D.L. Menard performed twice at the Folklife Festival, in 1976 for the bicentennial celebration and in 1985 for the Louisiana program.

“A beautiful thing happens when I get the opportunity to bring genres and communities together around music,” says Washington, D.C., hi-hop artist Christylez Bacon.

Family is central to Sheila Kay Adams’s music and identity. She is, after all, a seventh-generation Appalachian ballad singer.

“The first time I performed was when I was in college, and I totally blacked out. I mean, I was completely sober, but when I got off stage, I turned to my friend and I was like, ‘what happened up there?’”

Kino Musica is a very D.C. band: the product of colliding music scenes, friendships made during Smithsonian internships, and the influence of Ethiopian community.

For the last few days, a nostalgic sound has been wafting through the Folklife Festival. It’s a familiar sound but from a likely unfamiliar musical instrument.

Two traditions of the Brazilian dance and martial art capoeira came together yesterday on the Migration Walkway.

In the face of colonization, migration, and other forces that cause people to leave home, those on the move often have few to no belongings to remind them of home. Instead, they must preserve traditions

In 1937, Cuban public radio broadcast for the first time the sounds of the batá drums.

Learning the limitations of any particular stone is a skill that only comes from pushing the boundaries. Bernat Vidal, a stone carver from Basque country, has learned how to expertly read a stone, even characterize its personality.