Each year, the Public Programs Section of the American Folklore Society joins with the AFS Executive Board to award the Benjamin A. Botkin Prize. This annual award honors an individual for significant lifetime achievement in public folklore. New York Folklore joins...
In May and June 2021, I had the opportunity to share in food, fellowship, and history with members of the Armenian community at St. Peter’s. The relatively secluded church is a thriving cultural center for many Armenians in the Upper Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. As I...
Photo: Aziz Peerzada and his 11-year old son Saboor perform a beautiful set of Punjabi folk songs at the 2016 Brooklyn Arts Council Festival. On November 23, 2020, I attended a virtual Zoom hearing on the decision by the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) to cancel...
New York Folklore is pleased to announce the disbursement of funds totaling $11,000.00 to benefit folk and traditional artists in New York State. These funds are made possible through the generosity of donors from throughout the United States, including support from...
The July 23, 2020 release of Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore, begs the question, “What is folklore?”. Refinery 29, the media and entertainment company dedicated to women’s perspectives, asks, “what does folklore mean anyway?” Natalie Morin, writing for Refinery...
On May 1, 2020, New York Folklore and folklore programs across New York State will launch a collaboration to present traditional arts and culture from throughout New York State. Each weekday in May, from 4:00 -4:30 p.m., traditional arts activities will be presented...
As we are confronting the coronavirus crisis, City Lore, in New York City, is putting out a call to collect creative responses to the crisis in song, poetry, video and other forms. New Yorkers are famous for coming together in community after September 11th. There...
Perhaps more than any other single aspect of the discipline of folklore, the collection, study, and analysis of narrative arts, storytelling, and storytellers has been a central part of folklore scholarship since the field was founded in the mid-Nineteenth Century. ...
As we close the books on 2019, I want to thank everyone for a fantastic and celebratory 75th anniversary year. New York Folklore was founded in 1944 by Louis Jones and Harold Thompson, two close friends and folklore colleagues who had a vision for a folklore...
2019 is the tenth year of my tenure on the board of directors of New York Folklore and my fourth as president. When I first joined, at the invitation of past president Gabrielle Hamilton - who steadfastly saw us through the recession of 2008 and the lean...