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Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

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No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the David Potorti Collection #70163, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from David Potorti in May 2023 (Acc. 20230907.2).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Rebecca Stubbs and Davia Webb, November 2023

Encoded by: Dawne Howard Lucas, November 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Artists--North Carolina.
• Baker, Etta, 1913-2006.
• Bernhardt, Jack.
• Branchettes.
• Carlin, Bob.
• Dickens, Hazel, 1925-2011.
• Epperson, Ralph, 1921-2006.
• Gerrard, Alice, 1934-
• Hawes, Bess Lomax, 1921-2009.
• Jabbour, Alan.
• Kahn, Ed.
• McCabe's Guitar Shop (Santa Monica, Calif.)
• Musicians--North Carolina.
• Musicians--United States.
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University--Bands.
• Potorti, David.
• Potters--North Carolina--Seagrove.
• Simpson, Vollis.

David Potorti, a white writer and reporter, has contributed to a variety of media outlets including The Nation, The Independent Weekly, Adbusters, Spy Magazine, The New Times LA, The Philadelphia City Paper, The Old Time Herald and Bluegrass Unlimited. He has served as an on-air host and commentator for WUNC-FM in Chapel Hill and for Pacifica Network News. As a promotion and marketing writer and producer he has worked in Los Angeles for the ABC, UPN and WB networks and in New York for NBC, HBO, Showtime and Nickelodeon. He co-founded September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a non-profit organization nominated for the 2003 and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, and has served as the literature and theater director for the North Carolina Arts Council in Raleigh, N.C. A native of Ithaca, N.Y., he is the father of two children and lives in Cary, N.C. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Folklore Program.

Contains recordings of interviews conducted by David Potorti, as well as footage of blues musician Etta Baker, the gospel singing group The Branchettes, and the North Carolina A&T marching band.

Interviews include: phone interviews with Gerry McCabe, Bess Lomax Hawes, Ron Hale, Bob Riskin, Walter Camp, and Ed Kahn, circa 1997, regarding McCabe's Guitar Shop; interviews with David Garner, David and Mary Farrell, Kings Pottery regarding potters in Seagrove, N.C.; an interview with artist Stacy Lambert (includes a paper written by Potorti about Lambert and copies of some of Lambert's drawings); interviews with North Carolina traditional musician Marvin Gastner, Jesse Eustice (daughter of old-time musicians Bobbie and Tommy Thompson), banjoist and author Bob Carlin, music journalist Jack Bernhardt, and WPAQ founder Ralph Epperson and his son, station manager Kelly Epperson; interviews with potters M. L. Owens and Nancy Owens, potter Jerry Parnell, and folk artist Vollis Simpson; interviews with old-time musicians Jim Watson and Alan Jabbour relating to a story on the Red Clay Ramblers; and interviews with old-time musicians Alice Gerrard and Hazel Dickens. Other footage includes: a video of blues musician Etta Baker visiting and singing in Professor Bill Malone's class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 5 April 2000 and 6 April 2000; the gospel singing group The Branchettes, 23 February 2000; and the North Carolina A&T Marching Band, circa 2000.

• Audiocassettes (FS-70163/1-16)
• Videotapes (VT-70163/1-16)