sybil kept the Shaker Village Work Group running for four more years, through the 1972 season. [1] Bill and Cornelia Cotton were the operational directors the last few years. [47] In 1975, the South Family and most of the West Family land was sold to the Sufi Order International, which established on it a spiritual intentional community, the Abode of the Message. [48] [49] Sybil Count died in 1996. [1] After the New Lebanon facility was closed, the T.E.E.N.S. Global Democracy Project of the Shaker Village Educational Work Foundation, Inc. has continued some aspects of the Count family's work. [25] [50] Shaker Village Work Group alumni continue to maintain contact through various means, including a Facebook group. [47]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Opdahl 2004.
  2. 1 2 3 Wolff 2009.
  3. 1 2 Morse 1980.
  4. ↑ Dorson 1950.
  5. 1 2 Shaker Village Work Camp 1956.
  6. 1 2 Shaker Village Work Group 1962.
  7. 1 2 Horn 1962.
  8. 1 2 Seeger 2010.
  9. 1 2 Stein 1994.
  10. 1 2 Gutek 1998.
  11. 1 2 Becksvoort 2000, p. 54.
  12. ↑ Darrow School 2010.
  13. ↑ Shaker Museum and Library: History 2010.
  14. ↑ Holland 1942.
  15. 1 2 Rhyne 1947.
  16. ↑ Keim 1990.
  17. ↑ Time 1940.
  18. ↑ Johnson 2002.
  19. ↑ Time 1944.
  20. 1 2 3 Garber 2003, pp. 59–60.
  21. 1 2 Shaker Village Sleep Away Camp Alumni, online discussion 2010, Aug 28-29.
  22. 1 2 3 Warmus 2005.
  23. ↑ Opdahl 2004. p. xiv.
  24. ↑ Opdahl 2004. pp. xii-xiv.
  25. 1 2 Shaker Village Work Group 1959.
  26. ↑ Aks 1952.
  27. ↑ Shaker Village Work Group 195-?.
  28. ↑ Shaker Village Work Group (episode) 1966.
  29. 1 2 Tony Saletan. WGBH Alumni 2000.
  30. ↑ Hall 1996.
  31. 1 2 Folksmiths 1958. Liner notes.
  32. ↑ Riservato 2010.
  33. ↑ Smart 2010.
  34. ↑ Saletan 2000.
  35. ↑ Shaker Village Work Camp 1954.
  36. ↑ Hays 1960, pp. 40–41.
  37. ↑ American Folklife Center 1968.
  38. ↑ Eyerman 1996.
  39. ↑ Whitburn 1994.
  40. ↑ Weiss 2006.
  41. ↑ Stern 2009.
  42. ↑ Amy 1957.
  43. ↑ Seeger 2009.
  44. ↑ Saletan 1976.
  45. ↑ Jazz Discography Project
  46. ↑ Saletan 1974.
  47. 1 2 Shaker Village Sleep Away Camp Alumni (Facebook group).
  48. ↑ Sutton 2003.
  49. ↑ Tulloch 2009.
  50. ↑ Peterson's 2003.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Guthrie</span> American singer-songwriter (1912–1967)

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He inspired several generations both politically and musically with songs such as "This Land Is Your Land".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakers</span> Christian monastic denomination

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded c. 1747 in England and then organized in the United States in the 1780s. They were initially known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Espousing egalitarian ideals, women took on spiritual leadership roles alongside men, including founding leaders such as Jane Wardley, Ann Lee, and Lucy Wright. The Shakers emigrated from England and settled in Revolutionary colonial America, with an initial settlement at Watervliet, New York, in 1774. They practice a celibate and communal utopian lifestyle, pacifism, uniform charismatic worship, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, technological innovation, music, and furniture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Seeger</span> American folk singer and social activist (1919–2014)

Peter Seeger was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably its recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Lomax</span> American musicologist, field collector, producer and filmmaker (1915–2002)

Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the US and in England, which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries, and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John Lomax, and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumbaya</span> African American spiritual song

"Kum ba yah" is an African American spiritual song of disputed origin, but known to be sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved West Africans. The song is thought to have spread from the islands to other Southern states and the North, as well as other places in the world. The first known recording, of someone known only as H. Wylie, who sang in the Gullah dialect, was recorded by folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon in 1926. It later became a standard campfire song in Scouting and summer camps and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads. The group sold millions of records at the height of their popularity, including the first folk song to reach No. 1 on popular music charts, their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene." Despite their popularity, the Weavers were blacklisted during much of the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Seeger</span> American folksinger (born 1935)

Margaret "Peggy" Seeger is an American folk singer. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years, and was married to the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989.

