With support from the AHRC Being Human Festival and the University of Exeter’s Annual Fund, we produced a short video of our evening at Helston Museum to give a flavour of the night.
Also available in HD:
Podcasts from Modern Folk: Traditional Culture and Community in the Southwest
On a windy night in November members of the public joined with academics from Humanities Penryn, the combined History and English departments of the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus, and the acclaimed folksinger Jim Causley for an evening of academic discussion and music. Dr Jim Kelly opened the night by explaining how this was part of a nationwide festival of the humanities, Being Human 2015, and how it was wonderful to hold such an event in the inspiring environs of the Helston Museum. His paper was on the Cornish poet Charles Causley, who wrote a modern poetry deeply informed by traditional forms and themes:
Jim Kelly on Charles Causley’s Poetry
Jim was followed by Jim Causley, for the first of a number of musical interludes where he performed poems of his distant relative’s put to music:
Jim Causley sings his first two songs
Prof Nick Groom had the difficult job of following on from Jim Causley, but the audience was fascinated by his account of the many folk customs that our ancestors used to practice in November and at Christmas:
Prof Nick Groom on Winter & Festive customs
After a short break for a glass of wine, the audience returned for another two wonderful versions of Charles Causley’s poems put to music:
Two more songs from Jim Causley
Dr Rob Smith, lecturer in creative writing here at the Penryn Campus, then read from his novel Scorper (Granta 2015), amusing the audience with the dark comedy of his tale of an American visiting the English village of Ditchling:
Rob Smith reads from his novel Scorper
This was followed by Prof Marion Gibson’s fine paper on different uses of the Celtic village to explore Gothic themed tropes of danger and violence:
Marion Gibson on dark celticism
Jim Causley returned to perform two final songs:
and then the panel took questions from the audience:
It was an incredible evening, looking at the many ways in which traditional culture informs present day artistic production, and it was wonderful to provide the audience with some provocative papers, beautiful music, and excellent conversation: