What's Happening at the American Folklife Center

Events | Announcements | AFC RSS News Feed

Throughout the year, the Center sponsors workshops, lectures, exhibits, concerts, and conferences (on its own and in cooperation with other Library of Congress offices and outside agencies) in order to educate the American people about the importance of their own cultural traditions and the traditions of others. All events are free and do not require tickets unless otherwise noted.

Events

Announcements:

Community Collections Fellowships Offer Support for Homegrown Documentation of Culture

The American Folklife Center is excited to be involved with “Of the People: Widening the Path,” an initiative at the Library of Congress funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A general overview announcing the initiative is here, and background and details about the Community Collections Fellowship program that the American Folklife Center will oversee are provided in a post in Folklife Today. A full call for proposals will be available in the coming month, so be sure to watch this blog and other Library media channels for that announcement. This fellowship program is an exciting opportunity for people from across the United States to document their own cultural expressions and traditions, with both technical and financial support from the Library of Congress!

Take the Archive Challenge from Home!

To participate, browse or search online materials in our archive—we’ll provide some links below. Find a piece you’d like to learn, adapt, or be inspired by, and work out your own version or your own artwork. Shoot a homemade video, take a picture of your artwork, or write down your words, and post it all online.

We’d also love for you to share it with us and with your networks. Any way you want to do this is fine, but it would be easier for us to help if your video has a persistent URL address we can link to—YouTube would work, but so would a page of your band’s website or a personal blog post. (Those are better than simply placing the video directly to Facebook or Twitter, where content tends to have a shorter lifetime.) Once you’ve placed your challenge online, please do share it out to your social media with the tag

#FolklifeArchiveChallenge

Also, send an email to Steve Winick on our social media team at [email protected] letting us know where your video, image, or audio can be found.

Learn more in this announcment in Folklife Today: "Spending a Lot of Time at Home? Take the Archive Challenge!" (May 5, 2020)

See what others are doing in this blog in Folklife Today: "Archive Fans Take the Challange!" (June 10, 2020)

Donate to the AFC Internship Program

To make a donation to the new AFC Internship Program Fund, donate online. Copy and paste or type in the "Other" box the name of the fund: Fund #651265 – American Folklife Center Internship.

Past Events

Find descriptions and webcasts of past American Folklife Center events, including Botkin Lectures and film screenings; Civil Rights History Events; Homegrown Concerts; and Symposia.

RSS Feed, Email Subscription, and Podcasts

If you would like to receive information about Folklife Center events and programs via the AFC RSS feed, or to subscribe to AFC podcasts, go to the RSS page and select the option you prefer:

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Events | Announcements | AFC RSS News Feed