Keeping her ethnic traditions alive
Silverman's book on Polish-American folklore gives a broad cultural view

By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Contributor

For Deborah Anders Silverman-author of the recently published book "Polish American Folklore"-success has come with an ironic twist.

Her first foray into folklore was while working as public relations director at SUNY Fredonia in February 1978. Rifling through a stack of announcements about the latest faculty research projects, Silverman stumbled upon the curriculum vitae of professor Ronald Ambrosetti, who, along with professor Dennis Preston, had received a federal grant to conduct research on ethnic folklore. Fascinated, she assigned a student intern a timely piece on the folklore of Valentine's Day, which became an immediate hit and was picked up worldwide by the Associated Press.

Her interest sufficiently piqued, Silverman eventually joined up as a junior colleague with Ambrosetti and Preston on their research, and enrolled in a graduate course in ethnic folklore.

"I liked the work so well that I decided after that course that I wanted to make Polish folklore my master's thesis topic," she says.

One of her greatest public relations successes, she contends, was maneuvering that story and subsequently uncovering-literally-a topic for her thesis, which would later evolve into her book. That favorite moment-certainly not forgotten but perhaps now overshadowed by her most recent success-is a source of humor for Silverman, who finds it ironic that she should still be doing public relations work on folklore. The twist is that lately, it's for her own cause.

"Here I am, now, at the other end, in my 40s, and guess what? I helped [the University] of Illinois Press write the press release on my own book," says the senior staff writer to UB President William R. Greiner, laughing heartily.

"It's been a natural niche for me," says Silverman, a former reporter for the Dunkirk Observer and former radio news writer. "I've always been interested in doing community-based research, and folklore research, if nothing else, is community based. I feel like I know Western New York's people so much better."

Silverman-of pure Polish ancestry-began the interview process for her book in her hometown of Dunkirk, talking with nearly 55 people. The first interviewee was her uncle, and from there, the numbers grew quite naturally.

"A lot of folklorists start out interviewing people they may know, and then from there it usually proceeds something along the lines of, 'Gee, Debbie, you should interview so-and-so because he knows a lot about songs, or she knows a lot about cooking, or he's a wonderful storyteller.' And so it progresses, and one referral leads to another, and pretty soon, you have an entire network."

Silverman completed her 257-page thesis in the summer of 1979, but dismissed it as a potential book until more than 10 years later, when she enrolled at UB to work on her doctoral degree.

"I decided to take my master's thesis and expand that into my dissertation," she says. "Surprisingly, in that Š 10 years, no one had written a book on Polish American folklore."

Working with three UB professors-Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and Samuel Capen Professor of American Culture; Charlie Keil, former professor of American studies, and Dennis Tedlock, professor of English and McNulty chair-Silverman pursued her coursework in American literature while conducting fieldwork to build on her previous research.

"Wherever I could, I would talk to people," she says, noting that she not only visited individual homes, but also attended a host of festivals and community events centered around various aspects of the Polish culture. Not only did she track down Polish Americans from different parts of the country at local events, she also tried to ensure a fair cross-section of Polish Americans, interviewing immigrants and descendants from different social classes.

"Stereotypically, Polish Americans are identified as blue collar, they all love polka music and they all drink beer, and it's not true," she says emphatically. "There are these various layers of Polish American culture working simultaneously, and I wanted to make very clear that that's what I was trying to track down."

Conducting her research from 1990 through 1996, Silverman focused on the group of immigrants who came to the United States between 1870 and 1914 and their descendants.

Estimated to be the largest group of immigrants, descendants of these post-Civil War Poles eventually spread out in the community, breaking typical geographic boundaries of the immigrant community, Silverman says.

But such shifts-from the East Side of Buffalo to Cheektowaga, for example-do not necessarily mean the culture is left behind, she says.

Silverman discovered the culture was abundant not only in homes of Polish descendants, but in the traditions that also were kept by spouses of a different ethnic heritage and by other individuals who stumbled, one way or another, into the culture and fell in love.

Her book, which was released to the public Aug. 7, outlines the history of migration and the establishment of Polish immigrant communities throughout the United States. She delves into the specific customs and traditions of the Polish people in subsequent chapters, from holiday celebrations, to rites of passage-births, deaths and weddings-to storytelling, folk religion, folk medicine, folk music-including folk songs, polka music and Polish folk dancing-to foods and, finally, festivals.

Her "labor of love," as she affectionately refers to her book, affords a broad view of the Polish culture here in Western New York, representative of nearly all Polish communities in the country, she says, from Connecticut to California. Yet, despite noble attempts to weave together so much information, Silverman says her work is but "a snapshot in time."

"Now, as we speak, there are more changes taking place. It's constantly evolving," she says of tradition within the Polish culture.

So with all this evolution, is there potential for another book?

Of course, she offers, citing a massive list of niches within the folklore realm. For now, though, Silverman seems more than content to embrace the sometimes-overwhelming success-and fanfare-that comes with the book.

The mayor of Dunkirk-whose Polish population played a large part in the foundation of her research-recently declared Aug. 13 Polish American Folklore Day in honor of the book. Dizzy from the response, but markedly humble, Silverman pauses a moment to consider the heady effects it's having on readers-and on herself.

"It's taken on a life of its own," she says.