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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

The Changing Field of Folklife

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is an article by Stephen Winick from the March/April 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Changes in technology have facilitated global access to the Library’s folklife collections. This year, the Library’s American Folklife Center turns 40. During that time, the world …

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

Pic of the Week: #MyTradition

Posted by: Erin Allen

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (AFC) has launched year-long campaign asking Americans to share photos of their folk traditions. The campaign kicks off a year of events that will commemorate AFC’s four decades as the institution of record for American folk traditions and ensure that it …

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

Library in the News: November 2015 Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Willie Nelson was the talk of the town as the Library celebrated his work and career during a concert in November, as he received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. “When Willie took the stage to accept the Gershwin prize, you could see the pride on his face,” wrote Brendan Kownacki for Hollywood on the …

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

Inquiring Minds: VHP Marks 15 Years Preserving Veterans’ Stories

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

A missing Air Crew Report, author Dennis Okerstrom says, provides plenty of facts about losses in air combat: type of aircraft, names and ranks of crew members, a flight plan. Those facts can’t, however, reveal war’s human dimension – what it’s like to actually get shot down in combat. “It cannot begin to convey the …

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

Rosanne Cash Curates a Carnegie Hall Exhibit with AFC

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following post was written by Stephen Winick and originally appeared on Folklife Today, the blog of the American Folklife Center.) When Rosanne Cash, recognized by the Library as one of the most compelling figures in popular music, was asked to curate a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, she graciously brought …

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

Hypothesis of a Culture

Posted by: Erin Allen

April Rodriguez, one of 36 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Summer Interns, wrote the following post while working in the Library’s American Folklife Center. Rodriguez recently received a master’s degree in library information studies from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She also has a background in sound engineering and film archiving, and she was …