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Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

Smithsonian Voices

American Sign Language alphabet

Hearing the Voices of Deaf Culture at the 1981 Folklife Festival

The landmark event introduced many hearing visitors to the stories, poems, sign play, jokes and traditions of the deaf community

James Deutsch | September 23, 2021

Elexia Alleyne. Photo courtesy of the artist

Coming of Age in Poetry: An Interview with Elexia Alleyne

Growing up in D.C.’s barrio, Elexia remembers a vibrant, tight-knit Dominican community.

Carolina Meurkens | April 27, 2021

Chinese poetry carved on the wall of the Angel Island Immigration Station in the San Francisco Bay. (Text from Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940)

The Chinese Poetry Left at Angel Island, the “Ellis Island of the West”

Angel Island Immigration Station was built in 1910 in the San Francisco Bay mainly to process immigrants from China, Japan, and other countries on the Pacific Rim. Its primary mission was to better enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and other anti-Asian laws enacted in subsequent years.

Ying Diao | April 20, 2021

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