Rebel girls, gypsies, brides, vagabonds, maids, daughters, mothers, artists, journalists, and revolutionaries. Finnish immigrant women came to the U.S. and constructed new lives with a new language and new identities. Through songs and poetry from the voices and experiences of Finnish and Finnish-American women, Jarvi shares their resistance, independence, sorrow, strength, and legacy.

During July’s virtual lecture, we’ll have the opportunity to hear from two incredible speakers from the University of Helsinki: Eila Stepanova, from Karjalan Sivistysseura (The Society of Karelian Culture), and Frog, an Academy of Finland Research Fellow and Associate Professor of Folklore.

Eric Peltoniemi sings in Finnish, “Finnglish” and English, while accompanying himself on the guitar. Combining live performances with video clips, Peltoniemi’s program includes traditional Finnish folk songs (some interpreted true to tradition, others with reimagined melodies and lyrics) and original songs: “Punainen” (performed in the 2017 Finnish film Ikitie); “Käki se Kukkuu” and “Kävelin Kerran” (popular on 1990s Finnish folk radio); and the patriotic anthem, “O Suomi” (performed with choir at the 2017 Finland Centennial gala in Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall). Minnesota folksinger/songwriter Eric Peltoniemi’s interest in Finnish music began as a teenager, and he’s been a fixture in the folk community for over half a century performing live, writing songs for the music theater, and running the Grammy-winning folk label Red House Records. Eric has performed at Finland’s Kaustinen Folk Festival, recorded on various Finnish record labels (EiNo, Royal Mint and Kansan Musiikki Intituutti), and appeared in the Jussi Award (Finnish Oscar)-winning film Ikitie (Eternal Road) singing an original song. Peltoniemi originals also have been recorded by other Finnish artists ( www.redhouserecords.com/artists/eric-peltoniemi/).

During the summer of 1886, the ethnographer Aukusti Koskimies conducted fieldwork with two dozen Inari Sámi storytellers, eventually publishing with Toivo Itkonen an anthology of Sámi oral tradition called Inari Sámi Folklore.

Filming Finnish American Folk Dance Music in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with Michael Loukinen was the fifth event in the 2021 FinnFest music series and featured a presentation by Michael Loukinen who was joined by Oren Tikkanen, hosted by folklorists Nathan Gibson and Anna Rue from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Aki Kaurismäki is a filmmaker from Finland, who has made films since 1981, winning awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival and earning Academy Award nominations, among others. His films range from dark comedy to farce, from rock and roll to tango, from mocumentaries to passionate advocacy for the least among us. Who is this strange northern artist, whose films have won him a following with art-house and film-festival audiences around the world? The talk provides ways of understanding Aki Kaurismäki’s films and of connecting their Finnish roots to their flight around the world as a favorite of world cinema viewers.