http://www.loc.gov/folklife/aboutafc.html AFC RSS Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:57:20 GMT ListGarden Program 1.3.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0708-folklife.html#jul24 FREE <br> <br>July 24, 2008 at 12:00 noon
 <br> <br>Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress <br> <br>The Zionaires gospel group, who hail from the Delmarva Peninsula, celebrated their 54th singing anniversary on February 17, 2008. For over half a century, they have spread the word of God through music to church and radio audiences on the lower shore of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. They attribute their remarkable survival to the words of King David: "I will sing praises unto God while I have any being" [Psalm 146:2]. In 1954, Dennis Brady, Marion Joynes, Hilton Johnson and Edward Davis, four young men active in Mt. Hope AME Zion Church, formed the quartet. There have been so many lineup changes over the years that there are more than forty former members and musicians who have spent time in the group. Since the lead-up to their golden anniversary, the Zionaires have experienced a surge of interest in their singing, both locally and nationally. In 2003, they headlined the Quarterly Gospel Festival in Wilmington, which is the largest Gospel event in Delaware. They also performed a high-profile concert at the Metropolitan AME Church in New York City, where Dr. Bobby Jones, host of Black Entertainment Television’s flagship Sunday program, Bobby Jones Gospel, introduced them. In 2004, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation included the Zionaires on their award-winning CD set From Bridge to Boardwalk: An Audio Journey Across Maryland's Eastern Shore. Also in 2004, they performed in the Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert, part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, an international exposition of living cultural heritage which is produced annually, outdoors, on the National Mall of the United States in Washington, D.C. <br> <br>For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510. http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0708-folklife.html#may28 FREE <br> <br>May 28, 2008 at 12 noon <br> <br>Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress <br> <br>Opalanga Pugh is a storyteller in the African American oral tradition. Working for the railroad led both of Opalanga's grandfathers to migrate to the West around the turn of the 20th century, and Opalanga grew up in the small but culturally rich African American community of Denver, Colorado. Under her grandmother's tutelage, Opalanga absorbed cautionary tales and proverbs while she learned the ethic of hard work and "how to make a creative way out of no way." She embraced the civil rights movement during her high school years in the late 1960s, and began the cultural activism she has continued throughout her life. Opalanga answered a deep call to visit Africa, "the mother of us all," and she spent her senior year abroad at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. As she traveled among the Yoruba and other people of West Africa, Opalanga listened closely to the way people shaped language into story and song, and witnessed firsthand how tightly storytelling was woven into the fabric of human life. <br> <br>Opalanga will tell stories from her African cultural experiences, classic African American tales, and stories from the lives of early blacks in the American west. One story will come from historical Five Points, the cultural center of Black Denver. Askia Touré, another Denver native and a member of Opalanga's extended family, will use his voice and drums to add rhythm and fullness to the stories. Together they will honor Opalanga's commitment to bring "traditional wisdom into the heart of the modern world." <br> <br>Opalanga has traveled as a professional storyteller throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, working in education, mental health, and corporate settings since 1986. In these contexts, she uses story as a tool for personal development, a vehicle for education, and a force for social change. NBC selected Opalanga as one of 10 African American Living Legends in 1992. Opalanga has received the Ambassador for Peace Award from the Conflict Center of Denver, and twice won the Denver Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. <br> <br> <br> <br>For more information, please visit: www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.