As African American History Month concludes in 2020, the AFC is proud to announce the culmination of the Civil Rights History Project (CRHP) with the online release of the last batch of the 145 video interviews recorded with veteran activists for the collection. All the interviews are available on the Civil Rights History Project page, at …
Episode 16 of the Folklife Today Podcast (or Season 2, Episode 4) is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on itunes, or with your usual podcatcher. Get Your Podcast Here! We’re also happy to announce that we’re now available on Stitcher as well–use this link here! In the episode, …
This is a guest post by Valentina Bold and Nancy Groce. On February 21, the American Folklife Center will join the University of Stirling to present a one-day public symposium celebrating the 250th anniversary of the contributions the influential Scottish song-maker, folklore collector, novelist, and poet James Hogg (1770-1835). Often called “The Ettrick Shepherd,” Hogg …
Today, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit to feature the stories of family members who served in the military—some at the same time, and others decades apart. As I was composing this blog post and considering the narratives that are included in the new feature, my eyes wandered to a small, …
This post examines the history of buses and of the word "bus," looking closely at a legend about a man named Omnes who was important in the naming of the "omnibus."
The American Folklife Center has recently received some coverage for our efforts to research and recognize African American history which we'd like to tell you about. Last weekend the Atlanta Journal Constitution published this article about the spiritual "Kumbaya." In the article, Shelia M. Poole interviews AFC staff members John Fenn and Stephen Winick (hey, that's me) and even call me "the folklorist version of Sherlock Holmes" for locating what we believe to be the first sound recording of "Kumbaya" some years ago. She also interviews Griffin Lotson, who did research here and in Georgia, and who helped get the song declared the first State Historical Song of Georgia. We wrote about that research here on the blog. We also did a podcast about it, at this link. And we've previously been covered and interviewed by the New York Times, which you can find here.
This is a guest post by our Fall 2019 volunteer intern, Claire Denny. She is currently in her second term as a Master’s degree student in the Folklore Program at George Mason University. When I received a phone call this past summer from the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center (AFC), I had to compose …
