Paper short abstract:

This paper examines culturally sustainable modes by which the revitalization of a Danish American Grundtvigian heritage is reinterpreted and performed through narrative, song, and reminiscence at recent Danebod Folk Meetings, held virtually in the Danebod Folk School, Tyler, Minnesota.

Paper long abstract:

Danebod Folk High School was built in 1888 by Danish Grundtvigian immigrants in the 1870s in the pioneer settlement of Tyler, Minnesota. It closed during the Depression, but was revitalized during the mid-1930s as a reunion of older persons from the former Danish Grundtvigian synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church in the form of a "Danebod Fall Meeting." In that reformulation, it was held each year for five days with participants travelling to the old Danebod Folk School to listen to lectures in the foredragsal, sing songs in English and Danish from Højskolesangbogen, share meals, drink coffee, reminisce, and redefine and reinterpret their progressive heritage through narrative, song, and fellowship. During the mid-1980s, I conducted in-depth field documentation of this celebration and experienced how the group that gathered redefined, challenged and put into perspective aspects of a shared past that provided significance for them in an increasingly assimilated and often quite conservative American context. During the pandemic, the meeting has continued to meet on zoom for a few days each year. Referred to currently as the "Danebod Folk Meeting," the virtual gathering has found innovative and vigorous ways to practice and honor the group's continually reframed understanding of heritage and identity. This paper will examine the sustainable strategies by which this group, now further than ever from their immigrant past, strives to celebrate, renew, and articulate a shared identity at Danebod through the performance of familiar culturally expressive forms that provide meaning and sustenance for those who participate.