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Folklife Today Podcast

35 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 18 ratings

Folklife Today tells stories about the cultural traditions and folklore of diverse communities, combining brand-new interviews and narration with songs, stories, music, and oral history from the collections of the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center.

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Episodes

Christmas Songs from the American Folklife Center

August 13, 2022 14:00 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MB

This episode shares some of our favorite songs of the Christmas season. It includes songs derived from English and Spanish medieval mystery plays, children's songs, cumulative carols, and other fun songs of the season. There's even a performance by the American Folklife Center mummers, who sing and perform a Christmas play every year at the Library of Congress.

Ukrainian Traditions at the American Folklife Center

July 08, 2022 14:00 - 34 minutes - 47.5 MB

In this episode, hosts John Fenn and Michelle Stefano, with guest Thea Austen, explore Ukrainian materials in the American Folklife Center Archive. Interview segments include a discussion of Ukrainian embroidery and dance, between Geraldine Johnson and Taissa Decyk; and a discussion of a Ukrainian family bandura band who immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1940s, between Stephen Winick and Julian Kytasty. Musical selections include a song with bandura accompaniment by Kyta...

A Tribute to Irish American Women

March 28, 2022 14:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MB

In this episode, hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn, with guests Betsy Peterson, Jennifer Cutting, and Melanie Zeck, explore songs and music from Irish American women in the American Folklife Center archive. Performances include Maggie Hammons Parker singing “Ireland’s Green Shore,” Hattie Scott Gould playing “The Irish Washerwoman” on the fiddle, May Mulcahy playing “Nori from Gibberland” and “Put Your Little Foot Right There” on the concertina, Carrie Grover singing “Arthur McBride,” Eileen...

Songs of Spring

February 28, 2022 14:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MB

In this episode, hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn, with guest Theadocia Austen, talk about songs of springtime, from agricultural and pastoral songs about farms and flowers to love ballads…and one dance tune. They also play the songs, including Pearl Nye’s version of “Early in the Spring,” the Copper Family’s rendition of “When Spring Comes On,” Baptiste Pierre’s version of the Haitian song “Fleurs, Certaines Jolies Fleurs” Rubén Cobos’s version of the alabanza hymn “El Alba,” Warde Ford’s ...

La Llorona: Looking at a Ghost Story for Día de Muertos and Halloween

October 27, 2021 14:00 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MB

This episode examines the story of La Llorona, the Weeping Woman of Mexican and Latin American ghostlore. Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn discuss Winick’s research into the legend for the Folklife Today blog, and interview three guests. Camille Acosta, who wrote a thesis about the Llorona legend, talks about her research and the meanings the story has for kids and adults. Allina Migoni, the Latinx subject specialist for the American Folklife Center, talks about the importance of the La Llo...

The 2021 Homegrown at Home Concert Series

September 28, 2021 14:00 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MB

This episode looks back at the 2021 Homegrown at Home Concert series. Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick interview the series producer Theadocia Austen and folklife interns Kennedi Johnson and Camille Acosta. The participants talk about the series as a whole, and each picks one or two songs for us to hear. The episode contains songs from Neli Andreeva (Bulgarian traditional song), Brother Arnold Hadd and Radiance Choir (Shaker hymn), Martin Carthy (English ballad with guitar), harbanger (turn...

Summer Songs Part 2

September 15, 2021 14:00 - 25 minutes - 23 MB

This episode continues our look at songs about summer, from the amorous adventures of young lovers to the backbreaking work done by convicts in the sun. Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, along with guest Jennifer Cutting, present their favorite summer songs. Songs include the English “Sweet Primroses;” the Trinidadian “One Fine Summer’s Morning” and “June Come, You No Marry;” the Tuvan “In Summer Pastures;” the African American work song “Worked All Summer Long;” and the Basque “When the Su...

Summer Songs Part 1

August 09, 2021 14:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MB

This episode looks at songs about summer, from the amorous adventures of young lovers to the backbreaking work done by convicts in the sun. Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, along with guests Nicki Saylor and Jennifer Cutting, present their favorite summer songs. Songs include the Finnish “Kesa Ilta,” the Tuvan “Let The Sun Shine On My Verdant Summer,” the African American work song “Long Hot Summer Day,” the Appalachian nonsense song “On a Bright and Summer’s Morning,” the Anglo-Canadian l...

