Riding with James

by Lisa Rathje | Sep 14, 2022

  Let me tell you about my cousin James. First of all, he was almost 50 years older than me and we were actually like fourth cousins, once removed. I think. Anyway, from the time my Aunt Dorothy—who is actually not my aunt, but also a distant cousin, a couple of...

The Smithsonian’s Will to Adorn Youth Access Project

by divinw | Sep 8, 2021

Zora Neale Hurston, the renowned anthropologist and folklorist, observed in 1934 that “the will to adorn” is one of the primary characteristics of African American expression. Like orature, quilting, and musical forms such as the blues, African American dress and body...

Uses of Hopscotch in Multicultural, Intergenerational Co-existence Education

by divinw | Aug 30, 2021

When I grew up in London in the 1950s, Hopscotch was considered a “girls game.” Boys might have joined in for a bit of fun if invited, or to create a moment or two of havoc, but in general children needed to be guarded about crossing game-gender boundaries since...

Bridging Collaborative Ethnography and Democratic Education

by divinw | Aug 30, 2021

Interview as Curriculum and Collaboration

by divinw | Sep 5, 2019

About the Photo: Warm Springs during Pi-Ume-Sha pow-wow 2013.Photo by Riki Saltzman. Introductionby Emily West Hartlerode A folklorist’s approach to interviewing is not only a technique employed for producing high- quality archives, valuable ethnographic research, and...