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Here at the Philadelphia Folklore Project, we are committed to paying attention to the experiences and traditions of "ordinary" people. Our focus is to build critical folk cultural knowledge, sustain vital and diverse living cultural heritage in communities in our region, and create equitable processes and practices for nurturing local grassroots arts and humanities.... more

News

Position opening at PFP. We're looking for a program specialist. Deadline is February 1st. Read more.

Looking for 100 new or renewing members! Help sustain community-based folk arts in these hard times, and in PFP's 25th year! We invite (and need) your help. Join us (at any amount). . .

PFP is on Facebook! Click the link on the left to like us. . .

Coming soon to a town near you: PFP's documentary, Eatala: A Life in Klezmer, is a loving portrait of a ground-breaking indomitable woman, Elaine Hoffman Watts, and the place of klezmer music in her family over five generations. The documentary iis being screened in film festivals around the country. We received the best short documentary award from the Brooklyn Willifest, and the Elli Kongas-Maranda award from the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society. More info. Buy your copy from our store, or call for more information.




Events

January 31: 2 PM - 7 PM
LEEWAY ART AND CHANGE WORKSHOP: Leeway offers$2500 grants for women and trans artists using art for social change. Next deadline is March 1. Stop by to meet with Leeway staff.

Third Thursdays: 2 PM- 8 PM
TEA AND TREATS
Stop by to see our exhibitions, share what you are up to, browse resources, and be a part of good conversation  Refreshments.

Full calendar of spring events is here, or email us to be added to the mailing list.

New online

If you enjoyed (or missed) our fabulous "Goodnight MIshegas" klezmer concert with Elaine and Susan Watts, you can experience it vicariously: Sing "Goodnight Mishegas" along wth Susan: say goodby to the craziness of the world. Share your hopes for the future. Read more.

Writing
about why we do what we do. Some recent essays now online. Visit our exhibitions and events sections for images, audio and video of recent programs featuring local folk and traditional artists. The 41st issue of Works in Progress features essays on Liberian and African American storytellers, sattriya dance, the President's House artist residency project and the Carnaval of San Mateo festival. Download a pdf here.

Exhibits


Extended through March 2:

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Frito Bastien, Isaac Maefield, and African Cultural Art Forum (Rashie Abdul Samad and Sharif Abdur-Rahim) Four vanguard cultural workers are featured in our first "Folk Arts and Social Change" residency. Two artists and two men who founded and operate a long-standing community-based business fill PFP's gallery with folk arts from the African Diaspora, made and gathered over 40+ years. Community-based economics and politics have helped these arts and artists to endure. Come to see and share your experiences with alternative cultural production. And come to buy work from these artists and merchants. Rashie Abdul Samad says: "If anything is going to change, it will come from exchange with each other." He's right. Stop by! Checkerboards, incense, sculpture, prints, and paintings reflect legacies of community-minded effort and commerce. Read more.

If these walls could talk. Bill and Miriam Crawford's actual dining room: four walls collaged with 40 years of social change memorabilia. Now with audio recordings from Crawford family and friends. . .