Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area,

Cultural Conservation Division

Regional Folklife Center for Southwestern Pennsylvania

Homestead, Pennsylvania

Mission

Created by an Act of Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1996, the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is managed by the non-profit Steel Industry Heritage Corporation (SIHC) in partnership with the National Park Service and the Commonwealth of Pennsyvania. SIHC works withcommunities throughout the region to identify, conserve, promote, and interpret the cultural, historic, recreational and other resources associated with steel and steel-related industries. The goal of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is to use these resources to encourage community revitalization through cultural tourism, historic preservation, natural and recreational resource conservation, cultural and educational programs and related economic development. Since its inception, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area has undertaken projects in the region using public and private funds for the National Heritage Area.

In 1999, the Institute for Cultural Partnerships in Harrisburg designated SIHC as one of five Regional Folklife Centers in the state, an initiative supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Rivers of Steel Regional Folklife Center facilitates cultural continuity, promotes inter-cultural awareness and respect, and encourages appreciation of the Heritage Area’s cultural legacy through supporting tradition bearers in strengthening their cultural heritage and in sharing their knowledge and skills.

Rivers of Steel Newcomer Traditional Arts Projects

Developing projects that support the traditional arts of newcomers in southwestern Pennsylvania, including the Tradition-Bearers: Voices from the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area Radio Series, Roots to Routes Driving Guide, Shaped by Steel audio CD, and an Artisans Market.

Community Context

At Rivers of Steel, we define three large waves of immigration to the southwestern Pennsylvania area—before steel, during its heyday, and after its downfall. Before steel, many people who came to the region were English, Irish, Scots-Irish, German, and Pennsylvania Dutch. They relied heavily on agriculture and local economies for survival. Later, these immigrants would become skilled workers in the iron, glass, and steel industries. In the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, immigrants primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe arrived, and many worked as unskilled laborers in steel and related industries. After the steel industry in the region faltered in the 1980s, Pittsburgh received a new wave of immigration—Asian, Hispanic, and African. These communities are constantly growing. These newcomers are attracted to Pittsburgh’s hospitals and universities, and the low cost of living provided by the loss of big industry. As Victor Beltran, Peruvian charango player, says, “Immigration can be the solution to the nearly 50% population loss that occurred with the downfall of the steel mills.”

Rivers of Steel Projects

At Rivers of Steel (ROS), we have several projects through which we promote the traditions of newcomers.

Tradition-Bearers: Voices from the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area Radio Series

Our 13-part radio series, Tradition-Bearers: Voices from the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area, educates the public on the arts of local tradition-bearers, as well as the reasons why these newcomers have settled in our region. Each program in the series addresses a theme about the folklife of the region, presented through interviews with tradition-bearers from a variety of ethnic and occupational backgrounds, interspersed with traditional stories, songs and instrumental music, and other lore drawn from audio field recordings in the Rivers of Steel (ROS) ethnographic archives. For example, we have interviewed Xia Xue Vue on Hmong culture and traditional embroidery, Katy Tsai on Chinese papercutting, Dariush Saghafi on Persian santur playing, Victor Beltran on Peruvian music, and Fernando Cardoza on Latin American culture in Pittsburgh. The series was funded in part by the National Park Service, and also was supported by the Humanities-and-the-Arts Initiative, administered by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and funded principally by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. All programs aired on WEDO 810 AM, out of White Oak, Allegheny County.

This project took three years to complete, not only because of time constraints inherent in coordinating simultaneous projects, but also because of the need to reapply for funding. Originally, in the first year, we recorded artists’ interviews with a mini-disc recorder, and then had these interviews professionally edited with narration in a recording studio. However, the audio from the interviews was not broadcast-quality, and some parts were difficult to hear when the programs were broadcasted. Therefore, during the second year, we revised our recording process and began doing the interviews in the studio, as well as the narration and the editing.

This was a wonderful project because the Humanities Council requires that the projects it funds have advisory panels. Our advisory panel made our radio series so much better than it would have been without their input. Our committee consisted of: Nicholas Jordanoff, Professor of Music at Duquesne University; Chris Magoc, Professor of History at Mercyhurst College; Charles McCollester, Director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Labor Relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; and Mark Yacovone, Director of National Programs at WDUQ FM. Also, narrator Evelynn Hawkins, sound engineer Skip Sanders, and the many artists who participated in the program served as advisors. One of the special outcomes of the series was that it introduced WEDO’s listening audience to cultural traditions that had not previously been featured on that station, including Polynesian drumming and dance and Persian santur playing.

