1987 SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL: CULTURAL CONSERVATION AND LANGUAGE AUDIO LOG SHEETS

About the Project

Audio documentation has played a crucial part in capturing the many stories, performances, exchanges, and demonstrations that have taken place on the National Mall as part of the Festival of American Folklife (now Smithsonian Folklife Festival). For each program, documentation volunteers generated detailed "class style" notes to accompany audio recordings which often include presenter and participant names, subject keywords, song titles, and brief descriptions of the events taking place in real time. These notes are often the richest (or only) source of information about who was present and provide key references for understanding and interpreting the recorded content. While the styles, formats, and spelling accuracy vary across logs, they nevertheless serve as fundamental link between what actually took place and what is documented in audio, photo, and, video formats. America's Many Voices addressed the importance of language in the preservation of cultural traditions. Spanish speakers from Texas, Chinese speakers from New York, Lao speakers from Virginia and Maryland, and English speakers from North Carolina challenged Festival audiences to hear the beauty of their voices, to understand the social significance of their languages, and to grasp meanings sometimes not easily translated. In addition, ongoing demonstrations included saddle making, barbacoa cookery, toymaking, quilting, and a sacred procession each day of the Matachines group from Laredo, Texas, through the Cultural Conservation area; the skills and lore of tobacco farming and the stories of hunters and their dogs; toymaking, face painting, and occupation lore of laundry operators. The Lao American area included floral arts, weaving, wood carving, basket making, rocket making, and, on Sunday June 28, an all day celebration of Boun Bang Fai, the Lao Rocket Festival. More information about the program including participant names can be found here.

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Completed!

Project Progress (details)
119 pages completed
Difficulty
4 out of 5
(details)

73

Contributing
members

119

Total
pages