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Blogs Categories: Uncategorized

Blogs Categories: Uncategorized

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WHO KNOWS? RADIO AND THE PARANORMAL

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Who knows “Who Knows?”? This program was produced for the Mutual Broadcasting System from March 16, 1940 through August 29, 1941. Few sources on old time radio mention it, which maybe a reflection of its short run and somewhat narrow distribution. The weekly 15-minute program explored the world of psychic phenomena. On early broadcasts, announcer …

Posted in: Now See Hear!

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Growing Up with La Llorona

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This is the fourth blog post in a series about La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, a spirit that haunts the folklore of Mexico and other Latin American countries. We'll present comments on the legend by the writer Rudolfo Anaya, the scholar Domino Renee Perez, our former intern and Llorona expert Camille Acosta, pioneering Costa Rican writer Manuel Argüello Mora, and Esperanza Sernas, a restaurant worker interviewed in 1977 by fieldworker Philip George for AFC's Chicago Ethnic Arts Project. This blog also contains one of the most gruesome traditional descriptions of La Llorona we've seen so far! The whole series will be published in time for Día de Muertos (aka Día de los Muertos) 2021, so stay tuned....

Posted in: Folklife Today

Picante Pero Sabroso: Songs of La Llorona

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This is the third blog post in a series about La Llorona, the weeping woman who haunts Mexican and other Latinx cultures. The series will be published in time for Día de Muertos (aka Día de los Muertos) 2021. In this post we talk about songs associated with the La Llorona legend. I spend the most time with the traditional song from Oaxaca, which was featured recently at the GRAMMY Awards and in the movie Coco. I also discuss a widespread (and completely different) folksong called "La Llorona" in the son huasteco repertoire, and "La Llorona Loca," a song composed in Colombia that has become a mainstay in Mexican music as well. What all La Llorona songs have in common are the themes of death, remembrance, and mourning, which makes them all appropriate for Día de Muertos or Halloween. We hope this post will be useful in building your own personal playlist for these upcoming holidays. 

Posted in: Folklife Today

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American Music from A to Z in the NLS Music Collection: E—Eastman School of Music

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In our alphabetical journey through the NLS Music Collection, we have arrived this month at the letter E. 2021 is the centennial of the founding of one of the world's leading music schools, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Composers, educators, performers, and other music pioneers from this prestigious institution are represented far and wide throughout our holdings.

Posted in: NLS Music Notes

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From the National Film Registry: Home Movie Day

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Today, we honor National Home Movie Day by not only highlighting the importance of home movies as historical and cultural documents, but also as a personal reflection that we are often more alike than different. At least four home amateur films are in the National Film Registry and many more can be viewed in the …

Posted in: Now See Hear!