Explore the 2026 calendar and interactive story map to find events in your region!
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In 1965, at age 21, Kenyan artist Elkana Ong’esa sold one of his earliest sculptures to an American student doing research in Kisii. Almost fifty years later, the two met by chance at the Folklife Festival.
The Chinese art of dough modeling dates back more than two thousand years. At the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, artist Zhang Baolin explains the history and his own introduction to the intricate sculptures as a young boy.
Growing up in China, the word “reunion” (tuan ju 团聚) always reminded me of a crowded, cozy, and chatty occasion when the extended family got together to catch up, eat a feast, and celebrate.
Tian Yali brought this dish to the 2014 Folklife Festival from Tongchuan City in Yijun County, Shaanxi Province.
In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt’s African expedition collected thousands of plant and animal specimens, along with important cultural artifacts.
During the Festival, I worked closely with Pan Yuzhen 潘玉珍 and her daughter Zhang Hongying 张红英, embroiderers who are Miao, an ethnic minority.
At the 2014 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, musician Qianchun Wu from the Dimen Dong Folk Chorus explains the stringed instruments common in their region of Guizhou Province, China.
The vegetable medley called mukimo is common in Nairobi as a side for meals such as roasted chicken.
Jiànzi, which was offered in the People’s Park area of the Festival, is a jingling, feathered Chinese shuttlecock that is played like American hacky-sack
This year marks the hundred and fifth anniversary of the twenty-sixth president’s expedition to Kenya and eastern Africa, where he traveled and hunted big game with three Smithsonian scientists and his son Kermit Roosevelt
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