Make an animal mask like this one made by the Ejagham peoples of Nigeria at a workshop at African Art.

Saturday, July 11:

Artful Animals Mask-Making Workshop

Act like a monkey and look like one too. Bring those wild young ‘uns in for some creative monkeying around with artist and educator Karen Brown at the African Art Museum’s animal mask-making workshop. Workshop, sublevel 2, 1 PM to 3 PM.

Ghosts of a Chance

Are you the next Sherlock Holmes? Follow treasure maps and decipher codes to uncover hidden objects in a multimedia scavenger hunt. Don’t forget to bring a cell phone with text messaging capability! Free. Luce Foundation Center, 2:30 PM to 6 PM, allow 90 minutes to complete.

Tai Shan attacks his birthday cake. Photo by Abby Callard

Tai Shan, the National Zoo’s youngest panda bear, celebrated his fourth birthday chowing down on a frozen treat made from water, shredded beets, beet juice and, of course, the animal’s favorite snack — bamboo.

Because pandas rely heavily on their sense of smell, zoo staff laid a trail of treats so Tai Shan could easily find the cake. About a hundred or so camera-clad visitors gathered to “ooh and ahh” at Tai Shan, who pawed and nibbled at the creation.

After knocking the apple topper off the cake, Tai Shan followed it down the small cliff prompting shouts of “Good Boy Tai Shan” from the crowd. After 20 minutes, he grew tired of the cake, and maybe the camera flashes, and headed to the rear of his habitat to gnaw on bamboo.

Tai Shan, and his parents, are on loan from China, and he was originally scheduled to return home after his second birthday. In 2007, it was announced that he would remain here for another two years. That agreement officially expires today. Curator Lisa Stevens says they are currently renegotiating the loan, but no plans are set.

View more photos of Tai Shan’s birthday cake!

In 1948, Earl Shaffer was the first to make a continuous trek of the Appalachian Trail. Courtesy of the NMAH Archives Center.

In April 1948, Earl Shaffer, a young outdoorsman from York County, Pennsylvania, set out to do what no man had done before—walk all 2,178 miles of the Appalachian Trail in one continuous trip. And with good reason. Fresh out of serving in World War II, Shaffer was determined to “walk the Army out of [his] system.”

A few men had walked the entire distance from Georgia to Maine, but they had done so in several trips over the course of decades. Most thought Shaffer’s feat was impossible; in fact, when he claimed he had done it, he had to prove it with photographs, a travel diary and his signatures on registers along the trail.

Shaffer would thru-hike the trail twice more in his lifetime, in 1965, and again, for the 50th anniversary of his first hike, in 1998 (he was 79 years old!). In 1999, he donated the boots and backpack he wore on his 1948 hike to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and in 2002, after his death, the Earl Shaffer Foundation added photographs, maps and his trail diary to the collection. “Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail,” a new exhibition, showcasing many of these artifacts, opens tomorrow in the NMAH’s Albert H. Small Documents Gallery. The show runs through October 30.

Since Shaffer’s pioneering hike, more than 10,000 “2,000-milers,” as they are called, have followed in his footsteps, completing either section or thru-hikes of the A.T.

A ride at the Virginia State Fair by Gordon Stillman, the Americana category winner

In 2003, Smithsonian magazine launched its first photo contest, which garnered 12,000 entries from all over the world and the contest has since been a forum for people to share their artistic vision with us. Last week, an exhibition of the 50 finalists’ eye-popping entries opened at the Smithsonian Castle Building.

“We enjoy a rich dialogue with our readers within the magazine’s pages and on our Web site,” says Smithsonian magazine editor-in-chief Carey Winfrey, “and this contest is a perfect example of how we both inspire and in turn take inspiration from our enthusiastic Smithsonian community.”

