American Folklife Center

The American Folklife Center presented an Archive Challenge at the Susquehanna Folk Festival in York, Pennsylvania, this weekend. Three artists booked at the festival performed a song learned from the AFC archive. Sarah Fiore wanted something with contemporary relevance, so she performed the fierce anti-war song "Masters of War," inspired by a recording of a 22-year-old Bob Dylan singing it for Alan Lomax in Lomax's apartment, and a later recording of Alan Lomax himself performing it. Zach King performed "The Blue Juniata," about a river near his home in Perry County, PA, inspired by a recording from the California collection of Sidney Robertson Cowell and a manuscript from the Fletcher Collins, Jr. collection. Shane Speal was looking for a song to showcase the unique "Bull Guitar" made by Martin Huff of Harlan County, Kentucky, so he chose "Shady Grove," which mentions Harlan. He was inspired by a Kentucky recording of J.M. Mullins, as well as a bluegrass-style rendition by the Mountain Ramblers of Virginia. All the artists did a fabulous job of making our archival treasures their own, and we thank them for their efforts. We also thank the Susquhanna Folk Festival for hosting the challenge, especially Executive Director Peter Winter Lee.

The photo by Michael Kornfeld shows AFC folklorist Stephen Winick, Sarah Fiore, Zach King, AFC folklorist Jennifer Cutting (holding the Bull Guitar), and Shane Speal.

Eve Glazier is playing John Cohen’s Vega Whyte Laydie banjo in the Folklife Reading Room. Eve’s great-grandmother, Rae Korson, was an important figure in our archive’s history. She began as a reference assistant in 1942, became our main reference librarian, and served as Head of the Archive from 1956 until she retired in 1969. Eve’s great-grandfather, George Korson, was an important collector, organizer, and activist in the field of folklore. We hold major collections from George, especially those related to coal mining songs from Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Eve is visiting AFC with her brother Max to learn more about their great-grandparents’ work.

At the link, find an extensive list of collections with which the Korsons are involved. Note that some of these are their own collections, others feature correspondence with one or both of them.

https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=Korson+Folklife&searchCode=GKEY%5E*&searchType=0&recCount=25&loclr=fbafc

Archive Challenge alumnus Hubby Jenkins is onstage now at the Appell Center in downtown York, Pennsylvania at the Susquehanna Folk Festival! AFC will be running an Archive Challenge tomorrow (August 11) at 1:40 pm. It’s free of charge, so if you’re in the area, come on down! The festival schedule is at the link:

https://sfmsfolk.org/festival/2024/festival_program.pdf

It's raining jobs at the American Folklife Center this week! We're hiring for another archivist position, to support our COVID-19 American History Project. The application deadline is September 9th. Details in the link below.

Archivist This position is located in the American Folklife Center (AFC), Special Collections Directorate, Researcher and Collection Services (RCS) in the Library Collections and Services Group (LCSG) at the Library of Congress. This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position. The positio...

Come join our team! The American Folklife Center is hiring two (!) archivists to support its archival processing work. The application deadline is August 21. Visit the link below for more information.

Archivist This position is located in the American Folklife Center (AFC), Special Collections Directorate, Researcher and Collection Services (RCS) in the Library Collections and Services Group (LCSG). This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position. The position description number for th...

Yesterday, American Folklife Center staff welcomed a talented group of Ukrainian arts administrators to the Library of Congress. We shared about our work, learned about their inspiring efforts to advance Ukrainian cultural traditions, and got to see other Ukrainian collections at the Library of Congress. The group is touring the United States, with support from the US State Department's IVLP program, learning about the breadth of American arts administration work. Thank you for your visit! Дякуємо за візит!

Rakish, the fantastic duo of violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn, visited the American Folklife Center for a concert and interview in May 2024. In the link below, check out a webcast Rakish's performance and a conversation with the band.

Rakish: From Folk to Baroque Concert and Interview | Folklife Today The latest entry in our Homegrown Plus series features Celtic duo Rakish. As usual, it includes a concert video, an interview video, and a set of links to explore. Rakish is made up of violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn. Maura and Conor draw on the music they grew up with and pe...