The Highwaymen was an American 1960s "collegiate folk" group. The quintet's version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore", a 19th Century African-American work song, released in 1959 under the title "Michael," was a Billboard #1 hit in September 1961. The group scored another Top 20 hit in 1962 with a version of Lead Belly's "Cotton Fields". "Michael" sold over one million copies, achieving gold record status. The group originated at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where its members were undergraduates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael, Row the Boat Ashore</span> Folk song based on a Sea Islands spiritual

"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Abode of the Message</span> Headquarters of the Inayati Sufi order

The Abode of the Message was a Sufi Order International community founded in 1975 by Vilayat Inayat Khan. The Abode was the central residential community of the Inayati order, a conference and retreat center, and a center of esoteric study until 2022. The property is located in the eastern heights of the Taconic Mountains in New Lebanon, New York, and includes historic Shaker buildings built between 1834 and 1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fadel Chaker</span> Musical artist

Fadel Abdul Rahman Shamander Chaker is a Lebanese singer and actor. During his musical career he was signed to Al Khouyoul Records and from 2003 onwards with Rotana Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where Have All the Flowers Gone?</span> 1955 song

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song written by American singer-songwriter Pete Seeger in 1955. Inspired lyrically by the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Seeger borrowed an Irish melody for the music, and published the first three verses in Sing Out! magazine. Additional verses were added in May 1960 by Joe Hickerson, who turned it into a circular song. Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition. In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American folk music revival</span> 20th-century American musical movement

The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Susan Reed, Paul Robeson, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. The revival brought forward styles of American folk music that had in earlier times contributed to the development of country and western, blues, jazz, and rock and roll music.

Zilphia Horton was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School where she is generally credited with turning such songs as "We Shall Overcome", "We Shall Not Be Moved," and "This Little Light of Mine" from hymns into protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Kossoy Sisters are identical twin sisters who performed American folk and old-time music. Irene sang mezzo-soprano vocal, and Ellen supplied soprano harmony, with Irene on guitar and Ellen playing the five-string banjo in a traditional up-picking technique. Their performances were notable examples of close harmony singing. They began performing professionally in their mid-teens and are esteemed as a significant part of the popular folk music movement that started in the mid-1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Handcox</span> American poet

John L. Handcox (1904–1992) was a Great Depression-era tenant farmer and union advocate from Arkansas renowned for his politically charged songs and poetry. Handcox is noted for playing a "vital role in bettering the lives of sharecroppers and energizing labor union organizers and members." Despite his brief career, many of his songs were so popular that they became standard folk songs themselves, and continue to be sung today.

"Good Shepherd" is a traditional song, best known as recorded by Jefferson Airplane on their 1969 album Volunteers. It was arranged and sung by the group's lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, who described their interpretation of it as psychedelic folk-rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh Town</span> Song performed by Pete Seeger

"Pittsburgh Town", sometimes titled as "Pittsburgh" or "Pittsburgh is a Great Old Town", is a folk song written by Woody Guthrie and originally recorded by Pete Seeger. The song was written during a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stop on an Almanac Singers' tour; both Seeger and Guthrie were members of the band at this time. The song speaks of the labor and environmental problems that the city was facing in 1941, when the song was written. In the time since, environmental legislation has reduced the pollution problem that plagued Pittsburgh; because of this, the song's mentions of pollution in Pittsburgh have been sometimes been replaced with verses extolling the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Seeger discography</span> Cataloging of published recordings by Pete Seeger

The discography of Pete Seeger, an American folk singer, consists of 52 studio albums, 23 compilation albums, 22 live albums, and 31 singles. Seeger's musical career started in 1940 when he joined The Almanac Singers. He stayed with the group for two years until he was drafted into the Army to fight in the Second World War. After the end of World War II in 1945, Seeger helped found an organization known as People's Songs, along with the influential folk music magazine People's Songs Bulletin. He published several singles and a studio album with the magazine. Seeger would play at People's Songs events, called hootenannies, until the organization folded in 1949. After People's Songs, Seeger and another former member of the Almanacs, Lee Hays, founded the Weavers, who achieved commercial success. In 1952, The Weavers went on hiatus due to the Red Scare; Seeger and Hays both had Communist ties. After the demise of the Weavers, Seeger released a solo album, American Folk Songs for Children, in 1953 on Folkways Records. He continued to release albums on Folkways until he signed with Capitol in 1961.

Anthony D. "Tony" Saletan is an American folk singer, children's instructional television pioneer, and music educator, who is responsible for the modern rediscovery, in the mid-1950s, of two of the genre's best-known songs, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and "Kumbaya". In 1955, he was the first performer to appear on Boston's new educational television station, WGBH. In 1969, Saletan was the first musical guest to appear on Sesame Street.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.