This year, our 6th annual photo contest garnered an amazing 17,000 entries. Fifty finalists in five categories—Americana, Altered Images, The Natural World, People and Travel—were selected and we are pleased to announce each of the category winners as well as the Grand Prize winner and the Readers’ Choice winner, who was selected via online voting earlier this year. The Readers’ Choice and other category winners each received $500. One grand prize winner received a four-day, three-night Smithsonian Journeys Grand Canyon Weekend Adventure for two, or the wholesale cash equivalent.

The exhibition, World View: Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest, on view in the Smithsonian Castle through January 17, 2010, features all seven winning photographs, as well as 23 selected finalist photographs.

And don’t forget: we are accepting submissions for our 7th photo contest through December 1, 2009.

This text is written in Kufic script, a style of Arabic calligraphy. Image courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art.

With a steady hand, Oman calligrapher Abdullah al Waili demonstrated how to write in Arabic script to a packed room at the Sackler Gallery of Art.

He and Aishah Holland, a U.S.-based calligrapher, led the ImaginAsia program about Arabic calligraphy, which will be taught again today and tomorrow at 2 PM in the second-floor Sackler classroom.

As al Waili wrote the flowing script, Holland presented a short history of Arabic calligraphy styles. “Most of the letters join, just like English script. Arabic script is very much like music, it has a style and a rhythm to it,” she says.

The rise of Arabic calligraphy as art is closely connected with the Islamic faith. Calligraphy was, and still is, considered a way to represent God by writing the words of the Koran, the Muslim holy text, she adds.

After her presentation, Holland walked around the room helping children and adults alike make the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

This example of Arabic calligraphy from the Koran tells the stories of prophets like Abraham and Noah. Image courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art.

Interested in trying it yourself? Here are five tips for beginning Arabic calligraphy:

1. Use a natural wood pen—in this case, a popsicle stick with shaved nib (tip)—that resembles the reeds and bamboo that calligraphers often use.

2. Put yarn in the inkwell to soak up the ink so that you don’t put too much on the pen.

3. Write on a soft surface. At the workshop, participants were given smooth-sided paper (not from the printer) and placed a thin piece of stiff foam underneath it.

4. Begin by writing dots, which in the Arabic script look more like diamonds.

5. Have fun! While Arabic calligraphy requires patience, the sweeping lines and flourishes make for a one-of-a-kind creative experience.

If you want personal instruction or more tips from al Waili and Holland, check out the program this afternoon or tomorrow!

Art is more than what you see, on a stroll through the Hirshhorn

“I asked my love to take a walk, to take a walk, to take a walk, Down beside where the waters flow, Down by the banks of the Ohio…”

It’s pretty rare for someone to walk through the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and hear music playing. It’s even rarer for the music to be an actual exhibit at the Garden. But now when visitors go to ponder the Rodin’s or attempt to solve a Kooning, they’ll leave contemplating a new beat.

Recently, the Sculpture Garden acquired “Sunset Song,” the first sound artwork located in the sculpture garden. The installment, by Susan Philipsz, is made up of two speakers with two audio tracks, one which features a male character and the other, a female character. Philipsz sings both tracks a capella.

So where exactly is the art in a piece like this?

“[We were] drawn to the notion of thinking we could enhance our sculpture garden in a more contemporary direction and engage visitors in a different sense, beyond sight, beyond vision,” answers Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman. ”It was interesting to reintroduce the idea of a narrative in contemporary art and see how by telling a story Susan Philipz elicits an emotional response in viewers.”

Thinking the Hirshhorn is losing it’s artsy-edge and going romantically soft? Just wait for the lines, “I murdered the girl I love you see, Because she would not marry me …” and set any doubts aside.

The song is an American murder ballad called “Banks of the Ohio.” It has roots in Scotland, where ballads termed ‘Sunset Song’ are songs in which someone is killed. “Banks of the Ohio” is about a male figure inviting his female lover to go for a walk on the banks of the Ohio River. When the female refuses to marry him, he kills her. (There are other variations in which the two characters switch roles).

