Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY)

James S. "Big Jim" Griffith on stage at TMY, circa 1977

The University of Arizona Library's Southwest Folklore Center contains the correspondence, financial records, publicity, photographs, slides, and audiotape reels and tape reel transcripts documenting the Tucson Meet Yourself (TMY) cultural heritage festival held from 1974 through 1994. Dr. James S. Griffith, who served as coordinator from 1974 until the festival ended in October 1994, secured a release from participants which allows for use and distribution of the materials for educational purposes only. An estimated 400 to 500 photographs and slides exist for each year covering every aspect of the festival including booths, artists, musicians, dancers, performances, and volunteer workers. Three hundred twenty-four (324) reel-to-reel tape recordings cover the main stage performances, interviews and workshops. Performances consist primarily of all kinds of ethnic music, but also include the annual corridos competition, fiddle workshops, cowboy poetry and storytelling workshops, railroad oral history interviews, personal interviews and workshops.