Folklore Students Explore the Crankie

Inspired by the community of crankie makers that has emerged around the work of folk duo Anna and Elizabeth, Folklore MA first years Zoe van Buren and Anna Keneda have made a crankie of their own for Bill Ferris’s Southern Music course. They met with 8th generation Madison County ballad singer Donna Ray Norton to learn about North Carolina’s ballad singing tradition and record her singing Young Emily, one of her signature songs. Van Buren and Keneda used paper cutouts on a scroll to illustrate the story that Norton sings, and explore the performative impacts of the handmade visual medium on traditional ballad singing.