Volume 4 • No. 12 • New Moon • June 25, 2025
Without Ceasing • machine knitting, video • 2025
Heaven as a Curtain Pulled Back • handmade paper, brass hinges • 8" x 11" x 2" • 2024
Mezuza 1: Devotion as Stain • balsa wood, paper, prayer, lipstick, video • 6" x 2" x 1" • 2024
An excerpt of
The Networks Are Us: Sustainable Music Ecosystems
by Nathan Salsburg
A Screenshot from Experience Unlimited's "Da Butt" Music Video
...I don’t know if go-go music—the propulsive funk/R&B subgenre native to the Greater D.C. area—means anything to Whole Field readers. Perhaps those of a certain age (my age; middle-age) will remember the biggest hit to come out of the scene: Experience Unlimited’s “Da Butt,” featured in Spike Lee’s School Daze, and ubiquitous on 1988 pop radio and MTV. If you haven’t heard of it, that owes in no small part to go-go’s intense localism—developed and maintained with pride and dedication by its practitioners and fans—which has enabled it to thrive as a self-sustaining music ecosystem, of which the Museum is a physical manifestation. Its holdings are composed of donations or loans by stakeholders in the community; its collections’ metadata and the contextualizing materials used in its exhibits are provided by the community. Funding, of course, necessarily relies on some sources further afield. But, as we discussed the perils of too much reliance—by individual artists; community-based archives and cultural centers; expressive communities writ large—on academic or governmental institutions for support and sustenance, Natalie shared her organization’s animating credo: “the networks are us.”
Of everything I heard in the course of that twelve-hour forum, this phrase was the most memorable, and galvanizing...
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || I met Charlie, the found textile artist from Boston featured above, in a camper. No ordinary camper, though—this camper was home to WUWU Radio-100.1 FM-LP Frankfort/Elberta, where I happened to sit for an interview for the What's Up With You Friday morning show. (Here's a link to the first and second of three parts. The last will be up shortly.) Charlie was the studio audience. A week prior, she had been the Friday morning guest and shared about her time as a participant in Elberta's Saw Bill Surf Club artist residency. You can read more about Charlie and what shapes her work here: The Sacred Practice of Archiving, Anti Standard #29 with found textile artist Charlie Dov Schön.
|| 2 || If Nathan Salsburg's name sounds familiar, maybe it's through his own archiving work. He was involved with the Alan Lomax Archive for twenty-four years, eventually serving as curator. Perhaps you've seen him with Joan Shelley, or came across his new release Ipsa Corpora. He’s done a lot. That's one of the reasons the humility carried in his words, “As a musician working in something that resembles a professional capacity,” made me smile.
Here’s a parallel note from an adjacent field—If Farming Doesn’t Make You Humble, You’re Not Paying Attention, by Kollibri Terre Sonnenblume:
“My advice: whether you’re a farmer or not, try to keep it real. Remember that your role is small in whatever you do that involves others, human and more-than-human alike. We’re the stars of the show only in the stories we tell in our own heads, not on the solid green earth where life actually happens.”
|| 3 || In 2023, we featured an essay by David Benjamin Blower, Messianism as Folk Culture. He’s another musician/thinker/creative attuned to vernacular culture, and some of his work, like his Koine chants in particular, reminds me of some of Nathan’s doings.
Recently, unable to sleep in the dark, pressing hours of the earliest morning, I did what, for me at least, is rarely, if ever, helpful. I opened my laptop. By some unplanned act of mercy, a missive from David exploring the precarious role of the artist, inspired by Camus’ essay Create Dangerously, sat in my inbox. I read through, stepped back to my bed, and fell fast asleep thanks to the reminders of hope and agency. The next day called for work, and that work, done well, calls for rest.
“To accept the world as it is is to leave it as it is. To bring about some utopia by force is to reproduce the present world exactly as it is. Between these is a realm of dialogue and creaturely unknowing, where other things happen, apart from our own design: where the world appears before us, transfigured, familiar and strange, and here of its own volition.”
The Weft — News and Events
We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!
|| 1 || Summer Events at Wagbo Farm (East Jordan): Sunday Stitch and Such—June 29th at 11am. Bring a project you're working on or learn a new skill. This week? Learn to make a macramé plant hanger or wall hanging. Full Moon Feast Potluck and Open Mic Music—Thursday, July 10th at 5:30 pm. Bring or borrow an instrument! Follow along for more updates and events at the Wagbo Farm and Education Center website.
|| 2 || Upcoming Talks at Bay View (Petoskey):
Temple Grandin - Visual Thinking. Thursday, July 31st, at 7:30pm.
Mary Berry, along with Justin and Noah Rashid - Building an Economy for Small and Mid-Size Farmers. Tuesday, August 5th, at 4:30pm.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - Keynote Address, Braiding Sweetgrass. Thursday, August 7th, at 7pm.
|| 3 || Ice Storm Farm Relief Fund—With farmer livelihoods under threat, Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology, the Local Food Alliance, and the Northeast Michigan Healthy Food Initiative have partnered for a fundraiser to help the region recover. Money raised will be distributed to impacted farms through a simple application process, providing much needed assistance to those impacted by the storm. Click here to donate, or here if interested in applying for farmer relief funds.
|| 4 || Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference Tickets Now Available!—Leelanau County. Mon-Tues, Aug. 18th-19th. Space is limited; two days packed with valuable content designed to get you excited about the remainder of the season and thinking ahead to future years. Not quite ready to commit? Click here to learn more about this year’s conference, or here to purchase your ticket now.
|| 5 || Earthcraft Skillshare. July 10th-13th, at Tillers International in Scotts, MI. "Come camp with us under the starry summer sky. Three days of hands-on ancestral, survival, music, and kids classes." Find more information or purchase tickets here.
|| 6 || Earful of Fiddle Music & Dance Camp. Rodney, MI, June 22nd-27th. Classes, jam sessions, camping, and community. "We encourage learning to play by ear, knee-to-knee, foot-to-foot, from tradition bearers in a non-competitive setting. The result is the perpetuation of community-based entertainment and creative traditional arts practice." Find out more here.
|| 7 || Interlochen's Nature & Art Series—"A variety of two-hour programs focusing on creative exploration of nature, art, and food," offered June through August. Check out classes and dates, and register here.
|| 8 || The Crosshatch NW MI Small Farm Jobs Board—Check out the job board here. Posting positions is strongly encouraged. Please share in your networks, and keep an eye out for more openings that might be a good fit for you or someone you know.
|| 9 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Wheatpaste Wednesday, Searching for Humanity: An Artist Panel Discussion, Big Fun, The Bob James Quartet, and Funky Uncle.
Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.
sponsored by:
Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.
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