Biography of a Cajun and Creole Music Festival
by Barry Jean Ancelet and Philip Gould; with Benny Graeff and David Simpson
As Dewey Balfa so eloquently put it, "A culture is preserved one generation at a time." He also insisted that tradition is not a product but a living process. "It's like a tree. If you water the roots, the branches will grow." The annual festival that grew out of the first Tribute to Cajun Music in 1974 represents a practical application of that philosophy. Over its three decades, this festival, since 1977 the music component of Lafayette's Festivals Acadiens, has been a proving ground for this evolution.
One Generation at at Time tells the inside story of this experiment in cultural self-preservation, taking the reader onstage, backstage, and into the crowd with schedules, commentary, and photographs from each year—up until 2006—exposing the cultural mission of festival organizers.
Read excerpts from the book here.
Softcover, 240 pages, ©2007
ISBN: 9781887366809