Harvest Folk Festival

Start: Saturday, October 8, 2022 12:00PM
End: Saturday, October 8, 2022 6:00PM

The Harvest Festival’s song, dance, and food celebrates the ongoing Kitchen Garden project which highlights the crops, cuisines, and cultures of our African American, Indigenous, and Hmong community partners. Our partners included Yusuf Bin-Rella of Trade Roots, Lina Martin of the Native American Center for Health Professionals, Yimmuaj Yang of Groundswell Conservancy, and Nou Thao of Rooted all of whom assisted in helping select, plant, and harvest many of the crops. “It’s exciting to see results of all the hard work with community partners thriving in the Garden, and we want to share it with everyone at the Harvest Festival,” commented Allen Garden’s Director Reba Luiken. Stop by the Allen Centennial Gardens before or during the Harvest Festival to check out the celosia, collards, beans, squash, blood leaf, and lemongrass growing in the kitchen garden. Among the performances celebrating the kitchen garden crops will be the Jesskica Greendeer, a Ho-Chunk farm manager and seed keeper at Dream of Wild Health; Hmong Heritage Club of Madison; Vidar Skrede, a Nordic Fiddler; the Linmanya Ensemble, a West African dance and drum group; Syrena Polish Folk Dance Ensemble; and Red Thread vocal trio will be performing Eastern European folk music. All will tailor their performances to the harvest theme. For example, the Limanya Ensemble will be performing three pieces: harvest, hunting and gathering, and independence. The Harvest Festival will also feature student research that focuses on the importance of harvest festivals to communities across the globe. Among the presenters will be students studying folklore and horticulture presenting posters that weave together the many cultural connections between the plants that sustain us and our harvest traditions. The fair will also feature student groups representing cultural food and garden traditions including Hmong and Polish. Allen Centennial Garden is located at 620 Babcock Drive. Free parking is available in Lot 34 at 1480 Tripp Circle; in Lot 36 just west of Steenbock Library; and in Lot 40 behind Babcock Hall. The Harvest Folk Festival is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wisconsin Humanities strengthens our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state. It is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.