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Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Todd Harvey, AFC’s Lomax collection curator. Portions of the post appeared in a short essay Todd contributed to the Haiti box set pictured below. In 2009, ethnomusicologist Gage Averill edited and compiled the CD box set Alan Lomax in Haiti 1936-1937, and wrote the accompanying Grammy-nominated notes. He …
Posted in: AFC Events
Posted by: John Fenn
Ascensión Mazuela-Anguita is the current scholar in the Jon B. Lovelace Fellowship for the Study of the Alan Lomax Collection, and has been using her time at the Library of Congress to explore materials held at the AFC related to Lomax’s 1952–53 field recording trip to Spain. In this recent guest post on the Kluge …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Folk Music
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by the American Folklife Center’s Alan Lomax curator Todd Harvey. Fans of folk music fire up your browsers! The second—and largest—phase of the Lomax family papers has just gone online at this link. This set of manuscripts joins ca. 25,000 items that went online last fall. Researchers now have access to nearly …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Archival Practice
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This post is an adaptation of my keynote address to the American Folklore Society’s pre-conference on folklore archiving, “Adventures in Folklore Archiving,” Oct. 16, 2017 in Minneapolis, MN. I was out at a DC party recently and was asked the classic DC party question: “What do you do for a living?” My answer was that I …
Posted in: Archival Practice
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by American Folklife Center archivist Maya Lerman. Staff in the American Folklife Center archive finished a project that will improve our efficiency in preserving and making accessible AFC’s rich audiovisual collections. Like audiovisual archives everywhere, AFC is working to prepare for a time when obsolescence and degradation of physical media will greatly hinder preservation efforts. We …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Archival Practice
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Halloween is here! This year the Library of Congress has decided to make it extra-special, with a pop-up exhibition of our best spooky treasures. The event is called LOC Halloween: Chambers of Mystery, and we hope you’ll visit us for the scary fun–you have just one more day! Also, the Library has just released a new …
Posted in: Folksong, Halloween, Halloween Songs, Holidays
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Halloween is on its way, and this year the Library of Congress has decided to make it extra-special, with a pop-up exhibition of our best spooky treasures. The event is called LOC Halloween: Chambers of Mystery, and we hope you’ll visit us for the scary fun. As part of the effort, I’ve been looking through AFC’s …
Posted in: Folksong, Halloween, Halloween Songs
Posted by: Stephen Winick
With Halloween just around the corner, the Library of Congress is gearing up for an exhibition of our best spooky treasures. The event is called LOC Halloween: Chambers of Mystery, and it’s sure to add both cheer and chills to your All Hallows season. As part of the effort, I’ve been looking through AFC’s collections for …
Posted in: Halloween, Halloween Stories, Narratives, Storytelling, Women's History
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
The following is a guest post by Irene Chagall, the co-producer of the film Let’s Get the Rhythm, which will be screening on September 30 as part of the AFC’s “Reel Folk: Cultural Explorations on Film” event (September 29-30) in the Library’s Pickford Theater. Co-producers Irene Chagall and Steve Zeitlin, the director of City Lore, …
Posted in: Film, John Lomax