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Category: Pacific Islands Americans

AAPI hosts wokshop and itneriews with VHP Los Angeles, CA, May 2023.

Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month with VHP interviews in Los Angeles

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest blog post by Andrew Huber, a liaison specialist for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). The idea of an event focusing on collecting stories from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) veterans all stemmed from a simple question asked during a VHP workshop in 2020. I was teaching …

A promotional graphic featuring a photo of Community Collections Grant recipient Mark Boots Lupenui

Community Collections Grants: An Interview with Mark “Boots” Lupenui

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

Below is an excerpt from an interview by Folklife Specialist Guha Shankar with Community Collections Grant recipient Mark “Boots” Lupenui entitled, “Heirloom Songs” from Kohala, Hawai’i: Documenting a Fragile Musical Legacy, as part of a series on the Library’s Of the People blog featuring the 2022 awardees of the AFC’s Community Collections Grants program. The …

Photo of an old church

Navigating AFC Collections Geographically: U.S. Territories

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Staff at the American Folklife Center continue to use new digital tools to support remote discovery and access for our resources by users of all kinds. Whether you are a community scholar, a teacher, an academic researcher, a creative artist, or a curious consumer of local culture we hope that our geographically-oriented research guides offer …

People wearing Japanese style straw hats stand or climb on carts loaded with sugarcane, some carrying the canes on their backs.

Holehole Bushi: Franklin Odo on the Work Songs of Japanese Sugarcane Workers in Hawai`i

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Japanese agricultural workers began immigrating to Hawai`i in 1868, primarily to work on sugar plantations. This immigration peaked in the late 19th century. At this time the population of Native Hawaiians was crashing. As Hawaiians had more contact with Europeans they contracted diseases that they had no immunity to. Sugar plantations, mainly owned by American …

A man in a suit sits in a chair

King David Kālakaua: Royal Folklorist

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

This blog post is part of a series called “Hidden Folklorists,” which examines the folklore work of surprising people, including people better known for other pursuits. King David Kalākaua (1836 – 1891) is often known outside of Hawai’i by his nickname, the Merrie Monarch, so-called for his patronage of Hawaiian music, dance, and culture.  He …

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

Recognizing the Service of Asian Pacific American Veterans

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest blog post by Andrew Huber, Liaison Specialist for the Veterans History Project (VHP). Throughout the month of May, we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage, and remember the contributions made by people of Asian Pacific descent. Those contributions are numerous, from Duke Kahanamoku, who brought the sport of surfing …

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 …