AFC Events

AFC Concert: Traditional Norwegian-American dance music from Virginia

THE BERNTSONS: Traditional Norwegian-American dance music from Virginia

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009 at 12:00 noon, Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Around 1900, a Norwegian immigrant named Bernt Berntson Bradskerud purchased a violin in a northern Wisconsin logging camp and gave it to his ten-year-old son, Bennie. Bennie began playing learning Scandinavian folk tunes from fiddlers in his rural Wisconsin immigrant community. These tunes became the backbone of the repertoire for the Berntsons. In the 1930s, Bennie Berntson's son Maurice and daughter Eleanore joined the family music circle. Today, the Berntsons are alive and well, and heading into their second century of music-making.

For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-folklife.html#december3 or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Announces Alan Lomax Fellowship at Kluge Center

The Library of Congress's Kluge Center invites qualified scholars to apply for a post-doctoral fellowship for advanced research based on the Alan Lomax Collection. The Alan Lomax Fellowship, established for a period of five years, supports scholarly research that contributes significantly to a greater understanding of the work of Lomax and the cultural traditions he documented over the course of a vigorous and highly productive seventy-year career. Fellows are in residence at the Library for a period of up to 8 months and have the opportunity to access and use original materials from the Lomax Collection and other collections of the Library of Congress. The Fellowship program supports research in the disciplines of anthropology, ethnomusicology, ethnography, ethno-history, dance, folklore and folklife, history, literature, linguistics, and movement analysis, with particular emphasis on the traditional music, dance, and narrative of the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the Caribbean, as well as methodologies for their documentation and analysis. Interdisciplinary projects that combine disciplines in novel and productive ways are encouraged. The annual application deadline is February 28, with the fellowship commencing anytime after September 1st of that same year. For an application and additional information on other Kluge Center fellowships, see: www.loc.gov/loc/kluge or please contact The Kluge Center at (202) 707-3302 or scholarly@loc.gov. For more information about the Lomax Collection, see: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/

Reminder--Texas Rhythm and Blues concert on Wednesday

BARBARA LYNN & FRIENDS — Texas Rhythm and Blues

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:00 noon

Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress  

Barbara Lynn is a rhythm and blues singer and left-handed guitarist from Texas. In the 1950s, inspired by blues artists Guitar Slim and Jimmy Reed, and pop acts Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee, she created an all-female band, Bobbie Lynn and Her Idols. Her first single "You'll Lose a Good Thing" was a #1 R&B hit and a Top 10 pop hit in 1962, and was later a country hit for Freddy Fender. Soon Lynn was touring with such soul music greats as Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Ike and Tina Turner, and The Temptations. She appeared at the Apollo Theatre and twice on American Bandstand, and her song, "Oh Baby (We've Got a Good Thing Goin')” was recorded by The Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone's David Fricke has noted that Lynn continues to display “undiminished grace and poise, pouring a lifetime of blues and wisdom into her delivery.”

AFC Archie Green Fellowship -- November 30 deadline

Deadline Approaching for New American Folklife Center Fellowship to Honor Archie Green

To honor the memory of Archie Green (1917-2009), the pioneering folklorist who championed the establishment of the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress, a fellowship program has been established at the AFC. The Archie Green Fellowships will support new documentation and research into the culture and traditions of American workers and will create digital archival materials that will be preserved in the AFC’s archive and made available to researchers and the public.

The AFC will award up to three fellowships for the period February 2010 - February 2011 that will support original field research into the culture and traditions of American workers and/or occupational groups found within the United States. The materials generated during the course of the fellowship will become part of the AFC’s Archie Green America Works Collection.

Applicants must submit proposals to be received by the AFC no later than November 30, 2009. The term of each fellowship will be limited to a period of one year and will be supported with funds up to $45,000.

U.S. citizens are eligible to submit applications for a fellowship to support their original research and documentation on occupational culture. Applicants may include individuals, organizations, or groups. Occupational groups, labor unions or organizations may wish to involve folklife researchers for the purpose of undertaking fieldwork projects on their behalf.

For further information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/grants.html#archie or call 202-707-5510.

AFC Concert: Texas Rhythm and Blues

BARBARA LYNN & FRIENDS — Texas Rhythm and Blues

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:00 noon

Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress  

Barbara Lynn is a rhythm and blues singer and left-handed guitarist from Texas. Lynn toured with such soul music greats as Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations. Her song, "Oh Baby (We've Got a Good Thing Goin')” was recorded by The Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone's David Fricke has noted that Lynn continues to display “undiminished grace and poise, pouring a lifetime of blues and wisdom into her delivery.”

For more information, please visit
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-folklife.html#november18
or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Lecture: Yiddish-American Radio 1925-1955

October 14, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building

While all other aspects of Yiddish culture existed wherever Ashkenazic Jews lived, it was only in America that radio realized its greatest and most fulfilling use by and for Jews. Yiddish scholar Henry Sapoznik discusses and shares some of the most memorable and powerful moments in this nearly lost world of ethnic American broadcasting.

For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#oct14 or call 202-707-5510.

Register now for Baseball Symposium at the Library-- Space is Limited!

"Baseball Americana" will be held at the Library of Congress on October 2 and 3, 2009. Speakers will include Hall of Fame player Ernie Banks, All-Star pitcher, broadcaster, and manager Larry Dierker, baseball language expert Paul Dickson, and Negro Leagues pitcher Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, among many others. The event is sponsored by the American Folklife Center and coordinated with the launch of the Library's Publishing Office's new book, Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress. Admission is free, but advance registration is required. To register, please visit

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/Baseball/registration.php

AFC Concert: Cowboy poet PAUL ZARZYSKI and cowboy singer-composer WYLIE GUSTAFSON â from Montana

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 12:00 noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

As poets, songwriters and horsemen, Wylie Gustafson and Paul Zarzyski have pursued their writing and riding passions for over 35 years. Wylie Gustafson is a full-time cutting horse trainer and competitor, as well as a full-time musician. He has recorded over fifteen albums, and has played thousands of venues around the world, including more than fifty appearances on The Grand Ole Opry. Paul Zarzyski has spent fifteen seasons as a bareback bronco rider on the amateur, pro, and senior circuits. In addition to his eight collections of printed work, he has recorded four spoken-word CDs. According to Mark Bedor of American Cowboy magazine, they're "like Lennon and McCartney in cowboy hats."

