
We Are Part of a CommonWEALTH of Cultures
At the Richmond Folk Festival this October, we invited visitors to tell us what sorts of performances and cultural expressions they would enjoy next year and beyond. We commissioned Sushmita …

Richmond Folk Festival 2022 Recap
The Virginia Folklife Area at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival was a resounding success! Across the three days of the festival, October 7–9, a record-breaking 230,000 people visited the festival …

Finding the “Nuevo South” Sound with Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop – Folklife Fieldnotes 10
Joe Troop and Larry Bellorín met in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina and hit it off immediately. Joe was dealing with a shift in his musical career and Larry …

86 Years of Fiddlers’
by Pat Jarrett Always held during the first full week of August (technically it always starts the Monday after the first Saturday of the month), the 86th Old Fiddlers’ Convention …

Finding My Voice in Virginia
Five months ago I started work as state folklorist and director of the Virginia Folklife Program here at Virginia Humanities. My intent this first year is to be on the …

Rev. Edward Scott & His Jazz Worship Service – Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 7
Dr. Rev. Edward Scott is the pastor at Allen Chapel AME Church in Staunton, VA. He’s also a jazz music enthusiast. He takes his love of jazz and combines it with his …

Mac Traynham & Ashlee Watkins – Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 6
“I only wish that all of my bluegrass and old-time pickin’ friends in Australia could be exposed to this kind of culture and they would hear the difference in it too,” …

Lemlem Gebray – Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 5
Lemlem Gebray is teaching her daughters, Datta and Akeza Seyoum, in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony tradition for the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. In this Episode of Folklife Fieldnotes, we honor …

Earl White – Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 3
Earl White is a fiddler, founding member of the Green Grass Cloggers, and leader of the Earl White Stringband. Produced in partnership with WMRA.