Narrator: New Jersey is home to an amazing array of traditional artists, each a keeper of an age-old art form.

In 2024, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts honored 10 of them in the first-ever class of New Jersey Heritage Fellows.

On this special edition of "State of the Arts," we meet five.

Narrator: Kathy DeAngelo plays traditional Irish music on the fiddle and the harp.

DeAngelo: The symbol of Ireland is the harp.

Before there were fiddles, the harper was an exalted member of the society who played this magnificent instrument.

Narrator: Basket maker Mary May is inspired by historic baskets of South Jersey.

May: So I've sort of taken the roughness of the farmer's work and refined it a little bit the way that I would like the basket to look.

Narrator: Singer-songwriter Valerie Vaughn recalls the legends and lore of the Pinelands and the shore.

Vaughn: [ Singing ] Right off of Beach Haven Way out on the sea Narrator: Lace maker Ylvia Asal makes Turkish or oya lace in honor of her Greek Anatolian heritage.

Asal: I don't want to lose that culture.

It's something inside of me.

Narrator: And Nelson Baez, a master of Puerto Rican bomba.

His goal is to pass the music on to the next generation.

Nelson: As we bring in new people, younger people, my hope is that they will continue with this so that we can pass the torch on.

Narrator: "State of the Arts," going on location this week with some of New Jersey's most accomplished traditional artists.

DeAngelo: I'm a musician.

I'm a musician, and I play traditional Irish music.

That's my reason for being.

That's the air that I breathe.

It all has to do with the music.

What is special about Irish music?

It just speaks to me.

They're simple tunes, but they're simple and at the same time, they're complicated.

You know, a dance tune is just -- The melody is not all that complicated, but in order to give it its real flavor, I mean, there are ornamentations you put on different notes.

You don't have to do it the same way every time.

You might make little variations in the melody.

And, you know, every time you play it, you might play it slightly differently, but not improvising.

You're just taking that melody and giving it that flavor.

Everybody does it a little bit differently, but when you get everybody all together and everybody plays together, there's nothing like it.

Narrator: Every week, Kathy DeAngelo and her husband, Dennis Gormley, host a session where people drop in to play Irish music together.

DeAngelo: It's been at a couple of different places in South Jersey.

We call it now the South Jersey Irish Session.

Now we just do it in our living room, which is kind of great for us.

We don't have to drive anywhere.

We set up the chairs, people come in, we sit down, we play tunes, and it's just -- it's great.

Gormley: You can go almost anywhere in the world and there'll be an Irish music session somewhere you can go to and sit down and play this repertoire together with people from that area.

Narrator: Dennis and Kathy play together professionally as McDermott's Handy.

The first time was in 1978, when they played a tribute concert to the great Irish fiddler Ed McDermott.

DeAngelo: I didn't really have a big grounding in traditional music.

That wasn't until I met Ed McDermott.

He was recorded for the Library of Congress for the Folk Music Archives.

He's a legend in my mind.

[ Music playing ] Narrator: Born in the late 1800s, Ed McDermott emigrated from Ireland in 1915, bringing his fiddle with him.

During the folk music revival in the 1960s and '70s, young people began seeking him out.

DeAngelo: You know, I'd had him at the coffee house that I was running in New Brunswick, the Mine Street Coffeehouse.

Gormley: Ed McDermott learned fiddle playing from his father.

It's like we can look back to, like, the mid-1800s and see where the music that we played came from.

Then we can also look deep into the 21st century.

DeAngelo: So we'll try with the E minor C chord of your choice.

All right?

And...

Right here.

Could be there.

Petre: Today I was working on "Clergy's Lamentation."

It's a very old tune.

I really like the old Irish and Scottish tunes that are more melodious and slower and more sad almost.

DeAngelo: The symbol of Ireland is the harp.

Before there were fiddles, the harper was an exalted member of the society who played this magnificent instrument.

Narrator: But by the 1980s, it was hard for Kathy to even find an Irish harp to play.

Since then, there's been a resurgence.

And in America, Kathy has been a big part of it.

For many years, she ran the Somerset Folk Harp Festival, an international gathering for harpers.

Gormley: One of the premier harp makers from France said this is the greatest harp event on the planet.

DeAngelo: All right, here we go.

And... Narrator: Once a month, you can find Kathy teaching Irish music at the Commodore Barry Center in Philadelphia.

This Sunday happened to be St. Patrick's Day.

