Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

A beautiful rust colored hill against a blue, cloudy sky.

The Power of “Bears Ears” and Indigenous Place Names

What’s in a name? It’s an important part of our identity, our existence, connecting us to our cultural and social realms.

On the left, a woman with long wavy dark hair and patterned blue blouse sings into a microphone, seated, eyes closed. On the right, another person sits behind a long barrel-shaped drum, holding a hand drum, looking down.

Warming to Tradition: The Culture of Vocal Exercise

No matter the genre of singing, or where we’re from, our vocal exercises are meaningful.

A close up of Kody's face, featuring large, sparkly, silver glasses.

The Little-Known Story of Drag Kings in Gun Barrel City, Texas

Despite a long history of lesbian-identifying and trans-masculine individuals who used masculinity for artistic performance, today’s representation of the drag king show arose only in the 1990s.

A woman in a long, flowing red skirt, blurry with motion, dances in front of a line of people seated and playing barrel-shaped drums. Palm trees sway in the background.

The Sound of Resistance in Puerto Rican Bomba Connects La Perla Community

First documented in the seventeenth century, Caribbean bomba emerged in the context of colonialism.

An illustration of an Asian woman with various symbols above her head including an American Flag, an "I voted" sticker, a ballot box, and a Chinese character.

The Weight of the Asian American Vote

When Asian Americans adopt a new nation, how might voting serve as a means for expressing our varied senses of identity and community?

Various cobs of multicolored corn.

How Seeds Tell Stories

In the past century, there has been a seventy-five percent decline in agricultural biodiversity. When we fail to prioritize biodiversity, we risk erasing cultural diversity as well.

Suffragists stand holding a banner quoting Susan B. Anthony: "No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex."

The Lasting Legacy of Suffragists at the Lorton Women’s Workhouse

Now the Workhouse Arts Center, the facility does not stand in spite of its past, but because of it.

A performance in an opera hall, looking sideways across the orchestra pit. The performers are both on stage, lit in blue on the left, and in the first rows of red seats, on the right.

A Catalan Opera Adapts Greek Myth to Understand the Refugee Crisis

Since 1993, 33,293 people have drowned in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic trying to reach a safe place to start a new life.

Two civilians look at a poster featuring the face of Martin Luther King Jr., his head depicted beneath the words 'Nonviolence... Our Most Potent Weapon.'

MLK's Unswerving Commitment to Nonviolent Activism

Martin Luther King Jr. and countless individuals laid their bodies and lives on the line in order to make the dream of an equal and just society for all citizens a reality.

A clear bowl filled with Italian seafood pasta sits on a table with red and green placemats.

Fra Diavolo Is a Devilish Dish for an Italian American Christmas

Fra diavolo is a spicy tomato sauce served over linguine and shellfish that roughly translates to “among the devil.

Freshly backed, round, golden brown tortas sit to cool in their crinkled metal baking tins.

Torta—Filipino Christmas Cake, I Think

For the majority of the year, I am half Filipina. But during Christmas, I try to embrace this identity fully through a few small rituals.

Three adults stand and two small children stand around a table with plated. The table is covered by a red table cloth and has a large candle in the center with food arranged around it.

Learn to Make Potatis Korv Sausage for Your Festive Swedish Smörgåsbord

I can’t remember a year in my life where my Grandma Lucille laid out the smörgåsbord and the korv was missing.

A plate full of golden brown potato pancakes are placed on a dining table. Behind them are bowls of sour cream, apple sauce, salt, and a menorah with three candles lit.

Are You Team Apple Sauce or Sour Cream? A Smithsonian Staffer Shares Her Family's Latke Recipe

It’s Hanukkah and time to dig out the three-by-five index card with my mother’s recipe for latkes.

Two men with long hair, one older and one younger, perform with eyes closed on stage. They each hold a painted rattle, and the older man in the foreground also holds a microphone.

A Kumeyaay Folktale Illuminates Why the Sun and Moon Shine at Different Times

The celestial beings took a lesson from two frogs in love

Two men wearing traditional feathered headdresses stand in front of two microphones, singing and playing hand drums.

Dennis Zotigh Is a Man of Many Talents, Many Tribes

“As Native people, we have to learn to balance two different worlds.”

A row of people lines up playing flutes. Most are young students, and in the middle is an older man with a long gray braid.

A Lesson About North American Indigenous Flute and Authenticity

North American Indigenous Flute vs. “Native American Flute”: What is lost when the difference between the two traditions is blurred?

A young girl poses outside a building, wearing a dark coat, layers of skirts, and a kerchief over her hair, holding a broom in one hand and a kettle in the other. Black-and-white photo.

The Swedish Witch Trials Teach Us How to Confront Dark Heritage

At first glance, the tradition of Påskkärring, or “Easter Hags,” seems quite innocent, but deeper study reveals a dark history, one of oppression and persecution.

Digital illustration of a large mothlike figure, flying above a forested area and a single car driving down a road at nights. Its eyes are glowing red.

West Virginia's Mothman Leads Cryptid Renaissance

The creature has risen from local appearances to the national stage as a leader in the cryptid revival of the last twenty years.

Several men and women dressed in all black, standing in formation with a towering stone mountain behind them.

A Catalan Choir Reinterprets Musician Raimon’s Anti-Fascist Lyrics

The Coral Càrmina of Catalonia answers the challenge to arrange a song from the Smithsonian Folkways catalog.

A woman wearing traditional Armenian dress bends down to tend to an outdoor stove while preparing a meal.

Collaboration and Community: Working Together for the Future of Armenian Festivals

Festivals allow for pauses in our fast-paced routines to celebrate human creativity.

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