For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-folklife.html#october7
or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC and StoryCorps announce "Historias"

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress will be the repository for personal interviews with Latino Americans from across the United States as StoryCorps launches its “Historias” mobile booth.

The national launch of StoryCorps Historias will be held on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 10 - 11 a.m., at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

AFC Botkin Lecture: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York

Built with Faith: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York, presented by Joseph Sciorra, Queens University, City University of New York

September 23, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building

This presentation examines how Italian Americans create and use vernacular architecture, material culture, and ceremonial display to inscribe meaning on New York City's religious and cultural landscapes. Yard shrines, sidewalk altars, Christmas displays, and other creative productions transform everyday urban space into unique, communal sites of religiosity. Sciorra is especially interested in how people remember, imagine, and interpret the city, as well as people's relationships to the divine at these sites during times of changing, global forces such as de/post-industrialization, suburbanization, migration, and gentrification.

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#sept23 or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

Library Symposium on Baseball

Baseball fans are sure to enjoy the upcoming event “Baseball Americana,” which will be held at the Library of Congress on October 2 and 3, 2009. Speakers will include Hall of Fame player Ernie Banks, All-Star pitcher, broadcaster, and manager Larry Dierker, baseball language expert Paul Dickson, and Negro Leagues pitcher Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, among many others. The event is sponsored by the American Folklife Center and coordinated with the launch of the Library’s Publishing Office’s new book, Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress. Admission is free, but advance registration is required. To register, please visit

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/Baseball/registration.php

Legends and Legacies Concert: new information

The concert, “Legends & Legacies: Celebrating Joe Wilson and the NCTA Collection” will feature performances by blues masters Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris, Irish-American accordion and fiddle musicians Billy McComiskey and Brendan Mulvihill with special guests Mick Moloney and Josh Dukes, Kiowa and Comanche music and dancers led by Tom Ware, southwest Virginia old-time string band music by the New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, and high-energy gospel brass from the Sweet Heaven Kings, a United House of Prayer shout band. During the concert, Librarian of Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, and Representative David Obey will confer the Library’s “Living Legend” award on Joe Wilson for his lifelong work in public folklore. Concert is at 7:00 pm on September 10 in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Please visit: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/LegendsLegacies/concerts.html

Legends and Legacies: An American Folklife Center Celebration of Public Folklore

On September 10-11, 2009, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress will host a two-day event including a tribute, a symposium, and a concert, honoring folklorists Archie Green and Joe Wilson, and celebrating the acquisition of the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) Collection by the Center's archive. The multifaceted event, entitled Legends and Legacies: An American Folklife Center Celebration of Public Folklore, will feature spoken tributes, musical performances, panel discussions, and rare glimpses at archival treasures.

The event will be crowned by a magnificent evening concert at 8:00 pm on September 10 in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium. The concert, Legends & Legacies: Celebrating Joe Wilson and the NCTA Collection, will feature performances by blues harmonica master Phil Wiggins, Irish-American accordion and fiddle musicians Billy McComiskey and Brendan Mulvihill, Kiowa and Comanche music and dancers led by Tom Ware, southwest Virginia old-time string band music by the New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters, and high-energy gospel brass from the Sweet Heaven Kings, a United House of Prayer shout band. All these artists have participated in the National Folk Festival and NCTA touring programs. During the concert, Librarian of Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, and Representative David Obey will confer the Library's Living Legend award on Joe Wilson for his lifelong work in public folklore.

Attendance at both events is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Registration and more information will be available shortly through the AFC website, at www.loc.gov/folklife.

AFC Lecture: Documenting Katrina and Rita in Houston

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

Documenting Katrina and Rita in Houston
presented by Carl Lindahl, University of Houston and Pat Jasper, Austin, Texas

August 13, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston is the first large-scale project, anywhere, in which the survivors of a major disaster have taken the lead in documenting it. The project's goal is to voice, as intimately as possible, the experiences and reflections of those displaced to Houston by the two major hurricanes that pounded the Gulf Coast in August and September of 2005. The heart of the project is stories: stories told by survivors, to survivors, on the survivors' own terms. Project co-directors Carl Lindahl and Pat Jasper hear in these narratives the seeds of recovery: it is the conviction of the project and its many participants that to survive is not merely to secure food, clothing, and the essentials of daily life, but also to help shape one's future by taking control of one's own story. While media treatments of the survivors have too often depicted criminals or, at best, victims, the voices of the survivors themselves have portrayed selfless friends, compassionate strangers, loving neighbors, and, above all, heroes. Carl Lindahl and Pat Jasper will describe the genesis of the project and the field school that they developed in conjunction with the American Folklife Center to train survivors. They will discuss current research on the 432 interviews conducted to date, and describe public programming that has brought the survivors into contact with their new neighbors in Houston through panel discussions, radio broadcasts, museum installations, and musical events.

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#august13 or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC concert-- traditional Indian Karaikudi vina music from Oregon

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents the August concert in the 2009 Homegrown season:

SREEVIDHYA CHANDRAMOULI & FRIENDS: traditional Indian Karaikudi vina music from Oregon

August 20, 2009 at 12:00 noon

Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Sreevidhya Chandramouli plays the vina, a plucked Indian lute with a fretboard spanning three and a half octaves. She was trained in the Karaikudi vina tradition, the only school of south Indian vina players that goes back more than ten generations. Sreevidhya learned from her mother, Rajeswari Padmanabhan, who is a ninth-generation exponent, and a granddaughter of Karaikudi Subbarama Iyer, who is considered one of the founders of the Karaikudi style of veena playing. Sreevidhya later pursued vocal training with the late Sri. Vairamanagalam Lakshminarayanan and Smt. Suguna Varadachari in Chennai, India. Sreevidhya earned a Masters degree in music at the University of Madras in 1988, and has lived in Portland, Oregon since the late 1980s. She has served as a visiting artist at the University of Washington and as an artist-in-residence at the University of Oregon, where she offers regular lecture demonstrations on Indian music and culture. Her performance and teaching career spans over 25 years, and includes appearances in Asia, Europe and North America. Along with her mother, she was featured in the book The Singer & the Song: Conversations with Women Musicians by C.S. Lakshmi (2000).

