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Past and Current Folklife Projects


New Populations: Immigrant and Refugee Communities in Louisiana
- a project to document the traditions and art forms of Louisiana's newest communities who have arrived since 1975 and include foreign born community members. They come from Vietnam, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, India, China, Taiwan, Palestine and the Middle East, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Korea, El Salvador, Japan, Columbia, Pakistan, Laos, and Thailand.

Louisiana Folklife Survey, an ongoing project to document traditional artists and communities with special focus on regions not previously documented, such as the Florida parishes or the northeast Louisiana Delta parishes. A survey form is available for anyone who would like to document an individual or conduct a project.

Louisiana Regional Folklife Program - Provides professional folklorists in five regions to document folk traditions and artists and assist community groups present their folk traditions to the public.

Louisiana Folk Regions - Maps showing the major subregions and ethnic groups in Louisiana. The data was compiled by Maida Owens based on Spitzer, Kniffen, Knipmeyer, Newton, Gregory, and Roach. Cartography by Greg Wirth.

Louisiana Folklife Recording Series (LFRS) documents traditional musicians and storytellers otherwise unlikely to be recorded by commercial labels such as African-American work songs, old time Cajun and country music.

The Louisiana Storytelling Project has resulted in a book, video, and website, all entitled Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana.

Delta Folklife Project included a survey and field school. The Masur Museum has a traveling photo exhibit based on the findings of the project.

Keeping It Alive: Cultural Conservation Through Apprenticeship, A Review of the Louisiana Folklife Apprenticeship Program, a publication now online.

Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State. Although published in 1985 and now out of print, this publication is an important resource for anyone researching Louisiana folklife. It is available in most Louisiana public libraries.


At times, the Folklife Program collaborates with other organizations to produce projects. When the Folklife Program initiates projects in partnership with another organization, the program is considered the co-producer or co-publisher and shares copyright as appropriate. These have included:

Louisiana Folklife Database. The Folklife Program collaborated with the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University to make information collected about Louisiana folk artists and traditions available. The database provides a means for organizations doing public folklife programming to use the findings of the Louisiana Folklife Survey. The Louisiana Folklife Center has produced the website, Louisiana Folk Artist Biographies with the information gathered with the database. The Louisiana Folklife Center also produces the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival.

Louisiana Folklife Festival. Since 1984, the Louisiana Folklife Festival has worked closely with the Folklife Program to present Louisiana's folk traditions and artists. After being held in New Orleans (1984), Baton Rouge (1985-87), Eunice (1988-9, 1991) and Kenner (1990), the festival was hosted by the City of Monroe until 2005.

Florida Parishes Folklife Project, 1983-1989. This collaboration with the Center for Regional Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University consisted of a conference, survey, festival, exhibit at the Hammond Cultural Foundation, and finally the publication, Folklife in the Florida Parishes .

 

National Endowment for

            the Arts.

 
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Louisiana Division of the Arts | Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism
Copyright 1999 Louisiana Division of the Arts,
PO Box 44247, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, tel 225-342-8180

Questions about this site? Contact Maida Owens, folklife@crt.state.la.us.