Thank you, Lexi and Anita!

Lexi, Andy, and Anita interview a Lake Monsters fan.

Thank you to Lexi McCloud (Northfield, VT / Berea College) and Anita Miller (Bethel, VT / Princeton University) who interned with Vermont Folklife this summer! These two talented Vermonters contributed so much in their short time with us. 

Lexi drew on her experience studying Appalachian history and culture at Berea College to support YTV Director Ian Drury in early planning discussions for the VF Touring Group's trip to Appalachia next year. She also dove into the Vermont Legends and Lore program and aided VF’s Archivist and resident cryptid fan Andy Kolovos in putting together an application to honor Northfield’s Pigman legend. 

Anita brought her experience with anthropological research and interviewing with her and dove into a new fieldwork project for Vermont Folklife in partnership with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department exploring forager and wildcrafting culture around the state. She recorded 10 interviews for this new collection. 

Together, Anita and Lexi began exploring a large and important collection in the Vermont Folklife Archive: nearly 200 interviews recorded from 1988 through 1992 by VF folklorist Greg Sharrow. They spent time reading through transcripts and listening to interviews to help us in the long process of describing the contents of the collection—one interview at a time. Down the road this helps us with our goal of making the “Farm Series Collection” accessible online. In the short term—well, these recordings are a treasure trove. Lexi and Anita worked with Director of Education Mary Wesley to plan and host a “Listening Party” with the Middle Branch Grange in East Bethel, VT. In the audience were many people who were hearing the voices of their neighbors, friends, and even family members for the first time in decades. We are grateful to Lexi and Anita for kicking off this process of bringing materials in our Archive back into the communities where they were recorded and, in the future, making them more widely available to all. Click here to learn more about this collection and listen to some samples: Farm Series Collection.

Lastly - Lexi and Anita joined the whole VF staff in engaging with Vermont’s baseball culture as part of our summer fundraiser hosted by the Vermont Lake Monsters (Thank you, Monsters!).

You just never know where an internship with your local folklife organization will take you. Best of luck, Anita and Lexi, as you return to your studies!