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

Omaha Hethu’shka Society Songs and Dances

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Historically, the Omaha Indian Hethu’shka Society were a group of highly respected men, voted into the group by unanimous consent of the society, who aimed to set a strong example for their people of the best attributes of a warrior. Although traditionally deeds in combat were the central test for inclusion in the society, such …

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

Dance Heritage Coalition Intern Helps Expand Access to Lomax Choreometrics Materials

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post from Lotus Norton-Wisla, an intern at the American Folklife Center working to improve access to materials in the Alan Lomax Collection related to choreometrics, which was Lomax’s methodology for studying dance performance style. These materials consist of more than 70 boxes of paper materials and more than 3,500 film elements. …

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

St. George, the Dragon, and the Squid: A Preservation Mumming

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Note: Every year, in the week before Christmas, staff members of the American Folklife Center put our research and performance skills into play, bringing collections to life in a dramatic performance that tours the halls of the Library of Congress.  Dressed in costumes that range from striking to silly, we sing, act, rhyme, and dance …

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

A Sampler of Luso-Hispanic American Music and Song

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

The collections of the American Folklife Center reflect a long history of ethnographic interest in Luso-Hispanic American music and song. Much of the early collecting work focused on peoples of the regions that formerly belonged to Spain. In this post I’ll provide a quick overview of the Hispanic-American music in AFC’s online collections. Spanish Songs …

Artemio Posadas plays harp and Dolores Garcia plays jarana

Fandango: Convivial Sharing

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post authored in 2014 by Russell Rodríguez and Quetzal Flores of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. We edited the post in 2024 to add two relevant videos, making it part of the Homegrown Plus series. Welcome to our introduction to son jarocho and the fandango. Before we get started, …

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

The Two First “Folk-Lore” Columns

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This post presents two primary source documents, both in the public domain, which are difficult to find online. Both relate to my previous post on William John Thoms. They are the first two columns in Thoms’ series “Folk-Lore,” which ran in the journal The Athenæum from 1846 to 1849, and in Notes & Queries from …

A man sits at a desk reading a book.

“He Coined the Word ‘Folk-Lore'”: The “Old Folk-Lorist” William John Thoms

Posted by: Stephen Winick

August 22 is an important date to folklore fans.  It is, in fact, the anniversary of the first appearance of the (originally hyphenated) word “Folk-Lore” in print. The medium was a letter to the editor of the Athenæum, a scholarly journal, and the author was William John Thoms, although he wrote the letter under his …