Happy Mother Ann's Day! American Shakers have historically celebrated this distinctive Shaker observance on or about August 6, the day the sect's founder, Mother Ann Lee, arrived in America. This August 6 is the 250th anniversary of that historic occasion:

"On the 19th of May, 1774, [Mother Ann] sailed from Liverpool, in company with her husband (who then professed the same faith), her brother, — William Lee, James Whittaker, John Hocknell, Richard Hocknell, — son of John Hocknell, James Shepherd, Mary Partington, and Nancy Lee — a niece of Mother Ann. After enduring the storms and dangers of the sea, in an old leaky vessel, in which they came very near being shipwrecked, they all arrived safely in New York, on the 6th of August following."

See the above passage in the book at the first link:

https://www.loc.gov/item/22013795/?loclr=fbafc

To celebrate, you can listen to our concert of Shaker Spirituals in Maine with Brother Arnold Hadd, Kevin Siegfried, and Radiance, and watch an interview with Brother Arnold. Find it at the second link!

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2023/04/homegrown-plus-shaker-spirituals-in-maine-with-brother-arnold-hadd-kevin-siegfried-and-radiance/?loclr=fbafc

The image is a Shaker greeting card from 1853. Find out more about it at the last link!

https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.047/?loclr=fbafc

https://www.loc.gov/item/event-412907/conspiracy-theories-folklore-and-belief-with-andrea-kitta/2024-09-04/

Join us on September 4th for a lecture by Dr. Andrea Kitta titled, "Conspiracy Theories, Folklore, and Belief." Dr. Kitta's presentation will discuss definitions of conspiracy theories, and how they fit into other belief traditions and narratives, with a focus on understanding why people believe in conspiracy theories and how they function. Dr. Kitta is an award-winning scholar and professor at East Carolina University. Tickets are free, but registration required. See the link above for more information.

https://www.loc.gov/item/event-412158/windborne-old-songs-bold-harmony/2024-08-29/

Live! At the Library! Join us at the Library of Congress for a concert by Windborne on August 29th at 7:00 pm. Windborne is a vocal ensemble whose members are rooted in the traditional music of New England, but who incorporate musical traditions from throughout the world into their performances. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Visit the link above for more information.

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/803068200

We're hiring! The AFC is looking for an archivist to support our Community Collections Grant program. Visit the link above for details. The application deadline is August 16.

Archivist This position is located in the American Folklife Center (AFC), Special Collections Directorate, Researcher and Collection Services (RCS) in the Library Collections and Services Group (LCSG) at the Library of Congress. This is a non-supervisory, bargaining unit position. The positio...

Happy Lammas! This page from Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack" for 1758 marks August 1 as Lammas Day, celebrating the summer harvest, especially the harvest of grains (p. 20). https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2019amal04984/?sp=20&loclr=fbafc Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

In this interview from the Montana Folklife Survey Collection, John Harrington talks with Gary Ward Stanton about his life and plays Irish tunes on the accordion. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1981005_afs20449/?loclr=fbafc At 10:30 he plays "Stacks of Barley," a tune in celebration of the barley harvest. Butte, Montana, August 30, 1979.

On July 31 and August 1, 1979, Michael Crummett was in and around Boyd, Montana, taking photos for the Montana Folklife Survey project. This photo is of a general store in Boyd.

The collection consists of approximately 145 sound recordings, 10,500 photographs; and 3 ½ linear feet of manuscripts that document interviews with Montanans in various occupations including ranching, sheep herding, blacksmithing, stone cutting, saddle making, and mining; various folk and traditional music occasions including fiddle and mandolin music in Forsyth; fiddle and accordion music performed in Broadus; the Montana Old-Time Fiddlers Association in Polson; Irish music, songs, and dance music on concertina and accordion in Butte; a Serbian wedding and reception in Butte; hymn singing of the Turner Colony of Hutterites; the annual Crow Fair in Crow Agency; storytelling on the Milk River Wagon Train, and other documentation of rodeos, trade crafts, vernacular architecture, quilting, and other reminiscences and stories about life in Montana in 1979. Find the rich materials at the link!

https://www.loc.gov/collections/montana-folklife-survey-1979/about-this-collection/?loclr=fbafc

Right now in the Coolidge Auditorium: Swanky Kitchen Band from the Cayman Islands!

