Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

A performance in an opera hall, looking sideways across the orchestra pit. The performers are both on stage, lit in blue on the left, and in the first rows of red seats, on the right.

A Catalan Opera Adapts Greek Myth to Understand the Refugee Crisis

Since 1993, 33,293 people have drowned in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic trying to reach a safe place to start a new life.

Two civilians look at a poster featuring the face of Martin Luther King Jr., his head depicted beneath the words 'Nonviolence... Our Most Potent Weapon.'

MLK's Unswerving Commitment to Nonviolent Activism

A clear bowl filled with Italian seafood pasta sits on a table with red and green placemats.

Fra Diavolo Is a Devilish Dish for an Italian American Christmas

Freshly backed, round, golden brown tortas sit to cool in their crinkled metal baking tins.

Torta—Filipino Christmas Cake, I Think

Three adults stand and two small children stand around a table with plated. The table is covered by a red table cloth and has a large candle in the center with food arranged around it.

Learn to Make Potatis Korv Sausage for Your Festive Swedish Smörgåsbord

A plate full of golden brown potato pancakes are placed on a dining table. Behind them are bowls of sour cream, apple sauce, salt, and a menorah with three candles lit.

Are You Team Apple Sauce or Sour Cream? A Smithsonian Staffer Shares Her Family's Latke Recipe

Two men with long hair, one older and one younger, perform with eyes closed on stage. They each hold a painted rattle, and the older man in the foreground also holds a microphone.

A Kumeyaay Folktale Illuminates Why the Sun and Moon Shine at Different Times

Two men wearing traditional feathered headdresses stand in front of two microphones, singing and playing hand drums.

Dennis Zotigh Is a Man of Many Talents, Many Tribes

A row of people lines up playing flutes. Most are young students, and in the middle is an older man with a long gray braid.

A Lesson About North American Indigenous Flute and Authenticity

A young girl poses outside a building, wearing a dark coat, layers of skirts, and a kerchief over her hair, holding a broom in one hand and a kettle in the other. Black-and-white photo.

The Swedish Witch Trials Teach Us How to Confront Dark Heritage

Digital illustration of a large mothlike figure, flying above a forested area and a single car driving down a road at nights. Its eyes are glowing red.

West Virginia's Mothman Leads Cryptid Renaissance

Several men and women dressed in all black, standing in formation with a towering stone mountain behind them.

A Catalan Choir Reinterprets Musician Raimon’s Anti-Fascist Lyrics

A woman wearing traditional Armenian dress bends down to tend to an outdoor stove while preparing a meal.

Collaboration and Community: Working Together for the Future of Armenian Festivals

Bowls of citrus fruits including lemons, limes, and oranges, are arranged on a striped, bright green table cloth. Behind the bowls are jars filled with various superfoods including Goji berries.

La Cultura Cura: How Latinos Are Reclaiming Their Ancestral Diets

American Sign Language alphabet

Hearing the Voices of Deaf Culture at the 1981 Folklife Festival

Visitors pick out crochet toys to purchase at the My Handmade Armenia Festival.

Reviving Tradition With the My Handmade Armenia Festival

(Photo courtesy of Sandra Chandler)

A Folkways Challenge Reveals a Love for Sacred Harp Singing in Georgia

Preparing klulik from Sasoun at Noosh. (Photo by Areg Vardanyan, My Armenia Program)

Eat Like an Armenian with These Tips from a Local Guide

Carolyn Smith collecting beargrass in Klamath National Forest, 2015. For beargrass to be supple enough for weavers to use in their baskets, it needs to be burned annually. Ideally, it is burned in an intentionally set cultural fire, where only the tops are burned, leaving the roots intact. Prescribed fires in the Klamath National Forest are few and far between, so weavers “follow the smoke” and gather, when they can, after wildfires sweep through the landscape. (Photo courtesy of Carolyn Smith)

How Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Offers Solutions to California’s Wildfires

(Photo by Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Are You a Friend of Dorothy? Folk Speech of the LGBTQ Community

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A Catalan Opera Adapts Greek Myth to Understand the Refugee Crisis

MLK's Unswerving Commitment to Nonviolent Activism

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