at a panel of the 1939 writers' congress, which also included aunt molly jackson, earl robinson, and alan lomax, botkin spoke of what writers had to gain from folklore: "he gains a point of view. the satisfying completeness and integrity of folk art derives from its nature as a direct response of the artist to a group and group experience with which he identifies himself and for which he speaks." botkin called on writers to utilize folklore in order to "make the inarticulate articulate and above all, to let the people speak in their own voice and tell their own story."