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Posted by: Mark Hartsell
The culture of working is a big part of what makes America America—men and women on the job, growing our food, teaching our children, burying our loved ones, building our homes, doing the things that make our society possible. Over the past seven years, the American Folklife Center (AFC) has collected the stories of working …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The BeauSoleil Quartet performed the lively and soulful music of Louisiana Cajuns on June 28 in the Coolidge Auditorium as part of the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series. For four decades now, the quartet has been taking traditional ingredients—waltzes, two-steps, Cajun French lyrics, hot fiddle licks and irresistible accordion—and spicing them up with eclectic percussion, acoustic …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Nicole Saylor, head of archives at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress just announced the release of the Web Cultures Web Archive Collection, a representative sampling of websites documenting the creation and sharing of emergent cultural traditions on the web. Why is …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, Social Media
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
A performer competes in a “dance battle” in the Coolidge Auditorium on February 22 during a Homegrown Concert Series event of the American Folklife Center. Dance battles are an urban dance tradition that celebrate individual talent while helping to keep diverse forms of urban musical and dance expressions alive. In the Coolidge, pairs of dancers …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Events, Pic of the Week, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Stephen Winick, writer-editor in the American Folklife Center.) This year the GRAMMY awards promise to be exciting for music fans everywhere, but especially fans of the Library of Congress. At least four of the nominees have connections to the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC). They present archival recordings, …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, Curators, Folksonomies, History, Kluge Center, Music
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post written by Stephanie Hall of the American Folklife Center.) In 1934, folklorist John Lomax and his 19-year-old son Alan went to southern Louisiana to collect folksongs and music in many styles from several ethnic groups in English and French. Among the songs in the resulting collection is “Trench Blues,” a …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Audiovisual, Collections, Curators, History, Music
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Those who appreciate high-quality broadcast news were saddened today to learn of the passing of longtime PBS NewsHour co-host and Washington Week moderator Gwen Ifill. The former New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News political, congressional and White House reporter, 61, had been under treatment for cancer. She and her NewsHour co-host Judy Woodruff …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Audiovisual, Books, Collections, History, Law Library, National Book Festival, News, Newspapers, Women's History
Posted by: Erin Allen
Adding another “book” to its social media shelf, the Library of Congress welcomes the Veterans History Project to Facebook. There, VHP will be sharing the stories of our veterans along with other news and initiatives. Visitors are also encouraged to share their own stories and help VHP collect more. VHP’s Facebook joins several other Facebook accounts from the …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, Folksonomies, History, Social Media, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) Educational Outreach This month, we’re very happy to have a new release in the excellent series of Student Discovery Sets produced by the Library’s Education Outreach team. Designed for classroom use on Apple’s iPad platform, Student Discovery sets “bring …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Audiovisual, Civil War, Collections, Education, Exhibitions, Folksonomies, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, New Online, Technology