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Teaching in Wisconsin Classrooms: New Occupational Folklife Project Collection Documents Some of America’s Most Essential Workers

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Just in time for the start of a new school year, the American Folklife Center has posted to its website a wonderful new collection of Occupational Folklife Project interviews documenting Teaching in Wisconsin Classrooms. This important resource features in-depth interviews with 32 dedicated, resourceful and creative elementary teachers throughout the state of Wisconsin. Given the essential role played by American teachers, it is perhaps surprising that the AFC archive previously contained so few first-person narratives by classroom teachers documenting their work lives. This collection begins to address that gap.

Navigating AFC Collections Geographically: Rocky Mountain Region

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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 […]

Music from Homegrown 21 on the Folklife Today Podcast

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Summer is over, and autumn is here. That means the Homegrown 2021 concert series is also drawing to a close. We put a selection of songs from the series on the Folklife Today podcast, with commentary from me, John Fenn, series producer Thea Austen, and AFC interns Kennedi Johnson and Camille Acosta.  That way, if you haven’t had a chance to watch the videos, you can download and listen wherever you like to hear your podcasts. As usual, there are links to the podcast itself, plus links to relevant blog posts, videos, and audio selections in this post.

At Arm’s Length: Collecting In-Person Oral Histories during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The following is a guest blog post by liaison specialist Owen Rogers and is meant to supplement the Veterans History Project’s (VHP) Conducting Virtual Oral History Interviews in Light of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Touching from a Distance: Lessons Learned in a Virtual Interview Environment. In March 2010, I recorded my first veteran’s oral history. […]

Homegrown Plus Four: The 2018 Archive Challenge Sampler Concert

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  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 one that fell through the cracks for a while: the 2018 Archive Challenge Sampler concert in the Coolidge Auditorium. Today is […]

More Summer Songs on the Folklife Today Podcast

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This post gives background to our latest episode of the Folklife Today podcast. This episode continues our look at songs about summer, from the amorous adventures of young lovers to the backbreaking work done by convicts in the sun. Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, along with guest Jennifer Cutting, present their favorite summer songs. Songs include the English “Sweet Primroses;” the Trinidadian “One Fine Summer’s Morning” and “June Come, You No Marry;” the Tuvan “In Summer Pastures;” the African American work song “Worked All Summer Long;” and the Basque “When the Sun Shines Everywhere, How Good the Shade is!”

Touching from a Distance: Lessons Learned in a Virtual Interview Environment

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The following is a guest blog post by liaison specialist Owen Rogers and is meant to supplement the Veterans History Project’s (VHP) Conducting Virtual Oral History Interviews in Light of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Check back next week to learn more about interviewing veterans in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. When I first began recording veterans’ […]

Navigating AFC Collections Geographically: U.S. Territories

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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 […]

Homegrown Foodways in West Virginia Film Series: “Ravioli and Sauce” and “Turkish Cuisine and Seed Keeping” Premiere September 15

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The following is a guest post by West Virginia State Folklorist Emily Hilliard, who directs the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council. AFC staff have been working with Emily, as well as Mike Costello and Amy Dawson of Lost Creek Farm, to co-produce the Homegrown Foodways in West Virginia program, a […]

VHP’s Newest Online Exhibit: Twenty Years of Service: Post 9/11 Veterans

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Today the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit, part of our Experiencing War web feature series. Titled “Twenty Years of Service: Post 9/11 Veterans,” the exhibit explores the stories of 12 veterans who served during and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Selected from VHP’s holdings of over 5,000 recent […]