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The Chornobyl (the Ukrainian
spelling) nuclear disaster of April 26, 1986, forced thousands of people,
including those in the musically rich Kyivan Polissia region, to leave
their homes and villages. Separated from their homeland, communities were
broken apart and centuries-old musical traditions were largely lost.
Ensemble Hilka's Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost
World from Smithsonian Folkways re-creates these
all-but-vanished songs.
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Sneak Preview: Songs My Mother Taught Me by Fannie Lou Hamer
(out 6/30/15)
The 20th child of a Mississippi
sharecropper family and a commanding voice of the Civil Rights Movement,
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) stood tall against the brutality, indignities,
and intimidation of implacable racism. She harnessed her mother's gifts of
song and plain-spoken wisdom to steel her fellow seekers of social justice,
the cause to which she gave her life. Songs My Mother Taught Me, a
re-release of limited-edition 1963 field recordings, breathes new life into
Fannie Lou Hamer's inspiring legacy and her uncompromising call for a
righteous world.
Listen to a sneak preview of Songs My Mother
Taught Me.
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Smithsonian Folkways
Trivia!
Each month we'll ask a trivia
question; email your answer, name, and address with the subject
"April Trivia" to SmithsonianFolkways_at_si_dot_edu by Tuesday,
April 14, and a randomly selected entrant with the correct answer will win
a free CD of his or her choice!
April Question: What does "hilka" (of Ensemble Hilka) mean in Ukrainian?
Congratulations to last
month's winner, Justin Gardner from Louisville, KY, who correctly answered "North Carolina" to the question: "The
song ?Naomi "Omie" Wise' is about a tragic murder that took place in what
southern state?"
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News and Press
? Smithsonian Folkways
Wins Wammie Award for Best Washington Area Record Company.
? Paste Magazine gives "Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection"
9/10 stars, citing a "life full of inspiration, both what he sung and what
he instilled in a generation of his peers and those to come."
? Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster
comes to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 25,
2015, with headliners Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.
? Lead Belly Fest, a one-night tribute
concert featuring Van Morrison, Eric Burdon, and more takes place at
London's Royal Albert Hall on June 15, 2015.
? The Kennedy Center
Millennium Stage hosts a free D.C. Lead Belly Showcase on April 12,
2015.
? Smithsonian Folkways remembers Frank Glazer
(1915-2015).
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