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Posted by: Stephen Winick
As the Old Year turns to the New Year, thousands of people around the world will sing along to “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish song that has come to be firmly associated with New Year’s celebrations. The song has a fascinating history, and we’re lucky at the Library of Congress to have several unique items …
Posted in: AFC Events, Folk Music, Folksong, Holidays
Posted by: Stephen Winick
St. George and the Data Dragon: A Digital Assets Mumming Performed by American Folklife Center Staff with Guests Script drawn from multiple plays in the James Madison Carpenter Collection. Compiled by Stephen Winick, with additional material by Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting, Theadocia Austen, Hope O’Keeffe, and the company. Digital assets jargon courtesy of Bertram Lyons. …
Posted in: AFC Events, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folksong, Holidays, Mumming
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This post gives general background to our mumming tradition. For more posts with play texts, videos, audio, and scholarship on the background, please visit this link. 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 …
Posted in: AFC Events, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folksong, Holidays, Mumming
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
The first time I saw Boll Weevil, He was sitting on a cotton square. The next time I saw Boll Weevil, He had his whole family there. This song about the boll weevil is one of many popularized by Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, Woody Guthrie, and other artists. A version of this most widely known …
Posted in: Animals, Folk Music, Folksong, John Lomax, John Wesley Work III, Ruby Terrill Lomax
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
As November is Native American Heritage Month, it seems a good opportunity to talk about some of the services the American Folklife Center provides for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and for those who wish to learn more about them. The archival collections of the Library of Congress include the largest body of …
Posted in: Alice Cunningham Fletcher, Folk Music, Folksong, Frances Densmore, Francis La Flesche, Languages and Dialects, Native American History
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Over the years since its founding in 1928 as the Archive of American Folk Song, the American Folklife Center archive has been explored by a wide range of artists seeking inspiration for their own works. Through their creations, AFC archival materials have often found their way into popular culture. From time to time on Folklife …
Posted in: Aaron Copland, Alan Lomax, Folk Music
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Aimee Hess, Library of Congress Publishing Office, and Todd Harvey, American Folklife Center. The American Folklife Center, in collaboration with the Library of Congress Publishing Office, has recently published Michigan-I-O: Alan Lomax and the 1938 Library of Congress Folk-Song Expedition, a digital publication containing text, images, music, and …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Folk Music, Folksong, Michigan