Over at Folklife Today, read an excerpt of an interview Meg Nicholas conducted with Alex Lumelsky, COO and Creative Director for the Chaldean News, about the 2024 Community Collections Grant (CCG) project, Chaldeans: Portrait of an Evolving Community. Chaldeans are a relatively small but distinct group of Christians who come from northern Iraq, with roots that date back to ancient Mesopotamia. Although Chaldean customs and traditions are quite different from those of Iraq’s Arab majority, because both groups originate from Iraq, Chaldean culture is often overlooked and misunderstood.

The photo by Evan Yaqoo shows a Chaldean wedding, May 31, 2024. The groom's mother pins a cross of protection on her son's back. Used with permission.

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/afcs-community-collections-grantee-spotlight-on-chaldeans-portrait-of-an-evolving-community/?loclr=blogflt

https://www.loc.gov/item/event-412624/swanky-kitchen-band-traditional-fiddle-music-of-the-cayman-islands/2024-07-31/?loclr=fbafc

Join us at the Library of Congress on July 31, for a performance by the fantastic Swanky Kitchen Band. The group specializes in fiddle-based traditional music of the Cayman Islands, known as kitchen dance music, a tradition that mixes European and African influences. The group is led by Samuel Rose, who grew up learning to play the fiddle. Observing the disappearance of kitchen dance music, Rose, along with guitarist Nicholas Johnson, created Swanky Kitchen Band to preserve and revitalize this disappearing art form in 2003. Today, the group shares an important message; that the music of the Cayman Islands is powerful, fun, and necessary.

Swanky Kitchen Band's performance is part of the American Folklife Center's Homegrown Concert Series. The event is free, but tickets are required. For tickets and more information, visit the link at the top of the post.

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/national-day-of-the-cowboy/?loclr=fbafc

Tomorrow, July 27th, is National Day of the Cowboy. To celebrate, we've gathered a selection of materials from the AFC's collections relating to cowboys, vaqueros, and buckaroos. Enjoy Meg Nicholas' (AFC Folklife Specialist) review of these materials at the link above.

National Day of the Cowboy | Folklife Today The National Day of the Cowboy is coming up soon (the fourth Saturday of July), prompting me to go sifting through the archive for collection items to highlight. The national day officially began in 2008, when the National Day of the Cowboy resolution passed in both the Senate and the House, though....

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/covid-recollections-interviewing-appalachian-child-care-workers-for-the-covid-19-american-history-project/?loclr=fbafc

Over the past nine months, folklorist Nicole Musgrave has been traveling throughout Appalachia, interviewing child care workers about their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. Head on over to Folklife Today to read about Musgrave's important work and what she's heard from these educators.

Musgrave's work is part of the COVID-19 American History Project, a Congressionally mandated initiative to document and archive Americans' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about the COVID-19 American History Project, visit: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2023/05/announcing-the-covid-19-american-history-project/

COVID Recollections: Interviewing Appalachian Child Care Workers for the COVID-19 American History Project | Folklife Today In 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted folklorist Nicole Musgrave to conduct interviews with Appalachian-based child care workers about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences for the COVID-19 American History Project. The post, guest authored by Musgrave, details her inspiration for the proje...

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/labor-department-official-named-to-american-folklife-center-board/?loclr=fbafc

The American Folklife Center is proud to announce that Jessica Looman, Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) at the US Department of Labor, is the newest member of our Board of Trustees. Looman brings years of experience at the state and national-level to the AFC Board, which you can read about at the link above. Please help us give a warm welcome to Jessica Looman!

For information on the AFC Board of Trustees, visit: www.loc.gov/research-centers/american-folklife-center/about-this-research-center/board-of-trustees/?loclr=fbafc

Happy birthday to Alison Krauss! The singer, fiddler, and bandleader was born on July 23, 1971. She is a folk and bluegrass master musician, the fourth most awarded recipient of Grammy Awards, and the second most awarded woman in Grammy history, with 27 awards.

Krauss is well known for contributing to the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack, which featured traditional songs learned from AFC archival recordings. As one of the voices of the "Sirenes" (along with Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch), she sang "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby," learned from the recording of Sidney Hemphill Carter at the first link:

https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/southern-us-1959-and-1960/senatobia-ii-959/didnt-leave-nobody-baby

Krauss also performed in the Library of Congress's 2015 Gershwin Awards concert, honoring Willie Nelson.

