During the COVID-19 pandemic, dining sheds--outdoor seating areas at dining establishments, theorized as “pandemic folk architecture”--were a mainstay of New York City's restaurants. In this post, Senior Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce reflects on the ephemeral nature of this foodways tradition, as dining sheds are now disappearing from the city's restaurants.
The American Folklife Center recently posted a new collection of interviews with workers at the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a farmer-owned dairy cooperative in coastal Oregon, to its Occupational Folklife Project website. This post is an interview with Dr. Jared Schmidt, a public folklorist based in Oregon, who conducted the interviews with TCCA workers. In 2021, Schmidt received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to undertake this research.
The American Folklife Center is seeking an organization to conduct oral history interviews with Americans about the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the COVID-19 American History Project. In this post, learn more the opportunity and how to apply.
In 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted Gran Enterprises LLC to conduct interviews with licensed funeral professionals about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences for the COVID-19 American History Project. This post is an interview with Anita Grant and Joél Maldonado of Gran Enterprises. In it, they detail their inspiration for the project, their initial findings, and why documenting licensed funeral professionals' pandemic experiences is important for understanding Americans' experiences with COVID-19.
In 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted folklorist Nicole Musgrave to conduct interviews with Appalachian-based child care workers about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences for the COVID-19 American History Project. The post, guest authored by Musgrave, details her inspiration for the project, the initial findings from her interviews, and why documenting child care workers' pandemic experiences is important for understanding Americans' experiences with COVID-19.
This post is an excerpt of an interview with 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant recipient Dr. Ashley Minner Jones on her project, Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies, as part of the Library of Congress Of the People: Widening the Path initiative.
In honor of American Wetlands Month, AFC Folklife Specialist Meg Nicholas takes readers on a journey through the swamps, bogs, marshes and bayous documented in several AFC archival collections.
Aarti Mehta-Kroll, co-leader of the 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant project, Documenting Goombay and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove, discusses the project's focus and plans.
The American Folklife Center announces its new Story Map, California Gold: Sidney Robertson Cowell, 1930s California Folk Music, and the American Folklife Center, which follows the folk music collector, Sidney Robertson on her late 1930s trip to document musicians, singers, and their families and communities in California.
