Please join us for a very special memorial gathering to celebrate the rich and wondrous life of Bess Lomax Hawes on Sunday, May 23rd from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the University Club, California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Map available at http://www.csun.edu/~uclub99/map.html The program will include remembrances and music.

Bess Lomax Hawes joined the faculty at then San Fernando Valley State College as one of the earliest members of the Anthropology Department, teaching folklore and American folk music. She left in 1977 to become the founding director of the Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), where she remained for 16 years. Bess Hawes belonged to one of the most remarkable families in the history of folklore in the United States. Her father, John Lomax, and brother, Alan Lomax, were folklorists and pioneering ethnomusicologists. During her career, she sang with the Almanac Singers, taught guitar to thousands of adults, wrote several books, and worked tirelessly for the support and preservation of traditional arts and artists. In 1993 she received the National Medal of the Arts. Bess Hawes died in November 2009 at the age of 88.

To make a contribution to the Bess Lomax Hawes Folklore Fund at CSUN please contact Anne Robison at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 818.677.7738.

Parking: Enter the CSUN campus from Zelzah Ave. at Dearborn St. Park in Lot G1 (1st left turn after entering campus). Parking is free in Lot G1. Overflow parking will be in adjacent lot G3 and will cost $6.00. For more information, call the Anthropology Department at 818.677.3331.