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Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This is part three of a three-part series presenting the lesson suggestions on the Explore Your Community Poster (PDF), designed for middle school and high school classrooms. Read Part One. Read Part Two. Mapping Your World All communities—whether urban, suburban, or rural—have their own cultural heritage. Did you ever explain your neighborhood to someone visiting …
Posted in: AFC Publications
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This is part two of a three-part series presenting the lesson suggestions on the Explore Your Community Poster (PDF), designed for middle school and high school classrooms. Read Part One. Read Part Three. Community Culture: It’s All Around You One important aspect of culture that is hard to remember when when we go out to …
Posted in: AFC Publications
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This is part one of a three-part series presenting the lesson suggestions on the Explore Your Community Poster (PDF), designed for middle school and high school classrooms. Read Part Two. Read Part Three. The American Folklife Center and the the Rural School and Community Trust collaborated on an educational poster designed for middle and high school …
Posted in: AFC Publications
Posted by: Stephen Winick
During the holiday season, I spend a lot of time dressed in old-fashioned clothes, singing, acting, and making merry as Father Christmas. The character has been part of our AFC mummers’ play since 2010, and part of the tradition of mummers’ plays probably since its inception. Several of the earliest surviving mummers’ play texts, …
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Note: The following is a guest post by Tanya Finchum and Juliana Nykolaiszyn, creators of the Occupational Folklife Project collection The “Big Top” Show Goes On: An Oral History of Occupations Inside and Outside the Canvas Circus Tent. All photos in this post are part of collection, and can be found, often at higher resoultions, by visiting …
Posted in: Occupational Folklife Project
Posted by: Kerry Ward
On the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, land, sea and air power ceased and the Great War finally concluded. Whether you know it by the original name of Armistice Day, or as Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, or Veterans Day, as it is known in the United States, November …
Posted in: Exhibits, Film, Narratives, Poetry, Storytelling, Veterans Day, Veterans History Project, World War I
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
A team of folklorists made recordings of Cuban folk and dance hall music as part of projects to document Florida arts for the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Found online in the presentation Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1938-1942, these recordings occurred at a time when old songs from rural Cuba could still be found, …
Posted in: Folksong, Hispanic American History
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In my last post at Folklife Today, I wrote about a folksong that connected my appearances on some important radio shows. Since then, some of my Library of Congress colleagues (some current and some retired) have expressed interest in the song, stemming from their own experiences as radio listeners. Given their interest, I thought I’d …
Posted in: Cowboy and Western Music, Folksong, Old Time Music
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
When I was growing up going swimming near home usually meant going to a public pool, or possibly a nearby man-made lake. But when we visited relatives in the summer swimming more often was at the beach, at a lake, or at a quiet section of a river. I liked swimming in natural waters, but …
Posted in: Uncategorized