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Archive: April 2015 (7 Posts)

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

The Language of Birds

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

John James Audubon was born on April 26, 1785 in what is now Haiti. His passion for North American wild birds fostered an ongoing interest in birds and bird conservation in the United States. But, of course, interest in birds and birdsong is as old as humankind. This essay will look at some of the …

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

Poetry Afield

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

When ethnographers collect poetry in the course of a fieldwork project, they are often looking for something in addition to a recitation of an entertaining poem. Poetry, like songs or stories, can tell us something about the culture in which it is found, the local ideas about what makes a good poem, information about languages …

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

The Sherman Holmes Project

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by folklorist and blues scholar Barry Lee Pearson.  It introduces the Sherman Holmes Project, which will play in the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series on Wednesday, April 15.  More concert information is at this link! During the 1940s, job opportunities in Northern industrial centers attracted rural African Americans from throughout …

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

More AFC Recordings on the National Recording Registry

Posted by: Stephen Winick

In my last post for Folklife Today, I shared some of the great recordings on the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, a program of the Library that honors historically significant recordings and draws attention to the importance of audio preservation and audio archives in the stewardship of American culture and history. Specifically, I discussed …

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

Honoring Vernacular Sounds: AFC Recordings on the National Recording Registry

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Last week, the Library announced this year’s inductees to the National Recording Registry.  There, along with classics by The Doors, Radiohead, Steve Martin, and Joan Baez, was a fascinating AFC collection: The Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection Recorded at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. This collection of 101 wax cylinder recordings was created by …