Smithsonian. Our Living Cultural Heritage

The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a research and educational unit of the Smithsonian Institution that produces the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, exhibitions, documentary films and videos, symposia, publications, and educational materials.

I have been a contract field researcher, documentarian and public presenter for several Smithsonian Folklife Festivals, including: Working at the Smithsonian, African Immigrant Folklife: Building and Bridging Communities, New York City at the Smithsonian, and Food Culture USA.

 In 2013, I was invited to advise the Festival Marketplace design team on merchandising, wayfinding, sourcing, and crafting the maker-seller-customer experience.

Since its inception in 1967,  the Folklife Festival has brought more than twenty-three thousand musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others to the National Mall in Washington DC to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and aesthetics that embody the creative vitality of community-based traditions.