Florida’s Folklorist to Present Free Maritime Lecture in Wakulla County

Dr. Tina Bucuvalas, the State Folklorist of Florida, will focus “on a wide variety of maritime traditions of commercial fishermen,” when she headlines the Big Bend Maritime Center’s free public lecture series Thursday, Feb. 28, at Tallahassee Community College’s Wakulla Center in Crawfordville.

Dr. Bucuvalas said that Florida waters have created long-standing, vigorous commercial and recreational fishing traditions. “Both are important,” she said, “but the traditions of maritime occupations are often overlooked.

“I will focus on a wide variety of such traditions including sponge fishing in Key West and Tarpon Springs, fish net making in St. Augustine, oyster harvesting here in the Panhandle, as well as oral traditions, fishing gear, boat building, music, and foodways from throughout Florida,” she noted.

“The Maritime Trail,” a five-part series, opened in January when some 50 people enjoyed a documentary film and Q & A focusing on the impact of the net ban on contemporary life of historic fishing families in Cortez and Cedar Key, Fla.

{sidebar id=1}The second lecture, “Folklife and Maritime Heritage,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. following a 7 o’clock pre-lecture social at the college facility on Highway 319 about one mile south of the Wakulla County Courthouse.

Dr. Bucuvalas, the series’ second guest speaker, is Director and Folklorist of the Florida Folklife Program, Bureau of Historic Preservation. Often published, Dr. Bucuvalas holds a Masters Degree in Folklore and Mythology from the University of California and a Ph. D in Folklore from Indiana University.

The public presentations are made possible by a grant to the Big Bend Maritime Center (BBMC) from the Florida Humanities Council. The guest speaker series will continue the fourth Thursday of each month through May. Remaining presentations will cover “Shipwrecks of the Big Bend and Gulf of Mexico,” “Prehistory Underwater in the Big Bend,” and “Lighthouses of the Big Bend.”

The series is also being cosponsored by a Florida Coastal Management Grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and by Tallahassee Community College, which is providing the facility.

“Based on attendance and comments from the opening lecture, we believe this entire maritime heritage series will be very popular,” said Bill Lowrie, maritime center director. A “mini-museum” is currently located in Panacea and longer-term plans are to locate a permanent museum along the Wakulla County Gulf Coast.

The series is being coordinated by BBMC board member KC Smith. Mrs. Smith is also the Florida Heritage Education Coordinator for the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

This article originally published on February 16, 2008.

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mkwestmark

 

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