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a practitioner and performen The appendixes also provide, without comment,a survey of Lunsford' s recollections and a selection of his tales, anecdotes , and songs. Solicited as Lunsford's official biographer by the Lunsford children, Loyal Jones brought to this work the insider perspective of an Appalachian native, along with access to many key individuals in Lunsford' s life. Readers of this book will especially value its interviews with Lunsford as well as with his contemporaries and family that together convey a closeness in time to the life and personality of its subject. It should not be surprising then that Jones paints a largely affectionate portrait of Bascom Lamar Lunsford,the man,and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, his life's calling. The author,however,does not shy away from identifying Lunsford's faults and shortcomings, nor from discussing controversies Lunsford incited among some of his neighbors,other performers and outside activists. Following the lead of Archie Green,Jones attributes these conflicts to Lunsford's politics of culture. A mountain native of the yeoman class, Lunsford fought strenuously against stereotypes projected onto Appalachia and sought to promote its beauty and art. And as director of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival , he certainly promoted his own aesthetic,but he did allow room for other views,particularly in the introduction of a popular clogging step in place of a more traditional running step. Lunsford positioned himself as a mediator between traditional and modernist culture,but wanted more than anything to promote a living and continuing tradition. Loyal Jones' biography of Bascom Lamar Lunsford remains a significant and rich contribution to Appalachian studies and to the exploration of folk arts and cultural tourism of the region. It is only regrettable that the new edition did not include an index, which would have made the book more useful as a reference source for scholars . Though not nearly as thorough or critical as David E. Whisnant' s analysis in All That is Native and Fine 1983) of the more troubling White Top Festival,Jones presents a fair and honest portrait of a Lunsford and the festival that defined his life. Elizabeth Matson University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Winona L. Fletcher, Senior Editor. Community Memories:A Glimpse of African American Life in Frankfort, Kentucky. Frankfort: The Kentucky Historical Society ,2003. ISBN: 0916968308 ( cloth), 33. 95. f Illte* NZABR bs, COMMUNITY MEMORIES A (, limpse of Afrkin,American Ldc in Fral, kjort.kenfw, hy n 1995,John Gray of Frankfort, Kentucky, approached a number of state heritage agencies with the idea of preserving the history of the city' s African American community by copying and archiving family photographs. That germ of an idea grew into an experiment in communitydriven collaboration between local residents and the staff members of these heritage agencies f>: to collect photos and oral histories, j and eventually to write this book. 2*' SPRING 2004 2 83 BOOK REVIEWS Community Memories,however,qualifies neither as a scholarly exploration of the subject nor as an appropriate text for classroom use. Rather,it should be considered a gift book that presents a nostalgic depiction of daily life in the black neighborhoods of a midsized Ohio Valley city. Community Memories brings together words and images from thirtysix oral history interviews and fiftytwo personal photographic collections. A team of editors has organized this material into chapters on community, family, employment, religion and education. Each chapter begins with a short introduction that summarizes the contents and key themes in the information that follows, consisting mainly of photographs with captions and excerpts approximately a paragraph in length from interviews, although the editors include a few longer stories. Elsewhere in the volume, readers will find a timeline of key events,a list of significant churches and schools,and ganized themselves for a variety of purposes. The title of this volume illuminates both its major strengths and its limitations. The strength of this book lies in the fact that a local community truly produced it, and therefore it can serve readers effectively as a window into the li fe of that community, literally a window given the wealth of photographs included in its pages of families and of members...

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