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Category: American Folklife Center

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Good Timing for a Sliming

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This year’s list of 25 noteworthy films named to the Library of Congress National Film Registry is out, and it includes some well-known favorites: “Ghostbusters,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Top Gun,” even the original Douglas Fairbanks vehicle “Zorro.”  Films are annually named to the registry that are culturally, historically or aesthetically important; the object is preservation …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A Founder and a Firebrand

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The nation and the world are mourning the passing of civil-rights activist Julian Bond, who died on Saturday in Florida at age 75. Brought up in an intellectual family, he was a skinny, witty, articulate young man when he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, in 1960, traveling around the south to …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Wild Irish Foes

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Today we’re going to add a new term to your broad vocabulary: Fenian. It’s a noun that describes a member of an Irish or Irish-American brotherhood dedicated to freeing Ireland from British dominion. The name was taken from the “Fianna,” a group of kings’ guards led by the legendary Irish leader of yore, Finn MacCool. …