DeAngelo: Usually the second Sunday of the month, Dennis and myself and our friend Chris Brennan Hagy, we all teach Irish music, and we think it's real important to bring that tradition to younger people.

Hagy: Today we're here to teach kids of all ages Irish tunes.

We teach a tune or two and then we have a little session, go around and give the kids an opportunity to play together.

We've taught hundreds of them over the years, and some now are now leading their own sessions and teaching, and it's great to see them moving on.

In fact, one of our kids is now the head fiddler at the "Riverdance" show.

Narrator: At the Commodore Barry Club, after the session comes Irish dancing.

DeAngelo: They teach the dances.

And these are not step dancing.

The fancy dancing like "Riverdance" type dancing.

This is group dancing.

I'll tell you, when you started to actually go through the dance and you start hearing the tunes that you've learned and now dancing to that music, it just kind of completes that circle.

But the music just speaks to me.

I love it.

[ Cheers and applause ] Narrator: New Jersey Heritage Fellows are reviving traditions for the 21st century, from music to basket making.

May: I always worked with my hands, and I would make something and move on.

I called it craft hopping.

I'd hop, hop, hop, hop.

And then one day I found somebody was holding a basket and I said, "Oh, your basket's really beautiful."

She said, "Well, thank you, I made that."

And I was like, "You what?"

Narrator: It was the beginning of a journey leading Mary May deep into the history of South Jersey basket making.

May: This one again in the back is called a picking basket.

Narrator: One of her finds was at her township's Schoolhouse Museum, where there's a basket made long ago by a local Forked River man, Mikey Archer.

May: His work is very interesting, and what really grabbed my eye is inside, the way that he does the layout of the basket.

Okay, so it's sort of like a spoke, spokes of a wheel.

Okay.

And traditionally you always weave over one and under one and over one and under one.

But he wove around one way, and then one time he wove backwards.

So what I've done is I've tried to emulate what I believe he did.

So you start the weave and you go over one, under one, over one, under one till you get to here, and then you double back, and then you come back.

And then after you get to the third row, you will be...where is it?

Where is it?

Right here.

Okay?

You split.

And when you split it, that will allow you to keep going around and around and around your basket.

Narrator: Another basket Mary found at the museum told a different kind of story.

This is a charcoal basket.

Okay.

Was used here in the Pinelands.

Narrator: Charcoal making was a common industry throughout the Pine Barrens for almost 200 years.

May: And what you would do is you would take this basket, sort of -- You would kind of like use it against your leg.

You would rake in your coal, you would go like this.

And the reason it's so large because it's a two-person carry.

So you would take the other side, I would take this side.

We would walk it over to the wagon and just slide it and dump it in.

Narrator: Mary May's research inspires her work.

This prized possession is a vintage pound fishing basket covered in tar to make it more durable.

She's made blueberry baskets, backpacks, even a basket that was used to catch eels.

May: This is the eel fyke.

And so these are the tines in the bottom.

So what you would do is you would bait your material, you would throw your bait in.

And apparently bait is a secret.

I wouldn't share with you what I baited for my fish and vice versa.

And then you put the plug in.

So this is a white cedar, local cedar plug.

And you would take this and you would sink it into the water.

You would anchor it down, of course, because it would be light.

And then this would swell a little bit so it would really stay on tight.

The eels would swim in and they -- for some reason, no fish really turns around and goes back.

Okay.

So I'm going to let you do this.

McDonald: We are making a fishing creel, but I'm going to use it as a purse.

I started weaving with Mary between 25 and 30 years ago, and I was hooked.

And I've been weaving ever since.

Dolphin: She's always giving us a little background on, you know, where this basket came from, what it's used for.

And that is fascinating to me.

I like culture, I like history.

I have Piney roots.

So it's fun to, you know, be in touch with that history.

Narrator: Mary May is a historian of baskets, but she's also a highly skilled artisan.

May: You know, why do you want to use the basket today?

I think this reminds me of when we go into the food store and we grab our market basket to run up and down the aisles real quick to run in and out.

So this one I sell a lot of for the farmers markets.

So I've sort of taken the roughness of the farmer's work and refined it a little bit to sort of the way that I would like the basket to look.

They used it years back, but how can we use it today and still enjoy it?

Narrator: History is a living story to New Jersey's Heritage Fellows.

Next, a singing storyteller finds the drama in local lore.

Vaughn: [ Singing ] I want to tell you all a story Of a place that used to be Right off of Beach Haven, way out on the sea [ Talking ] From the day I picked up my guitar when I was 15 and really focused on learning, I knew I would write my own songs.