The Homegrown series is co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. The series is free and open to the general public. Each concert is recorded by the AFC for webcast and for permanent deposit in the Center's archive.

For more information, please visit
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0809-folklife.html#august20
or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

Save the date for AFC September symposium

The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress is pleased to announce a two-day event, honoring two special people. On September 10-11, 2009, the Center will host a tribute, symposium, and concert honoring folklorists Archie Green and Joe Wilson. This event will also celebrate the acquisition of the National Council for Traditional Arts (NCTA) collection by the Center. The multifaceted event will feature spoken tributes, musical performances, panel discussions, and rare glimpses at archival treasures, and will be crowned by a magnificent evening concert in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. The concert will showcase outstanding folk musicians who have been part of NCTA festivals, tours and other programs.

The event’s first day of speakers and musical performances will celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Archie Green (1917-2009). After serving in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the New Deal era, and in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Green earned a. M.L.S. and a Ph.D. and worked as a folklorist and a librarian. He was a pioneer in the study of labor-related folklore, and of early recordings of American folk and country music. He was the author of eight books, and many academic articles, on folklore and labor. During the 1970s, Green put his academic career on hold to come to Washington and lobby Congress for the creation of an American Folklife Center. This ambitious goal was achieved with the creation of the AFC in 1976. Archie Green, who died on March 22 2009, was presented with a Living Legend award by the Librarian of Congress in 2007.

The second day of presentations will showcase the contributions of the NCTA and Joe Wilson, who was the director of NCTA (1976 - 2004) and subsequently assumed the position of NCTA chairman. A native of Trade, Tennessee in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Wilson currently directs NCTA’s Blue Ridge Music Center, located on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In his career, he has produced forty-two large-scale music festivals in eleven states, twenty-one national tours by musicians and dancers, nine international tours that visited thirty-three nations, and 131 LP and CD audio recordings of various forms of folk music. He has also been involved in the production of twelve films. In 2001, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded a National Heritage Fellowship to Joe Wilson. This is the highest honor the nation accords artists and workers in the traditional arts. As part of the Library’s tribute to Wilson, the Librarian of Congress will present him with a Living Legend award on September 10, 2009.

In addition to celebrating the careers of Green and Wilson, the event celebrates the Library’s acquisition of the NCTA collection, an unparalleled assemblage of archival recordings of folk music. Founded in 1934, the NCTA created the first National Folk Festival (still being produced annually), and pioneered the national and international touring of grassroots artists. Out of this experience, NCTA has created an archive of original audio and moving image recordings of traditional artists, musicians and dancers dating from the 1930s. The collection contains classic recordings of now-legendary artists (such as Tommy Jarrell, Elizabeth Cotten, Wade Mainer, John Cephas, Edith Butler, and the Blind Boys of Alabama), as well as the only extant recordings of many artists. The NCTA began using professional portable recording equipment to document their festivals and concerts some thirty years before other presenters of folk arts, with the result that the NCTA collection has excellent sound quality. These historic recordings are now being digitized, and all audio materials through 1999 are now available to researchers in the Folklife Reading Room at the Library of Congress. The American Folklife Center symposium on September 11, 2009, will include speakers who have an intimate knowledge of the NCTA collection and will provide a rare opportunity for attendees to view and discuss some of the treasures and highlights of this spectacular collection.

AFC Concert-- a capella gospel music from Kentucky

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents the July concert in the 2009 Homegrown season:

NORTHERN KENTUCKY BROTHERHOOD SINGERS-- quartet style a capella gospel music from Kentucky

July 16, 2009 at 12:00 noon

Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

The Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers of Covington, Kentucky, is among the very few remaining quartet-style groups that still perform a cappella. The Singers, consisting of Eric Riley, Ric Jennings, Greg Page, Shaka Tyehimba, Stace Darden & Demetrius Davenport, specialize in the intricate and emotional four-part harmony "jubilee" style pioneered by such legendary groups as the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Golden Gate Quartet, and the Soul Stirrers. The Brotherhood Singers started singing at the 9th Street Baptist Church in Covington. The group has performed in churches and secular music venues, as well as on television, throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada and Spain, which they have toured 14 times.

The Homegrown series is co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. The series is free and open to the general public. Each concert is recorded by the AFC for webcast and for permanent deposit in the Center's archive. For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0809-folklife.html - july16 or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Concert-- Aztec dance from Pennsylvania

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents the June concert in the 2009 Homegrown season:

OLLIN YOLIZTLI CALMECAC—Aztec dance ensemble from Pennsylvania

June 18, 2009 at 12:00 noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac (which translates from the Aztec language as "School of the Blood Moving in the Heart") performs thoroughly researched recreations of ancient Aztec music and dance from Mexico.

The group was founded by Daniel Chico Lorenzo and Brujo de la Mancha in 2003. Daniel has extensive knowledge of ancient Mexican culture and languages; his first language was Nahuatl, an indigenous Mesoamerican language closely related to the one spoken by the ancient Aztecs. Brujo is a multidisciplinary artist, and became the dance and music teacher for OYC when Daniel returned to his hometown in December 2006. Brujo also makes the group’s musical instruments and choreographs their dances. The members of OYC are immigrants from various parts of Mexico, residing in and around Philadelphia. They see their troupe as a chance to teach both Mexicans and Americans about their shared indigenous history. Dressed in animal skins, feathers and ankle shakers made from seeds, the dancers pay respect to the four corners of the planet before beginning their dance, which is accompanied by the huehuetl (drum). They perform frequently at community events throughout the Philadelphia region, and are particularly known for celebrations of the Day of the Dead, Cinco de Mayo, Summer Solstice, and other holidays celebrated by their Aztec forebears and their Mexican contemporaries.