“Sunset Song” is also sensitive to its surroundings. Set on an electric sensor, as the sun sets or fades, the volume of the piece decreases. Just as in keeping with the idea of death, when it is finally dark, there is absolute silence.

“When visitors encounter the sound piece in the context of sculpture, I hope they are prompted to ask questions about what art can be and what sculpture can be,” says Hileman “And maybe even think about how sound artwork sculpts our environment.”

"The Story of Golden Locks," painted by Seymour Joseph Guy in 1870, is an illustration of how art can both depict and tell stories.

What’s going on in this picture? Isn’t it obvious? The two 7-year-old boys lay in bed, feeling gloomy. Maybe they’re brothers, scolded for misbehaving. Sent to bed without supper.

The young lady sitting by their side—an older sister, or is it cousin….—wants to cheer them up with a story. A fairy tale of course. Every child loves fairy tales.

As the boys listen to her read, they think about tomorrow. The game of ball that they will play. The bugs they will chase. Soon the words about bears and porridge being too hot melt into silence. The brothers drift off to sleep.

###

Who is the storyteller when it comes to a work of art—the artist or the viewer?

A little of both, suggests Catherine Walsh, a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware. Through a fellowship, she will be spending the next year at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, digging through 150-year-old works, diaries and letters looking for examples of storytelling in art, specifically between 1830 and 1870. A period, she says,  when a flood of storytelling images appeared in popular works.

“A lot of artists thought of themselves as storytellers,” Walsh says. “They aimed to create a narrative in their painting.”

Walsh also believes that museum visitors create narratives when they view a painting. As a family stares at a work, you can hear them engaging with the art. “He’s laughing at her,” a mother will tell her son or “She just told him a secret,” a teenager tells his date.

“Scholars don’t generally take this seriously,” Walsh says. She believes we need to give the general public a little more credit and find value in the narratives a museum visitor constructs on the part of the artist.

Because the conversations Walsh wants to study are in the 19th-century, she will need to rely on written records to form her arguments. She will be focusing on the way viewers see and discuss images, specifically scholars with an interest in visual culture.

Walsh believes that narrative haven’t been properly applied when thinking about American subjects. She wants to explore the elements that artists include in their work that let viewers construct stories about what they see. “I want to take this world of academics, that is so distant from the everyday person, and try to make it more relevant,” she says.

Arabic calligrapher from Oman; image courtesy of Freer and Sackler Galleries

Monday, July 5: Nothing special going on today. Check out the Smithsonian events site for regularly scheduled events. 

Tuesday, July 7: Rainforest Summer with Reptiles Alive!

Click on the picture to view more images of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

GIVING VOICE

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Beauty Tales with Joni Jones, Novena Peters, and Toni Blackman

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue and Valerie Tutson

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Barbershop with Thomas Sayers Ellis and Kenny Carroll

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Hair Stories with Dylan Pritchett and Baba Jamal Koram

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Our Mothers’ Gardens: Growing Up Black and Beautiful

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Wit and Wisdom with Kenny Carroll and Tejumola Ologboni

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Closing Theater

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Gospel Radio in the Black Community

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Vintage Black Radio, M.L.King - On the Power of Peaceful Persuasion with Lorne Cress Love

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Next Generation of Black Radio

2:00 PM-3:00 PM

3:00 PM-4:00 PM A Voice for Our People: The Power of Black Radio presented by Lorne Cress Love

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Vintage Black Radio Broadcast with Paul Robeson at Peekskill

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Drama

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez, Novena Peters, and Tonya Matthews

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Roger Guenveur Smith Frederick Douglass Now

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Storytelling with Nothando Zulu and Valerie Tutson

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Closing Story Circle

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM In the Beginning was the Word with Nothando Zulu

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Neighborhood Stories with Holly Bass and Toni Lightfoot

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stoop Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss and Diane Ferlatte

2:00 PM-3:00 PM A Poetic Dialogue with Toni Blackman

3:00 PM-4:00 PM The Artist’s Voice with Roger Guenveur Smith

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Drama with Tonya Matthews

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Closing Poetry

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Creative Challenge with Esther Washington

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling Workshop with Sonia Sanchez

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Blues. Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater Workshop

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

4:00 PM-5:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Closing Children’s Culture

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

4:45 PM-5:30 PM Mariachi Chula Vista

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Learning Mariachi Music Workshop

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Currulao Workshop

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús García

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Mariachi Workshop

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Making a New Place Home

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Song Stories

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Música de Arpa Grande Workshop

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Improvisation Workshop

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Huasteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Drumming Workshop

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

3:55 PM-4:55 PM Dance Party: Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo & Las Estrellas del Vallenato

WALES

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Singer-Songwriters

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Female Harmony Singing

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories with Music

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Ashtons

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Harp and Voice

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Sild and Guests

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry about Welsh Identity

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories from the Mabinogion

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry and Song

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Welsh Songs and Stories

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Festival Poetry

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Welsh Lesson: Days of the Week

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Welsh Breakfast and Patagonian BBQ prep

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Bakestone and Cauldron Cooking

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Celtic Caribbean

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Game and Wild Foods

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Recipes from My Patagonian Grandmother

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Preserving Food in Wales and Patagonian Welsh

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Regional Specialties

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: City and Country

11:45 AM-12:30 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Museums

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Wales and the World: International Events

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: Building for the Planet

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Stone and Wood

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Ceramics and Dressers

3:30 PM-4:15 PM The Arts in Action: Arts Education in Wales

4:15 PM-5:00 PM Festival Experiences: Tell Your Story

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Festival Experiences: Tell Your Story

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitar

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Crasdant

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Only Men Aloud!

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Crasdant

4:00 PM-5:00 PM The Hennessys

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

Welsh Media

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

12:00 PM-1:00 PM

1:00 PM-2:00 PM

2:00 PM-3:00 PM

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

4:00 PM-5:00 PM

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

Click on the picture to view more images of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Wit and Wisdom of the Barbershop with Kenny Carroll and Tejumola Ologboni

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Our Mothers’ Gardens: Growing Up Black and Beautiful

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Barbershop with Dylan Pritchett and Baba Jamal Koram

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry with Thomas Sayers Ellis and Kenny Carroll

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Hair Stories with Brother Blue and Valerie Tutson

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Beauty Tales: Joni Jones and Tonya Matthews

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Hair Stories with Toni Blackman and Tejumola Ologboni

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Vintage Radio

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Vintage Radio

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Vintage Radio

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Role of Radio in Community: Giving Voice, Wales, Las Americas

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Me and My Radio

4:00 PM-5:00 PM The Persona of the Black Deejay

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Me and My Radio

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Nothando Zulu and Valerie Tutson

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Theater with Tonya Matthews

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Roger Guenveur Smith as Frederick Douglass

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Baba Jamal Koram

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Artist’s Voice with Roger Guenveur Smith

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Theater with Holly Bass and Trio

1:00 PM-2:00 PM A Poetic Dialogue with Toni Blackman and A. B. Spellman

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Neighborhood Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss and Diane Ferlatte

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stoop Stories with Victoria Burnett and Branice McKenzie

4:00 PM-5:00 PM In the Beginning was the Word with Nothando Zulu

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Borther Blue and Onawumi Jean Moss

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Open Mic for Children

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater Workshop

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Poetry Workshop with Sonia Sanchez

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Dunbar Stories with Mitch Capel

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Victoria Burnett

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Mariachi Chula Vista

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Husteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Encuentro: Mariachi Relatives

4:45 PM-5:30 PM Encuentro: Mariachi Relatvies

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Mexican Son Workshop

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Accordion Workshop

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Vocal Styles across Traditions

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Sonoran music traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús García

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Harps across Traditions

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Tarima Workshops

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Melodic Strings

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Mariachi Chula Vista

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

A TASTE OF WALES

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Harp and Voice

12:00 PM-1:00 PM The Ashtons

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Sild

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Stories with Music

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Singer-Songwriters

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Fiddlers and Guests

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry in Welsh and English

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories from the Welsh Landscape

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Welsh Lesson: Where Are You From?

