FT: Connie Mason s Down East music 

 and storytelling is popular around Carteret County. • 

 RIGHT: The guitar helps tell the stories of coastal North Carolina. 



"People here leam to make something 

 from nothing," she says. "People can do a lot 

 themselves — from fixing lawn mowers to 

 building boats. I met a guy who heated his house 

 with a Honda engine." 



Juniper Project 



In the mid- Atlantic region, artisans and 

 fishermen used Atlantic white cedar or juniper 

 for a variety of projects — from boats and 

 houses to decoys and model boats. Stands of 

 juniper are now rare. 



At Kid's Coast, the festival will feature 

 "7000 Juniper, An Art Action for the Millen- 

 nium." Developed by Columbia's Pocosin Arts, 

 the project focuses on the Atlantic white cedar 

 reforestation efforts of Pocosin Lakes National 

 Wildlife Refuge. 



"Pocosin Arts wanted to develop an art 

 education/environmental education project 

 of millennial proportions," says Pocosin Arts 

 Executive Director Feather Phillips. "Helping to 

 restore the globally threatened pocosin ecosys- 

 tem seemed an appropriate scale." 



The project's centerpiece is the creation 

 of the Millennium Forest at the Pocosin refuge, 

 one mile south of Columbia in Tyrrell County. 

 Teachers and students from the Tyrrell County 

 Schools, local artists and others have planted 

 7,000 trees in concentric circles on a seven-acre 

 field, once used as a farm, and buried hand-made 

 clay millennium markers beneath each tree. 



"This was a hands-on experience," says 

 Phillips. "The children learned about culture, art 

 history and the environment." 



They will be leaving behind a legacy and 



helping to ensure that juniper will be around 

 in this maritime community for a long time to 

 come," she adds. 



Food was integral to maritime life in 

 coastal North Carolina. 



Some traditional Down East dishes 

 include clam fritters, light bread biscuits (yeast 

 rolls), oatmeal hurricane cake and collard 

 dumplings. Yaupon tea was a popular drink. 



The European settlers learned to drink 

 Yaupon tea from the native coastal Indians who 

 called it the "Black Drink." 



"The tea was almost as thick as cough 

 syrup," says Mason. "They used it as purgative 

 to throw up and purify themselves for their 

 ceremonies. Even its scientific name, Ilex 

 vomitoria, alludes to this practice. 



Yaupon tea was produced in two ways 

 by the settlers — and never thickly brewed like 

 the Indians— but made like we brew China 

 tea today, says Mason. One early commercial 

 yaupon tea operation on the Outer Banks dug 

 a hole in the ground and lined it with thick 

 wooden staves. The holes were layered with 

 heated rocks and yaupon leaves until the hole 

 was filled. 



At home, people brewed yaupon tea in a 

 large iron pot outdoors over an open fire or in 

 their fireplace, stirring the leaves in the pot until 

 they were dry or roasted. Then they would store 

 the leaves. 



Yaupon tea was used at the Edenton tea 

 party, North Carolina's contribution to the 

 Revolutionary War. 



Mason will demonstrate how to brew 

 yaupon tea at a folklife exhibit. 



Down East Music 



Singing and storytelling were important in 

 coastal communities. 



While pulling the nets together on 

 menhanden boats, men would sing shanties. 

 The tradition stopped in the 1950s when 

 fishermen began using hydraulic devices to pull 

 in nets. 



"Shanty music came from the sailing 

 world," says Mason. "The men sang while they 

 performed different jobs onboard, including 

 raising the anchor or manning the bilge pumps, 

 lithe boat was leaking, the men increased the 

 pace of the pumps by singing faster songs to 

 keep ahead of the leaks in the ship's hull." 



Mason will sing some shanties, as well as 

 traditional songs, at the festival. 



One of Mason's favorite tunes is "Mari- 

 an's Song: On My Island Home" about Marian 

 Gray Babb, last resident to leave Portsmouth 

 Island. While conducting interviews with Babb, 

 Mason says she learned about true island living. 



Through the songs, stories and other tradi- 

 tions, Mason and others hope to take a little bit 

 of Carteret County and eastern North Carolina 

 to Washington, D.C. 



"We always think of natural resources on 

 the coast, but the cultural resources are often 

 hidden," adds Mason. "At this festival, we will 

 lift up the veil and help other people see what 

 life is and was like here in the region around 

 Core and Albemarle sounds." □ 



For more information about the festival, 

 visit the Web: www.folklife.si.edu/ and click on 

 folklife festival or call, 202/275-1150. 



EARLY SUMMER 2004 



