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Category: AFC Events

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Nancy Yunhwa Rao Speaks About Chinese Opera

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Wendi Maloney of the Library’s Office of Communications. It is an excerpt of this longer post, which originally appeared on the Library of Congress Blog. Music scholar Nancy Yunhwa Rao will discuss her research and her new book at the Library of Congress at noon on August 9 …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s Closing Events

Posted by: Stephen Winick

  The following is a guest post by Anastasia Nikolis, a graduate student intern in the Poetry and Literature Center and a PhD candidate in the English department at the University of Rochester. It originally appeared on the Poetry and Literature Center’s blog, From the Catbird Seat. Somehow it is the last week of April, which …

Man playing accordion

Billy McComiskey Concert Online for St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Note: This blog was updated in 2024 to add an oral history interview video, to convert it into a Homegrown Plus blog. Last Summer I profiled Billy McComiskey, Irish-American button accordion player, National Heritage Fellow, and leader in the east coast Irish traditional music scene.  I promised to update our readers when the concert went …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Alan Lomax in Haiti: A Visit from Gage Averill

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Todd Harvey, AFC’s Lomax collection curator. Portions of the post appeared in a short essay Todd contributed to the Haiti box set pictured below. In 2009, ethnomusicologist Gage Averill edited and compiled the CD box set Alan Lomax in Haiti 1936-1937, and wrote the accompanying Grammy-nominated notes. He …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Alan Jabbour 1942 – 2017

Posted by: Stephen Winick

On behalf of the American Folklife Center, I’m very sad to pass on the news of the death of our founding director, Alan Jabbour. Alan was a folklorist, fiddler, fieldworker, and friend of the highest caliber, and he will be missed at AFC and around the world. AFC’s current director, Betsy Peterson, expressed the feelings …