two women standing in an open green field with mountains on the horizonSights & Sounds

Elizabeth LaPrelle & Elsa Howell

Appalachian Ballad Singing On a farm outside of Rural Retreat, tucked into a bend of small, winding White Rock Creek and down the hill from the home she grew up …

Event

WCC’s Old-Time & Bluegrass Jamboree

Join us in Wytheville for this month’s WCC Bluegrass & Old-Time Jamboree, featuring Whitetop Mountain Band and Cabin Creek Bluegrass Band.

March 18, 2023 | 7PM | Wytheville
Two men sit together in a workshop, holding handmade violins, surrounded by instrument-making equipmentSights & Sounds

Daniel Smith & Richard Maxham

Daniel Smith of Lynchburg is apprenticing Richard Maxham of Alexandria, a fifth-generation violinist, in violin making and repair.

Sights & Sounds

A Legacy of Violin Making — Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 12

Richard Maxham is apprenticing under Lynchburg violin maker Daniel Smith, though the Maxham name has been intimately involved with violin making and performance for five generations.

Close up on a guitar neck featuring intricate inlaid detailing along the fretsNews

Two New Opportunities For Traditional Arts In Bristol & Beyond

Made up of representatives from regional cultural organizations and independent artists, the Greater Bristol Folk Arts & Culture Team works to promote and support folk arts and culture in the greater Bristol community.

Sights & Sounds

DIY Punk Houses and Virginia’s Punk and Metal Communities – Folklife Fieldnotes 11

Pat Jarrett and Chris Boros discuss Virginia’s robust DIY Punk communities on this installment of Folklife Fieldnotes.

Sights & Sounds

Ask A Punk for the Address

by Pat Jarrett When the pandemic shut down the opportunity to experience live music, I was hit hard. I started going to shows when I was fifteen. (Once, my mom …

Sights & Sounds

Margarita “Tata” Sanchez Cepeda & Isha M Renta Lopez

Bomba Dance Bomba is, as Margarita “Tata” Sanchez Cepeda puts it, “all about love. I was taught under love, bomba is a form of love, and we continue to carry …

Sights & Sounds

D. Brad Hatch, David Onks IV and Reagan Andersen

Four years ago, Dr. D. Brad Hatch was one of just two members of the Patawomeck Indian tribe who knew how to weave an eel pot. Now Brad is teaching fellow tribal members David Onks IV and Reagan Andersen how to make eel pots as part of the Virginia Folklife Program’s 2022-23 Apprenticeship Program cohort.

News

Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowship Applications Open

Fellows may include, but are not limited to home cooks and bakers, seed savers, farmers, community elders, keepers of recipes and traditional foodways knowledge, hunters, and foragers, who have made …

Sights & Sounds

Virginia Folklife Futures

By Katy Clune For thirty-three years, the Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities has worked to document, sustain, present, and support cultural traditions across the Commonwealth. I began work as …

Sights & Sounds

Sushmita Mazumdar of Studio PAUSE

Making space for community-focused art practice by Katy Clune with Sushmita Mazumdar When Sushmita opened the door, inviting me into Studio PAUSE for the first time, the overwhelming first impression …

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