NEW ORLEANS (AP) 鈥� Louisiana folklorist Nick Spitzer and Mississippi blues musician R.L. Boyce are among nine set to be celebrated later this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the nation鈥檚 highest honors in the folk and traditional arts.
Spitzer and Boyce are scheduled to accept the , which includes a $25,000 award, at a Sept. 29 ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Hawes award recognizes individuals who have 鈥渕ade a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.鈥�
, an anthropology professor at has hosted the popular radio show 鈥淎merican Routes鈥� for the past 25 years, most recently from a studio at Tulane in New Orleans. The show has featured interviews with Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Fats Domino and 1,200 other figures in American music and culture.
Each two-hour program reaches about three quarters of a million listeners on 380 public radio stations nationwide.
鈥�'American Routes鈥� is my way of being inclusive and celebratory of cultural complexity and diversity through words and music in these tough times,鈥� Spitzer said.
Spitzer鈥檚 work with roots music in Louisiana鈥檚 Acadiana region has tied him to the state indefinitely. He founded the Louisiana Folklife Program, produced the five-LP Louisiana Folklife Recording Series, created the Louisiana Folklife Pavilion at the 1984 World鈥檚 Fair in New Orleans and helped launch the Baton Rouge Blues Festival. He also is a senior folklife specialist at the Smithsonian鈥檚 Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington.
Spitzer said he was surprised when told he was a recipient of the Hawes award.
鈥淚 was stunned,鈥� Spitzer recalled during an interview with The Associated Press. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to be recognized. I do it because I like making a contribution to the world.鈥�
is a blues musician from the Mississippi hill country. His northern Mississippi approach to playing and song structures are rooted in the past, including traditions centered around drums and handmade cane fifes. Yet his music is uniquely contemporary, according to Boyce鈥檚 bio on the NEA website.
鈥淲hen I come up in Mississippi, there wasn鈥檛 much. See, if you saw any opportunity to survive, you grabbed it. Been playing Blues 50 years. Playing Blues is all I know,鈥� Boyce said in a statement.
鈥淭here are a lot of good blues players out there,鈥� he added. 鈥淏ut see, I play the old way, and nobody today can play my style, just me.鈥�
Boyce has played northern Mississippi blues for more than half a century. He has shared stages with blues greats John Lee Hooker, a 1983 NEA National Heritage Fellow, and Howlin鈥� Wolf. He also was the drummer for and recorded with Jessie Mae Hemphill.
The other 2023 heritage fellows are: Ed Eugene Carriere, a Suquamish basket maker from Indianola, Washington; Michael A. Cummings, an African American quilter from New York; Joe DeLeon 鈥淟ittle Joe鈥� Hernandez, a Tejano music performer from Temple, Texas; Roen Hufford, a kapa (bark cloth) maker from Waimea, Hawaii; Elizabeth James-Perry, a wampum and fiber artist from Dartmouth, Massachusetts; Luis Tapia, a sculptor and Hispano woodcarver from Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Wu Man, a pipa player from Carlsbad, California.
Chevel Johnson Rodrigue, The Associated Press
