The Finn-Am Jams!

Naselle's Finnish-American Folk Festival is happy to present a series of community events the year around, the Finn-Am Jams! In these events music and dance and information and fun collide. Past Finn-Am Jams have featured

• kanteles
• North American Indian and Sammi musical parallels
• dancing
• movies

and much more!

Finn-Am Jams is the catchy title that T i m o   V i r k k a l a of Rosburg thought up for the series of workshops and performances that is sponsored by a special outreach grant from the Washington State Arts Commission as well as the Finnish-American Folk Festival of Naselle, Washington.

The purpose of the series? Provide an opportunity for local people to see and hear visiting artists and performers and participate in workshops and concerts that would be a treat to people in a rural area.

The Finn-Am Jams centered around four concepts of the Finnish and Finnish-American culture: the word (spoken and written), the rhythm or beat of the language and the music, movement through playful dance and traditional family oriented nights, and the song — performers playing instruments and singing.

The series is also charged with outreach to audiences who are usually not “exposed” to the artists in these fields. Through the Finn-Am Jams we reached out to volunteers for our festival who have always worked at the festival and have not had time to see many of the performers or to learn of the history and culture of Finland and Finnish-Americans. We also reached out to segments of our area which are not usually exposed to these concerts; some of them traveled to the Naselle Youth Camp; some were at the Naselle Elementary school classrooms; some were for the entire Naselle School. Others were held at the Naselle Youth Camp for a widely mixed group of incarcerated youth; yet others traveled to such senior luncheons as were held at a local church. We have also reached out in drumming circles and individuals to the Chinook Indian Tribe and continue to do so.

We also hope to reach out to Wahkiakum County in both their newly refurbished facilities at the old Rosburg School and also at the local “hot spot,” the Rosburg Hall.

This has been a three-year grant which is part of a larger outreach in Washington State Arts Commission. Naselle’s Finnish-American Folk Festival was lucky to have been chosen and the community, young and old, has benefited by the availability and interest in the workshops and performances. It is one time the folks can enjoy our visiting artists with great attention and without the distraction of a big festival in progress.

It has long been a hope of some of the organizers, including S u e   P a k e n e n   H o l w a y, that this sort of “series” could be offered during the year. It has been a terrific time of experimenting and many exciting things have occurred and continue to occur because of this series. Many of the committee members hope the series can continue, finding new sources of support both in income and also from the participants and residents of the area.

Some previous Finn-Am Jams: