We’re happy to announce a new venture in getting our stories out there! We’re working with No Depression, The Journal of Roots Music, which is published by the nonprofit Freshgrass Foundation. They’ll be publishing a column called Roots in the Archive, featuring content from the American Folklife Center and Folklife Today, over at their website. …
As African American History Month concludes in 2020, the AFC is proud to announce the culmination of the Civil Rights History Project (CRHP) with the online release of the last batch of the 145 video interviews recorded with veteran activists for the collection. All the interviews are available on the Civil Rights History Project page, at …
The American Folklife Center has recently received some coverage for our efforts to research and recognize African American history which we'd like to tell you about. Last weekend the Atlanta Journal Constitution published this article about the spiritual "Kumbaya." In the article, Shelia M. Poole interviews AFC staff members John Fenn and Stephen Winick (hey, that's me) and even call me "the folklorist version of Sherlock Holmes" for locating what we believe to be the first sound recording of "Kumbaya" some years ago. She also interviews Griffin Lotson, who did research here and in Georgia, and who helped get the song declared the first State Historical Song of Georgia. We wrote about that research here on the blog. We also did a podcast about it, at this link. And we've previously been covered and interviewed by the New York Times, which you can find here.
I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me I wish I could say All the things that I should say Say ’em loud, say ’em clear For the whole round world to hear Nina Simone, I Wish I Knew How It Would …
It’s almost Halloween, and therefore time for spooky stories here at Folklife Today! Witches are, of course, a big part of American Halloween, and the witch is one of the most popular characters featured in costumes and decorations. These range from the standard image of a woman with a pointy hat and a broom, to …
This is a joint blog post written with Michelle Stefano. Episode Twelve of the Folklife Today Podcast is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on iTunes, or with your usual podcatcher. Get your podcast here! This is a special episode for us, in that it also marks the end of the …
Earlier this week, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launched a new online exhibit to highlight the stories of veteran “changemakers.” You might be asking yourself, who or what is a changemaker, exactly, and why are we focusing on them? In early 2019, the Library of Congress launched a year-long initiative to explore the stories of …
August 2019 marks 400 years since a group of about 20 Africans were brought to the new colony of Virginia and traded as slaves for food. It was the beginning of African slavery in the continental British colonies that became the United States. The events of 1619 are well documented and the British became the …
The following is a guest post by 2019 Junior Fellows Kim Windham and Patricia Glaser, who worked with the Veterans History Project (VHP) this summer. As a community-driven archive where all veterans’ histories are valued, the Veterans History Project (VHP) has collected more than 110,000 veterans’ narratives of their time in service. All of these collections …
