A History of the Finns in Minnesota and Duluth - Arnold R. Alanen
This illustrated presentation is based on the forthcoming book by Arnold Alanen, "Finns in Minnesota," which will be published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2009. Beginning with 1864, the presentation will feature the origins of Finnish settlement in southern and western Minnesota, and then move to the northeastern area of the state to portray the region's agricultural settlements, the Iron Range, and Duluth--a city once called "America's Helsinki." Background information about Minnesota's Finland Swedes and their communities will also be offered.
Bio:
Arnold R. Alanen, a native of northeastern Minnesota, received his BA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. A professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches landscape history and historic preservation, Dr. Alanen has written extensively about the Finns, mining towns, and agricultural settlements of northeastern Minnesota. His recent book--"Morgan Park: Duluth, U.S. Steel, and the Forging of a Company Town"--features the famous community that once housed steelworkers employed in a nearby manufacturing facility.
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The Legend of Bobby Aro – Casey Aro
For over fifty years, Bobby Aro entertained residents of Northern Minnesota with his radio shows, his band, "the Ranch-Aros", and his recordings. His records were not only popular in Northern Minnesota, but in the 1960s and 1970s, he had a large Finnish-American fan base from Ashtabula, Ohio, throughout Michigan and Wisconsin and reaching west to Astoria, Oregon. Bobby Aro used a strong “Finn-glish” accent on his recordings, and on one record he sang, “I'm not Finnish, but my English teacher was.” His most popular song was probably “Highway #7”.
The contemporary Finnish-American-Reggae band, Conga Se Menne, even pays tribute to Bobby Aro by mentioning Highway #7 in one of their songs.
The “Legend of Bobby Aro” will be told by none other than Bobby’s son, Casey Aro. Casey, who is an accomplished entertainer, musician and storyteller, has honed his talents for over 25 years as a member of an "old-time" dance band and through countless solo performances in all kinds of settings. Laugh and cry (it can be painful) as Casey regales you with a wealth of information gleaned from a lifetime of performing, loads of imagination, and just plain living.
Check out this audio clip of the Bobby Aro song, “Hwy #7” on the FinnFest 2008 web site: http://www.koskimusic.com/HwySeventune.mp3
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Bennett Greenspan
An entrepreneur and life-long genealogy enthusiast, Mr. Bennett Greenspan founded Family Tree DNA in 1999, turning a hobby into a full-time vocation. His effort and innovation created the burgeoning field now known as genetic genealogy. Mr. Greenspan, a Nebraskan native who received his B.A. from the University of Texas, spent years investigating the ancestors of his maternal grandfather, an obsession which eventually led to the founding of Family Tree DNA and the beginning of a new kind of genealogy.
Since its inception, in April of 2000, Family Tree DNA has been associated with the Arizona Research Labs, led by Dr. Michael Hammer, one of the world's leading authorities in the field of Y-DNA genetics. Family Tree DNA has other renowned scientists on its advisory board and is the world leader in the field of genetic genealogy exploration. With over 175,000 records, Family Tree DNA has the largest database of its kind in the world.
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Arlene Lehto – Grassroots environmentalist, former state legislator, and proud Finn
Arlene Lehto was born to Finnish immigrant parents and grew up on Minnesota’s Lake Superior North Shore. After being away from Minnesota for a time she returned to the North Shore in 1968 and became involved in a very important and controversial environmental issue, the Reserve Mining Company’s taconite tailings discharge into Lake Superior. Ms. Lehto was the founding President of the Save Lake Superior Association. Ms. Lehto also went on to become a member of the Minnesota State Legislature from 1977 to 1982. During that time she authored or co-authored several key bills including the 1980 Acid Deposition Act. She was also a key advocate of an early version of Minnesota’s Clean Indoor Air Act. Throughout her life and career she has not forgotten her roots and upbringing and credits much of her lifetime successes to being a “tough Finn”!