Routes to Roots Driving Guide

Our Routes to Roots Driving Guide provides directions to, contact information for, and background information on cultural-, ethnic-, and industrial-related sites in southwestern Pennsylvania. Included are: Blemahdoo’s African Marketplace , featuring handmade items created by Ghanaian fiber artist Dee Blemahdoo; Pierogies Plus , which hires Eastern European women newcomers who have brought their cooking skills from the Old Country with them but who, because of language barriers, might have difficulties finding a job in the U.S.; and Sri Venkateswara Temple, built by members of Pittsburgh’s growing South Asian community, which is open for tours and has a cafeteria open to the public that serves vegetarian East Indian food. Funding for Routes to Roots was provided by the National Park Service; Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, Pennsylvania Heritage Parks Program; and the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

The driving guide was an extensive project that took four years of planning. Rivers of Steel personnel held a planning meeting with staff from Handmade in America , the organization that published the wonderful cultural tourism guidebook, The Craft Heritage Trails of Western North Carolina . From this meeting, we began to envision what our driving guide would look like and the kinds of places we would include. Also, we created criteria to review each site based on enhancing the visitor experience (Does the site have adequate signage, is it open to the public, does it relate to the cultural, ethnic, or industrial heritage of the region, etc.?). Consultants and staff visited each site listed in the guide several times to make sure it met criteria. The project team for the book included designer Libby Boyarski, writer Barb Klein, and web designer Joan Guerin. During the project, volunteers and interns photographed the sites and test-drove the directions that would be published in the book.

A beneficial outcome for ROS staff during the book’s creation was the number of new people and sites that we visited. Routes to Roots became a great outreach project not only for people in the region who purchased the guide, but also for us. We especially were able to connect with newcomer organizations about which we did not previously know, such as Pierogies Plus . Another beneficial outcome was free publicity for each site or organization. Because we received grant funding for the book and web presentation, we were able to feature each site free of charge.

Shaped by Steel Audio CD

Our Shaped by Steel audio CD promotes the music of newcomers, such as Chinese er-hu player Mimi Jong, Peruvian charango players Victor Beltran and Jose Bernardo, and Guyanian steel drum performer Phil Solomon and his band, Steel Impressions. Shaped by Steel was supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Park Service.

Any time a compact disc is created using songs or arrangements of songs that are not in the public domain, difficulties will arise. With artists whose songs, arrangements, or stories we wanted to use, we offered to pay a flat fee of $100, instead of paying royalties each time we sold a CD. First, we did not expect to sell so many copies that the royalties would be financially significant. Second, we simply do not have the staff capacity to keep track of the process of reimbursing royalties. Every artist that we contacted agreed to this process and signed contracts. For other songs, we needed permission from and payment to The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) in order to include the music on the CD. The reality was that we did not use some of the music that we wanted, in or der to keep costs of production down.

Creation of the CD took several steps. Many drafts were made in-house with recordings stored in our archives. ROS staff and interns developed liner notes and found pictures to accompany the text. Since ROS is the main distributor of the CD, we have had to do much publicity on our own. We created a press release and advertised in several magazines. Also, ROS staff sold copies at conferences and meetings. One of the main goals of the CD was to gather music and stories from western Pennsylvania and take them outside of the community to reach a much broader audience.

The Artisans’ Market

The Artisans’ Market is a new Rivers of Steel venture. Currently, this online market is a pilot project. We chose several artists representing varying ethnic backgrounds and art forms: Dosina Blemahdoo, African fiber artist; Nick Papas, Orthodox iconographer; Carley and Ed Parish, cast iron artwork; Ryan Stauffer, blacksmith; Kinorea Two Feather Tigri, Cherokee/Ogallala Sioux beadworker; and Ruth Ward, African-American quilter. Also, we feature Bulgarian pottery sold by the Bulgarian and Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center in West Homestead.

For the website, we photographed and collected information about the artists’ work. We also requested the artists’ photographs and biographical information. Because we do not have much room for storage here at ROS, we only store small artwork items. When these are purchased, we ship them directly from ROS. With the larger items (such as Ruth’s quilts), we have her ship them and then reimburse her for postage. Since buyers purchase items online directly through our web store, we reimburse artists for their items once a month. In order to cover the costs of our overhead for marketing and managing the market, we add a percentage to the base cost of each item. All of these arrangements are covered in the artists’ contracts. Ultimately, the project’s goal is to expand the market for these artists’ work.

Future projects include podcasts featuring newcomer tradition-bearers, the creation of a traditional arts educational curriculum, and a community cookbook highlighting recipes from southwestern Pennsylvania, including those from newer immigrant groups.

Learn more

The Routes to Roots Driving Guide , Shaped by Steel audio CD, and the Artisans’ Market are available through www.riversofsteel.com/store/

The Route to Roots online version of the driving guide is available at

www.riversofsteel.com/routestoroots/index.html

Tradition-Bearers radio series pictures and audio outtakes are available at

www.riversofsteel.com/TraditionBearers/index.html

Rivers of Steel has an extensive archive that includes many materials on newcomers in our region. To search the collection online, go to www.riversofsteel.com . Then, click on the link “Preserve” found on the left side of the page, and then click on “Museum and Archives.” The public is invited to visit the physical archive, but by appointment only.

Contact

Julie Throckmorton-Meunier

Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area

The Bost Building

623 East Eighth Avenue

Homestead, PA 15120

412-464-4020 ext. 45

jthrockmorton(at)riversofsteel.com

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