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Category: AFC Reading Room Visitors

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Ukrainian Musicians Visit American Folklife Center

Posted by: Stephen Winick

On Wednesday, July 5, and Friday, July 7, 2023, the American Folklife Center (AFC) welcomed a delegation of Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American musicians to the Library of Congress. The musicians—Shchuka-Ryba, Bozhychi, Mariya Kvitka, Yaroslav Dzhus, Katya Chilly, and Ukrainian Village Voices—traveled to Washington, D.C. to perform at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Joining the groups were representatives from the Maidan Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and Dr. James Deutsch—a curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Find out about their visit, and about many of AFC's Ukrainian collections and programs, in this blog post!

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

A Seminar for Strathmore Artist in Residence Grad School

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Thanks to an ongoing partnership between the American Folklife Center and the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda, Maryland, fourteen young musicians were treated to a multi-media feast of collection materials significant to jazz history from three different divisions in the Library of Congress during their in-person visit on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Read all about it in Folklife Today!

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

Researcher Spotlight: Susan Carruthers

Posted by: Megan Harris

Researcher Susan Carruthers is professor of history at the University of Warwick and author of several books including the newly published Dear John: Love and Loyalty in Wartime America (Cambridge University Press, 2022). As Susan discussed in a previous guest blog post, and in this video, Veterans History Project (VHP) collections served as a key …

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

Telling Dear John Stories: VHP Collections in Action

Posted by: Megan Harris

The following is a guest post by Dr. Susan Carruthers, professor of history at the University of Warwick and author of several books including Dear John: Love and Loyalty in Wartime America (Cambridge University Press, 2022). She used Veterans History Project collections in her research for this volume, and also in research for her previous …

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Happy Blogiversary from Folklife Today!

Posted by: Stephen Winick

As our longtime readers may recall, the first post on Folklife Today was for Halloween 2013. It called attention to Jack Santino’s Halloween article, and updated it with new information and scary collection items. Since then, we have collected Halloween photos and blogged about spooky stories and (most recently) bats. We have now blogged about …

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Five Questions with Jennifer Cutting

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Jennifer Cutting.  The “Five Questions” interview was performed by Danna Bell, from the Library of Congress’s Educational Outreach office.  A shorter version of her answers is available at their blog, Teaching with the Library of Congress. Describe what you do at the Library of Congress and the materials …

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

Rosanne Cash Curates a Carnegie Hall Exhibit with AFC

Posted by: Stephen Winick

When Rosanne Cash, recognized by the Library as one of the most compelling figures in popular music, was asked to curate a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, she graciously brought the American Folklife Center along for the ride. Cash asked AFC to help her curate a photo exhibit, which is being …

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

Researcher Spotlight: Simona Tobia

Posted by: Megan Harris

This past spring, the Veterans History Project (VHP) has had the pleasure of hosting Kluge Fellow Simona Tobia of Reading University in the UK. Simona’s interest in the human experience of war fits beautifully with VHP’s mission and collections. Her research on interrogation during World War II is fascinating, and in order to share it …

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

Q & A with Journalist Vern Smith on the Voices of Civil Rights Project Collection

Posted by: Kate Stewart

Two weeks ago, Beth Domingo of AARP’s Life Reimagined Institute and journalist Vern Smith came to the American Folklife Center to talk with us about their work on the Voices of Civil Rights project (AFC 2005/015), sponsored by AARP and donated to the Library of Congress in 2005, and to hear about our recent work …