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Category: African Americans

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

“Trench Blues”: An African American Song of World War I

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

This post is also featured on the Library of Congress Blog  as “World War I: ‘Trench Blues’ — An African American Song of the War.” Head over there to find more WWI stories from the Library’s collections honoring the centennial (2017-2018).   There is  another Folklife Today post about an African American World War I song …

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

Dance!

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Note: This is part of a series of blog posts about the 40th Anniversary Year of the American Folklife Center. Visit this link to see them all! April 29 is International Dance Day, established by the International Dance Council (CID) in 1982 to call attention to the importance of dance worldwide.  So get your dances …

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

African American Women’s Life Stories in the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Note: This is part of a series of blog posts about the 40th Anniversary Year of the American Folklife Center. Visit this link to see them all! The American Folklife Center was established in 1976. Two years later, in 1978, the folk music and song collections housed in the Music Division as the Archive of …

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

World Storytelling Day: Stories of Strong Women

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

March 20 is World Storytelling Day.  Tying storytelling with the equinox in March is thought to have originated in Sweden as Alla berättares dag (all storytellers day) in 1991 or 1992. Other countries joined to celebrate storytelling on the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere and the first day of autumn in the …

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

Ethiopian Christmas and the Ethiopian Calendar System

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

This is a guest blog post by Fentahun Tiruneh, Area Specialist for Ethiopia and Eritrea in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress. On January 7, 2016, Ethiopian Christians, particularly the followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox “Tewahedo” Church in Ethiopia, the United States, and elsewhere, celebrate Christmas. In Ethiopia, it is …