The photo by "King County Parks Your Big Backyard" was shared to Flickr with a Creative Commons License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

The American Folklife Center is very sad to pass on news of the death of singer, activist, historian, and folklorist Bernice Johnson Reagon. She was a powerful force within both the Civil Rights movement and the folk music revival, and her influence is felt in all our work at AFC. Her voice has become an indelible part of American folk music, and her work has been crucial to documenting and explaining the deep importance of African American music to American history.

Born in Southwest Georgia in 1942, Bernice Johnson grew up in the Baptist church, and sang spirituals from an early age. While attending Albany State College, she became active in the NAACP and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Within SNCC, she helped found the Freedom Singers, with Cordell Reagon, Charles Neblett, and Rutha Mae Harris. She and Reagon married in 1963. In the same year, the Freedom Singers appeared at both the March on Washington and the Newport Folk Festival, at which they linked arms onstage with Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary to sing "We Shall Overcome."

After the original Freedom Singers disbanded, Reagon returned to Georgia to complete her undergraduate degree and then moved to Washington, where she earned a PhD in history from Howard University and began a career as a curator at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1973, Reagon founded the women's a ca****la group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Performing with just voices and occasional percussion, the group blended music from Reagon's background in spirituals and freedom songs with a wide variety of global songs carrying messages of peace, freedom, and social justice. With Sweet Honey in the Rock, Reagon toured all over the world, recorded many albums, and won numerous awards.

Bernice Johnson Reagon retired from the Smithsonian in 1993, taking up a position as Distinguished Professor of history at American University (AU) in Washington, DC. She retired from AU in 2003 and from Sweet Honey in the Rock in 2004. After retiring, she was named both Professor Emeritus at AU and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian.

Bernice Johnson Reagan is part of numerous AFC collections, including the Center for Traditional Music and Dance collection, the Caffe Lena collection, The Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian collection, The Jean Ritchie and George Pickow collection, the NCTA Collection, the Pete Seeger and the Hudson River Sloop Singers concerts collection, and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington Collection. Her writings and recordings are part of other collections throughout the Library, and she performed a solo concert at the Library of Congress in 2004. She was on the Executive Committee of our Civil Rights History Project and recorded an oral history interview for the Caffe Lena project here at the Center.

The American Folklife Center extends our sympathies to Bernice's family, especially her daughter Toshi and her son Kwan.

Find videos of Bernice Johnson Reagon at the Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH:

https://americanarchive.org/catalog?q=Bernice+Johnson+Reagon&utf8=%E2%9C%93&f[access_types][]=digitized

The photo of the Freedom Singers by Joe Alper is part of AFC's Caffe Lena Collection. A copy is also in the James Forman papers, and it was featured in the Library's exhibit "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 : A Long Struggle for Freedom."

The American Folklife Center is sad to note the passing of A. Heather Wood, a folksinger and folk music organizer who is featured in several AFC collections. Heather was always a friend of the AFC and of our staff members. Heather's website includes the statement "I am never ill," and her death occurred quite suddenly yesterday.

Heather was born in England in 1945, and began her singing career with the trio The Young Tradition, which also featured Peter Bellamy and Royston Wood. The Young Tradition was one of the first and most prominent revival groups to perform traditional English folksongs with a capella harmonies, taking traditonal groups like The Copper Family as their model but employing innovative influences from both medieval and modern music. They performed at major folk festivals in the UK and the US, and recorded influential albums that are still treasured listening for many today.

After the Young Tradition stopped performing in 1969, Heather was part of several duos, including with Royston Wood (as "No Relation" since their shared surname was a coincidence) and with former AFC staff member Andy Wallace (as "Crossover"). She was also part of the group "Poor Old Horse."

Heather moved to the U.S. in the 1970s and settled in New York, where she was important to the folk scene as a singer, but also as an organizer and catalyst. She worked with such organizations as the New York Folk Music Society, the Long Island Traditional Music Association, the Youth Traditional Song Weekend, and the TradMad Camp, held at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Heather's other interests included science fiction and the search for extraterrestrial life.) As both a singer and an organizer, she attended such festivals as the Old Songs Festival, the Mystic Sea Music Festival, and Folk Alliance International, where she often met and encouraged AFC staff members.

Heather is an important part of several AFC collections. AFC folklorist Nancy Groce interviewed her for the Nancy Groce collection of interviews with culture brokers, and concerts by the Young Tradition are documented in the Izzy Young Collection and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington collection.