That's what you do.

That's what was presented to me by my musical culture that was popular.

People write their own songs.

My great role models were the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

They're telling their story.

Narrator: Now Valerie Vaughn is telling her stories.

She's a singer, a songwriter, and a former school social worker who loves history.

Turns out it's a perfect combination for teaching kids about the area where they live, Tuckerton, New Jersey, with the Pine Barrens on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

Vaughn: The area now is celebrated.

This Seaport is here.

In the days before when I was at Pinelands High School in the late 1980s, the kids around here all had a feeling that they were ridiculed.

They were called Pineys.

This is the tale -- A more than 300 year old tale, right?

And then I realized, "Let's celebrate this."

And I started writing the songs so they'd feel good, really, about where they lived and the mysteries and the histories.

Sitting around a campfire with toast and marshmallows.

Get your marshmallows out, guys.

And it's then when a storyteller is bound to ask you this question, [ Singing ] Have you seen Have you seen Mrs. Leeds' 13th child?

I'm asking you have you seen Have you ever seen Mrs. Leeds' 13th child?

He's got the head of a horse with horns out the side He's got hot coals, a burning fire in his eyes Now, have you seen [ Talking ] So now, kids around here have a great feeling of a special, unique place that they live.

It's no longer being ridiculed.

Kids don't have to feel "I'm just a Piney."

Everybody's happy to be a Piney now, you know?

Narrator: The Tuckerton Seaport celebrates the traditions of South Jersey and the Barnegat Bay and Pinelands region.

Salvanto: The folk artists who are also tradition bearers and demonstrators here at the Seaport are the center of every program and exhibit that we do.

They're really the heart and soul and the spirit of the Seaport.

Narrator: When Valerie Vaughn comes to Tuckerton Seaport, she sings about local lore, history, and even science.

Vaughn: [ Singing ] From High Point's wooded hills... [ Talking ] Make learning fun.

Put the information into the song and it just floats and swims and music makes learning fun.

[ Singing ] One by one, the buildings fell Like castles in the sand The lighthouse, the schoolhouse Then the Coast Guard stand Now you know by 1950 There was not a trace of land Not a sign of Tucker's Island Narrator: From a gift for music to the detailed work of a lace maker, many New Jersey Heritage Fellows continue ancient traditions.

On the main street of Haddonfield, New Jersey, there's an unusual little shop full of whimsical items celebrating Anatolian art and culture.

The shop belongs to Ylvia Asal, who is herself from Anatolia.

Asal: Anatolia is Turkey, and Anatolia is a Greek name.

Narrator: The Greeks looked east to Anatolia.

They called it the place where the sun is born.

It's now home to modern-day Turkey.

Ylvia grew up in an Anatolian Greek family in the city of Giresun on the Black Sea.

It's where she learned how to make traditional Turkish lace or oya.

Asal: My grandmother, she was very good at it.

So many different technique making the oya.

I interested to learn from her and I started with her when I was a little girl, maybe 10, 12 years old.

Narrator: Oya lace is made with a needle and very fine thread.

Asal: It could be polyester and silk and cotton, metallic thread also.

And also we have with the beads.

Narrator: Oya is used for trimming on traditional headscarves.

It's colorful and often three-dimensional, sometimes in the shapes of flowers or fruit.

For centuries it's been a way for women to express themselves.

Now Ylvia is taking this craft in new directions.

Asal: Everybody made in the past something different.

And then it's coming to today.

It's like turned to my style now.

Narrator: Ylvia has a complicated relationship with her Turkish past.

As Anatolian Greeks, her family was Christian.

In the early 20th century, Turks massacred and deported Christians, including Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, in what is now called the Armenian Genocide.

Her grandfather was the only one in the family to survive and remain in Turkey.

Asal: My grandfather, he survived.

We come from him in Turkey with all his family gone.

Dead.

Narrator: Oya is Ylvia's way of reclaiming her past.

It's why she now shares this ancient Anatolian craft with others.

Asal: And this hand holds needle.

Pionegro-Smith: I think anything that gives you a connection to the past, to another time and another place, it's magical.

Asal: I don't want to lose that culture.

But the most important things, I don't want to lost myself.

It's something inside of me.

Narrator: Traditions formed in another time and place find new life with New Jersey Heritage Fellows.

[ Women singing in Spanish ] Nelson: This is my passion, interacting with the community and developing community.

