MAY 26-29
The second installment of the 5-part series is Lagom. A Swedish word, Lagom, is the practice of balance. In this series, it is the natural and reasonable next step after change (Metamorphosis, the first part of our series). It speaks to an equilibrium that we often straddle as we journey through life holding multiple balls–work, family, self-care, extracurricular activities, and rest. On a deeper level, it underscores that finding balance is never absolute, but rather, a constant journey of tinkering, rethinking, and readjustment as we pave our way through life’s vacillations.
For NW Folklife, that journey is complex. In our 55 year history, we’ve grown from a small festival that cost a few thousand dollars to produce in 1972, to one of the largest Folk festivals in the country, operating a $2M+ dollar annual budget, with year-round programs, a youth workforce development program, 11 year-round staff, and a flagship festival that is exponentially bigger than its origin story, hosting hundreds of performances on 20 stages over 4 days, with over 200,000 visitors. Are we doing too much? Can we do more? Are we doing what we’re supposed to? Can we afford what we’re doing? Balance is always on our mind.
We know that as we’ve metamorphosized over the years, the stakes have changed. The purpose (Ikigai) has largely remained the same, but the journey has shifted. As we prepare for this year’s festival, one that celebrates and showcases cultures from around the world, we’re also looking at federal policies that target and alienize those same cultures. As we covet and consume art, music, and creative output, artists and cultural practitioners are increasingly being priced out, pushed out, and excluded from their rightful capital and compensation as contributors to one of the fastest growing economic industries in the world. Does our passion (Meraki) deserve social, political, and financial value? How do we best demonstrate that value beyond quantifiable measurements, and segue them into qualifiable truths?
It’s unfair to introduce these as pure binaries. The context, the history, the mechanisms and systems that got us to this place can be very nuanced and intertwined. It makes the journey of finding balance complicated, confusing, and exhausting. And while it often feels like that’s the intention, complexity doesn’t have to be exhausting. Even as I sit here writing this amidst the blaring news of the day, I look forward to one of Folklife’s recurring programs happening tonight at Union Arts Center, SuperFolk. A pairing of music and theater, bringing together disciplines that sometimes exist separately, siloed from each other. SuperFolk reminds us that the beauty of our strength as humans exists most purely when we collaborate, connect, and find balance with one another (Ubuntu). Sometimes it’s hard and even messy. But that’s the journey. That’s the balance–finding and seeking out the things that bring us joy, and community, and self-care. .
Therein is the journey of Lagom: expectation and openness, preparedness and flexibility, experience and humility. A journey that accepts that the tides will change. A journey where embracing responsibility helps us to accept that there can be many truths. A journey where our truth is forever being turned, flooded over and exposed again by the tides. No person or community is a monolith, and our stories–past, present and future–are a constant tinkering to find and sustain that balance.
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Poster Artists
Adetola Abatan
Adetola Abatan is a collage artist, drummer, engineer, and public art project manager with deep roots in Nigerian and American culture. Her artwork has featured in the 2021 Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair at Wa Na Wari (where she also completed an artist residency), the “After the Quiet: On Black Figures and Folds” exhibit at Mini Mart City Park and the December 2022 PublicDisplay.Art magazine. Upcoming exhibits include Bainbridge Island Museum of Art’s BIMA Spotlight exhibit in Summer 2023. She holds an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University, as well a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
@asouliloquy on Instagram
Angelina Villalobos
My work follows a quote from local KEXP VJ Gabe Teodros "If a tree can't grow there, I can't grow there" highlighting the struggle of what it means to grow in difficult spaces. My work often depicts nature and animals thriving in the manmade circumstances of their mural sites; industrial areas, urban landscapes, etc. Places where we might overlook the order of nature. I accomplish this by using color fluidly; selecting palettes from the area around me and playfully experimenting with shades, complimentary colors, and my favorite, neons! My figurative work lends itself to the imagination, for example how a wolf would appear in a fantastical technicolor dream. My goal is to always experiment and play with shapes and color, bringing the outside in.
IG @onesevennine TW @179s
FB @179
TT @onesevennine
Vincent Keele
Keele was born in Los Angeles, California. His passion for art began very early. His mother, Mary M. Scott, an alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago passed on to him her complete course of books. With these materials, he learned to see and produce art in a wide variety of methods.
Keele benefited from great mentors along the way. He is a self taught artist with traditional education from Platt College where he studied Graphic Arts and Drafting. Before his love of acrylic paint, the complexity of pen and ink held a special place in his heart.
Vincent Keele is an American artist – His work uses bold colorful and rhythmic movements to create abstract expressionist artworks and symbolic figurative works. He uses various fields from traditional to contemporary to portray his visual narratives. Keele’s work has been showcased in numerous countries around the world.