Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

A beautiful rust colored hill against a blue, cloudy sky.

The Power of “Bears Ears” and Indigenous Place Names

What’s in a name? It’s an important part of our identity, our existence, connecting us to our cultural and social realms.

On the left, a woman with long wavy dark hair and patterned blue blouse sings into a microphone, seated, eyes closed. On the right, another person sits behind a long barrel-shaped drum, holding a hand drum, looking down.

Warming to Tradition: The Culture of Vocal Exercise

No matter the genre of singing, or where we’re from, our vocal exercises are meaningful.

A close up of Kody's face, featuring large, sparkly, silver glasses.

The Little-Known Story of Drag Kings in Gun Barrel City, Texas

Despite a long history of lesbian-identifying and trans-masculine individuals who used masculinity for artistic performance, today’s representation of the drag king show arose only in the 1990s.

A woman in a long, flowing red skirt, blurry with motion, dances in front of a line of people seated and playing barrel-shaped drums. Palm trees sway in the background.

The Sound of Resistance in Puerto Rican Bomba Connects La Perla Community

First documented in the seventeenth century, Caribbean bomba emerged in the context of colonialism.

An illustration of an Asian woman with various symbols above her head including an American Flag, an "I voted" sticker, a ballot box, and a Chinese character.

The Weight of the Asian American Vote

When Asian Americans adopt a new nation, how might voting serve as a means for expressing our varied senses of identity and community?

Various cobs of multicolored corn.

How Seeds Tell Stories

In the past century, there has been a seventy-five percent decline in agricultural biodiversity. When we fail to prioritize biodiversity, we risk erasing cultural diversity as well.

Suffragists stand holding a banner quoting Susan B. Anthony: "No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex."

The Lasting Legacy of Suffragists at the Lorton Women’s Workhouse

Now the Workhouse Arts Center, the facility does not stand in spite of its past, but because of it.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. and countless individuals laid their bodies and lives on the line in order to make the dream of an equal and just society for all citizens a reality.

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