The Homegrown series is co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. The series is free and open to the general public. Each concert is recorded by the AFC for webcast and for permanent deposit in the Center’s archive. For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0809-folklife.html#june18 or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Lecture-- Filmmaker John Cohen presents The High Lonesome Sound Revisited: Documenting Traditional Culture in America

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

The High Lonesome Sound Revisited: Documenting Traditional Culture in America
presented by filmmaker John Cohen

June 11, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

In the early 1960s, the multitalented musician, filmmaker, and photographer John Cohen journeyed to eastern Kentucky to document the songs of church-goers, miners, and farmers, and the rural community that produced and sustained their uniquely American sound. The result was The High Lonesome Sound, a classic 1963 documentary film than evocatively illustrates how music and religion help Appalachian people maintain their dignity and traditions in the face of change and hardship. Featuring master traditional musician Roscoe Holcomb, Cohen's film also documented how different musical strands are synthesized in the playing of an individual performer. In this presentation, Cohen will discuss the making of his influential documentary, its initial reception, and its continued impact in the shaping of documentary filmmaking and ethnographic research on traditional culture both in the United States and abroad.

A respected musician and founding member of the seminal old-time string band "The New Lost City Ramblers," John Cohen has also had an equally distinguished career as a filmmaker, photographer, and record producer. The term "high lonesome sound," which he coined for his legendary 1963 documentary film, has become synonymous with an entire genre of American music. In addition to extensive fieldwork and documentation of Appalachian culture, Cohen has done important ethnographic research throughout the United States, Britain, and the Peruvian Andes. His highly-praised publication, There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs (2001), and the complementary Smithsonian Folkways CD There Is No Eye: Music For Photographs, brought together several threads of Cohen's work over the past fifty years. As a producer, his many noteworthy recordings include Smithsonian Folkways' releases An Untamed Sense of Control by Roscoe Holcomb), Dark Holler by Dillard Chandler, The Lost Recordings of Banjo Bill Cornett, If I Had My Way by Rev. Gary Davis, and the compilation Back Roads to Cold Mountain. Cohen worked with T-Bone Burnett as music consultant to the film "Cold Mountain," and appeared in Martin Scorcese's film about Bob Dylan, "No Direction Home."

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#june11 or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Concert-- Cape Breton fiddle music

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents the first concert in the 2009 Homegrown season:

BRENDAN CAREY BLOCK & FRIENDS -- Cape Breton fiddle music from New Hampshire

Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 12:00 noon
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Brendan Carey Block is a multi-faceted fiddler from New Hampshire, grounded in the musical traditions of New England and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. He has been performing since the age of ten and has made many trips to Cape Breton to learn from master fiddlers and be immersed in the Scottish-based heritage of the island. Brendan has achieved wide recognition for his virtuosic fiddling and was named the U.S. National Junior Scottish Fiddle Champion for 2000 and 2001. Brendan has toured and recorded with many great artists including the renowned Glengarry Bhoys, the Boston-based band Annalivia, and his own duo project with guitarist Flynn Cohen. In this concert, he will perform his traditional repertoire of jigs, reels, and airs. Brendan is also and avid dogsledder and raises Siberian huskies.

The 2009 Homegrown concert series presents the best of traditional music and dance “homegrown” in the United States, as selected by state folklorists from around the nation. Upcoming concerts include: June 18, Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac, Aztec dance from Pennsylvania; July 16, Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, quartet style a capella gospel music from Kentucky; August 20, Sreevidhya Chandramouli and friends, Northern Indian Vina music from Oregon; September 16, Wayne Newell and Blanche Sockabasin, traditional Passamaquoddy music from Maine; October 7, Rodeo poet Paul Zarzyski and cowboy singer-composer Wylie Gustafson from Montana; November 18, Barbara Lynn and friends, Texas Rhythm and Blues; and December 3, The Berntsons, Traditional Norwegian-American dance music from Virginia.

The Homegrown series is co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. The series is free and open to the general public. Each concert is recorded by the AFC for webcast and for permanent deposit in the Center’s archive. For more information, please visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/index.html or call the Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Lecture Today! The Sound of Islamic Music: Women's Voices and the Indonesian Religious Soundscape

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

The Sound of Islamic Music: Women's Voices and the Indonesian Religious Soundscape

presented by Anne K. Rasmussen, Associate Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology, College of William and Mary

May 13, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
 Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

Based on more than two years of ethnographic research in the Indonesian Archipelago, and derived from her book Women's Voices, the Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia (University of California Press), Anne Rasmussen’s lecture introduces a rich world of Indonesian Islamic music. She includes sound and video clips, and profiles both leading artists and grass-roots communities. Her attention to the actions of women who work as ritual specialists and religious artists — from Qur’an reciters to recording artists — brings to light a little-documented but very dynamic area of both Indonesian culture and Islamic performance.

Anne K. Rasmussen is associate professor of music and ethnomusicology at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia where she also directs the William and Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble and serves as chair of the Middle East Studies Faculty. In September 2008, she was appointed University Professor for Teaching Excellence. Her research and teaching expertise include American musical multiculturalism, music and community among the Arab diaspora, music-cultures of the Middle East and the Arab world, and music of the Islamic world, particularly Indonesia, where she has been engaged for the last ten years in a project on Islamic musical arts. She is a former Fulbright senior scholar and has served as the First Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology. She is the recipient of the Jaap Kunst prize for the best article published in the field of ethnomusicology in 2001, and the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award.

