Bess Lomax Hawes

Bess Lomax Hawes was an influential American folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and cultural administrator who played a pivotal role in the American folk music revival. The daughter of pioneering folk song collector John Avery Lomax and sister of Alan Lomax, she was a key figure in documenting, teaching, and advocating for traditional music throughout her career. Her most significant institutional impact came as the director of the National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts program, which she transformed into a major force for cultural preservation. In recognition of her lifetime of work, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 1990.

Early life and family

Born in Austin, Texas, she was immersed in the world of folk song collection from childhood by her father, John Avery Lomax, a renowned folklorist and curator for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Her mother was Bess Bauman Brown, a former teacher. Growing up, she worked alongside her older brothers, Alan Lomax and John Lomax Jr., assisting with field recordings and transcriptions, which provided an unparalleled education in American roots music. The family's work brought them into contact with seminal figures like Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, deeply shaping her understanding of folk culture as a living tradition. She attended the University of Texas at Austin before transferring to Bryn Mawr College, where she earned her bachelor's degree in sociology in 1941.

Career in folk music and education

In the early 1940s, she moved to New York City, where she became an active participant in the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk scene. She worked briefly for the Office of War Information before joining the Almanac Singers, a politically charged folk group that included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and her future husband, artist and musician Butch Hawes. A skilled musician and teacher, she co-wrote the hit song "M.T.A." for the Kingston Trio in 1959. She later relocated to Los Angeles, where she taught anthropology and folk music at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge) for nearly two decades. Her pedagogical approach emphasized hands-on musical participation and the social context of folk traditions, influencing a generation of students and educators.

Work with the National Endowment for the Arts

In 1977, Hawes was appointed the first full-time director of the Folk Arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.. Under her visionary leadership from 1977 to 1992, the program moved from a small grant-making entity to a nationally respected institution. She established the National Heritage Fellowships, the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, which annually recognizes master artists like Clifton Chenier and Bessie Jones. She strategically built partnerships with organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution and state arts agencies to create a nationwide network for cultural documentation and support. Her advocacy was instrumental in securing permanent federal funding and recognition for traditional arts as a vital component of American cultural heritage.

Awards and legacy

Her contributions were recognized with numerous honors, most notably the 1990 National Heritage Fellowship, awarded by the NEA itself, making her one of the few administrators to receive the award. She also received the American Folklore Society's award named in her honor, which recognizes significant contributions to the preservation and advocacy of folk arts. Her legacy endures through the robust national infrastructure for folk arts she created, the hundreds of artists she supported, and her influential writings on public folklore. She passed away in Portland, Oregon in 2009, remembered as a foundational figure who bridged the worlds of academia, performance, and cultural policy.

Selected works and publications

Her scholarly and practical work is captured in several key publications. Her book *Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage* (1972), co-authored with Bessie Jones, is a classic text on children's musical traditions. Her memoir, *Sing It Pretty: A Memoir* (2008), provides a personal history of the Lomax family and the twentieth-century folk revival. She also authored the instructional manual *The Folk Song Abecedary* and numerous articles for journals like *Ethnomusicology* and *The Journal of American Folklore*, focusing on topics from sea shanties to federal arts policy. These works reflect her lifelong commitment to making folk traditions accessible and understood in their cultural context.

Category:American folklorists Category:American ethnomusicologists Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners