April 5, 1996

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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American Folklife Center To Offer Lecture Series

A new series of free monthly lectures on the collections and work of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress will begin on Friday, May 31, from noon to 1 p.m. in Dining Room A on the sixth floor of the Library's Madison Building.

The new series, called "Notes from the Field," will be presented by the staff of the American Folklife Center and scholars from folklore and related fields who have worked with the center's collections.

Folklorist Mary Hufford will inaugurate the series with a slide lecture entitled "Stalking the Mother Forest: Culture, History, and the Central Appalachian Cove." Dr. Hufford will discuss her current fieldwork documenting the cultural and occupational traditions of Coal River, West Virginia, for the center's collections.

For many generations, communities in West Virginia have created a culture centered around the world's oldest and biologically richest temperate-zone hardwood forest. For the past three years, Dr. Hufford has led a team of folklorists in documenting the cultural impact of the forest's decline.

Future presentations in the "Notes from the Field" series include the following:

Friday, June 28	Michelle Forner on the dance collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
Tuesday, July 9	Joe Hickerson on women collectors and their research
Wednesday, August 7	Daria Nebesh on the Ukrainian collections
Wednesday, September 11	David Taylor on occupational folklife in Paterson, New Jersey

(All presentations will be held from noon - 1 p.m. in Dining Room A, Sixth Floor, Madison Building.)

The American Folklife Center was created by the American Folklife Preservation Act of 1976. The purpose of the center is to "preserve and present" American folklife through programs of research, field documentation, archival preservation, exhibition, publication, professional training, and live performance. The center is also the home of the Archive of Folk Culture, which contains more than 1.5 million manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, films, videos, periodicals, microfilms, and printed materials such as posters and brochures. The collection, which is the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world, covers all 50 states and all regions of the world.

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PR 96-53
4/5/96
ISSN 0731-3527