Folklife Center

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College will launch the new “Appalachian Italian Folk Cultural Series” with a special event on Sunday, Nov. 11.

What is today Fairmont State University was first established in 1865 as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a private institution dedicated to educating teachers. Many decades and name changes later, it was the proud teaching tradition that gave birth to “Mountain Mother Goose.”

“Mountain Mother Goose” – which this summer becomes an operetta for young audiences and in the fall will become a published collection of childlore and a curriculum for public school teachers – has been a labor of the love of folklore for a distinguished group of Fairmont State faculty members.

Jingles, jangles, rhymes, The Hunkitchy Man, The Greedy Old Fat Man, Marigold and more -- you’ll find them all in “Mountain Mother Goose,” an operetta for young audiences.

The production, presented by the Fairmont State University School of Fine Arts, the Town and Gown Youth Company and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center, will be on stage in the Wallman Hall Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 10. Following each performance will be a reception to meet the composer and the cast at the Folklife Center. Tickets are $12 and are available by calling (304) 367-4240.

On Friday, April 20, Kestrel will be sponsoring a reception and reading from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center, featuring poets Gerry LaFemina and Christophe Casamassima. The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served.

The Office of Student Affairs will present an event on the main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College in commemoration of Black History Month. Piedmont native T.J. Coleman has made it his mission to share the story of Sgt. James Aubrey Stewart and to use the experience to promote racial understanding. He will give a presentation, titled “The Aubrey Stewart Project: Unity Through One Race…The Human Race,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, in Multi-media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library.

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College is sponsoring a study and travel abroad program in the summer of 2012 called Roads to Appalachia through Northern Ireland.

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College will host a birthday celebration in honor of Francis H. Pierpont, “The Father of West Virginia.” Students, faculty and staff are invited to the Folklife Center for birthday cake and coffee from 9:30-10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

A team of Fairmont State University students traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to present their research on economic sustainability in Helvetia, W.Va., through heritage tourism as part of the 2011 ARC Appalachian Teaching Project.