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.

As people migrate, they take their music with them. The sound of the accordion, a traditional European instrument, has traveled the world and been incorporated into the Cajun music of BeauSoleil and conjunto music of Los Texmaniacs.

When I think of Hawaiian music, I first think of the ukulele, but slack-key guitar is just as uniquely Hawaiian. Ledward “Led” Kaapana is a ukulele virtuoso, but to my ear, he shines brightest when playing slack-key guitar.

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

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.

Cajun music is rooted in the songs and fiddle tunes of the Acadians—French speakers who migrated from France to Canada in the seventeenth century, and from Canada to Louisiana in the eighteenth century.

February 19, 2017, marked the 75th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II.