Performances Lectures Rediscover Northern Ireland events Symposia Announcements AFC RSS Feeds Archive of Past Events

What's Happening at the American Folklife Center

Throughout the year, the Center sponsors workshops, lectures, exhibits, concerts, and conferences (on its own and in cooperation with other Library of Congress offices and outside agencies) in order to educate the American people about the importance of their own cultural traditions and the traditions of others. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Performances - Homegrown Concerts
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building

Thursday, May 28, noon to 1:00 pm: Brendan Carey Block and Friends, Cape Breton Fiddle Music from New Hampshire.

Thursday, June 18, noon to 1:00 pm: Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac, Aztec dance ensemble from Pennsylvania.

Thursday, July 16, noon to 1:00 pm:
Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, quartet style a capella gospel music from Kentucky.

Thursday, August 20, noon to 1:00 pm:
Sreevidhya Chandramouli and friends, Northern Indian Vina music from Oregon.

Wednesday, September 16, noon to 1:00 pm:
Wayne Newell and Blanche Sockabasin, traditional Passamaquoddy music from Maine.

Wednesday, October 7, noon to 1:00 pm:
Rodeo poet Paul Zarzyski and cowboy singer-composer Wylie Gustafson from Montana.

Wednesday, November 18, noon to 1:00 pm:
Barbara Lynn and friends, Texas Rhythm and Blues.

Thursday, December 3, noon to 1:00 pm:
The Berntsons, Traditional Norwegian-American dance music from Virginia.

Past Homegrown Concerts (2005-2008) - View event flyers, essays, and webcasts (as available).

Benjamin A. Botkin Folklife Lecture Series for 2009

May 5, 12:00 noon (Mumford Room, 6th floor, James Madison Building) We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi, lecture and book signing presented by Tracy Sugerman.

May 13, 12:00 noon (Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building) The Sound of Islamic Music: Women's Voices and the Indonesian Religious Soundscape, presented by Anne K. Rasmussen, College of William and Mary.

June 11, 12:00 noon
The High Lonesome Sound Revisited: Documenting Traditional Culture in America, presented by John Cohen, Documentary Filmmaker

August 13, 12:00 noon
Documenting Katrina and Rita in Houston, presented by Carl Lindahl, University of Houston and Pat Jasper, Austin, Texas

September 23, 12:00 noon
Built with Faith: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York, presented by Joseph Sciorra, Queens University, City University of New York.

October 14, 12:00 noon
The Stations of the Nation: Yiddish-American Radio 1925-1955, presented by Henry Sapoznik, University of Wisconsin.

Past 2009 Lectures:

• April 30, 12:00 noon (Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building) Warning of Global Warming? Shamanic Tradition, Politics and Ecological Change in Siberia, presented by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Georgetown University.
• March 24, 2009, 12:00 noon (Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building)
  Living and Building Between Tradition and Change: Vernacular Architecture in Northern Sweden, presented by Mats Widbom, Cultural Counselor, Embassy of Sweden.
• January 27 , 2009, 12:00 noon (Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building)
  Revolutionaries, Nursery Rhymes, and Edison Wax Cylinders: The Remarkable Tale of the Earliest Korean Sound Recordings presented by Robert Provine, University of Maryland. Webcast Available.

Past Botkin Lectures (2004 - 2008) - View event flyer essays, and webcasts (as available).

Rediscover Northern Ireland Events 2008

Go to the Rediscover Northern Ireland Events 2008 page for a description of these events and links to the webcasts (all three are now available).

Symposia

Past symposia pages recently updated with access to webcasts and photographs of the event:

• Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, Politics & Performance (February, 2009): The webcasts are available
• Art, Culture, and Government: the New Deal at 75 (March, 2008)
• "How Can I Keep from Singing?": A Seeger Family Tribute (March, 2007)
• Laborlore Conversations IV: Documenting Occupational Folklore Then and Now (August 2007)
• Rediscover Northern Ireland Programme 2007

Announcements

• Research Awards
  The Research Awards page contains application procedures and other information on AFC's awards programs.

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