The following is a guest post by AFC Folklife Specialist Michelle Stefano. I recently began researching the history of the American Folklife Center’s engagement with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and its efforts in protecting intellectual property (IP) and promoting its importance at international and national levels. Over the past 15 years, AFC …
The following is a guest post by Anastasia Nikolis, a graduate student intern in the Poetry and Literature Center and a PhD candidate in the English department at the University of Rochester. It originally appeared on the Poetry and Literature Center’s blog, From the Catbird Seat. Somehow it is the last week of April, which …
If you’ve been following the American Folklife Center’s website or our Facebook page (you can “like” it here to receive daily folklife inspiration!), you may have noticed an updated version of our classic fieldwork manual, Folklife & Fieldwork. For decades, this handy small book has offered guidance to people interested in documenting folklife who don’t …
Note: This blog was updated in 2024 to add an oral history interview video, to convert it into a Homegrown Plus blog. Last Summer I profiled Billy McComiskey, Irish-American button accordion player, National Heritage Fellow, and leader in the east coast Irish traditional music scene. I promised to update our readers when the concert went …
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 …
The following is a guest post from AFC folklife specialist Michelle Stefano. On February 22 at noon, the Library of Congress will host the talented dancers of Urban Artistry, Inc. in the Coolidge Auditorium as part of the Homegrown Concert Series of the American Folklife Center. Audience members are in for a treat: three rounds …
Note: this is the fifth, and probably the last, post on Folklife Today concerning Far Away Moses, a nineteenth century Jewish guide and merchant whose face was the model for one of the “keystone heads” sculpted in stone on the outside of the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson building. For the other posts about Moses, …
Note: This is just a teaser for a fuller post over at the Library of Congress Blog. Read the full story there! This year the GRAMMY awards promise to be exciting for music fans everywhere, but especially fans of the American Folklife Center. At least four of the nominees have connections to the AFC archive: …
This recollection is in memory of the Center’s founding director, Alan Jabbour, who died on January 13, 2017, and whose career and contributions are described in this blog post. Today’s text and photographs are by Carl Fleischhauer, a retired American Folklife Center staff member and a colleague of Alan’s for 46 years. Alan Jabbour and …
