WASHINGTON – Considering the steel pan drum originated in Trinidad and Tobago, few people associate the state of West Virginia with steel drum bands. However, the West Virginia University steel drum ensemble has received standing ovations following daily performances at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., over the past week and a half.
Led by Dr. Michael Vercelli, director of the World Music Performance Center at West Virginia University (WVU), the band has played a wide variety of songs, from traditional Trinidadian tunes to “The Star-Spangled Banner” to even a cover of “On the Floor” by Jennifer Lopez.
“[The West Virginians are] representing a musical style and culture that isn’t their own, but it’s something that they’ve embraced,” says Cristina Diaz-Carrera, program coordinator of the Campus and Community section at this year’s Smithsonian festival. “I think this is what the festival is all about—exploring cultural boundaries.”
For the estimated one million people visiting the Folklife Festival, which began June 27 and ends July 8, the West Virginia University steel drum ensemble has played an instrumental role in the festival’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act. The Folklife Festival is an annual exposition celebrating domestic and international cultural heritage, including exhibits, performances, lectures and demonstrations.
Along with the WVU steel band, there were exhibits and performances presented by more than 25 land-grant universities, including hula dances by the University of Hawai‘i’s Hula Halau UNUKUPUKUPU troupe.
Land-grant schools, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, trace their origins to the Morrill Land-Grant Acts. The first Morrill Act, passed in July 1862, granted each state 30,000 acres of federal land per representative it sent to Congress, for establishing educational institutions that emphasized agriculture and mechanical arts. The land-grant schools specialized in agriculture and mechanical arts to spur U.S. economic development and to provide an alternative to the traditional classical and religious orientation that characterized much of American higher education in the 18th and 19th centuries.
With the Morrill Act of 1890, even more funds flowed to land-grant colleges, but they came with a twist. To receive money, a land-grant institution in a particular state could not discriminate by race in admissions, unless a separate land-grant college in that state had been established for people of color. At the time, Blacks were being targeted largely in the South by Jim Crow laws that restricted access to public facilities and institutions. As a result of the 1890 act, a number of historically Black colleges and universities were established to enable states to maintain segregated institutions.
