Sights & SoundsFrank Newsome: Gone Away with a Friend (Free Dirt Records)
On Gone Away with a Friend, Frank Newsome sings a more than four-century-long American tradition into the present. His arresting style—the lined-out hymn singing of the Old Regular Baptists from …
NewsApprenticeship Showcase Schedule and Special Guests
You will not want to miss a minute of the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase at James Monroe’s Highland on Sunday, May 5 from noon to 6:00pm. We will kick off …
Sights & SoundsMaster Artist Spotlight: Mark Cline
Mark Cline is a master artist in the 2019-2020 class of apprenticeship teams in the art of roadside attractions and fiberglass sculpture. In this feature Richmond-writer Don Harrison takes an …
Sights & SoundsJunious Brickhouse and Tyrone Edwards
Born in 1974, Junious Lee Brickhouse grew up in a musical household in the African American communities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk. His mother, Lynda, shared with him her love …
Sights & SoundsLuz Lopez and Princey Reyes
Luz Maria Lopez was born in the small town of Morocoy, in the state of Quintana Roo on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after her parents moved there from Michoacán. Her mother …
Sights & SoundsMark Cline and Brently Hilliard
Known as the “P.T. Barnum of the Blue Ridge,” Mark Cline is keeping alive the vanishing tradition of the roadside attraction—those haunted houses, singing caverns, historical parks, and outsized food …
Sights & SoundsBrian Calhoun and Adam McNeil and Jake Hopping
Brian Calhoun grew up in Rockbridge County, an area rich with many fine players of bluegrass and old-time music as well as a wide variety of acoustic styles. Already a …
Sights & SoundsRonald Dixon and William Hinkle
Stained glass master artist Ronald Dixon grew up viewing stained glass art from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in his native Northern Ireland, spending hours in local cathedrals while his …
Sights & SoundsEmily Spencer and Lisa Ring
Returning to the Folklife Apprenticeship Program in 2019 is the beloved Grayson County clawhammer banjoist Emily Spencer. The clawhammer banjo style is an essential aspect of old time music, an …
Sights & SoundsClyde Jenkins and Sam Jenkins, Isaac Lonas, Tanner Good, and Logan Hindershot
Clyde Jenkins grew up in the Shenandoah Mountains in Page County, on the homestead his family has inhabited for generations. Throughout his life working the land, Clyde has acquired a …
NewsAnnouncing Apprenticeship Class of 2019–2020
The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Humanities announces the 2019-2020 class of Master Artists in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Master Artists are selected through a competitive process in all …
Sights & SoundsLight the Candles with Flory Jagoda’s internationally loved Hanukkah anthem “Ocho Kandelikas”
As the holidays enter full swing, Christmas songs—ranging from the insipid to the sublime—become a seemingly ubiquitous presence in our lives. Largely buried in a sonic avalanche of sleigh bells, …
