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Archive: October 2014 (12 Posts)

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Guess Who’s Turning 1?

Posted by: Stephen Winick

It’s hard to believe, but October 30, 2014 is the first anniversary of Folklife Today! A lot can happen in a year, so we thought we’d take a little trip through the highlights of our first year. I’ll begin with the sad things. Just three months after our debut, the great folksinger Pete Seeger died, …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Folklorists partner with archives to create ‘living archives’ of folk arts documentation

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

In April, Maryland Traditions, a program of the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), transferred its archives to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Sustainability of folklore fieldwork collections is a pressing issue for many state folk arts agencies throughout the United States. I recently had the opportunity to talk with state folklorist Clifford Murphy about …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

October 27 — World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The Following is a guest post by Judith Gray, ethnomusicologist and coordinator of reference in the American Folklife Center. In the last decades of the 19th century, Thomas Edison and his contemporaries in Europe created various devices for capturing sound [1]. These inventions, in turn, led to the creation of audiovisual archives. The first two …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

FolklifeHalloween2014 is Underway!

Posted by: Stephen Winick

FolklifeHalloween2014 is underway!  This is the first day we’ve asked people to share their Halloween and Day of the Dead photos on Flickr with the tag #FolklifeHalloween2014.  Of course, a few early birds had already begun to use the tag last week, like Daniel Baker, whose photo from 2009 is above. Others shared photos of …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Disabled Veterans Never Cease to Inspire

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a time that is set aside not only to raise awareness about disability employment issues, but also to celebrate the contributions of America’s workers who have disabilities. According to the United States Department of Labor, more than twenty percent of the nation’s workforce is comprised of people with …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Guess Who’s Turning 100?

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Whether you’ve been a follower of Folklife Today from the outset, or you’ve only recently joined us, we’d like you to help us celebrate a milestone: this is our 100th post! And what better way to mark that point on our journey than to announce a centennial celebration? So I’m pleased to announce AFC’s 2015 …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Saddlemaker Ken Tipton

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is part of a series of guest posts by Carl Fleischhauer of the Library of Congress’s Office of Strategic Initiatives.  Carl is a former staff member of the American Folklife Center and participated in many of the Center’s field collecting projects. All the photos embedded in this post were shot by Carl in …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Happy Birthday, Navy! And, Crossing the Line Ceremonies

Posted by: Megan Harris

Happy Birthday, Navy! The United States Navy turned a whopping 239 years old on October 13th. On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress created the Continental Navy, thus establishing what would eventually become the United States Navy. To commemorate the occasion, I wanted to explore an intriguing and historic Navy tradition that is frequently …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

So You Want to Share Your Halloween Photos?

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Last week Trevor Owens and I posted to this blog, asking people to share their Halloween photos with us this year in an experimental online collecting project.  That post is important, and if you want to participate you should read it at this link.  But in case that much detail leaves you feeling bummed like …