Michael Hipa, Poarch Creek tribal descendant, enters the arena in the Grand Entry, 1988. Part of the documentation in Alabama's Local Legacies projects.

Alabama

The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress through Public Law 94-201 and charged to "preserve and present American folklife." The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established at the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.

Collections

The collections of the American Folklife Center contain rich and varied materials from Alabama that document the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its unique recordings are spirituals, work songs, and shouts from the prison camps of the 1930s; fiddle music; coal miners' songs; African American folklore; Sacred Harp singing; and the music of blues and gospel artists. Recordings from Alabama are also featured in these two American Memory online presentations: Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, and "Now What a Time:" Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943.

• Alabama Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [draft available upon request]

In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools project documented a Greek/Lebanese cultural school located in Birmingham. The material created from this survey has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center. Alabama participated in the Library's Bicentennial Local Legacies project, which includes documentation of local traditions and celebrations for the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture.

• View Alabama's Local Legacies projects

Concert Webcast

December 7, 2005: Birmingham Sunlights. African American Gospel quartet [webcast and event flyer]

Field Research Projects

• 1982 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools (Lebanese/Greek School in Birmingham). [catalog record] [finding aid]

Publications

• "Lebanese Arabic School at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church and Greek School at Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral," in Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Sacred Harp Singing, Recording Laboratory, Library of Congress, AFS L11. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• "Jordan and Jubilee: Songs from Livingston, Alabama," The Ballad Hunter, Part IX, Library of Congress, AFS L53. [audiocassette]