BiFolkal Programs

BiFolkal Remembering Kits are a compact and easy-to-use resource available through the Outreach Services department of the Library.

Each kit focuses on a time or topic in the past and includes a variety of resources -- photographic images, music, artifacts, and activities -- to trigger memories and encourage the sharing of stories. There’s even an outline for the group leader to follow when using the kit with a crowd.

Activity directors can use the program as is, or tailor it with the music and photos and other kit pieces. The result is an innovative, informative program that people will talk about for weeks to come.

Some of the topics covered in the BiFolkal kits are described below. Other kits include remembrances of holidays and special events like birthdays.

REMEMBERING COUNTY FAIRS

There was a time in a more rural America when the fair offered the opportunity for days off from work to show off a year’s work raising animals, sewing, crafting, preserving, baking. A time to learn about new things, to play games, to see friends and neighbors. Recapture that time. Consider working on a project for next year’s fair. Plan a field trip. With this kit, everyone can go to the fair!

REMEMBERING TRAIN RIDES

Not too long ago trains criss-crossed this country, whizzing passengers to their destinations. Now one songwriter worries about the day his young son will ask him, "Daddy, what’s a train?"

REMEMBERING 1924

Here are the sights and sounds, the moods and music of the twenties. For those too young to remember, they offer the feel of the times. For those old enough to remember, they bring back memories of everyday life. Whatever your age, you wont want to miss this kit about the Jazz Age, the Era of Wonderful Nonsense. Its the bees knees!

REMEMBERING SCHOOL DAYS

The best way today’s children can find out what life used to be like is from yesterday’s children.

REMEMBERING THE DEPRESSION

It was a period in American history that radically changed the course and the complexion of the nation. Even those too young to remember the time will have heard stories from their grandparents and great-grandparents about the days when many were asking, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”

REMEMBERING FARM DAYS

It has been said that nothing in the American scene has changed so much in the last half-century as country life. This kit offers the opportunity to explore the sights, sounds, aromas, sweat, tears, work and laughter that have gone into the farms where today’s adults were children. This kit is for those who remember another pace of life, and for those who wish they did.

REMEMBERING THE HOME FRONT

The Stars on the Home Front during World War II did war work, saved fuel and rubber, read newspapers and listened to the radio while they waited for (and worried about) their loved ones overseas. Three generations of Americans now living have been directly affected by World War II the veterans of the war and the home front, their parents, and their baby boom children. Now is the time to share and compare experiences, insights, and attitudes about that war, and war in general.

REMEMBERING THE FASHION

“In Agony &Ecstasy” – when it comes to fashion down through the years, there is hardly a styles that has not been tried (and re-tried!), from button-up shoes to bustles, paper collars to corsets. It’s fun to look back on the successes and failures of fashion past.

REMEMBERING MUSIC

Music. The universal language. It can say for us what we can’t say for ourselves. Without saying a word, music can remind us of the occasions of our lives, the events, the celebrations, the transitions. George Sand wrote, “It is extraordinary how music sends one back into memories of the past.”

REMEMBERING FUN AND GAMES

The games of life. Any number can play. Everyone can win. All you have to do is join in. You have to be willing to forget all your cares and troubles for awhile and let the most important thing be the game itself. Board games. Cards. Recess. Backyard fun. Remember?

REMEMBERING AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES

Shirley A. Page has taught school in Philadelphia for 43 years. In “Aunt Shirley’s Trunk” (26 minutes) she shares her trunk full of things she’s saved and the stories that go with them. She provides a model for any individual or group to look for the meaning in their own mementos.

“The Faith of Dr. Samuel Proctor” (25 minutes) is based on his book, The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Memoir of African American Faith. When Dr. Proctor was asked why he wrote his book, he responded, "I want to leave blacks with hope, courage, and inspiration. I want to leave others with a sense of understanding and appreciation for who we are and what we’ve done." We believe he succeeded.

REMEMBERING THE FIFTIES

The decade that brought us babies and the Korean War and TV dinners and babies and civil rights and Tupperware and babies and Joe McCarthy and McDonald’s and babies and Scrabble and Elvis and teen-agers…(and babies).

We were rockin’ and rollin’ at Bi-Folkal as we put together these pictures, music, news events and family stories to bring back memories of the fifties for everyone who was there. They are the same things that will help those who weren’t there to understand what the Ike Age was like.

REMEMBERING SPRING

Every year, just when we’ve had enough winter, spring arrives. The season officially begins on a day in March when the night and day are of equal length. Then according to old songs and legends, wonderful things happen very suddenly. The birds appear in the northern regions, the flowers burst into view, and young men and young women fall in love automatically.

For more information on BiFolkal products, go to http://www.bifolkal.org.

Call Sherry Baker at 231-5594 to set up a program at your facility. Programs last 45 minutes to 1 hour and can easily accommodate 35-40 people.