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Family Stories

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Poetry Stomp

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Game and Wild Foods

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Soups with Spice

1:00 PM-2:00 PM A Twist on Tradition

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Cooking on the Bakestone

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Teatime in Welsh Patagonia

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Frugal Foods

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Welsh Cheese

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: Along the Water

11:45 AM-12:30 PM The Arts in Action: Across Genres

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Reimagining Community: Greener Communities

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Hunting and Fishing

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Buildings

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Wales and the World: Festivals

3:30 PM-4:15 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: What You Can Do

4:15 PM-5:00 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Family Business in 21st

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Planning for the Future: Food

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Hennesseys

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Welsh Dance Music

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitars

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Crasdant

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Only Men Aloud!

Welsh Media

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

12:00 PM-1:00 PM

1:00 PM-2:00 PM

2:00 PM-3:00 PM

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

4:00 PM-5:00 PM

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

Electronic Superhighway (1995) by Nam June Paik. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This piece is on display on the third floor.

Electronic Superhighway: Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii (1995) by Nam June Paik. It’s hard to get more American than this: a map of the good ol’ US-of-A rendered in neon and television sets. Paik’s piece suggests that our vision of America is shaped by media—namely film and television. (I’m personally a big fan of the looped video of classic musicals: The Wizard of Oz representing Kansas, Meet Me in St. Louis standing in for Missouri and Oklahoma! embodying that A-OK state of the same name.) And don’t be fooled by this itty bitty image, folks—this piece is huge and is like stepping into an electrified road map. Short of taking a road trip, it’s an easy way to see the USA, so to speak.

July Fourth (1950) by Howard Cook. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum. Unfortunately, this piece is not currently on display.

Next up: July Fourth (1950) by Howard Cook. OK, I admit that when I first saw this piece I thought it looked a mite apocalyptic—the kind of image that might work better as a tribute to the damage wrought by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow than to the birth of our nation. Then I puzzled and puzzled till my puzzler was sore and thought it did a beautiful job of capturing the feeling of being outside on a hot summer night with the sky all lit up. And how could you resist the charm of pyromaniac children running amok? Mmm. I can sense the sulfuric smell of burnt-out sparklers right now.

Fourth of July (1971) by A. Brockie Stevenson. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum. This piece is displayed on the fourth floor, Luce Foundation Center.

For those of you out there who prefer more subdued celebrations, let’s look at Fourth of July (1971) by A. Brockie Stevenson. Here we have a very prim and proper house—just look at those straight-laced lines and hard angles and a seemingly unflappable flag that seems part and parcel of the structure. But there are no signs of life to be had here. A rather austere way to mark the day, eh?

Miss Liberty (1987) by Malcah Zeldis. © 1987 Malcah Zeldis. This piece is on the first floor, West Wing.

And last, we have Miss Liberty Celebration (1987) by Malcha Zeldis a colorful celebration of life, liberty and diversity—those things that make this country the wonderful place it is. And Elvis and Miss America (lovingly rendered herein) make America pretty freaking sweet too. Zeldis created this piece after recovering from cancer and includes herself in the painting (she’s the woman in red at the bottom right of the canvas) and refers to this work as an “exultation of survival.”

So, these are the “Around the Mall” picks to check out at the American Art Museum this weekend. Did we miss something? What are your favorite patriotic pieces that are hanging out at the Smithsonian? Let’s discuss in the comments area below. And may you all have a safe, happy and restful Fourth of July!