Bio:
Arlene (Lind) Lehto, a native Minnesotan and proud Finn, was founding President of the Save Lake Superior Association. She served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Ms. Lehto was the 1973 recipient of Minnesota Public Health Association's Albert J. Chesley Award; the 1974 U.S. EPA, Region V Citizen Activist Award; and a 1983 Bush Leadership Fellowship to Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government where she earned her Master's Degree in Public Administration.
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Beatrice (Luoma) Ojakangas
“Fusion, Confusion and Finnish Food”
This presentation will explore these questions:
1. How much of the traditional foods of Finland are still known in this country?
2. How is Finnish “fusion” different from ours?
3. Is there still a “seasonal” difference in what typical Finns eat?
4. To what degree has “McDonald’s” type food infiltrated Finnish cuisine?
“Viili” a Real Finnish Culture
Viili has been described as everything from a delicious Finnish yogurt to “slime”. I grew up loving the stuff. Viili is made with a very specifically identified culture called Lactococcus lactis. We will discuss viili, its character, and perhaps even have “pohjapiima” for people to take home.
Bio:
Beatrice (Luoma) Ojakangas was born in the township of Cedar Valley north of Floodwood, Minnesota. She grew up on a farm about 4 miles outside of Floodwood. After graduation, she enrolled at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in the Home Economics Department, and graduated with a B.S. degree. She was married the same weekend and then spent a little more than a year with her new husband, Richard Ojakangas, in Oxford, England. Over the next few years, they moved to Duluth, then to Columbia, Missouri, then to Helsinki, Finland for a year, and then to the Bay Area of California where Beatrice became a food editor for Sunset Magazine. When Richard got his PhD he accepted a position in Duluth, at UMD, where they have lived ever since. Her first cookbook, The Finnish Cookbook (researched when they lived in Finland), was published in 1964 and is still in print. Following that she has written 25 more cookbooks, but has a dream of writing her memoir. She has written a regular article in The Area Woman, and in The Woman Today, almost since the inception of the magazines. In the meantime, she has written dozens of articles for national publications, guided dozens of food related events at her church (First Lutheran in Duluth), taught cooking classes, started a restaurant (Somebody’s House – now defunct), taught in the vocational school and have done lots of volunteer cooking throughout the years.
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Rya (Ryijy) Rug – Finnish National Treasure – Liisa Ojala
The development of finish rya from home handicraft to contemporary art will include a slide presentation of 80 slides from century peasant rya to individually designed textile art.
The tradition of weaving “ryijy’ rugs in Finland dates back to 14th and 15th centuries.
The most beautiful of the Finnish folk “ryijy” rugs were woven between the 1770s and 1820’s. By that time the art of weaving pile rugs of rya type had spread though the whole western area of Finnish folk culture. During Gustavus Vasa time ryas were collected as taxes and used for decoration on the walls of crown manors. Folk weavers continued to work on patterns taken from upper class ryas by combining motifs peculiar to various styles with geometric squares and stripes. Later, in the hands of artists, the ryas, like other works of art, conformed to major trends during the various eras past. They could be identified through their motifs and colors to various regions. Rya further developed in modern times into art complimenting architecture.
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Scandinavian Weaving Traditions from Home Handicraft to Contemporary Art
This will be a slide presentation with examples of Viking era coverlets, early pagan and Christian tapestries, show the origin of rya in folk art as a common thread, and textiles as part of architecture in Norway, Sweden and Finland. 1.25 hrs., 150 slides.
Swedish and Norwegian textile art originated with the Vikings (800-1050), but the more richly woven patterns can be traced to the thirteenth century and were carried on for generations by descendants repeating their family patterns. Weaving patterns came to Finland from Sweden with traveling master weavers who taught the Finnish peasant women to weave.”Brukkonst”, useful art, harmonious marriage of function and art, developed in certain areas in Scandinavia, Guldbrandsdalen as a old Viking trade route and prosperous agricultural valley, Dalarna in heart of Sweden, and Saarijarvi in Finland.
These cradles of culture were isolated enough to maintain old traditions of handicraft. Only Finland maintained the rya culture unbroken to present day. The Scandinavian program tells the development of the woven textiles to the point of specialization into rya weaving in Finland and shows highlights of the historic and modern ryas and examples of blending traditional ideas and modernism in contemporary Scandinavian textiles.