Because when we play bomba, like I always tell everyone, we're not there to entertain.

We're there to build community.

It's a give and take.

So we give out our energy by our drumming, our singing, and our dancing, and they, in return, give us their energy by participating with us in the dancing.

[ Cheers and applause ] Evans: So today they're celebrating Mother's Day.

They celebrate every holiday here, even holidays you might not even know about.

But they do a great job.

Everyone comes, sometimes dressed, and they just have a really good time here.

Vyas: We have worked with Nelson Baez and Los Cimarrones for several decades.

He's been a part of our community, a part of the Middlesex County arts community, and we have worked with him in many different venues, in senior centers, in concert halls, in schools, at youth shelters as well.

And he brings in not only his excellence in art, but his passion to show his culture and share it with communities.

Nelson: Bomba is the original music of Puerto Rico.

Like me, I'm a Nuyorican, because I was born in New York City, but we all felt that was our island, no matter what.

You may have never stepped foot on the island, but you grew up with that feeling that that's my home.

Puerto Rico is my home.

[ Women singing in Spanish ] Ruiz: We have our Bomba Academy students practicing.

We meet every Saturday.

We have students of all ages.

Nelson and Magda are absolutely amazing.

They bring a ton of knowledge, right?

They've been doing this for a very long time.

But also, it's kind of like a family.

So if you're not learning it but I did, then I should -- It is my kind of obligation as your family member to help you learn it.

Nelson: So Magda is the heartbeat of this group because she is the co-director of the group, and she's also the person who teaches the dancing.

Magda: Five, six.

Nelson joined a group in Jersey city, and we knew we were going to have problems because he was going to be every weekend going out.

So he told me to join, but I was shy.

But once I learned it, I loved it.

And I became hooked to the drug.

And that broke me from shyness, where now I'm teaching it.

It makes me happy inside.

Nelson: You know, this is really an oral tradition.

It's taught from one practitioner to another and down the line.

Some people may want to become dancers and drummers.

People just want to enjoy the dancing.

So, you know, people have different things.

So to me it was preserving that and also the connection it gave me with the community.

Alvarez: It's a very teamwork-based thing.

I've been doing this for, I think, about two years now.

I went to visit Puerto Rico recently, and it's just filled with so much life and heritage, and I just want to be able to express that and share it with as many people as I can.

Nelson: Good, good.

Ruiz: Bomba is the oldest genre of music that stems out of the island of Puerto Rico.

What is unique about bomba is that the drummer, the lead drummer, follows the dancer, not the other way around.

Generally, when we're dancing, we listen to the music and we follow the rhythm of the music.

In bomba, the lead drummer, which is Nelson here, right, will follow the dancer around the room and whatever his or her moves are, he will adjust his playing to that.

So really, it is the dancer that leads the movement.

Nelson: At times it could be the dancer wants to actually challenge the drummer to see how good you are.

"Are you really able to mark everything I do?"

And it becomes like a challenge, and sometimes it becomes very playful between the dancer and the drummer.

Mora: The one that I did today like my solo, those moves that I did, it was like, you have to tease or trick the drummer into thinking you're going to do one thing, but you're really going to do the other.

So it's basically like a trick.

I think I got him good.

Nelson: It's not about me.

As we bring in new people, younger people, my hope is that they will continue with this so that we can pass the torch on.

[ Group singing in Spanish ] It's like when you drop the stone or the rock in the water and it starts and it just keeps making those circles and they just keep going, going, going.

And, you know, you're just worried about that little drop that you did.

Rodriguez: It can be almost like a very spiritual thing if you are really tuned into it.

And I found that kind of surprising actually the first couple times I did it.

Nelson: For the rest of the time I'm here, it's just singing, dancing, and drumming.

And when that time comes, you know, to the transition, then I can be there in the ancestral role.

You know, just looking down at all of these things and just saying, hey, yeah, you know, that was one of mine and that was one of mine.

And hopefully this continues to just go forward.

[ Group singing in Spanish ] Narrator: That's all for this special edition of "State of the Arts," celebrating the amazing diversity of New Jersey's cultural landscape.

Narrator: To find out more about these New Jersey Heritage Fellowship artists and others, visit StateoftheArtsNJ.com.

Narrator: Thanks for watching.

[ Bomba music playing ] Announcer: The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, encouraging excellence and engagement in the arts since 1966, is proud to co-produce "State of the Arts" with Stockton University.

Additional support is provided by... And these friends of "State of the Arts."