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Category: Women’s History

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

The Terrain of Freedom: Mapping Stories about People and Places in the African American Struggle for Justice, Rights, & Equality

Posted by: Guha Shankar

I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me I wish I could say All the things that I should say Say ’em loud, say ’em clear For the whole round world to hear Nina Simone, I Wish I Knew How It Would …

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

Snapshots of AFC Women in the Field: Celebrating Our Own

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Jennifer Cutting. Continuing on the momentum set by the American Folklife Center’s symposium Women Documenting the World: Women as Folklorists, Ethnomusicologists & Fieldworkers (September 26, 2019), we’d like to showcase some women ethnographers who are very close to home. This blog post takes a scrapbook-style look at photographs …

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

D-Day Journeys: Nurses on the Ground and in the Sky

Posted by: Megan Harris

June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Allies’ famed invasion of the beaches of Normandy. In honor of this momentous occasion, the Veterans History Project (VHP) is publishing a special series of blog posts revealing hidden facets of D-Day illuminated within VHP’s collections.  This post is the fourth in a six-part series, …

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

Homegrown Plus: The Sattriya Dance Company with the Dancing Monks of Assam

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) We’re continuing the series with the Sattriya Dance Company with the Dancing Monks of Assam Traditional Dance from Assam, India. This is one of two related …

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

Homegrown Plus: Kalanidhi Dance Company Performs Kuchipudi Dance

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) We’re continuing the series with a performance of Kuchipudi dance by the Kalanidhi Dance Company from Maryland and an oral history with their director, Anuradha Nehru. This is …

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

Herstory, ‘Crowded Wartime Washington’ and the Code Girls Reunion

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest blog post by Sally Sims Stokes, the daughter of World War II “Code Girl” Jean Ashby Sims. “Dear Library,” my mother begins the World War II memoir she completed in 2008 for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This salutation was her way of responding, as if in a …

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

Women Workers Creating and Experiencing Change: Working in Paterson

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Folklorists are often very interested in movements to improve social conditions. They do not necessarily focus on famous or prominent people, though sometimes they do. Ethnographers often are interested in the grass roots origins of movements and the consequences of such movements for ordinary people. For women in the workplace, the American Folklife Center has …

A woman plays the banjo

Homegrown Plus: Sheila Kay Adams

Posted by: Stephen Winick

In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) We’re continuing the series in Women’s History Month with Sheila Kay Adams, a singer, banjo player, and storyteller from North Carolina. Like Flory Jagoda, whom we featured last …