This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, acquisitions coordinator at the American Folklife Center (AFC). The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a major acquisition, the Cooperative Recreation Service collection (AFC 2016/051) donated to the Center by fiddler, scholar, and publisher Bruce Greene. The Cooperative Recreation Service is a publishing company founded during …
In our last post, we presented the text and photos of our 2016 mummers play, St. George and the Arrearage Monster: A Mumming in Process. Below, see a video of the play, shot on AFC’s trusty tablet by Jonathan Gold, our audio engineer. The acoustics in the Library’s Great Hall make it rather difficult to …
Note: Every year, in the week of the Library’s holiday party, staff members of the American Folklife Center put our research and performance skills into play, bringing collections to life in a dramatic performance that tours the halls of the Library of Congress. Dressed in costumes that range from striking to silly, we sing, act, …
The following is a guest post by Jennifer Cutting. The “Five Questions” interview was performed by Danna Bell, from the Library of Congress’s Educational Outreach office. A shorter version of her answers is available at their blog, Teaching with the Library of Congress. Describe what you do at the Library of Congress and the materials …
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 …
The American Folklife Center is very grateful to April Rodriguez, one of this year’s 36 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Summer Interns. April has been working with Alan Lomax’s choreometrics materials, a lesser-known but crucial aspect of his research. Her work has revealed aspects of the collection our own staff didn’t know about, and will …
The earliest East Asian immigrants often had a difficult journey making their way to the United States. Many carried little with them but the cultural traditions they knew, such as language, stories, religious customs, foodways, music, song, and dance. Chinese Americans Chinese immigrants, mainly Cantonese speakers from Guangdong, were among the first Asians to come …
Note: Every year, in the week before Christmas, staff members of the American Folklife Center put our research and performance skills into play, bringing collections to life in a dramatic performance that tours the halls of the Library of Congress. Dressed in costumes that range from striking to silly, we sing, act, rhyme, and dance …
Historically, the Omaha Indian Hethu’shka Society were a group of highly respected men, voted into the group by unanimous consent of the society, who aimed to set a strong example for their people of the best attributes of a warrior. Although traditionally deeds in combat were the central test for inclusion in the society, such …
