Sizing up festival mythos

Originally published November 10, 1991

Festival Mythos: Its organizers described it as the most elaborate series of cultural events in Philadelphia history. It was, they asserted, "an extraordinary coming together of the arts and culture of an entire city around an idea" - that mythology plays a vital role in art and in our lives.

It took two years to put together. It lasted seven weeks. Eighty-one cultural institutions and organizations were involved, plus a number of Center City businesses. The festival, organized by the University of the Arts and the Native Land Foundation, commissioned three original works. It brought in a passel of performing artists, writers and scholars. It cost about $600,000, three-quarters of which came from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the rest from the Ford Foundation and Mercedes-Benz. The money was used to fund more than 30 arts groups and more than 70 programs and enabled more than half the festival events to be offered free.

Was the money well spent? "Absolutely," said Marion Godfrey, Pew program director for culture, noting that the festival cost far less than similar ones that have taken place in Los Angeles and New York, and that the money had not been diverted from the foundation's other cultural activities in the city.

If measured by the number of people who showed up for its various events, Festival Mythos was a success. It drew an attendance of more than a million to the various performances, exhibitions, lectures, readings, symposiums, films and special programs, according to the festival's organizers.

Playwright Edward Albee, delivering the festival's keynote address, attracted the largest crowd ever seen in the Great Hall Atrium of the University of the Arts: nearly 1,000 people, according to Josey Stamm, the university's director of external affairs and the festival's producing director.

Novelist Maya Angelou packed the ballroom of the Hotel Atop the Bellevue for her reading. The Royal Priesthood drew a record crowd of 1,400 to its concert of spirituals and gospel music at the Episcopal Church of the Savior. The innovative music group Relache drew about 500 people, twice as many as it customarily draws, to its performance of Joseph Kasinskas' new music-theater work, Demeter's Lament, at the University Museum. People had to be turned away from a symposium on Issues of Cultural Pluralism at the 250-seat auditorium of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum.

In arranging the festival, the University of the Arts brought together many cultural organizations - from the Philadelphia Orchestra to Taller Puertorriqueno, from the University Museum to the Painted Bride Art Center. And some of the festival's monitors saw the result of this mix in the audiences.

"I have never seen such racially diverse audiences at so many different (cultural) events," observed Ella King Torrey, former Pew program officer. Torrey is president of Grantmakers in the Arts, the national association of private-sector funders, which held its annual conference about halfway through the festival. The delegates, representing such foundations as Ford, MacArthur, AT&T, Rockefeller, Polaroid and Hallmark, were "amazed and impressed" with the diversity and enthusiasm they saw, Torrey said.

In a festival of this magnitude it is difficult to single out highlights, but many observers agreed that one surely was choreographer Garth Fagan, who with his dance troupe performed a portion of a new work, Griot New York, with score by Wynton Marsalis. (Griot New York was one of three new works commissioned by Festival Mythos , this one in collaboration with the Brooklyn Academy of Music; the entire version will be presented there later this year. )

Another original piece commissioned by the festival and winning acclaim was a play in which adults and young people of the Village of Arts and Humanities acted out their lives in their North Philadelphia neighborhood. A modern urban myth based on reality, directed by Village director and University of the Arts artist-teacher Lily Yeh, It Pulls It All Apart drew capacity crowds at its four performances at the University of the Arts' Drake Theater.

Some events still continue. The People Light and Theater Company's Achilles, a dramatization of the Greek legend in Kabuki style, runs through next Sunday at the theater in Malvern. The Community Education Center's exhibit, "Death, Purgatory and Nirvana," will stay through Dec. 20 at the center, 3500 Lancaster Ave.

The idea of the festival was mythology, which can mean almost anything. The festival tried to explore the connection between art and myth, and was dedicated to the legacy of the late guru of mythology, Joseph Campbell.

Not everything on the Festival Mythos calendar of events exactly related to the festival theme. Christopher d'Amboise's ballet, The Golden Mean, was critically acclaimed in its world premiere by the Pennsylvania Ballet but had only the remotest connection, if any, to mythology. And some events, included as part of the festival, had been scheduled to take place anyway during the festival period, from Sept. 13 to Oct. 31.

Last week, the Philadelphia Daily News carried a story questioning the credentials of Jamake Highwater, founder and head of the co-sponsoring Native Land Foundation and Mythos general director. According to the Daily News account, Highwater has created a number of myths about himself over the years - his ancestry, for example.

The black-haired, strong-featured Highwater says his father was a Cherokee and his mother Blackfoot and French Canadian and that he was adopted; the article quoted several American Indians as asserting that his claim to be a Native American is phony, that he is not listed on any tribal rolls. The article also raised questions about Highwater's age, birthplace and educational achievements as listed in Who's Who in America and about his relationships with such writers as Susan Sontag and the late Anais Nin.

Highwater's response to the newspaper was that he is indeed of Native American ancestry and that while he is "capable of exaggeration," his detractors are motivated by envy. He did not respond to calls left by The Inquirer last week.

Whatever his background, Highwater has achieved a lot in life, as author of more than 20 books, writer for the Christian Science Monitor and other publications, lecturer and promoter.

Mythos producing director Stamm, who with a small staff has spent the last two years organizing the festival, credited Highwater with having conceived the idea for the festival and with having brought in such figures as composer and performance artist Meredith Monk, dancer Jean Erdman (Joseph Campbell's widow), anthropologist Ashley Montagu, dancer Erick Hawkins, playwright and composer Elizabeth Swados, and others.

"I had nothing but a positive experience working with him," Stamm said, adding that whatever Highwater's background may be, it is irrelevant to the festival and its accomplishments.

Will there be an encore? That depends on the feedback. "If the city is interested in seeing it happen again, I would hope we could do it again," said Stamm.