Click on the picture to view more images of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

GIVING VOICE

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Hair Stories with Brother Blue and Vicki Burnett

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling with Joni Jones and Tejumola Ologboni

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry with Holly Bass

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Beauty Tales with Diane Ferlatte and Onawumi Jean Moss

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Hair Stories with Baba Jamal Koram and Valerie Tutson

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel

5:00 PM-5:30 PM The Barbershop with Baba Jamal Koram and Dylan Pritchett

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

12:00 PM-1:00 PM WPFW-FM Live Broadcast: Don’t Forget The Blues

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Me and My Radio: The Narrative Stage Onawumi Jean Moss and Candy Shannon

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Vintage Black Radio with Paul Robeson at Peekskill

3:00 PM-4:00 PM The Persona of the Black Deejay: Narrative Stage

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Vintage Black Radio: Africa and the Black Liberation Struggle: David Sideko and Sherley

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Candy Shannon

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling with Nothando Zulu and Onawumi Jean Moss

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Drama with Sonia Sanchez

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Poetry with Thomas Sayers Ellis

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stoop Stories with Holly Bass and Toni Blackman

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Storytelling with Valerie Tutson and Mitch Capel

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry with Kenny Carroll and Thomas Sayers Ellis

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry with Toni Blackman

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Storytelling with Onawumi Jean Moss

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Stoop Stories with Joni Jones and Tejumola Ologboni

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Diane Ferlatte and Brother Blue

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry Workshop with Sonia Sanchez

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Children’s Storytelling with Dylan Pritchett

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes, and Snaps Program/ Mind Builders

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater Workshop

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Word Play Workshop with Kenny Carroll

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Nothando Zulu and Victoria Burnett

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Mariachi Chula Vista

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

12:35 PM-1:25 PM La Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Strings Workshop

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Caja, Maracas & Guacharaca

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Country and City Styles Meet

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Huasteco and Jarocho Dance Workshop

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Learning Mariachi Music Workshop

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Folkways Recordings Studio Experiences

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Song Stories

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús García

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madero

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Huasteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

A TASTE OF WALES

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories with Music

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Harp and Voice

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories with Music

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Ceri Rhys Matthews and Christine Cooper

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Sild

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Andrew McLauchlin, Stephen Rees, and Guests

5:30 PM-7:00 PM The Hennesseys

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry and Song

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories of Everyday Life through Song: Giving

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry about Welsh Identity

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stories from the Mabinogion

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Poetry in Welsh and English

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Welsh Lesson: Telling Time

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Preserves in Wales

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Food from the Farmhouse

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Game and Wild Foods

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Salt Duck, Cured Fish, and Pickles

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stews with Spice

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Local and Seasonal Favorites

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Teatime Favorites

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: The Valleys

11:45 AM-12:30 PM The Arts in Action: Innovation Across Crafts Genresn

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Farming

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Wales and the World: Wales to the World: Migration

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Learning Welsh, Old and New

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: Preserving special places

3:30 PM-4:15 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Swansea Projects

4:15 PM-5:00 PM Reimagining Community: Food and Community

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Planning for the Future: Poetry

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Only Men Aloud!

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitar

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Crasdant

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Welsh Dance Music

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Hennesseys, Linda Griffiths, and Lisa Angharad

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Singer-Songwriters

5:30 PM-7:00 PM Catrin Finch and Cimarron

Welsh Media

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

12:00 PM-1:00 PM

1:00 PM-2:00 PM

2:00 PM-3:00 PM

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

4:00 PM-5:00 PM

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

Image courtesy of National Air and Space Museum

Friday, July 3: Ramp it up: Skateboard Culture in Native America

Interested in flips, grinds and catching air? See the skateboarders of Native America Jam perform on a mini-ramp and show why skateboarding is becoming the most popular sport in Native American culture. Free. American Indian Museum, 12-12:30 PM, repeats at 2 PM and July 4 and 5.

Saturday, July 4: United States Air Force Band: Max Impact

Roger Guenveur Smith will bring Frederick Douglass to life at the Folklife Festival. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Many actors have gained fame for their ability to inhabit completely different characters, but few have been able to continually improve upon their portrayal of the same role throughout their career. Roger Guenveur Smith is one of those rare few.

