Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

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

Artyom Ghazaryan in his studio in Yeghegnadzor. (Photo by Narek Harutyunyan, My Armenia Program)

The Spirit Across Regions: Armenia from the Local Perspective

Stunning views inside the Arpa Protected Landscape. (Photo by My Armenia Program)

Adventuring the Armenian Way

Syunik-Artsakh rug from the collection of the Local Lore Museum of Goris, 20th century. (Photo by Areg Balayan, My Armenia Program)

From Wool to Elegant Carpets: The Smoothest Route Through Armenia

The Indianola dock stretches out into the Puget Sound. Since time immemorial, the Suquamish Tribe has sourced their sustenance, folklore, and community from the salt waters and pebbly beaches of the sound. Photo by Julian White-Davis

The Struggle for Native Lands in Indianola, Washington

Lisa Marie Thalhammer holds her original LOVE poster with her mural in the background. (Photo by Grant Langford)

This D.C. Muralist Finds Pride and Power in Public Art

From Insects, their way and means of living. Artwork by R. E. Snodgrass

Cicada Folklore, or Why We Don’t Mind Billions of Burrowing Bugs at Once

인삼주 Insam-ju is a ginseng liquor made by preserving ginseng in alcohol above thirty proof. Korean people often make insam-ju at home and take a shot daily for its health benefits. It is also shared with special guests and is often paired with samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup). (Photo by Grace Dahye Kwon)

How Ginseng Connects Me to the Roots of My Korean American Community

(Photo courtesy of Masatsu “Masa” Kawamoto collection, Division of Work and Industry, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History)

Cowboys in the Tropics: A History of the Hawaiian Paniolo

Elexia Alleyne. Photo courtesy of the artist

Coming of Age in Poetry: An Interview with Elexia Alleyne

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