| Friday August 29
9:00 am – 12:00 noon:
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Saturday August 30
9:00 am – 12:00 noon:
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm:
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| S1 Welsh Icons
with Dr. Fflur Dafydd ~ Swansea University Based on her book for Gomer Press, author Fflur Dafydd takes a look at those distinctly Welsh aspects of life in Wales. From the more obvious associations such as rugby and coalmines, Welsh Icons also uncovers a perhaps less well known side of life in Wales. The Welsh Language, the National Eisteddfod and the wearing of traditional Welsh costume on St David’s Day are just a few examples of Wales’s individuality. Welsh Icons is a nonclichéd look at Welsh Culture – a real guide to life in modern day Wales. Sponsored by Wales Arts International |
| S2 Welsh Language Class
with Hefina Phillips ~ Cymdeithas Madog Come and learn a few rudiments and phrases of your mother tongue, one of Europe’s most ancient languages, and the vehicle of an awesome literary heritage nearly two thousand years old. For those who are interested in receiving advanced language instruction or in participating in chat sessions please contact the WNGGA headquarters directly. Sponsored by Cymdeithas Madog. |
| S3 The Welsh Chapels ABC-Architecture, Belief,
Culture
with Anthony (Tony) Jones ~ Art Institute of Chicago Chapels were once the soul and heart of every Welsh community- both in Wales and wherever expatriate Welsh found themselves,from Patagonia to Australia to North America. In the 18th and 19th centuries they were places for worship, education, entertainment, fellowship; they were libraries and theatres, they were the home of the early national political sentiment, the birthplace of the unions, and the concert-halls of the great Welsh choirs. In tiny Wales the deeply religious population contributed their own practical skills and what money they could afford, and built over 6000 of these buildings. But now they rot and close and collapse, redundant boxes awaiting demolition. A few are being saved by the efforts of government and enthusiastic historians, to represent what 'chapel' meant to Wales, and the enormous influence they had on the country. Professor Tony Jones CBE has been studying them since his childhood in Anglesey and the Merthyr valley - he published his first book on chapels when he was 17, and in 1985 created the first exhibition about chapels, at the National Museum in Cardiff. This completely illustrated presentation tells their story: from the first chapels that were indistinguishable from the little farm-barns of the Welsh countryside, to the vast and expensive 'palaces of the oral arts' of the industrial south. Sponsored by the Cambrian Benevolent Society of Chicago. |
| S4 ‘Samson’ in Seven Sisters ~ Revisiting
the Land of Song
with Dr. Gareth Williams ~ Glamorgan University The idea of Wales as a land of singers and rugby players has, like all clichés, a kernel of historical fact. Both arose at the same time, at the end of the nineteenth century, as collective expressions of local and national identity, at a time when the ordinary people of Wales were beginning to assert themselves in fields as diverse as the pulpit, the political stage and the eisteddfod platform. Singing and sport really appear to represent two contrasting cultural worlds: the one, sedate, responsible and disciplined, performing oratorios like Handel’s ‘Samson’, while viewing the other (ovalshaped) sphere with suspicion because of its associations with drink, gambling, and disorderly behavior by players and spectators alike. When we look closer, however, what strikes us is how the massive popularity of choral singing unleashed passions and loutish behavior virtually indistinguishable from the sports field. In fact there were larger crowds at choir competitions than at football matches, in Seven Sisters and coalfield communities across South Wales, as eisteddfodau became ‘choral bullfights’ and intense rivalries exploded into mayhem. At the same time, rugby attained respectability because it was the game of the classes as well as the masses, and was a vehicle for the display of skill, science and the exercise of the higher faculties, attributes that could be seen also in the international renown attained by Welsh cyclists and boxers as they competed in Europe and the USA. Just as Welsh sportsmen traveled the world, so did theirsingers; even to Chicago. Sponsored by Wales Arts International. |
| S5 Journey to Wales
with Fred Jones ~ Western Illinois University Artist Fred Jones will discuss his celebrated exhibition Journey to Wales. Jones’s three-year journey of discovery from 2003-2006 resulted in a collection of 60 landscape acrylic paintings exhibited at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth in 2006. By exploring dynamic themes, such as seasonal changes, light fluctuations, weather patterns and plant cycles, his painting reflects a sense of time and sacred reality that was part of human life for thousands of years before the conventions of calendar and clock.Although the country is small compared with the USA, Jones discovered an amazing variety of scenes. His three-year journey of discovery did much to increase Jones’s reverence for the landscape of Wales. His journal, paintings, digital photographs, and global positions record the experience. |
| S6 Wales at the World’s Fair ~ Chicago, 1893
with Dr. Gareth Williams ~ Glamorgan University The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance on Chicago’s South Side in 1893, was the last and greatest of the nineteenth century’s World’s Fairs. In intention a celebration of Columbus’ voyage 400 years before, the Exposition was in actuality a reflection and celebration of American culture and society, and a blueprint for life in modern America. Chicago’s million plus people at that time made it the second largest American city. It was also a Polish city, not to mention the countless Irish, Italians, Russians and other European nationalities that contributed to its bursting vitality. The object of the Fair was to show the best of America to the world, and the best of Chicago to the rest of the USA. Not to be outdone, the 12,0000Welsh residents of the Windy City decided they too would contribute to this cultural congress by holding that uniquely Welsh festival, an Eisteddfod. To it came the Archdruid of Wales and a gaggle of druids in their white robes, the scariest thing seen since Blackhawk and his braves last attacked in the 1820s. Choristers came too, not only from Scranton and Salt Lake City but miners from the Rhondda and quarrymen from North Wales, as well as a Welsh Ladies choir. The contribution of these Welsh choristers to the cultural wealth of nations at the 1893 World’s Fair is the subjectof this lecture. Sponsored by Wales Arts International. |
| S7 Ysogl Gan: Learn to Sing
with Dr. Keith Davies Jones ~ Ysgol Gan Instructor Come prepare for the hallmark event of our weekend, the National Gymanfa Ganu. Learn how to sing your part with others inyour section or just come to listen to beautiful Welsh music. |
| S8 Twenty Thousand Saints – A Novel
with Dr. Fflur Dafydd ~ Swansea University Winner of the 2006 National Eisteddfod in prose, Fflur Dafydd will read from her novel, Twenty Thousand Saints, and speak about its setting, Bardsey Island. A dark comedy about secrets, privacy, and intrusion, the novel follows a television film crew on the fabled Welsh island of twenty thousand saints. Fflur Dafydd will also discuss the process of translating her novel from its original Welsh, Atynaid, to its English counterpart. Sponsored by Wales Arts International. |
| S9 Prairie Plus: An Introduction to Frank
Lloyd Wright and His Work
with Jan Kieckhefer ~ Director of Education, Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust This presentation explores the early years of Frank Lloyd Wright’s career in Oak Park. There will be a discussion of his Welsh family connections, the influence of nature, music, childhood toys, Japan, and Louis Sullivan on his architectural development. The elements of the Prairie style that so revolutionized American domestic architecture and the impact of that style on his later work will be presented. Sponsored by the Women’s Welsh Club of Illinois. |
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