Digging for Gold

Getting to the earliest sources of traditional Cajun and Creole songs is a veritable mutual obsession for Ann Savoy and me. We are friends and bandmates in the Magnolia Sisters, the premier all-women’s Cajun band from South Louisiana.  A song collector, musician,...

Using Primary Sources to Foster Difficult Dialogues 

With candidates screaming at political opponents on the television and state legislatures across the country introducing or passing laws on how teachers speak about race and racism (Schwartz 2021), students in K–12 Social Studies classrooms need effective models of...

Gateways to Folklife and Oral History Sources

Vermont Folklife, much like museums, libraries, and historical societies, often serves as a bridge between schools and other learning spaces that want to bring community members and their life experiences into their classrooms. We have learned over time that these...

Teaching with Folk Sources Project Introduction

The genesis of Teaching with Folk Sources was galvanized by a desire to bridge a gap. Documents and materials of folklife centers and programs, specifically their oral history interviews, are typically underused in classroom learning. This was certainly true for...