Hidden Folklorists: Langston Hughes, with guests Langston Collin Wilkins and Sophie Abramowitz

June 30, 2021 14:00 - 38 minutes - 45 MB

This episode looks at a “Hidden Folklorist” renowned as a poet and playwright: Langston Hughes. It includes interviews with folklorist Langston Collin Wilkins and Hughes scholar Sophie Abramowitz. Wilkins and Abramowitz show us how Langston Hughes’s folklore work was grounded in song collecting and vernacular expression, and committed to the visionary futurity of Black folkloric creativity. We also explore Hughes’s connections to the American Folklife Center archive, especially correspondence...

Hidden Folklorists: Becky Elzy, Alberta Bradford and E.A. McIlhenny, with guest Joshua Clegg Caffery

May 28, 2021 14:00 - 37 minutes - 45 MB

This episode looks at three “Hidden Folklorists” from Louisiana with special guest Joshua Clegg Caffery from the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. The Hidden Folklorists are Becky Elzy and Alberta Bradford, two spiritual singers who had been born in slavery, but who years later sang over a hundred spirituals for collectors; and E.A. McIlhenny, the head of the Tabasco Sauce company, who first collected their spirituals into a book. We recount details of how...

Folklife and Poetry

April 30, 2021 14:00 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MB

This episode looks at folk poetry, with discussions of four poetry-themed collections in the American Folklife Center. Guest Anne Holmes of the Library of Congress Literary Initiatives Division discusses “Living Nations, Living Words,” the signature project of the Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate, has curated a collection of poetry by Native American poets, which includes recordings of the poets reading their work. The recordings are part of the American...

“Colorado Morton’s Ride”

April 30, 2021 14:00 - 11 minutes - 10.8 MB

This episode Presents the poem “Colorado Morton’s Ride,” also known as “Colorado Morton’s Last Ride.” It’s a ten-minute narrative poem recited by Fred Soule at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) camp in Visalia, California on September 2, 1941. The poem was recorded on an instantaneous disc by Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin, two fieldworkers collecting folksongs for the Library of Congress. It was written by Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Leonard Bacon and Montana Cowboy Rivers Browne. It’s ...

The Green Book and African American Travel with Candacy Taylor

February 25, 2021 14:00 - 51 minutes - 93.6 MB

This episode presents an interview with Candacy Taylor, whose latest project is documenting sites associated with the Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Taylor discusses the dangers inherent in travel for Black people during an era where racial discrimination was legal and open racism was common. She fills us in on the origins of the Green Book. We discuss sites such as Dooky Chase’s restaurant in New Orleans, where owner Leah Chase slappe...

Sea Shanties

January 21, 2021 14:00 - 22 minutes - 31.2 MB

This episode presents an introduction to sea shanties, including a discussion of the word “shanty” or “chantey;” a discussion of the roots of shanties; the history of shanties; the subtypes of short-haul shanties, halyard shanties, and capstan shanties; the importance of the African American and Afro-Caribbean communities to shanties; and the prevalence of women singing shanties. The episode presents six shanties, “Pay Me My Money Down” by the Georgia Sea Island Singers, “Haul the Bowline” by...

The Peaceful Transfer of Mumming: American Folklife Center 2020 Mummers’ Play

December 16, 2020 14:00 - 31 minutes - 47.2 MB

This episode presents the American Folklife Center’s 2020 mummers’ play, “The Peaceful Transfer of Mumming.” Every year, in the week or two before Christmas, staff members of the American Folklife Center put our research and performance skills into play, bringing collections to life in a dramatic performance that tours the halls of the Library of Congress. The performance is based on traditional mummers’ plays. This year, since we can’t perform our mummers’ play live, we present it here as a ...

Haunting Songs for Halloween 2020

October 28, 2020 14:00 - 45 minutes - 39.2 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick are joined by staff member Jennifer Cutting to discuss and play some of their favorite ballads and songs about ghosts, goblins, fairies, and elves—not to mention the Devil himself. Songs include “The Unquiet Grave” sung by Jean Ritchie; “Polly Vaughan” sung by Albert Lancaster “Bert” Lloyd; “The Three Babes” or “The Wife of Usher’s Well” sung by Isaac Garfield “Ike” Greer and accompanied by Willie Spainhour Greer on a mountain dulcimer; “Bolakins,” also know...

America Works, Episode 1 - Barbara Miller Byrd, Circus Owner. Hugo, Oklahoma

September 03, 2020 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.82 MB

Barbara Miller Byrd, the third-generation owner of the Carson and Barnes Circus based in the small town of Hugo, Oklahoma, talks about growing up in the traveling circus founded by her grandparents more than 75 years ago. She shares great memories and stories and offers in-sights into the colorful and complex occupations that are needed to sustain a traveling circus in contemporary America.

What’s Inspiring the American Folklife Center Staff During the Virus Crisis

August 31, 2020 14:00 - 40 minutes - 55.5 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick are joined by staff members Theadocia Austen and Jennifer Cutting to discuss two initiatives of the American Folklife Center during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the At-Home Archive Challenge, AFC has been encouraging people to learn or be inspired by material from the American Folklife Center archive at the Library of Congress and to share the results on social media with a tag. For the 2020 Homegrown Concert Series, the Center has moved to an online format wi...

America Works - Series Preview

August 27, 2020 14:00 - 1 minute - 984 KB

New from the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress: “America Works” features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Premieres September 3.

On the Road With Alan Lomax, a “By the People” Campaign from the Library of Congress

March 31, 2020 14:00 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MB

Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn discuss “On the Road with Alan Lomax” a campaign in the Library of Congress “By the People” program, which crowdsources transcriptions of Lomax’s field notes. Alan Lomax was a prominent folklorist who made iconic field recordings around the world. The hosts interview Victoria Van Hyning, Lauren Algee, and Todd Harvey of the Library of Congress, and play some of Lomax’s best recordings, including the earliest recordings of Muddy Waters and Honeyboy Edwards, i...

Winter Songs Part 2

February 25, 2020 14:00 - 30 minutes - 41.9 MB

Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn, along with guests Stephanie Hall and Jennifer Cutting discuss and play their favorite songs of winter. Songs include “Footprints in the Snow,” “Ice Skating Song,” “Fair Charlotte,” “Young Charlotte,” “The Wind Blows High,” and “Time to Remember the Poor.” More information on the songs as well as videos of some of the performances, photos of some the singers, and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife.

Winter Songs Part 1

January 23, 2020 14:00 - 31 minutes - 42.6 MB

Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn, along with guest Theadocia Austen, discuss and play their favorite songs of winter. Songs include an old-time love song by Virginian Hettie Swindel, an urban blues from Detroit songsters Sampson Pittman and Calvin Frazier, a Hardanger fiddle tune from Loretta Kelley, an example of rich vocal polyphony from the Republic of Georgia, and a lumberjack song by Carl Lathrop. More information on the songs as well as videos of some of the performances, photos of s...

“The Candidate’s a Dodger”: An American Folksong from Oral Tradition to Aaron Copland and Beyond

November 26, 2019 14:00 - 53 minutes - 74 MB

Hosts Stephen Winick and Thea Austen and guest Jennifer Cutting discuss the folksong “The Candidate’s a Dodger,” also known as “The Dodger.” They talk about the song’s meanings in oral tradition, its use by Aaron Copland as an art song, and its involvement in political controversy in the 1930s, when Charles Seeger first published it. They examine the song’s history and lay out brand-new evidence about its relationships to other folksongs and to a musical theater song from 1840s England. They ...

Scary Stories for Halloween 2019

October 28, 2019 14:00 - 30 minutes - 75.8 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick introduce three spooky stories to celebrate Halloween: Award-winning storyteller and author Jackie Torrence telling "The Golden Arm," groundbreaking folklorist Mary Celestia Parler telling "The Witch Who Kept a Hotel," and Connie Regan Blake, one of today's leading professional storytellers, telling "Mr. Fox." Much more about the storytellers and the tales can be found at the blog Folklife Today, https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife.

Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection

September 30, 2019 14:00 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, and their guests Ann Hoog, Carl Fleischhauer, and Michelle Stefano, discuss the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection, created as part of the American Folklife Center's first fieldwork project in 1977. The collection, featuring sound recordings, manuscripts, and photographs from 25 ethnic communities in Chicago, is online at loc.gov They discuss the challenges of getting the collection online and of making connections between the collection and the curren...

More Hidden Folklorists

August 28, 2019 14:00 - 39 minutes - 53.6 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, and their guest Jennifer Cutting, introduce two more hidden folklorists, writer Charles J. Finger and filmmaker Nicholas Ray. Finger collected folklore for award-winning books such as "Tales from Silver Lands," "Sailor Chanties and Cowboy Songs," "Frontier Ballads," and "Robin Hood and his Merry Men." Ray was employed by the Works Progress Administration to collect folklore in 1938 and 1939, before embarking on a career as a filmmaker and directing "Rebel W...

"Is 'Ring Around the Rosie' About the Plague?" A Look at Children's Songs.

July 29, 2019 14:00 - 36 minutes - 66.9 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick discuss children's songs, and in particular "Ring Around the Rosie." They interview Carolyn Bennett, the Library of Congress Teacher-in-Residence, and play versions of children's songs recorded in the field in 1939 and in 2019. They talk about the story that the origin of "Ring Around the Rosie" is related to plague symptoms in English history. They conclude that the plague story is folklore, and that specifically it is "metafolklore," meaning folklore about...

Occupational Folklife

June 28, 2019 14:00 - 56 minutes - 104 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick discuss occupational folklife in general, and the American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Project in particular. Topics covered include occupational songs, labor scholar and activist Archie Green, and the Occupational Folklife Project's oral histories with American workers. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi provides a moving tribute to labor folklorist Archie Green. Other interviewees include American Folklife center director Betsy Peterson, who was...

Agnes Vanderburg's Outdoor School for Traditional Indian Ways

May 31, 2019 14:00 - 39 minutes - 72.3 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick Discuss the work of Agnes Vanderburg, a Salish elder from Montana who began an outdoor school to teach traditional native American ways, including Salish language, food preparation, crafting with porcupine quills, making tipis, and traditional medicine. They interview Stephanie Hall, who researched Vanderburg for the Folklife Today blog, Trelani Duncan, who did further research for this podcast, Carl Fleischhauer, who knew and photographed Vanderburg in the ...

Hidden Folklorists

April 30, 2019 14:00 - 46 minutes - 84.4 MB

Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick, along with Library of Congress staff members Stephanie Hall, Michelle Stefano, and Muhannad Salhi, explore the work of "hidden folklorists," that is, people whose folklore work is sometimes overlooked because they came from marginalized communities and/or were more famous for other activities. This episode looks at four folklorists or folklore families. The famous 19th century detective Allan Pinkerton and his wife Joan compiled an early book of Scottish ba...

The Origin of All Folklore Everywhere

March 28, 2019 14:00 - 26 minutes - 48.1 MB

With the help of AFC staff, John Fenn and Stephen Winick will finally get to the bottom of the pesky question: what is the origin of folklore? They will also explore the infamous holiday of April Fools' Day. You'll learn about the history of April Fools' day along with the legends that accompany it. John, Stephen, and AFC staff will talk about the different tricks and pranks associated with the Fools' day, specifically the pranks that students played on their teachers in the early 20th centur...

Civil Rights History Project

February 25, 2019 14:00 - 54 minutes - 99.4 MB

With the help of colleagues from the National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as AFC staff, Stephen Winick and John Fenn explore the collaborative collection known as the Civil Rights History Project. You’ll learn about the piece of Congressional legislation that mandated the project, as well as the various roles that the Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress have played in generating and maintaining the collection. You’ll find out about some of the fieldwork ...

Kumbaya: Stories of an African American Spiritual

January 22, 2019 14:00 - 41 minutes - 56.6 MB

With the help of AFC archivists, Stephen Winick and John Fenn reveal the history of a great work of African American folk creativity: the spiritual "Kumbaya" or "Come By Here." You'll hear how it was collected from oral tradition in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1920s, and hear it become the first State Historical Song of Georgia on the floor of the Georgia State Senate. You'll find out how the words "come by here," sung in a regional dialect, came to be spelled "Kumbaya" around the world...

Festive Foods and Menus

November 19, 2018 14:00 - 19 minutes - 26.4 MB

Today we explore festive food traditions, including Thanksgiving and other holiday meals. Stephen Winick reveals what the Pilgrims REALLY ate at the 1621 event many Americans call "The First Thanksgiving." Megan Harris of the Veterans History Project shares interviews with wartime veterans about festive holiday meals in the military. Mackenzie Kwok brings interviews about ramps, a stinky wild onion that's at the center of its own festivals in some Appalachian communities.

Haunting Tunes for Halloween

October 29, 2018 14:00 - 39 minutes - 54.6 MB

This episode shares some of our favorite haunting or spooky songs for the Halloween season. It includes songs about vengeful ghosts, haunted fiddles, and our inevitable final confrontation with death. There's even a spooky story about a skeleton that plays the fiddle, complete with its favorite tune! Guests include Halloween expert Jack Santino and folksingers Jeff and Gerret Warner.