On July 4th and 5th, Smith will portray Frederick Douglass in a dramatic presentation of Douglass’ famed 1852 Fourth of July speech. But this is not the first time that Smith has played the famous abolitionist, editor and orator.

“I’ve been working on Douglass since I was an undergraduate at Occidental College, and as you know, the work of Douglass is voluminous. It can take a lifetime of study to get a handle on Douglass and that’s really what I’ve been doing,” Smith says, adding that he was inspired as a child by Hal Holbrook’s 1967 Mark Twain performance.

Smith’s past film credits have included roles in School Daze, Malcolm X and Summer of Sam. He has received an Obie Award for his solo stage performance in A Huey P. Newton Story, which he also wrote. With all of his characters, Smith integrates history and a heavy dose of imagination.

“I think with my Douglass, my Newton or even my Columbus, I’ve tried to personalize these larger-than-life figures to make them people that we can somehow relate to, beyond the history pages,” he says. “So, for example, my Christopher Columbus is still among us as a lounge entertainer with political aspirations who runs a travel agency on the side. My Newton does not live in the year 1966 exclusively, but in the present moment. My Frederick Douglass communicates with Harriet Tubman on his Blackberry. So I take imaginative license in trying to bring all of these characters into the present moment, because I’m not interested exclusively in nostalgia or simply historical recreation. I want these characters to live and breath in the moment.”

Smith will deliver an abbreviated version of one of Frederick Douglass’ best known speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” In 1852, Douglass was invited to speak at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He refused the July 4 invitation, and instead gave a sobering two-and-a-half hour speech the following day at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall.

“He begins by extolling the virtues of the American Revolution, but he ends by saying that the Revolution was not complete because one-seventh of the inhabitants of the country were [still] enslaved,” Smith says.

Time moves on, but 150 years hence, the measured cadences of Frederick Douglass’ speech that day resonate.

“One would like to think that Douglass would be kind of a dinosaur or a relic, but for better, and quite often for worse, what Douglass has to say about American civilization is still relevant in our present moment,” Smith says.

Roger Guenveur Smith performs at 4 PM on July 4 and at 2 PM on July 5 at the Oratorium tent as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. To read Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, please continue to the jump.

Frederick Douglass. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….

…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse”; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, “It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed.” But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival….

…Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from “the Declaration of Independence,” the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated.—Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. ‘Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto God.” In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o’er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom’s reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower;
But to all manhood’s stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I’ll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive –
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate’er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.

From The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II by Philip S. Foner

Click on the picture to view more images of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Events are divided by each of the three cultures featured at this year’s festival—Giving Voice, Las Americas and Wales—and subdivided by the pavilion where the event takes place. Don’t forget to get your festival map so you can plan your day!

Barbershop/Beauty Parlor

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Baba Jamal Koram and Valerie

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Fashion Drama with Lisa Pegram and Joni Jones

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Poetry Workshop: Kenny Carroll and Sonia Sanchez

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Beauty Tales with Valerie Tutson

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Beauty Tales with Phyllis Stickney and Nothando

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Storytelling with Dianne Ferlatte and Thomas

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Hair Stories with Baba Jamal, Mitch Capel and

Radio Station

11:00 AM-12:00 PM WPFW-FM Llive Broadcast: Voices with vision

12:00 PM-1:00 PM WPFW-FM Live Broadcast: Don’t Forget the Blues

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Me and My Radio

2:00 PM-3:00 PM The Persona of the Black Deejay

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Vintage Black Radio Broadcast

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Me and My Radio

5:00 PM-5:30 PM

The Oratorium

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Storytelling with Mitch Capel and Joni Jones

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Asante Children’s Theater Folktales

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Storytelling with Diane Ferlatte and Victoria Burnett