Heather had no close relatives and considered the friends she made through folk music to be family. We will miss her wit and wisdom (and of course her songs) at future folk music family gatherings.

Heather sent this picture by an unknown photographer to AFC staff member Stephen Winick a few years ago to be used as a promotional photo.

https://www.loc.gov/item/event-412860/photography-and-folklife-fieldwork-documentation-and-building-the-archive/2024-07-17/?loclr=fbafc

Reminder! Join us for a lecture by former AFC/LOC staff member Carl Fleischhauer on photography and fieldwork this Wednesday at noon. Details in the link above.

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/natalie-merchants-concert-event-part-2-archive-treasures-family-sing-along/?loclr=fbafc

Our second Natalie Merchant blog post is now live! In it, see Merchant's recent sing-along concert, held as part of the Library of Congress' Family Day program, and read about the songs Merchant performed, many of which have connections to the American Folklife Center's collections.

Natalie Merchant’s Concert Event Part 2: Archive Treasures Family Sing-Along | Folklife Today Watch Natalie Merchant’s June 15 sing-along concert at the Library of Congress right here on the blog! The singer, songwriter, activist, and folklife advocate helped the Library mark the opening of the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery with a very special Family Day sing-along presentation...

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/watch-as-natalie-merchant-sings-the-treasures-of-a-nation-including-afc-archival-treasures/

Natalie Merchant, a wonderful musician and AFC Board Member, helped open the Library of Congress' new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery with several performances last month. Head over to Folklife Today to see Merchant's Live at the Library performance and learn about the songs from the AFC's collection that she integrated into her performance, with assistance from AFC Folklife Specialist, Steve Winick. Look for more about Merchant's recent performances in the days to come.

Watch as Natalie Merchant Sings the Treasures of a Nation–Including AFC Archival Treasures | Folklife Today Watch Natalie Merchant’s June 13 concert at the Library of Congress right here on the blog! The singer, songwriter, activist, and folklife advocate helped the Library mark the opening of the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery with a very special

https://guides.loc.gov/argentina-folklife

Interested in Argentine folklore? Click the link above to explore our newest guide on the American Folklife Center's collection materials from Argentina.

https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/07/and-a-fire-come-out-at-night-ufos-space-exploration-and-folklife/

Have you ever wondered if the American Folklife Center has material on UFOs or space exploration? Visit the Folklife Today link above for a deep dive into space and alien lore in our collections, written by AFC Folklife Specialist, Meg Nicholas.

“And a fire come out at night”: UFOs, space exploration and folklife | Folklife Today Inspired by an annual re-watch of the alien invasion film

https://blogs.loc.gov/ofthepeople/2024/07/catching-up-with-community-collections-grant-recipient-ashley-minner-jones-on-beyond-baltimore-street-living-lumbee-legacies/?loclr=fbafc

Earlier this year, Dr. Ashley Minner Jones was awarded a Community Collections Grant from the American Folklife Center for "Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies"--a project that documents Lumbee community members who moved from their tribal homeland of North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland. Read an interview with Dr. Minner Jones, at the link above, that details this important work-in-progress.

Pictured: (l-r) James Earl Locklear, Minnie S. Maynor, Jeanette Jones and Heyman Jones, all Lumbee, walk Eastpoint Mall in Dundalk, Maryland. Part of the 2024 American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant project, Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies, led by Dr. Ashley Minner Jones. Photo by Jill Fannon Prevas, 2024. Used with permission.

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2024/06/mapping-the-lost-history-of-the-tenth-street-historic-district/

Congratulations to Tameshia Rudd-Ridge and Jourdan Brunson, of kinkofa, for this article on their work to preserve Dallas’ Tenth Street Historic District. Rudd-Ridge and Brunson are helping to lead “If Tenth Street Could Talk”—a project supported by a Community Collections Grant from the American Folklife Center. Learn more about the Rudd-Ridge and Brunson’s CCG work here: https://blogs.loc.gov/ofthepeople/2023/12/catching-up-with-community-collections-grant-recipients-if-tenth-street-could-talk-with-tameshia-rudd-ridge-and-jourdan-brunson/

Mapping the Lost History of the Tenth Street Historic District Much of Tenth Street's history has been lost to demolition and city policy. A new effort aims to help people visualize what once was, with the goal of appreciating and saving what remains.