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Posted by: Stephen Winick
In our last post, we presented the text and photos of our 2016 mummers play, St. George and the Arrearage Monster: A Mumming in Process. Below, see a video of the play, shot on AFC’s trusty tablet by Jonathan Gold, our audio engineer. The acoustics in the Library’s Great Hall make it rather difficult to …
Posted in: christmas, Dance, Drama, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Holidays, Mumming
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Note: Every year, in the week of the Library’s holiday party, 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, …
Posted in: christmas, Dance, England, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, James Madison Carpenter, Mumming
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites qualified scholars to apply for a post-doctoral fellowship for advanced research based on the Alan Lomax Collection. The Lovelace Fellowship, established in 2015 for the study of the Alan Lomax Collection, pays tribute to the 60-year friendship between philanthropist Jon B. Lovelace and James …
Posted in: Alan Lomax
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
The following is a guest post from AFC processing archivist Marcia Segal. The remarkable audio and video recordings in the Eleanor Dickinson collection (AFC 1970/001), recorded circa 1969-1980, capture a moment in time in the years before the Internet and other technological developments changed the way people communicate. The immediacy of religious services, (uninterrupted by …
Posted in: Appalachia, Archival Practice, Folklorists, Religion, Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest blog post by Sarah Lerner, who is currently an intern at AFC. For the past forty years the American Folklife Center has devoted countless hours to the documentation and preservation of our nation’s traditional arts, cultural expressions, and oral histories. Our work is supported and presented though a vocabulary defined …
Posted in: AFC 40th Anniversary, AFC Events, Appalachia, Bluegrass, Bourbon, Folk Music, Folklorists, Homegrown Concert Series, Jean Ritchie, Kentucky, Material Culture, Millennials
Posted by: Stephen Winick
For the last two weekends of November, 2016, AFC was honored to be featured on The Thistle & Shamrock, the long-running and popular Celtic music show produced and hosted by Fiona Ritchie and distributed by NPR. If you want to hear the shows, follow the links to part 1 here and part 2 here. The …
Posted in: Appalachia, Celtic Music, Fiona Ritchie, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, ireland, Irish Americans, Jean Ritchie, Radio, Scotland, Thistle & Shamrock
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
The Library of Congress has created its own Mannequin Challenge video featuring many staff members and Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. The American Folklife Center’s Jennifer Cutting, Valda Morris, and Kelly Revak were among the participants. Here it is (it can also be found on Library of Congress YouTube at the link). The Mannequin Challenge …
Posted in: Folk Drama, Popular Culture