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Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future – Susan Saarinen and Mark Coir
Finlandia Foundation "Lecturers of the Year" are Susan Saarinen, the daughter of Eero Saarinen, and Mark Coir, the scholar and archivist at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. With a large screen between them, they will take the audience deeply into the Saarinen design story and legacy, from both the personal and scholarly perspectives. The international exhibit, "Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future," came to the US from Europe. It opened at Cranbrook on November 17 and will be in Washington, D.C. in the spring and summer of 2008 and Minneapolis in 2009. The Saarinen/Coir presentation will be a good preparation for this major international exhibit and make it better known to many Finnish Americans.
Bios:
Susan Saarinen
Susan Saarinen, principal of Saarinen Landscape Architecture in Golden, Colorado, is the daughter of architect Eero, designer of the St. Louis Arch, and grand-daughter of Eliel. She grew up at Cranbrook, an intensely creative environment, where sculptor Carl Milles and ceramist Maija Grotell taught and where her God-father, Charles Eames, furniture designer Florence Knoll and sculptor Lily Swann, among others, met and developed their crafts. Susan is a landscape architect, an artist and a teacher.
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Mark Coir
Mark Coir has served as the Director of Archives and Cultural Properties, Cranbrook Educational Community, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for the past twenty-five years. His scholarly interests have focused on the rich cultural heritage of Cranbrook and especially on the achievements of the famed Saarinen family, native Finns who built extraordinary artistic careers in the United States. Among recent publications he has contributed to are Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (2007) and Craft in America (2006).
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Friday's Finnish Luncheon with humorist, Cheryl Sawyer - Aah-Some Finnish Storyteller Extraordinaire
Laughter is internal jogging! Be amazed, amused, and entertained with Cheryl's unique approach to entertaining audiences of all ages from preschoolers through adults. Favorite tales are enhanced with rib-tickling humor and slap-stick comedy illusion which can be done easily by any 10-year old who has about 40 years of knowledge. Experience Minnesota's finest and friendliest storyteller as the perfect finishing touch to Friday's luncheon! Cheryl tells original stories which end happily ever after. She uses some illusion as she tells a story so as something changes in the story, it also changes in her hands with the prop she is using. In addition, she tells the "3 Bears" in Finnish which is amazingly enjoyed by all ages and nationalities. Clean comedy is woven throughout the program. Satisfaction guaranteed or all laughter returned!
Bio:
Cheryl Johnson Sawyer was born to a family of 6 brothers and 5 sisters in Oulu, Wisconsin and spoke Finnish at an early age. She and real life husband, Tom Sawyer, have 5 adult children. Tom and Cheryl live in St. Paul, Minnesota because that's all the farther south their retirement funds have taken them. Cheryl has been a professional storyteller for 21 years. She mainly travels the Midwest region entertaining with humor and storytelling but has presented in Los Angeles also. Hobbies include bicycling, snowshoeing, reading, quilting, sewing, fishing and napping but not necessarily in that order.
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Hilary Virtanen
“A Man for All Seasons: Heikki Lunta and the Finnish-American Imagination”
Heikki Lunta, the so-called Finnish Snow God, is increasingly one of the best-known folklore characters in Finnish America. With music, costumed events, and even snowmobile clubs in celebration of the “god,” his important place in Finnish American ethnic culture is apparent. The history of the character and the cultural forces that continue to shape him reveal that Heikki Lunta is a deep commentary on ethnic and regional stereotypes concerning Finnish-Americans, Upper Midwesterners and Yoopers, or Upper Michigan residents. Join Hilary Virtanen as she explores the life and times, stories and songs, and many faces of Heikki Lunta, revealing how he offers something for everyone in Finnish America to relate to.
Bio:
Hilary Virtanen is a folklorist from Toivola, Michigan. Her interest in Finnish ethnicity developed in childhood and was particularly kindled when she studied Finnish language through Hancock High School. She holds a Masters degree in Folklore from Indiana University and is working on a Masters and Doctorate in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Virtanen has a husband and three children who let her be as Finnish as she wants to be.
