Now that we have introduced UNESCO’s 1989 Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore in the last blog post in this series, and discussed some of its recommended approaches, let’s delve back into tracing the development of the ICH concept. As a starting point, the 1989 Recommendation offers us this: Folklore (or traditional and popular culture) is […]
Episode five of the Folklife Today Podcast is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on iTunes, or with your usual podcatcher. Get your podcast here! Our latest podcast episode, “The Civil Rights History Project,” explains the background of one of AFC’s congressionally mandated oral history projects, and presents interviews […]
This is a guest post by American Folklife Center archivist Maya Lerman. Imagine a time before hipsters started migrating to Brooklyn, and gentrification hadn’t taken hold. Though celebrations by immigrant communities throughout the calendar year are still quite evident in Brooklyn today, the early 1980s was an especially fruitful time to witness these traditions. The Brooklyn Rediscovery Folklife Study Project […]
This guest post is by Professor Bob Bussel of the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center in Eugene, who organized the documentary team that produced the collection now online as “Taking Care”: Documenting Home Health Care Workers that is part of the Occupational Folklife Project. Home care workers represent what scholars describe as a […]
The following is a guest post by Monica Mohindra, Head of Program Communication and Coordination, Veterans History Project. “A Kiss is Just a Kiss.” Or is it, “As Time Goes By?” When the publishers staged a reunion in 1980, they used another crooners’ standard, “It Had to be You” on a placard in the background. But was […]
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 NOKA and Mikel Markez. NOKA is a Basque-language singing trio from California composed of Andréa Bidart, Begoña Echeverria, and Cathy Petrissans, the daughters and granddaughters of […]
It’s Valentine’s Day. It seems everyone has love on their minds today—at least half of us, anyway. Last year, the National Retail Federation predicted that 54.7% of the United States adult population was planning to celebrate the holiday with their significant others, friends or pets to the tune of nearly $20 billion. Yes, billion with […]
The following is a guest post by Will Hubbard, Vice President of Government Affairs, Student Veterans of America. As I sit here in Kabul City, Afghanistan, deployed as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, I’m reminded of the journey that has taken me here, including my own experience of graduating from American University using […]
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 2017 Archive Challenge Sampler concert in the Coolidge Auditorium. It’s a little different from the other Homegrown concerts in that it featured […]
For some time I have been intrigued by the beautiful voices of four young men, singers in the Holloway High School Quartet, recorded by John W. Work III in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1941. To mark African American Heritage Month this year, I thought I would try to find out a little more about them. I have […]