The American Folklife Center (AFC) has launched the sixth season of the America Works podcast. This season focuses on food and the individuals who grow, harvest, prepare food, as well as those who feed other Americans. Each episode is an excerpt from a longer interview, conducted as part of the AFC's Occupational Folklife Project. In this post, Dr. Nancy Groce details the new season and it's eight episodes.
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 (AFC) is proud to announce a new research guide, which highlights AFC collections related to the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The National Heritage Fellowship is the highest honor for the traditional arts in the United States. Since 1982, the award has recognized lifetime achievement among traditional artists and advocates for the traditional arts. On Friday, September 29, 2023, the American Folklife Center will be hosting a public ceremony to honor the 2023 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship. Awardees of the 2020, 2021, and 2022 National Heritage Fellowship will also be celebrated, as the COVID-19 pandemic inhibited their in-person recognition. Find about about the new guide and the ceremony in this blog post!
