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Archive: 2019 (9 Posts)

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

NAMES project special display on view until Dec. 2

Posted by: John Fenn

On November 20th, the American Folklife Center participated in an event at the Library of Congress announcing the “next chapter” of the AIDS Memorial Quilt project. You can read about that event in a previous blog post that also includes a link to the livestream video of the event, and also view some photos by American …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Summer 2019 Intern Reflection: Edward Wang

Posted by: John Fenn

This is a guest post from one of the 2019 Folklife Interns at the American Folklife Center, Edward Wang. This internship program was launched in the summer of 2018 through a generous gift from the late Peter Bartis, a long-time staff member at the AFC and a tireless proponent of folklife–as well as a fieldworker …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Remembering John Cohen (1932-2019)

Posted by: John Fenn

This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, reference specialist and acquisitions coordinator at the American Folklife Center. Todd worked closely with John Cohen in recent years, and was able to conduct an oral history interview with him in 2012. The American Folklife Center sadly notes the passing of collection donor and longtime friend, John …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Homegrown Plus: Contemporary traditional music from Zimbabwe with Mokoomba

Posted by: John Fenn

In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) We’re continuing the series with Mokoomba, a six-piece band that hails from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Band members Mathias Muzaza, Trustworth Samende, Abundance Mutori, Donald Moyo, Ndaba Coster …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

2019 Summer interns are here!

Posted by: John Fenn

Here at the AFC we are proud and excited to welcome a new round of summer interns! Two of them are supported through the American Folklife Center Internship Fund, made possible with a generous gift from the late Peter Bartis, while the third comes to us through a program at Utah State University. Our connection …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

New online collection: Lowell Folklife Project

Posted by: John Fenn

The American Folklife Center is excited to announce the launch of a new collection on the Library’s web site: the Lowell Folklife Project Collection. As a cooperative project of the American Folklife Center and the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, the Lowell Folklife Project spanned August 1987 through mid-April 1988. The primary focus was on documenting …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Intern reflection: Brittney Meadors

Posted by: John Fenn

This is a guest blog post from Spring 2019 intern Brittney Meadors working at the American Folklife Center. Brittney is a first year graduate student at Howard University pursuing a Masters degree in Classical Voice and certification in International Affairs. Her internship was initiated by Dr. Carla Hayden (Librarian of Congress) and Dr. Wayne A. …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Recent updates to the Ethnographic Thesaurus reflect needs of power users

Posted by: John Fenn

This is a guest post by folklorist and AFC archivist, Kelly Revak. Among her many other responsibilities at the Center, Kelly oversees revisions and updates to the Ethnographic Thesaurus. The AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus is a living language resource that needs constant maintenance to reflect current concepts and usage in ethnography, while at the same time providing stable …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

In Their Own Words: Mapping the Contours of Muslim Journeys, Identities, and Triumphs in the United States

Posted by: John Fenn

This is a guest post by two staff from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance: Ahmed Omar (Deputy Director) and Andrew McDonald (Program Associate). In 2017 the American Folklife Center hosted staff from the Alliance along with contributors to their “Muslim American Journeys” project to participate in a public listening session at the Library of Congress, …