Texas Folklore Society Gears Up for Annual Meeting in San Antonio

STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The Texas Folklore Society (TFS), a partner of the Tarleton State University College of Liberal and Fine Arts and the Department of English and Languages, will hold its 105th Annual Meeting March 28-30 in San Antonio. 

“The two-day program includes more than a dozen folklore presentations, including a session for emerging student scholars, two evening hootenannies, and plenty of time for networking with professional and laymen folklorists,” said Dr. Kristina Downs, TFS Executive Director and Assistant Professor of English at Tarleton State. “We’re also excited that several colleagues from Tarleton State plan to attend.” 

Tarleton State English Instructor Jill Davis will present research that examines the interplay between Texas cowboy folklore and the Star Wars universe. Department Head and Professor of English Dr. Chris Morrow will chair the session, which will include a presentation on the folk art and folk architecture of the Big Bend National Park by TFS fellows Jim Harris and Mary Harris, and a presentation on the cultural grounding of the Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice in San Antonio’s Westside by the center’s director, Graciela Sanchez.

Presentations centered on the history of the more than century-old TFS include a piece by storyteller Kim Lehman, who will honor pioneering musicologist John Avery Lomax, cofounder the organization and its president in 1940-42. Lomax, who grew up in Bosque County, collected tens of thousands of folk songs.

San Antonio native singer-songwriter Tish Hinojosa will share insight on her chance-of-a-lifetime apprenticeship with celebrated writer and folklorist Américo Paredes, the TFS president in 1961-62. The Brownsville native authored “With His Pistol in His Hand” along with several other books of scholarship, fiction and poetry.

Hinojosa, whose music catalog now includes more than a dozen studio albums plus live albums and retrospectives, will perform at the Friday night banquet. She has performed at the White House and the Texas Governor’s Mansion, and she was inducted into the Texas Songwriters Association Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2018. She was awarded membership to the Texas Institute of Letters — the second songwriter to receive the honor — in 2019. 

For more information on TFS’s 105th Annual Meeting, read the newsletter release prior to the conference here. Registration to the event, which is open to the public, is $60 and includes a one-year TFS membership. To sign up, click here.

ABOUT THE TEXAS FOLKLORE SOCIETY 

The nonprofit Texas Folklore Society preserves and shares the practices and customs of the people of Texas and the Southwest. The oldest state folklore organization in the United States, it was organized and chartered in 1909. It publishes an annual folklore-related book and meets each year the Thursday through Saturday prior to Easter. Members include student scholars, academics, researchers, preservationists, folklorists, folklore enthusiasts and laypeople.

A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.
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Tags: College of Liberal & Fine Arts