2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival Themes include; GIVING VOICE: The Power of Words in African American Culture, WALES-SMITHSONIAN-CYMRU, and LAS AMERICAS: Un Mundo Musical (THE AMERICAS: A Musical World).

Giving Voice will present the deep, rich threads of the African American oral tradition. Through the power of words, African Americans have given voice to the needs, hopes, aspirations, and dreams of a people whose traditions are a major force in American culture. The program will showcase this living legacy by featuring exemplary bearers of oral traditions on the National Mall. Through theater, poetry, storytelling, radio, and humor, the Giving Voice program will celebrate the community roots of African American oral expression.

Wales (Cymru in Welsh) is a dynamic and resilient nation. The industrious and resourceful nature of its people provides a firm platform from which to present its rich culture and heritage. Wales Smithsonian Cymru will celebrate language, literature, and the spoken word, present crafts and occupational skills, share music and cooking, and evoke the spirit that powered the industrial revolution and is now championing sustainable solutions. The program will explore how age-old knowledge, skills, and materials continue to be refashioned, recycled, and reinvented to meet modern demands and to continue to connect Wales to the world.

Las Américas, the final and most broad-reaching program of the Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture Smithsonian Folklife Festival "living exhibitions" series will feature outstanding artists from the United States and Latin America in an engaging cultural dialogue. The core of the artists will be from the Tradiciones/Traditions series of recordings published by Smithsonian Folkways. These artists represent the rich diversity of emblematic musical styles in the United States and throughout the Americas, including Puerto Rican bomba, plena, and jíbaro music, Mexican son music from various regions, mariachi music, Colombian vallenato, joropo, and currulao, Dominican merengue típico, bachata, and salve, Venezuelan música llanera, Paraguayan polca, and Salvadoran chanchona music.

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