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#may13 or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Announces Three Robert Burns Symposium Webcasts, Now Available Online

The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce that the webcasts for both days of the symposium, Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, Politics & Performance, are now available via our website.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, the American Folklife Center, in collaboration with the Scottish government as part of its Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebration, presented a free public symposium on Burns's life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture.

The symposium began with a keynote address by Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland; a talk on "America's Bard" by Robert Crawford, professor of literature at the University of St. Andrews; and readings and performances of Burns's works by renowned Scottish scholars and performers Margaret Bennett, Ed Miller, and broadcaster Billy Kay.

The second day of the symposium featured Nat Edwards, from the National Library of Scotland; Ted Cowan and Valentina Bold from the University of Glasgow; BBC commentator Billy Kay; Marc Lambert, chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust; Myra Sklarew, former president of the Yaddo artist community and professor at American University; and Poet Laureate of the United States, Kay Ryan.

To view the webcasts, please visit:

DAY ONE:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4514

DAY TWO, SESSION 1:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4524

DAY TWO, SESSION 2:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4525

To learn more about the symposium, please visit: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/Burns/program.html

AFC Lecture-- We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi-- lecture and book signing
presented by Tracy Sugarman

Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm
Mumford Room Sixth Floor, James Madison Memorial Building, Library of Congress

As an illustrator and journalist, Tracy Sugarman covered the nearly one thousand student volunteers who traveled to the Mississippi Delta to assist black citizens in the South in registering to vote. Two white students and one black student were slain in the struggle, many were beaten and hundreds arrested, and churches and homes were burned to the ground by the opponents of equality. Yet the example of Freedom Summer resonated across the nation. The United States Congress was finally moved to pass the civil rights legislation that enfranchised millions of black Americans.

Blending oral history with memoir, We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns chronicles the sacrifices, tragedies, and triumphs of that unprecedented moment in American history. A book signing will follow the lecture.

Tracy Sugarman is a nationally recognized illustrator whose art has appeared in magazines and books, and has been featured on PBS, ABC TV, NBC TV, and CBS TV. He is the author of Stranger at the Gates: A Summer in Mississippi, My War: A Love Story in Letters and Drawings, and Drawing Conclusions: An Artist Discovers His America. The Veterans History Project, a program of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, has acquired Sugarmanâs collection of art from World War II.

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html#may5 or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

AFC Announces 2009 Botkin Lecture Series

The American Folklife Center announces the 2009 season of lectures in the Benjamin A. Botkin Folklife Lecture series:

April 30
--Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Georgetown University--
Warning of Global Warming? Voices of Ecological, Cultural, and Political Change in Siberia

May 5
--Tracy Sugarman, Illustrator, Author, and Civil Rights Chronicler--
We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns: The Kids Who Fought for Civil Rights in Mississippi

May 13
--Anne Rasmussen, College of William & Mary--
The Sound of Islamic Music: Women's Voices and the Indonesian Religious Soundscape

June 11
--John Cohen, Documentary Filmmaker--
The High Lonesome Sound Revisited: Documenting Traditional Culture in America

August 13
--Carl Lindahl, University of Houston and Pat Jasper, Austin, Texas--
Documenting Katrina and Rita in Houston

September 23
--Joseph Sciorra, Queens University, City University of New York--
Built with Faith: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York

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

All lectures are 12 noon - 1 p.m. in the Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress. Lectures are free and open to the public.

For more information, please visit: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-lectures.html
or call 202-707-5510.

AFC Announces 2009 Homegrown Concert Season

The American Folklife Center announces the 2009 season of concerts in the Homegrown series:

2009 Homegrown-- the Music of America

Co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage

All concerts are 12 noon â 1 p.m. in Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

May 28
Brendan Carey Block and friends, Cape Breton fiddle music from New Hampshire

June 18
Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac, Aztec dance from Pennsylvania

July 16
Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, quartet style a capella gospel music from Kentucky

August 20
Sreevidhya Chandramouli and friends, Northern Indian Vina music from Oregon

September 16
Wayne Newell and Blanche Sockabasin, traditional Passamaquoddy music from Maine

October 7
Rodeo poet Paul Zarzyski and cowboy singer-composer Wylie Gustafson from Montana

November 18
Barbara Lynn and friends, Texas Rhythm and Blues

December 3
The Berntsons, Traditional Norwegian-American dance music from Virginia

AFC Lecture: Shamanic Tradition, Politics and Ecological Change in Siberia

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

Warning of Global Warming? Shamanic Tradition, Politics and Ecological Change in Siberia

presented by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Georgetown University

April 30, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm -- Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

Siberian indigenous peoples' striving for self-determination and spiritual vitality has been an impressive trend in the past twenty years, but their efforts are threatened by political, social and ecological change. This talk, based on long-term fieldwork in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and beyond, probes the implications of indigenous peoples' concerns. The focus is on the Sakha (Yakut), who are the farthest north of the Turkic language speakers, and the majority indigenous group of their multiethnic republic in the Far East of the Russian Federation. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, they have been coping with the tensions of increased development, mixed-signal federal policies, and valiant attempts at cultural revitalization.

In summer 2007, In summer 2007, Balzer's Sakha colleague, Uliana Vinokurova, sociologist and former deputy in the Sakha Republic's parliament, shared her concern about climate change reaching the Far North region where she grew up. Not only had their villages seen more numerous and serious floods in the past decade, she explained, "the folk wisdom of our elders does not seem to predict our climate the way it used to." People were worrying about the broader encompassing health, ecology and social problems that fluctuations seem to bring, and whether rituals of cultural and ecological renewal could stem the tide. How far do the ripple effects of climate change go? How do indigenous land keepers discuss the dangers and potential remedies of change? Are indigenous Siberians who rely on subsistence the "canaries in the mine" - warning of global warming?

For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/botkin-
lectures.html#april30
or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

New AFC Podcast Now Available

The American Folklife Center (AFC) launches its regular schedule of free podcasts with the first episode in the series, "Voices from the Days of Slavery: Stories, Songs, and Memories." Download the audio recording and a transcript of the program to your Ipod, other portable media player, or to your computer from the Library of Congress website: http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/slavenarratives/index.html. You may choose to automatically download this and subsequent episodes via a free subscription from the Library's podcast website or through Apple Itunes.

