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Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is the third in a series of six posts presenting AFC’s new traveling exhibit Treasures of the American Folklife Center Archive. The exhibit takes the form of lightweight, colorful vinyl banners containing information about AFC, the Library of Congress, and (as the title suggests) some of the treasures found in our archive. Originally conceived …
Posted in: AFC History, Alan Lomax, Exhibits, Folk Music, Folksong
Posted by: Stephen Winick
When Rosanne Cash, recognized by the Library as one of the most compelling figures in popular music, was asked to curate a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, she graciously brought the American Folklife Center along for the ride. Cash asked AFC to help her curate a photo exhibit, which is being …
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC Reading Room Visitors, Alan Lomax, Bluegrass, Exhibits, Folk Music, Folksong, Photographs, Rosanne Cash
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Note: This blog was updated on July 26, 2024 to add the event videos and make it part of the Homegrown Plus series. At that time the language about these public events was recast into the past tense. Doug Peach, who wrote this is a guest scholar in 2015, is now an AFC staff member …
Posted in: AFC Events, Bluegrass, Concerts with Archive Challenge Content, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Homegrown Concert Series, Homegrown Plus, Old Time Music, Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Dr Emily Marshall, who specializes in Postcolonial and migrant literatures and cultures at Leeds Beckett University in the UK. In April I visited the incredible folklore archives at the American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C., supported by Leeds Beckett University Early Career Researcher funding. The Center is housed …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by folklorist and blues scholar Barry Lee Pearson. It introduces the Sherman Holmes Project, which will play in the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series on Wednesday, April 15. More concert information is at this link! During the 1940s, job opportunities in Northern industrial centers attracted rural African Americans from throughout …
Posted in: AFC Events, African American History, African Americans, Folk Music, Homegrown Concert Series
Posted by: Stephen Winick
On Monday, January 19, we will be celebrating the Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States. King, the foremost leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, was actually born eighty-six years ago today: January 15, 1929. The Civil Rights Movement has struggled and continues to struggle for equal rights for all people, …
Posted in: African Americans, Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series, Civil Rights History Project, Proverbs
Posted by: Stephen Winick
On this snowy January day, I’d like to wish the readers of Folklife Today a happy end to the holiday season. Many people take down their Christmas decorations immediately after the day itself, and others use New Year’s Day as the end of their holiday. But among many communities, the Christmas season culminates after Twelfth …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folksong, Hispanic American History, Holidays, Juan B Rael, Photographs, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Uncategorized