In this post we look at the life and legacy of Joe Hickerson, longtime employee and head of the Archive of Folk Culture, who passed away on August 17, 2025. Joe was well known as a folklorist, archivist, ethnomusicologist, and folksinger. He was an important public face for folklore and folk music, and his passing will be seen as the end of an era among folk music enthusiasts, as well as for those of us at the American Folklife Center.
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress today launches its eighth season of “America Works,” an original podcast series that honors the creativity, resilience and dedication of the 168-million-strong American workforce. The new season features interview excerpts from the Occupational Folklore Project with 8 workers whose jobs involve health and healing – from an emergency room pediatrician to a hospital nutritionist, a large animal veterinarian to an anesthesiologist. Find links to the podcast, and to the full interviews with the participants, in this blog post.
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (AFC) turns 50 today, January 2, 2026. To mark the occasion, AFC will sponsor public programs, special events, and other activities throughout the coming year, celebrating the Center’s role in the preservation and promotion of traditional culture. Events will include special editions of our Homegrown Concert series and Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture series; special symposia, including one dedicated to our COVID-19 Oral History Project; and a major exhibition of treasures from the Center’s collections, to launch in mid-September. The American Folklife Center dates back to January 2, 1976, when President Gerald Ford signed Public Law 94-201, The American Folklife Preservation Act. The Act created the Center and placed it here at the Library of Congress with a mandate to “preserve, support, revitalize, and disseminate” American folklife.
