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Every community has cultural treasures, and I hope we find them so we can begin to come back together again. Martha Gonzalez

#FlashbackFriday: 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert

October 12, 2018
It's only been two weeks since the 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert (wait, what?) and we're already counting down the days to the 2019 celebration! In the meantime, we're going to tape this quote from 2018 concert emcee Martha Gonzalez to our inspo wall and keep this video on repeat (...
Filmmaker Jennifer Crandall on a porch with two older white people

#FlashbackFriday: Jennifer Crandall Explores the Lives of Ordinary Alabamians with Help from Walt Whitman

April 20, 2018
When we think of the poet Walt Whitman, we usually associate him with New York or Washington, DC. But Alabama? Not so much. But for filmmaker Jennifer Crandall, formerly a video journalist for the Washington Post , Whitman was exactly who she found herself thinking of as she fell in love with the...
graphic showing faces of six young people and text about the Songwriting Challenge

Meet the Finalists for the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge

April 19, 2018
Just under a week from now, one of the songs below will earn its creator (or creators) top honors in the 2018 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students. The seven talented teens below have set to music everything from a crisis of faith to first love to the zombie apocalypse...
photos of 2018 NEA Jazz Masters with text from title

My Life in Jazz: Presenting the 2018 NEA Jazz Masters In Their Own Words

April 13, 2018
Brush up on your knowledge of the 2018 NEA Jazz Masters--Todd Barkan, Joanne Brackeen, Pat Metheny, and Dianne Reeves--just in time for Monday night's 2018 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. Check out our video series to listen in as this year's honorees reflect on their careers in jazz, their...
on stage a man plays a Hammond B-3 organ with a drummer and a guitarist

#ThrowbackThursday: Getting Jazzy with the 2017 NEA Jazz Masters

April 12, 2018
Can't wait till Monday's 2018 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert? We can help with that! For #ThrowbackThursday revisit some highlights from last year's concert, which honored 2017 Jazz Masters DeeDee Bridgewater, Ira Gitler, Dave Holland, Dick Hyman, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. And don't forget to join us...
1912 St. Patrick's Day souvenir postcard featuring drawing of a bridge on a green background with floral embellishments

Explore Traditional Irish Song and Dance with NEA National Heritage Fellows

March 16, 2018
Need a little help getting in the St. Patrick's Day spirit? NEA National Heritage Fellows Séamus Connolly , Kevin Doyle , and Billy MComiskey can help with that! Click each name to learn more about each Heritage Fellow's art form, through interviews, audio clips, and more. Now on with the craic!
a smiling light-complected African-American young woman holding an obelisk-like trophy

Recite. Excite. Repeat: Get Involved with Poetry Out Loud!

October 18, 2017
Sure, we could tell you how transformative it is for teens to participate in Poetry Out Loud, but why don't we just show you? To learn more about the program and to get your school signed up for the 2017-2018 competition, visit poetryoutloud.org . Video of 2016 Poetry Out Loud National Champion...
Heritage Fellow Modesto Cepeda on stage with male and female dancers in traditional white Puerto Rican costumes

#FlashbackFriday: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with NEA Heritage Fellows

October 6, 2017
We're having a Hispanic Heritage Month-inspired #FlashbackFriday this week! Get to know NEA National Heritage Fellows Eva Ybarra (a master conjunto musician) and Modesto Cepeda (a master of bomba and plena music) in these clips from the 2017 NEA Heritage Fellowships Concert. Feel free to chairdance...
RozChastinherhomeoffice

Drawing Ideas with Roz Chast

August 25, 2017
Roz Chast has been making America laugh out loud since 1978 when she began drawing for The New Yorker . In her cartoons, illustrated books, and graphic memoirs (her latest, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York, comes out October 3), she deftly chronicles the oddball nature of being alive in a...
a close-up of a single shamrock in a field of shamrocks

A Celebration of Irish Poetry

March 16, 2017
We'd like to think W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and Eavan Boland would approve of our plan to celebrate this St. Patrick's Day by offering you a sample of Irish poets recorded for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive at the University of Dublin. You can find the entire collection of nearly 300 poems read...

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