Glenwood celebration and Goat Lady Farm trips

Our first two Montagnard-related events --the Glenwood Neighborhood Celebration and the Open Farm Day at the Goat Lady Dairy Farm -- were great successes. Both of these events established relevant contexts for our study of the Montagnards, and were full of delightful opportunities to live and learn.

The Glenwood celebration revealed Greensboro to be a city with an awareness and appreciation of multiculturalism. A contingent of Montagnard weavers showed and sold their wares, demonstrated the use of a spinning wheel, and answered questions. Their presence added a wonderful dimension to the festivities.

A reggae band sets up and plays!

The event drew very significant numbers of attendees, and featured an impressive and varied group of entertainers, vendors, and information providers. There were plenty of opportunities to hear good music, watch good dance performance, have good conversations, and in general enjoy the rich weave of cultures in our local area. The Glenwood neighborhood is in the midst of a revival and, based on this year's celebration, the movement of the people seems to have momentum. Several veteran attendees of the celebration noted that this year's event was by far the largest to date. The event is in its fourth year.

I gathered documentary video materials and assembled a short documentary piece that is now posted on this site's Products page. Hopefully it captures some of the flavor of the event for those who couldn't attend. At least three groups of students also attended the celebration and gathered video assets for documentaries. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they assemble from their gatherings.

The Open Farm Day at the Goat Lady Dairy Farm was also an excellent event. The context established for our work in this instance is simply that the Montagnards are expert agriculturalists, as are the folks at the GLDF. What would a cultural study be without agri-culture anyway!

I had a wonderful conversation with the proprietor of the dairy and his son, both of whom proved to be extremely astute observers of the current state of the planet and its peoples. I am in the process of assembling a short documentary centering around this conversation.