Liesl Chatman had been thinking about this for over a year. Dinner with friends and family. A shared meal with a shared purpose: to bring together people from all walks of life to reflect upon …
News
Somali Studies International Association at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden
This summer, Nordic Folklife Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Sallie Anna Pisera united her interests in Scandinavian and East African area studies at the 14th Congress of the Somali Studies International Association, hosted at the University of …
Education and Sustainability in the Upper Midwest and Beyond: (Im)migration and Indigeneity Symposium Recap
In early October, we welcomed artists, culture workers, musicians, and scholars from around the Upper Midwest as well as three scholars, Elisabeth Utsi Gaup, Máret Hætta, and Anne Lindblom, from Sámi allaskuvla [Sámi University of …
Bowery Dance at Allen Centennial Garden
We kept checking the weather. Our weather apps. The radio. The sky itself. Everyone promised rain. Some promised a drizzle. Some promised a downpour. We couldn’t afford much more than a drizzle. We had taken …
FinnFest 2023 in Duluth
We’re back from a whirlwind of a trip to Duluth, Minnesota, to celebrate the first in-person FinnFest since 2019. And it was a doozy. Nearly 3,000 people came to the shores of Lake Superior to …
Scandinavian-American Old-Time Dance Music Ensemble
The Nordic Folklife project at UW–Madison is proud to announce that traditional fiddler and Musician-in-Residence, Beth Hoven Rotto from the band Foot-Notes, will be forming a Scandinavian-American Old-Time Dance Music ensemble. The ensemble will …
Songs of the Finnish Migration from Laulu Aika
Hundreds of thousands of migrants came from Finland to the United States beginning in the 1870s. Some sought religious freedom, others economic opportunity. Some followed family, friends, and lovers. Others fled Russification. Still others simply …
Gloria Johnson’s “Finnish bread with a Swedish touch”
Gloria Johnson is known for her cardamom bread, but it was only about 10 years ago that she made her first loaf. For 55 years, Gloria and her husband Arnold raised strawberries and ran …
The Oulu Cultural and Heritage Center
Oulu, Wisconsin, is a small town originally settled by Finnish immigrants in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. A group of residents formed The Oulu Cultural and Heritage Center in 2014 to preserve and share Oulu’s history and …
Carving Community: Preservation and Revival of Scandinavian Styles
By Mirva Johnson Interviews and Documentation by Johanna Weissing Wood carving in the Nordic countries has a long history with styles distinctive and representative of specific eras and regions: Acanthus style carving such as that …