This series features oral history interviews with African Americans who endured the hardships of the slave plantations and presents their first-person accounts of life during and after slavery. The series was produced by Guha Shankar and Jon Gold, AFC, and Lisa Carl, Professor, North Carolina Central University. All podcasts draw from the unique collections in the American Folklife Center Archives, one of the preeminent audio-visual repositories of national and international folklife, history and cultural expressions.

Burns Symposium Webcasts Now Online

The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce that the webcasts for both days of the symposium, Robert Burns at 250: â¨Poetry, Politics & Performance, are now available via our website.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, the American Folklife Center, in collaboration with the Scottish government as part of its Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebration, presented a free public symposium on Burns's life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture.

The symposium began with a keynote address by Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, and a talk on "America's Bard" by Robert Crawford, professor of literature at the University of St. Andrews. Crawford's address was followed by readings of Burns's poetry and performances of his songs by renowned Scottish scholars and performers Margaret Bennett and Ed Miller, and award-winning Scottish journalist and broadcaster Billy Kay. The second day of the symposium featured speakers from the National Library of Scotland, the University of Glasgow, American University, The Scottish Book Trust, and the Library of Congress, as well as a reading by the Poet Laureate of the United States, Kay Ryan.

To view the webcasts, please visit:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4514

To learn more about the symposium, please visit:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/Burns/program.html

NPR Features New AFC Collection

American Folklife Center staffers, Nancy Groce and Megan Halsband, were interviewed for National Public Radio's "Interfaith Voices", a show that will air on sixty-one stations between March 27 and April 2, 2009. "Interfaith Voices" will air in the Washington, DC, area on Sunday, March 29, at 3:00 p.m. on WAMU-FM, with the AFC segment airing at approximately 3:30 p.m.

Groce and Halsband will be discussing and playing excerpts from a new AFC collection -- The Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Collection. These oral testamonials were sent to the Library of Congress in response to a call for submissions issued by the American Folklife Center in December, 2008.

Almost three hundred churches, mosques, synagogues, and secular organizations from more than forty states submitted sermons and orations that comment upon Barak Obama's historic inauguration as President of the United States. Groce and Halsband discussed the project's relationship to earlier AFC collections, such as the "Man-on-the Street" Interviews Collection, which was generated by Alan Lomax's call for responses to the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They also discussed plans for processing the collection so that it can be used by scholars and researchers. For more information on this collection, visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/inaugural/.

Living and Building between Tradition and Change: Vernacular Architecture in Northern Sweden

The American Folklife Center presents a lecture in the Benjamin A. Botkin Folklife Lecture Series

Living and Building between Tradition and Change: Vernacular Architecture in Northern Sweden

Mats Widbom, Cultural Counselor, Embassy of Sweden

March 24, 2009, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm 
Mary Pickford Theater, 3rd Floor, James Madison Building

Architect and folklorist Mats Widbom will present his research on the traditional building culture of Dalecarlia in Northern Sweden. In particular, he will explore how the parstuga (double house) has been used and rebuilt over time in the parish of Lima. His research demonstrates that traditional culture, as expressed in architecture, is not something permanent; it need not have a particular appearance and derivation from the past. Rather, he contends, tradition is something that is constantly being reinterpreted and re-created in the present, in dynamic oscillation between continuity and change.

Mats Widbom, Cultural Counselor, came to the Embassy of Sweden in September 2006, from the governmental authority Swedish Travelling Exhibitions, where he served as Head of Exhibitions, Acting Director General, and Artistic Director. He holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and has also studied at the legendary Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. He produced and was the project leader for the successful exhibition “Swedish Folk Art – All Tradition is Change,” which toured for over four years throughout the United States and Canada. From 1998 to 2004, he was President of the Swedish National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and a board member of the International Committee for Exhibitions and Exchange (ICEE) 2001-2006.

Robert Burns At 250: Poetry, Politics & Performance-- Registration Now Open

Robert Burns At 250: Poetry, Politics & Performance

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotlandâs national poet, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in collaboration with The Scottish Government, will present a free public symposium on Burnsâs life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture. The event takes place February 24 and 25, 2009, in the Mumford Room at the Library of Congressâs James Madison Memorial Building.

More than a poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796) has served as an icon and inspiration for generations of artists, politicians, social activists, and cultural reformers throughout the world. The 250th anniversary of his birth provides an ideal opportunity to bring together prominent scholars, poets, and musicians from Scotland and the United States, and other special guests, including the U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, to celebrate Burnsâs career and contributions, as well as his continuing impact on contemporary poetry. The two-day event is produced by the Libraryâs American Folklife Center (AFC), in cooperation with the Libraryâs Center for the Book, the Libraryâs Poetry and Literature Center, and the Scottish government, as part of the Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrations.

The symposium begins at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 25, with a presentation on âBurns, Politics, and Politicians,â and a talk on âAmericaâs Bardâ by Robert Crawford, professor of literature at the University of St. Andrews. Crawford is one of contemporary Scotlandâs leading poets, a noted literary critic, and a widely published scholar. Crawfordâs address will be followed by readings of Burnsâs poetry and performances of his songs by renowned Scottish scholars and performers Margaret Bennett and Ed Miller, and award-winning Scottish journalist and broadcaster Billy Kay.

The symposium reconvenes on Wednesday, February 25 with a panel on Burns and His World. Speakers include Nat Edwards, from the National Library of Scotland, who will give an overview of Burnsâs life and career; noted University of Glasgow professor of Scottish history Ted Cowan, who will compare and contrast â18th Century Scotland and 18th Century Americaâ; and a presentation on âRobert Burns and the Scots Language,â by documentarian Billy Kay, author of the influential history of the Scots language, Scots: The Mither Tongue.

