The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents
Professor Kathryn Laity on:
Enchanted: Why Magic Persists Across Millennia
Tag: charms
#FolkHorror: Lullaby
I have been reading the excellent biography of Shirley Jackson by Ruth Franklin, which of course makes me turn to Jackson’s own writing for various things (some books are still packed in boxes alas, and it is too hot to spend time in the garage looking for them). I decided to re-read this essay which…
Charms Conference #FolkloreThursday
Sneaking into the last few hours of #FolkloreThursday and finally sharing a bit about the Charms Conference I went to last month at Harvard. It was great: even better, there’s a proposed proceedings volume in the works so you may be able to share some of the exciting things I heard and saw that weekend….
Connecticut Shenanigans
A whirlwind weekend which included the QoE, Marko, Elena & Rod, the Gorey Exhibit at the Athenaeum, as well as recording with Julie & Eric (and the cats!) at the fabulous Cool Ranch Studio. Yes, exciting things to come, but secret for now…
Occult Humanities Conference 2017
I headed down to the city on a day that started out dark but became rather lovely. I saw the lovely Katja and her kitties: she’s the hostess with the mostest. We had a lovely dinner at Veselka, too. I saw a couple of the Ai Weiwei installations too. There are always sights to see…
ISATMA 2017
When I saw Pauline Oliveros about a year ago I didn’t know it would be the last time. Her concert with the International Contemporary Ensemble at Bard’s Fisher Center was –as she always was — riveting and compelling. Hearing about her new work with assistive technology for music (she had just come back from Norway)…
Charcoal Burners, Black Sails & Magic
Admittedly I’ve not left the house since I got here, but don’t let my indolence fool you! I am ready to rise to the opportunity and sure enough, I will be. Thanks to Cailleach’s Herbarium mentioning it on Facebook, I got on the waitlist and now have ticket in hand to attend ‘The Supernatural in…
Lammas
From Leechdom, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, a compendium of wonderful folk knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon England, a charm using bread [hláf] hallowed on August 1st [hláfmæsse-dæg] the traditional grain harvest day: Summer’s last hurrah this month: in sunny Dundee the flowers still bloom: But the rowan berries have come too, and they spell…
Sounding Out! Podcast #54: The Sound of Magic
Originally posted on Sounding Out!:
Each of the essays in this month’s “Medieval Sound” forum focuses on sound as it, according to Steve Goodman’s essay “The Ontology of Vibrational Force,” in The Sound Studies Reader, “comes to the rescue of thought rather than the inverse, forcing it to vibrate, loosening up its organized or petrified body (70).…
Sounding Out Medieval
Have you ever wondered what the Middle Ages sounded like? I am obsessing over the idea lately, especially as it applies to magic. How wonderful then to be part of a series that has begun at Sounding Out, the Sound Studies blog. Thanks to the editors Dorothy Kim and Christopher Roman for putting together this…
K. A. Laity 