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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

Native American Heritage Month: Preserving Songs and Stories of the Past

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Judith Gray joined the staff of the American Folklife Center in 1983 with a goal in mind: she wanted to work on the Federal Cylinder Project. The Folklife Center launched the project four years earlier to preserve early field recordings of the sung and spoken traditions of Native American communities. Ethnographers had made the recordings on …

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

Inquiring Minds: Shining a Light on a Folk Music Original

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Born into one of folk music’s foremost families, Peggy Seeger has been a leading voice of the Anglo-American folk revival for more than 60 years. As a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and political activist, Seeger is viewed as having forged an unconventional and artistically vibrant path. In “Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love and Politics,” …

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

New Online: Collecting Web Comics and Culture

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

This post first appeared in the September–October issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue is titled “Comics: An American History!” and is available in its entirety online. Two new online collections capture contemporary culture as it is consumed, via the web. The millions of items in Library of Congress collections chronicle human …

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

New Online: Scary Stories and More

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center. An earlier version was published on “Folklife Today,” the center’s blog. With Halloween just around the corner, the Library of Congress has released a new web guide to Halloween resources at the Library. It features select materials on the folk customs, fine …

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

Inquiring Minds: Folklife Center Shines a Light on the Skiffle Craze

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

When Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center learned about Billy Bragg’s 2016 album, “Shine a Light,” he quickly contacted the album’s publicist to invite the English singer-songwriter to speak at the Library. The reason: the album, recorded with American folksinger Joe Henry, includes several songs known to the world thanks to recordings in the …

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

Inquiring Minds: Chinese Opera in North America

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

In her new book, “Chinatown Opera Theater in North America,” music scholar Nancy Yunhwa Rao tells the story of how Chinatown opera, performed initially to entertain Chinese immigrants, developed into an important part of America’s musical culture. Drawing on new Chinese- and English-language research—including sources at the Library of Congress—she unmasks the backstage world of …

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

Pic of the Week: Celebrating the Music of Hawaii

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Ledward “Led” Kaapana delighted an audience in the Coolidge Auditorium on July 6 with traditional music from Hawaii. A master of the Hawaiian ukulele and slack key guitar, Kaapana has performed in Hawaii and beyond for more than 40 years, perpetuating the musical style and repertoire of his home village, Kalapana, in the southernmost district of …