Following lunch, Panel Two explores Robert Burnsâs relationship to the folk and traditional culture of Scotland. Valentina Bold, Head of Scottish Studies at University of Glasgow/Dumfries Campus, speaks on âRobert Burns and Scottish Traditional Song.â The acclaimed singer and scholar Margaret Bennett, assisted by folklorist/performer Ed Miller, follows with a lecture/demonstration on âRobert Burns: A Life in Song.â

âPoetry, Celebrity, and the Publicâ is the topic of next panel. The Poet Laureate of the United States, Kay Ryan, joins celebrated Scottish poet Robert Crawford, and Myra Sklarew, former president of the Yaddo artist community, poet, and professor emerita of literature at American University, to explore the role of poets as âliterary lionsâ in both 18th-century Europe and the contemporary world.

The symposium closes with an overview of Burns materials at the Library of Congress by Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center, and a discussion entitled âTomorrowâs Bards: Promoting Reading and Literacy in Scotland and the United States.â Cate Newton, director of collections development at the National Library of Scotland, Marc Lambert, chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust, and John Y. Cole, founder and director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, will explore how reading, cultural literacy, and creativity are fostered on either side of the Atlantic.

Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, Politics, and Performance is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Advance registration is strongly suggested. For more program information and to register on-line, visit: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Symposia/Burns/ For further information, contact: Nancy Groce, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress; Phone: 202-707-1744; Email: ngro@loc.gov.

AFC Lecture-- Weaving and Singing in Northern Ireland

THE AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESENTS

A LECTURE IN THE BENJAMIN A. BOTKIN FOLKLIFE LECTURE SERIES
AND REDISCOVER NORTHERN IRELAND AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

"I Am a Wee Weaver": Weaving and Singing in Northern Ireland

Presented by Maurice Leyden

December 4, 2008, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm

Pickford Theater, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

Handloom weaving was dominated by men in 19th century Ireland. The Industrial Revolution changed that, enabling women to take the dominant role in the factory production of linen. Maurice Leyden will discuss the reasons for this historical shift, and the impact of this change on the traditions of singing and songwriting among weavers. To illustrate his lecture, Leyden will sing songs composed by linen weavers between the 18th and 20th centuries, setting the songs in their historical context and discussing folklore and customs associated with the weavers.

Maurice Leyden has been collecting traditional songs since the early 1980s. He has published two books: Belfast, City of Song and Boys and Girls Come Out to Play, each of which was accompanied by a cassette of songs. He is currently finishing a social history of the linen industry in Ulster, in the north of Ireland, narrated through the songs of the workers; this book will be accompanied by a CD. In addition to his scholarly work and his singing, Leyden is a renowned broadcaster, who produced and presented a radio program of traditional music for over a decade.

For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510. This program is co-sponsored by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

SURATI Classical and Folk Indian Dance from New Jersey

AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESENTS

THE HOMEGROWN CONCERT SERIES

SURATI Classical and Folk Indian Dance from New Jersey

November 19, 2008 at 12:00 noon, FREE
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Surati, inc. is a performing arts company and school for Indian music and dance, based in New Jersey. Since 2001, Suratiâs dance and music school has offered intensive training in Indian classical, traditional, folk, contemporary, and popular dance and music. Surati's group of professional dancers and musicians perform a multitude of Indian Classical and traditional folk styles on stage. Rimli Roy, Surati's principal dancer and choreographer, began to take her first formal lessons in Indian classical dancing at the tender age of four. She came from a family of gifted musicians and artists, and was greatly influenced by her parents and brother at an early age. Her father Sumit Roy is a renowned music composer, vocalist and musician based in India. Her mother Arati, is a talented lyricist and visual artist. Her brother Rajesh Roy is also a well-known musician, vocalist, composer and music arranger/programmer. Having a tremendous innate sense of rhythm and natural grace of movement, Rimli gradually began to master several genres of Indian classical dance, and started to give stage performances by the age of six. Rimli and the Surati dance troupe perform a variety of traditional and self-composed Indian dances, including dances in the Manipuri, Bharatnatyam, and Odissi styles. They have performed at cultural events all over the United States and India. For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.

AFC Lecture on Song Tradition of Ulster

THE AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESENTS

A LECTURE IN THE BENJAMIN A. BOTKIN FOLKLIFE LECTURE SERIES
AND REDISCOVER NORTHERN IRELAND AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

It's Of My Rambles... A Journey in the Song Tradition of Ulster
presented by Len Graham

November 6, 2008, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm, FREE
Pickford Theater, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

Traditional singer and song collector Len Graham from County Antrim in Northern Ireland will explore the folk song tradition of his native Ulster. His talk/recital will be interspersed with live performances of songs in English on many themes, including, early classic ballads, broadside ballads, songs of love, politics, emigration and many other topics. Len Graham has been a professional traditional singer since 1982 and He has received many awards for his work as a singer and collector. In 1993 he received the Sean O'Boyle Cultural Traditions Award for his book and field recordings - It's Of My Rambles.... In 2002 he was the first recipient of the Irish television TG4 National Music Award for - 'Traditional Singer of the Year' and in 2008 he received the 'Tommy Makem Keeper of the Tradition' Award. Here I Am Amongst You his book on the songs, music and traditions of Joe Holmes (1906-78) is due for publication by Queen's University, Belfast in late 2008. For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510. This program is co-sponsored by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

A Bard of Nature’s Making: Robert Burns and Scottish Traditional Culture

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents

A Bard of Nature’s Making: Robert Burns and Scottish Traditional Culture 

presented by Valentina Bold, University of Glasgow

October 21, 2008, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm, FREE 
Whittall Pavilion, Ground Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building

