UA New College Director Elected President of Alabama Folklife Association

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. James C. “Jim” Hall, director of New College at The University of Alabama, has been elected president of the Alabama Folklife Association.

Hall, an African-American culture scholar, has been director of New College at UA since 2002. He is the author of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Me: African-American Culture and the American Sixties” and is currently working on several projects related to American cultural studies.

“As executive director of the AFA, I was thrilled when he accepted the nomination to be president,” said Joyce Cauthen, AFA executive director.

Hall has served as a member of the board of the association, worked as the AFA’s treasurer and vice president, hosted and directed an annual meeting at the University in 2006, and involved several of his New College students in the association’s projects.

The AFA, which was founded in 1980, is a statewide nonprofit organization that strives to promote knowledge and appreciation of Alabama folklife through festivals, conferences, fieldwork, videos, recordings and publications. The organization is funded in part through the Alabama State Council on the Arts and by its members.

The organization recently held a symposium on “John Henry in Leeds: Celebrating a Local Legend,” in which Hall and New College worked to make it possible for Scott Nelson of William and Mary College, author of a recent book about John Henry, to attend the conference.

Some examples of the variety found in Alabama folklife include: gospel jubilee singing, graveyard decoration days, American Indian basketry, Anglo-American folk pottery, Sand Mountain saddleries, West Alabama blues, shape-note singing, coastal fishing lore, religious holidays, Cambodian fish-traps, midwifery, labor songs, barbecue and gumbo.