My time as an intern this summer was spent exploring the Smithsonian Folklife Festival through the lens of a camera

During the Folklife Festival, I found myself repeatedly drawn to the Basque pottery tent where ceramicist Blanka Gomez de Segura worked through each day on her wheel.

Set beside the Sounds of California Stage & Plaza, La Cueva was a space for musicians to show their related crafts: mask making, instrument building, and whip braiding.

George Abe is an energetic, enigmatic man. A Japanese American born and raised in California, he presented and performed as part of the Sounds of California program.

The western edge of the Basque: Innovation by Culture program at the 2016 Folklife Festival took visitors straight into Portua, or “the port.”

When I was six years old, I took a modern dance class, and in the classroom next door was a traditional Irish step dance class. Thanks to his love of all things Irish, my father convinced me to join.

According to the 2010 census, there are fewer than 100,000 Indonesian Americans, a relatively small number given that Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country. Why do so few Indonesians immigrate to the United States?

Despite its name, Armenian Public Radio is not an Armenian public radio station. It is an acoustic guitar trio that melds contemporary musical styles and the music of their homeland to create a new perspective to Armenian folk songs.

On the Move: Migration and Immigration Today, an activity and presentation space at this year’s Folklife Festival, will draw from our Basque and California programs to invite visitors to reflect on their own immigration and migration experiences.

We presented a related precursor Sounds of California event at the Oakland Museum of California on December 6, celebrating the power of music to express community identity, migration experiences, and cultural resilience.