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Drama with Anu Yadav

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue, Tejumola Ologboni,

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Poetry with Sonia Sanchez

6:00 PM-7:30 PM Dick Gregory

The Stoop

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Neighborhood Poetry with Kenny Carroll and Toni

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Stoop Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss, Nothando

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Neighborhood Drama with Roger Guenveur Smith

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Poetry with Thomas Sayers Ellis and Toni Blackman

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Poetry with Lisa Pegram

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Neighborhood Stories with Onawumi Jean Moss and

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Brother Blue

6:00 PM-8:00 PM Just Joking

Young Wordsmiths

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

12:00 PM-1:00 PM I Have A Dream Stories with Asante Children’s

1:00 PM-2:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Asante Theater Workshop

3:00 PM-4:00 PM The Blues, Raps, Rhymes and Snaps

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Comedy Workshop: with Phyllis Stickney

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Storytelling with Tejumola Ologboni

LAS AMERICAS

Folkways Salón

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Huasteco Music & Dance: Los Camperos de Valles & Artemio Posadas & Dolores García

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Son Jarocho: Son de Madera

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Joropo Llanero: Grupo Cimarrón

1:25 PM-2:15 PM La Chanchona de los Hermanos Lovo

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Mariachi Chula Vista

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

La Peña

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Vocal Styles across Traditions

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Marimba de Chonta Workshop

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Mariachi Workshop

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Rhythm Guitars across Traditions

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús Garcia

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Joropo Llanero workshop

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Country Cousins: Música de Arpa Grande & Mariachi

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Huasteco Music $ Dance Workshop

Salón de Baile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

11:45 AM-12:35 PM Sonoran Music Traditions: Don Beto Cruz & Jesús García

12:35 PM-1:25 PM Las Estrellas del Vallenato

1:25 PM-2:15 PM Música de Arpa Grande: Arpex

2:15 PM-3:05 PM Jíbaro Music: Ecos de Borinquen

3:05 PM-3:55 PM Son Jarocho and Son Huasteco Traditions

3:55 PM-4:45 PM Los Maestros del Joropo Oriental

4:45 PM-5:35 PM Currulao: Las Cantadoras del Pacífico

A TASTE OF WALES

Rugby Club

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Female Harmony Singing

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Stories with Music

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Singer-Songwriters

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Sild

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Harp and Voice

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Ceri Rhys Matthews, Christine Cooper

5:30 PM-7:00 PM Plygain Group

Story Circle

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Stories for Children

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Poetry

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Stories of Migration

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Welsh Poetry

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Stories from the Welsh Landscape

4:00 PM-5:30 PM Song and Poetry Challenge: Giving Voice, Las Americas, Wales

Taste of Wales

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Festive Kitchen

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Festive Kitchen

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Festive Kitchen

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Festive Kitchen

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Festive Kitchen

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Festive Kitchen

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Festive Kitchen

The Square Mile

11:00 AM-11:45 AM My Square Mile: Near the Border

11:45 AM-2:30 PM Think Globally, Act Locally: Global Connections to Wales

12:30 PM-1:15 PM Wales and the World: Welsh Art Goes to the World

1:15 PM-2:00 PM Working and Playing Outdoors: Mountains

2:00 PM-2:45 PM Heritage Meets Innovation: Coal and Slate

2:45 PM-3:30 PM Reimagining Community: Poetry and Community

3:30 PM-4:15 PM The Arts in Action: Animation and Film

4:15 PM-5:00 PM Adapt, Reuse, Recycle: Wool

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Planning for the Future: Agriculture

Welsh Dragon

11:00 AM-12:00 PM The Hennessys

12:00 PM-1:00 PM Welsh Dance Music

1:00 PM-2:00 PM Only Men Aloud!

2:00 PM-3:00 PM Fiddles, Pipes, and Guitar

3:00 PM-4:00 PM Parti Cut Lloi

4:00 PM-5:00 PM Crasdant

5:00 PM-5:30 PM Traditional songs reworked

5:30 PM-7:00 PM Only Men Aloud

Welsh Media

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