Showcase
Dr. Kay Turner became the Director of BAC Folk Arts in October 2000. Kay works with Brooklyn traditional artists working in a range of disciplines—music, dance, material arts, narrative and foodways. Since coming to BAC, Kay has initiated a number of field research based projects resulting in programs such as Praise in the Park: Musical Expressions of Faith, Local Eyes: Folk Photographers in Brooklyn, Williamsburg Bridge 100th Anniversary Celebration, and Folk Feet: Celebrating Traditional Dance in Brooklyn. Kay annually produces a September 11th memorial project; in September 2006 she curated a photo exhibition Here Was New York: Twin Towers in Memorial Images and in September 2007 a film series September 11th Remembered in Film. She is currently working on Brooklyn Maqam: Arab Music Festival, a major project on Arab music traditions in Brooklyn which will culminate in a month-long festival in March 2008.
Kay holds the Ph.D. in Folklore and Anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin. In addition to her work at BAC, she teaches courses on gender, theory of time and performance, and oral narrative theory in the Performance Studies Graduate Program at New York University. Among her publications are Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women’s Altars (Thames and Hudson) and Baby Precious Always Shines (St. Martin’s Press), an edited selection of love notes between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Her current scholarly work includes “September 11th and the Burden of the Ephemeral,” an essay to be published in 2008 and a book project Transgressive Tales: Rethinking the Grimms' Fairy Tales from Queer Perspectives. On the down low, Kay sings and writes songs for her band Snaggletooth, a collaboration with NYU medievalist, Dr. Carolyn Dinshaw.
Kay Turner, Folk Arts Director
Related Categories
Folk / Traditional Arts, Traditional / Culturally SpecificSee Also...
