2021 Virginia Folklife Area

The Virginia Folklife Area returns this year with another scintillating lineup of some of the finest traditional artists from across the Commonwealth. After a year away, we’re excited to welcome back some friends who have graced our stage through the years. We’ll revel in the virtuosic bluegrass stylings of Danny Knicely, the lightning-quick oyster knife-wielding of champion shucking sisters Deborah Pratt and Clementine Macon Boyd, and the soul-stirring and electrifying harmonies of Richmond’s own Legendary Ingramettes. Our 2021 Virginia Folklife Stage will also introduce audiences to a host of gifted artists gracing our stage for the first time. We'll go honky-tonking with a giant of the Telecaster, Redd Volkaert, move and be moved by the hip hop and bluesy prowess of J Pope and the HearNow and Justin Golden and the Come Up, and get swept up in the frenzy of Corn Tornado, an infectiously raucous bluegrass band led by one of the greatest songwriters ever to come out of Virginia, David “Bluegrass Buddy” Via, reunited for this once in a lifetime performance. 

In addition to the musical offerings on the Folklife Stage, the Virginia Folklife Traditional Crafts Area will present MASK, featuring the remarkable Mongolian masks and ceremonial costumes and dance of Arlington, Virginia, resident Gankhuyag “Ganna” Natsag, marking the first time that the Folklife Traditional Crafts Area features the work of a single artist. Ganna is celebrated for recreating all 108 masks associated with the Mongolian Buddhist tsam, a secret and subtle ritual which had been banned by the Communist government in the 1930s along with other tsam religious displays. Ganna’s artistry has been exhibited to audiences all over the world, including the Dalai Lama himself. For Ganna’s lifetime of work the Mongolian government recently honored him with the title of Cultural Ambassador to the United States.

One often thinks of masks as purely celebratory in nature—a means of adorning new personas for the day, briefly living out our fantasies, making spectacles of ourselves, or perhaps disappearing unnoticed.

Yet masks can also carry with them the powerful potential for communities to expressively articulate their deepest values and aesthetics, carry out their most sacred rituals, playfully challenge previously accepted truths and power structures, reify and perpetuate their own cultural identities, and reconnect and reinvigorate their beloved connections to home in new, unfamiliar lands. And as we have all come to learn over the past year, masks are invaluable as a means of protection, both for our bodies, and as Ganna and the remarkable dancers and musicians he brings with him makes clear, our spirits.

This year’s Virginia Folklife Area is produced and curated by the Center for Cultural Vibrancy (CCV), a new non-profit organization founded in 2021 by long-time Virginia State Folklorist, Jon Lohman. The Center for Cultural Vibrancy creates and cultivates opportunities for cultural connections to support living traditions and energize communities. CCV contributes to a more empathetic world—one where people respect and celebrate one another’s cultural expressions—through sharing traditional arts, customs, and lore that promote cultural exchange, understanding, and honor artistic mastery. To learn more, visit CulturalVibrancy.org.

And of course, CCV remains closely connected to the Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities, the state center for the documentation, presentation, and celebration of Virginia’s rich cultural heritage, and an ongoing partner of the Richmond folk Festival. For more information, visit VirginiaFolklife.org.