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Posted by: Stephen Winick
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 Cedric Watson, a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist, and songwriter. Watson is one of the brightest contemporary talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and …
Posted in: Homegrown Plus
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
In this challenging time, I am grateful to be able to work with the AFC’s rich online collections, particularly the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection, or as I like to call it: the gift that keeps on giving. For over two years, I have been digging into this collection, and the gems just keep popping …
Posted in: AFC History, AFC Publications, German Americans
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The popular essay often known as "You Are Quoting Shakespeare," suggests that many common phrases have their origin in Shakespeare's works. This post shows that most of those phases were proverbial folklore, known well before Shakespeare's time. It suggests that attributing them to Shakespeare is a form of what Stephen Jay Gould called a "Creation Myth," and that the credit for many of the phrases should go to ordinary speakers of English. It argues that part of Shakespeare's greatness lay in his ability to use such phrases to create natural dialogue.
Posted in: Metafolklore (Folklore about Folklore), Myths, Proverbs, Shakespeare
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post by reference librarian Todd Harvey, who curates the Lomax family papers at the American Folklife Center. Today, the American Folklife Center announces the launch of the Bess Lomax Hawes (1921-2009) digital collection, now available at this link. A scholar, teacher, performer, writer, and filmmaker, Bess established and stewarded the Folk …
Posted in: Acquisitions, Bess Lomax Hawes
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post by Hope O’Keeffe, an attorney in the Library’s Office of General Counsel, and an ardent supporter of the Veterans History Project. To read a previous guest post about her family’s history of proud military service, go here. This is my grandfather, John McLaughlin, quarantined during the 1918 flu …
Posted in: Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, World War I
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
In this time of national crisis, the staff of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) wants our readers and participants to know that our thoughts are with you. We recognize, now more than ever, there is a collective need to look at and remember individual experiences, so that we never forget what sacrifice …
Posted in: Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, World War II
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
The Library of Congress collections contain stories of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic as told by ordinary people, documented by folklorists, linguists, and others as they collected personal histories and folklore. Several of these are available online and a selection will be presented here, with links at the end under “Resources” where more can be found. …
Posted in: Oral History, World War I
Posted by: Stephen Winick
We’re happy to announce a new venture in getting our stories out there! We’re working with No Depression, The Journal of Roots Music, which is published by the nonprofit Freshgrass Foundation. They’ll be publishing a column called Roots in the Archive, featuring content from the American Folklife Center and Folklife Today, over at their website. …
Posted in: African American History, No Depression's Roots in the Archive, Zora Neale Hurston
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Members of the Washington, D.C. Youth Slam Team of Split This Rock performed poems inspired by recordings, photographs and field notes from the American Folklife Center archives on June 08, 2019 in an event co-sponsord by the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center. The video of these remarkable young poets is now available. This …
Posted in: African Americans, Poetry