Valentina Bold will explore the ways in which Burns’s work draws on, and influences, the traditional culture of Scotland. Looking in particular at his engagement with traditional songs and legends—from “A Red Red Rose” to “Tam o Shanter,” Bold also considers the impact of Burns’s image as a self-styled “Bard of Nature’s Making” on later Scottish poets and songwriters. Bold will suggest that the image of the “Heaven-taught ploughman”—in itself drawing on the work of earlier writers like Allan Ramsay and James Macpherson of Ossian fame—played a hugely significant role in validating and facilitating the work of other Scottish “peasant poets.” In conclusion, the lecture will consider Burns’s impacts on other Scottish bards “of Nature’s making” including James Hogg (“the Ettrick Shepherd”) and Allan Cunningham (“the Nithsdale Mason.”) Valentina Bold is Head of Scottish Studies at the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries campus. Robert Burns spent his final years in Dumfries, and Bold is part of the BARD team there (Burns Research in Dumfries). She convenes the taught postgraduate M.Litt programme in Robert Burns Studies, as well as the M.Litt in Scottish Cultural Heritage. She is known for her work on Scottish poetry and song, and she has a particular interest in the Scottish communities of the U.S. and Canada. Bold’s publications include James Hogg: A Bard of Nature’s Making and Smeddum: A Lewis Grassic Gibbon Anthology, as well as the CD-ROM Northern Folk: Living Traditions of North East Scotland. She is currently working on a new edition of Burns’s Merry Muses of Caledonia, to be published in late 2008. For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.

TOMMY SANDS with Moya and FionÃ¡n Sands, County Down, Northern Ireland

TOMMY SANDS with Moya and Fionán Sands, County Down, Northern Ireland

October 9, 2008, 12:00 noon, FREE
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

The American Folklife Center and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland are proud to announce a concert with Tommy Sands with Moya and Fionán Sands, County Down, Northern Ireland as the opening event of a series of three exciting events that are celebrating and documenting the culture and musical traditions of Northern Ireland. As a follow-up to a successful season of cooperative events in 2007, Rediscover Northern Ireland 2008 brings three of the most respected artists to the Library of Congress for a series of free, noon-time public events.

An internationally celebrated singer, songwriter, storyteller, and social activist, Tommy Sands was raised with traditional music in County Down, Northern Ireland. As a member of the influential Sands Family folk ensemble, he introduced international audiences to Irish music during the 1960s and laid the groundwork for its current worldwide popularity. Author of such classic songs as "There Were Roses," "Daughters and Sons," and "Come on Home to the County Down," he has seen his works translated into many languages and recorded by such artists as Joan Baez, Kathy Mattea, and Dolores Keane. Over the decades, his artistic integrity, engaging style, and commitment to peace and dialog between peoples of different backgrounds have contributed to his worldwide renown.

For more information on this event or other Northern Ireland programs at the Library, please visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/NorthernIrelandEvents2008.html or call the American Folklife Center at 202-707-5510.

BAR J WRANGLERS-- Cowboy Music from Wyoming

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress presents

BAR J WRANGLERS-- Cowboy Music from Wyoming

October 2, 2008 at 12:00 noon, FREE
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

The Bar J Wranglers from Wilson, Wyoming (outside Jackson Hole) carry on a family tradition of entertaining audiences throughout the Intermountain West with their mixture of cowboy music, humorous skits and celebration of ranch life. Every evening from May through September, they work seven days a week hosting the Bar J Chuckwagon Supper and Western Show, where they work the ticket booth, serve up dinner, then perform their warmly spirited repertoire to hundreds of guests over the season. For the rest of the year, they perform at music gatherings and ranch events, and in concert halls. Singing four-part harmonies, yodeling and playing instruments, their original songs and older pieces revere the ranching way of life and offer up insights into rural values. Following in their father, Babe Humphrey's musical footsteps, sons Scott on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Bryan on vocals and upright bass, are joined by Tim Hodgson on vocals and fiddle, Donnie Cook on flat-top and steel guitars, dobro and banjo, and Jerry "Bullfrog" Baxter on vocals and rhythm guitar, to deliver some of the best harmonies, and some of the most outrageous comedy and remarkable musicianship in the American West. For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.

GARY HALEAMAU: Traditional Hawaiian Music from Las Vegas (The Ninth Island)

THE AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS presents

GARY HALEAMAU
Traditional Hawaiian Music from Las Vegas (The Ninth Island)

August 20, 2008 at 12:00 noon, FREE
Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Gary Haleamau grew up at Hu‘ehu‘e Ranch in North Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Family gatherings included music, and Karin Haleamau, a paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) and slack key guitar player, encouraged his son to join in. “If you sat there and watched and listened, then what you absorbed is what you learned and what you would be able to do,” Gary recalled. At the age of three he discovered that he could play the ukulele. By the time he was eight years old, and could accompany himself on the slack-key guitar, he was playing and singing at family and neighborhood get-togethers. Hawaiian aunties and uncles inspired his mastery of leo ki’eki’e, an unmistakably Hawaiian falsetto style of singing, and he released his debut album on Poki Records in 1977 at the age of 12. Gary appeared with his father and Clyde “Kindy” Sproat at the 13th Annual Border Folk Festival in Texas and the 1984 National Folk Festival. Since then he has continued to record and perform, captivating audiences in Hawai’i, the mainland United States and Japan with beautiful vocal stylings and seemingly effortless slack key finesse. Today Gary, his wife Sheldeen and their ohana (family) live in Las Vegas—locally known as “the ninth island” because of the many Hawaiian residents and visitors who have made a new home for the Aloha spirit in the Nevada desert. Sheldeen is a former “Miss Aloha Hula” kumu hula and their Halau Hula O’Kaleimomi helps to ensure that the gentle art of hula will endure and flourish in the 21st century. For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.

THE ZIONAIRES-- Gospel Music from Maryland and Delaware

FREE

July 24, 2008 at 12:00 noon 

Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

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.

For more information please visit the American Folklife Center at www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.

OPALANGA PUGH--African American storytelling from Colorado with Askia Toure on voice and drum

FREE

May 28, 2008 at 12 noon

Coolidge Auditorium, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

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.

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 TourÃÂÃÂ©, 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."

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.

For more information, please visit: www.loc.gov/folklife or call 202-707-5510.