What is folk?

‘Folk’ is often misunderstood, put in a box of irrelevance for most people. At best? Something for the historians. At worst? Potentially malignant, stained by nationalism and colonialism.

But I believe that folk belongs to everyone. In fact, you’re already doing it, even if you don’t know it yet.

My take on ‘folk’ isn’t limited to music, or even necessarily to culture. It’s not a specific set of rustic artefacts once gathered by Victorian collectors on bicycles and promptly preserved in aspic. You don’t even have to use the word ‘folk’ to be tapping into its power.

When I set out to find contemporary folk practices I was told there was ‘nothing left to collect’ and that everything of value in the folk arts was already well-known, or died out years ago and today exists only as a revival. What I found was a wealth of performances and practices—often led by women and other marginalised people—that demonstrated all of the hallmarks of ‘folk’, but were evolving outside of the ‘folk narrative’.

For me, folk is what happens when we come together, regardless of anything, to share in activities and structures that we create for ourselves. It’s the stuff we make, do and think for ourselves—and right now, we need it more than ever…

Who am I?

My name is Lucy Wright and I’ve been exploring—and falling in love with—lesser-known folk arts for more than a decade now. I started out as a performer, touring with the BBC Folk Award-nominated act, Pilgrims’ Way: I knew pretty quickly that I wasn’t cut out for a life on the stage, but I was still wanted to think about folk, so I turned my attention to researching and making art about it instead.

At first fairly unintentionally (and later, with real zealousness!), most of the practices I’ve worked with are led by women. I’ve hung out with female morris dancers in Japan, created portraits of kazoo band leaders in the Northeast and campaigned to get the threatened Jersey handicraft of ‘harestailing’ recognised by the Heritage Craft Association. I’ve completed a PhD at Manchester School of Art, exhibited and done commissions for Meadow Arts, Compton Verney and UNESCO (to name just a few) and written a bunch of articles and book chapters. I’m probably proudest of my research about girls’ carnival morris dancing and growing archive of photographs of contemporary carnival performers, some of which were exhibited at Cecil Sharp House, London in 2017, amongst other places. 

However, ten years on and I’m still seeing a lot of the same stuff done in the name of ‘folk’: books, exhibitions, documentaries and the likes, all focused primarily on men’s stories and men’s traditions, and endless lazy depictions of folk as ‘weird and wonderful’—quaint, nostalgic, de-fanged!

So I decided I needed to make a bigger statement and that statement is Folk is a Feminist Issue.  You can find out more about some of my projects here.

Women first…but not just for women!

Folk has a gender problem. The historical folklore collectors who provided us with our existing canon of performances and customs privileged men’s practices, overlooking and undervaluing the things that women did. With the exception of the annual Pancake Race in Olney, Buckinghamshire, almost all of England’s recognised calendar customs centralise men, either by tacitly sidelining or actively prohibiting the participation of women. 

But FIAFI isn’t only about women’s stuff. It’s about reclaiming the radical potential of folk for EVERYONE. The goal isn’t to push for marginalised people to be allowed to take part in customs that were historically dominated by men. Instead it’s about expanding the canon to include the parallel—equal—traditions, practices, structures belonging to women, LGBTQ+ communities, black and brown folks. 

As feminism is concerned with the emancipation of all beings, so FIAFI is committed to supporting everybody’s right to engage in folk art. To do this we need to expand our vision of what folk is—and how we might better use it as a force for change in our troubled world.

A short history of FIAFI…

In 2018, I made a T-shirt bearing the legend, ‘Folk is a Feminist Issue’ and wore it to Sidmouth Folk Festival. A number of people stopped to ask about it and later, when I posted a pic on social media, lots of other people asked if I could make one for them too. Within a few weeks I’d shipped shirts to Australia, the US and Japan as well as all across the UK. 

I received a bit of pushback at the time from people who accused me of cashing in on the ‘trend’ for feminism: some people saw it as a personal affront to be focusing on women, while others argued that I shouldn’t be ‘politicising’ folk. Although I didn’t make my fortune selling T-shirts and I still disagree about the politicising, I kind of understood the criticism. FIAFI was just a slogan in search of a campaign, and I hadn’t the time or resources to push it further.

However, in 2021, I decided it was time to re-launch FIAFI with a more defined remit and set of goals. You can read more about them here:

It’s also the umbrella under which I’m going to (continue to) pursue a range of projects and activities. There are lots of different strands to this endeavour—artworks, writing, talks, events—but they’ll all come together under the Folk is a Feminist Issue banner.

I’d love for you to join me!