This episode features singer-songwriter Thea Hopkins, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard, in discussion with staff members of the American Folklife Center. Hopkins adapted songs from the American Folklife Center archive several times. On the first occasion she sang a lullaby recorded by ethnomusicologist Willard Rhodes from a young girl named Margaret at the Haskell Residential School in 1943; the song is known as “Margaret’s Song” or “Creek Lullaby,” and according to Creek elders it was created during the Trail of Tears. For her second challenge, Hopkins wrote new lyrics for the song “Red Wing,” which originally contained damaging stereotypes of Native Americans. The new lyrics paid homage to pioneering Native film actress Lilian St. Cyr, who was known as “Red Wing.” Hopkins discussed her process and the meanings of the songs with AFC staff members Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting, and Meg Nicholas; Nicholas is one of the American Folklife Center’s specialists in Native song, and affiliated with the Munsee-Delaware Nation in southwest Ontario. The episode features the field recordings of both songs, as well as Thea’s new versions, and a fiddle tune by Chippewa fiddler Mary Trotchie.

More information on the songs as well as photos of some of the singers and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife

This episode looks at scary stories in the American Folklife Center archives, including ghost stories, witch tales, and other terrifying tales. Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn talk with AFC intern Hanna Salmon about scary stories in the new guide “Folktales and Oral Storytelling: Resources in the American Folklife Center Collections.” We then listen to and discuss a “Vanishing Hitchhiker” tale from Marty Weathers and Bill Henry of Georgia; the witch story “Skin, Don’t You Know Me?” from J. D. Suggs; a ghostly experience related by humanitarian Eartha M. M. White; and “The Two White Horses,” a classic spooky tale from Connie Regan-Blake.

More information on the stories as well as photos of some the tellers and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife.

This episode looks at storytelling and folktale traditions in the American Folklife Center archives, including “Jack Tales,” tall tales, animal tales, and other stories. Hosts Stephen Winick and John Fenn talk with AFC intern Hanna Salmon about the new guide “Folktales and Oral Storytelling: Resources in the American Folklife Center Collections.” We then listen to and discuss excerpts of tales from North Carolina storyteller Ray Hicks, professional tellers Connie Regan-Blake and Barbara Freeman (aka The Folktellers), Evelio and Evelia Andux (a father and daughter from Florida), Cuban-American storyteller and frequent AFC guest Carmen Agra Deedy, and Choctaw author and storyteller Tim Tingle.

More information on the songs as well as photos of some the tellers and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife.