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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.

Patrick Tayluer points at the rigging of a ship model while talking to a man in a Naval Academy Midshipman's uniform.

Like a Snap of a Carrot: Shipwreck Stories with Patrick Tayluer

Posted by: Stephen Winick

When William Main Doerflinger interviewed the retired sailor and shanty singer Patrick Tayluer in April, 1942, one of the topics he asked Tayluer about was shipwrecks. This is not surprising: ever since people took to the seas in ships, maritime folks have been fascinated and terrified by shipwrecks; shipwreck stories go back to the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. As it turned out, Tayluer had several stories about shipwrecks, which he told as first-person narratives, but which might not have happened exactly as he described. We’ll look at two of those stories in this post, exploring Tayluer's fascinating blend of fact and fiction.

A group of people in costumes in an ornate marble hall.

Happy Holidays! AFC’s 2024 Mummers Play

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Happy Holidays from the American Folklife Center! As in years past, we enlivened Library life last week with performances of a traditional Mummers play, updated for modern times. The title of this year’s play is "Keeping Cool and Dry for the Holidays: A Film Preservation Mumming," and it’s all about Film Preservation and the National Film Registry. It takes place at the Northpole Audio Visual Preservation Pavilion (NAVPP). St. George Bailey (It’s a Wonderful Life) is confronted by Connor MacLeod (Highlander series), who has a dastardly plan to get his terrible movies on the registry by undermining the preservation of all other films. The play includes Film Preservation Board members like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, some of our usual characters, and some surprises, including a reenactment of the “Let’s all go to the Lobby” song—which is actually on the real registry. Mummers’ plays are short 15-minute plays, traditionally performed in Britain, Ireland, North America, and the West Indies at holiday time, as the Mummers went from house to house and pub to pub, collecting food, drink, and small change as a reward for their entertainment. The American Folklife Center’s archive boasts one of the largest collections of English Mummers’ Play texts in the world, in its James Madison Carpenter collection. In this blog post you'll find the text of the play and lots of fun photos--plus a wealth of links to explore!

A Friday the 13th advertisement from the San Antonio Morning Light showing a black cat.

On the Possible Origins of Friday the Thirteenth: Metafolklore, Fear, and Fun

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Most people know that Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day. I had some fun researching the roots of this belief back in September, when the Library of Congress received a call from NPR requesting to interview me about Friday the 13th. Not surprisingly, I found facts and speculation, as well as intriguing new evidence. I also encountered what I often call metafolklore: folk stories about folk beliefs. In this post, we’ll look into what I found. From the Norse gods to the Knights Templar, from mathematics to religion, and from French plays to American horror movies, let's look at everyone's favorite day for bad luck.

A portrait of singer and musician Thea Hopkins with guitar

Reclaiming “Red Wing” with Wampanoag Singer-Songwriter Thea Hopkins on the Folklife Today Podcast

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The latest episode of the Folklife Today podcast features award-winning singer-songwriter Thea Hopkins, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard. Thea took the Archive Challenge, adapting songs from the American Folklife Center archive. On the first occasion she arranged and sang a Creek lullaby which, according to Creek elders, was created during the Trail of Tears. For her second challenge, Hopkins wrote new lyrics for the song “Red Wing,” which originally contained damaging stereotypes of Native Americans. The new lyrics pay homage to pioneering Native film actress Lilian St. Cyr, who was known as “Red Wing.” In the episode, Thea discusses her process and the meanings of the songs with AFC staff members Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting, and Meg Nicholas; Meg, a fellow Folklife Today blogger, is one of the American Folklife Center’s specialists in Native song, and affiliated with the Munsee-Delaware Nation in southwest Ontario. The episode features the field recordings of both songs, as well as Thea’s new versions, and a fiddle tune by Chippewa fiddler Mary Trotchie. The blog post features the link to the podcast, full audio of most of the source songs, as well as relevant links to Native American resources and Archive Challenge tools.

half-length portrait of Patrick Tayluer between two gum trees with the words "Walked from Brisbane to Perth."

The One that Found Galore: Patrick Tayluer in Australia

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Patrick Tayluer, the retired sailor who recorded 79 sea shanties, ballads, and stories for the Library of Congress in 1942, was fascinated by Australia. In this post we present several of his Australian songs and stories. We also recount his epic 7500 kilometer walk across the continent from late 1929 to early 1931. The post includes audio of two songs, including a bushranger ballad never collected from any other source.