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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
Posted by: Stephen Winick
To the right, you’ll see a photo of the front door to AFC’s administrative office. If you missed the name plaque, it’s to the right of the door! As you can see, these official name plaques are a little small, especially for the grand doorways of the Thomas Jefferson Building. For that reason, AFC made a …
Posted in: Caught My Eye
Posted by: Stephen Winick
As part of the American Folklife Center’s celebration of the 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellowships, we featured a concert yesterday with awardee Eva Ybarra, a Texas conjunto bandleader known as the “Queen of the Accordion.” Her instrument is a beautiful three-row diatonic button accordion which she plays with great dexterity, making it sound almost chromatic. During the show I got …
Posted in: Pic of the Week
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Did you know that AFC has a trifold brochure, which we give out at events and in our reading room? We thought we’d share it on the blog in time for the National Book Festival. If you come on down to the festival, you can take a few of these away with you! You can stop …
Posted in: AFC Publications
Posted by: Stephen Winick
A little while back, the internet was abuzz with the inspirational story of Mary Anning, a pioneering 19th-century paleontologist from Lyme Regis in England. Some of my favorite blogs and magazines got in on the act: Atlas Obscura, QI (Quite Interesting), Dangerous Women, Cracked, and Forbes, to name just a few, published versions of the …
Posted in: England, Folksong, Legends, Metafolklore (Folklore about Folklore)
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Note: This is the third in a series of posts about the murder ballad “Batson.” This one discusses the version of the ballad performed by Wilson Jones, aka “Stavin’ Chain,” in light of the real-life Batson case. In previous blog posts about the murder ballad “Batson,” I looked at early versions collected by Robert Winslow …
Posted in: African American History, African Americans, Alan Lomax, Blues, Folksong, John Lomax
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
In the first of the “Folklife at the International Level” series, I ended with a glimpse into the complex issues that arise when intellectual property (IP) protection is sought for “traditional cultural expressions,” or “TCEs,” the terminology used by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). On its website, WIPO describes such expressions as including “music, …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Nancy Groce, Senior Folklife Specialist and Director of the Occupational Folklife Project. After seven years of planning, research, fieldwork, and archiving, the American Folklife Center is delighted to announce that the first installment of its Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) launches today on the Library of Congress’s website with …
Posted in: Acquisitions, AFC History, Archie Green, Uncategorized
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest blog post by American Folklife Center archivist Marcia Segal. In the business of processing a collection – from the earliest stages of unpacking and assessment, to the point when researchers can access the contents, in physical or digital form – there comes a moment when a processor becomes the advocate for a …
Posted in: Archival Practice, Women's History