We went downtown to Tucson's Folklife Festival this afternoon. It has really grown over the years since we started going. It showcases the diversity of Tucson and highlights every ethnic identity you can think of--some surprising that call Tucson home. Tons of food booths, several entertainment stages with performances and demonstrations going on, and plenty of special interest booths to promote special causes or sell stuff.
We tried some Russian dumplings--just ok--I opted for Korean "sushi", Kimbap. Actually it only looks like sushi to westerners-- kimbap is not considered fine or fancy fare in Korea, it's picnic and snack food that you eat with your hands. Traditional fillings include seasoned vegetables, egg, meat and/or imitation crab, but these days anything goes. From Seoul to NYC, fillings range from cheesy to spicy to fresh. Kimbap is like the Korean version of a sandwich- you can change the filling to fit any diet, palate, or occasion.
I was especially interested in the exhibit, Quilts Making a Difference. This is a quilt from WWI for the Red Cross. People paid from 25 cents to 25 dollars to have their name quilted on a square to raise money for the war effort. The governor of Arizona at the time is on a center block of this one. Apparently this was a pattern that was published in the newspaper so several of these were made all across the country. The following quilt was more sobering, it honors those migrants who died in the desert in the Tucson sector of the border between 2005 and 2006. Some of the materials were picked up at staging points where migrants gathered and discarded what they could not take with them. So there is bits of tea towels, shirts, embroidered things that you know someone made for a loved one.
And then we got back to the car and had a flat tire!! Thankfully I was not alone as Will fixed it in a flash. I did watch so that maybe I could do this if I had to. He made it look easy enough. Meant a new tire as there was a huge chunk of wood embedded in the tire from who knows where!!
