We continue our exploration of Jack tales with a look at printed collections of stories. The prominence of Richard Chase’s 1943 book “The Jack Tales” has tended to obscure other valuable collections, both before and after his publication. We’ll look at works from a wide variety of authors: collectors from oral tradition, including Isabel Gordon Carter, Vance Randolph, Leonard Roberts, and Herbert Halpert; storytellers, including Donald Davis, Jackie Torrence, and Duncan Williamson; and folklorists and anthologists such as Joseph Jacobs, Carl Lindahl, William Bernard McCarthy, and Anita Best. There's also embedded audio of Maud Long and Duncan Williamson, and links to other audio versions of Jack tales you can enjoy!
AFC Folklife Specialists Nancy Groce and Meg Nicholas chat with Neil Mellen and Modesta Yangmog, from the CCG project, "Warp and Weft of Yap's Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia." The post includes photographs from the project, interview excerpts, and a link to the full interview, in the second episode of a special subseries of the Folklife Today podcast.
At the beginning of July, the American Folklife Center (AFC) welcomed two of three interns that we’ll be hosting this summer, and the third will join us in the middle of the month. These interns will be working directly with AFC staff on projects that support our core activities around public programming and researcher support. In this post, learn about our summer interns and their areas of expertise.
In this post, the American Folklife Center announces a new online collection for the COVID-19 American History Project. The collection, titled Reflections from the COVID-19 Pandemic from Last Responders, features 19 oral history interviews with embalmers, funeral home owners, and other funeral professionals about their pandemic experiences. The collection was created by Anita Grant, Joél Maldonado, and Jasmine Johnson, of Gran Enterprises LLC, between 2023 and 2024.
