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Archive: 2024 (19 Posts)

Photo of photographer Tom Pich speaking into microphone.

American Folklife Center Acquires Collection of Tom Pich—Renowned Photographer of Traditional Artists

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

The American Folklife Center recently acquired the collection of Tom Pich—an acclaimed photographer of traditional artists. Pich is best known for his photographs of recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship—the nation's highest honor in the traditional arts presented annually by the National Endowment for the Arts. In this celebratory post, AFC Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce highlights the importance of this acquisition, contextualizes Tom Pich's work, and details the beauty of his photographs.

White woman and African American woman posing together for photograph.

COVID Recollections: Now Available – First Collection of Frontline Worker Interviews from the COVID-19 American History Project

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

The first interviews documented for the COVID-19 American History Project--an initiative of the American Folklife Center to create an archival collection of Americans' experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic--are now available in the online collections of the Library of Congress. In this post, learn more about the workers featured in the interviews, find out how to access their stories, and explore how you can have your pandemic story preserved as part of the COVID-19 American History Project.

Thai traditional musicians posing on-stage.

Homegrown Plus: Somapa Thai Dance Company and Orchestra Concert and Interview

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

In this post, the American Folklife Center (AFC) highlights a May 2024 concert performance and oral history interview with the Somapa Thai Dance Company and Orchestra--an ensemble performing traditional music from Thailand, whose members now predominately live in the Washington, DC metropolitan region. The AFC organized Somapa's performance in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and as part of the 2024 Homegrown Concert Series.

Homegrown Plus: Istiwanāt Live! Concert and Oral History Interview

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

On June 5, 2024, the American Folklife Center welcomed Istiwanāt Live!--an Arabic musical ensemble, or takht, formed by four ethnomusicologists with expertise in Middle Eastern music--to perform as part of the Homegrown Concert Series. Many of the group's songs were reinterpreted from archival collections at the American Folklife Center. In this post, find a video of group's performance and oral history interview, along with notes on their performance from ethnomusicologist (and current AFC intern) Hanna Salmon.

Graphic shows a farm, a factory, an American flag, and the words "America Works" and "LOC Podcasts."

Now Available: The Sixth Season of the America Works Podcast — featuring food!

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

The American Folklife Center (AFC) has launched the sixth season of the America Works podcast. This season focuses on food and the individuals who grow, harvest, prepare food, as well as those who feed other Americans. Each episode is an excerpt from a longer interview, conducted as part of the AFC's Occupational Folklife Project. In this post, Dr. Nancy Groce details the new season and it's eight episodes.

Outdoor, COVID-19 dining shed being taken down.

End of a (COVID) Era: Dining Sheds Disappear from New York City Streets

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

During the COVID-19 pandemic, dining sheds--outdoor seating areas at dining establishments, theorized as “pandemic folk architecture”--were a mainstay of New York City's restaurants. In this post, Senior Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce reflects on the ephemeral nature of this foodways tradition, as dining sheds are now disappearing from the city's restaurants.

Euro-American man holding a slice of Tillamook-brand cheese.

New Occupational Folklife Project Documents “Tillamook: Cheesemakers in Coastal Oregon”

Posted by: Douglas D. Peach

The American Folklife Center recently posted a new collection of interviews with workers at the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a farmer-owned dairy cooperative in coastal Oregon, to its Occupational Folklife Project website. This post is an interview with Dr. Jared Schmidt, a public folklorist based in Oregon, who conducted the interviews with TCCA workers. In 2021, Schmidt received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to undertake this research.