Humanities Feature Bureau

The Humanities Feature Bureau focuses currently on the stories of Virginia’s traditional musicians, artists and craftspeople.   The monthly series “Folklife FieldNotes” features the archive recordings of Virginia State Folklorist, Jon Lohman, collected over his eight years of field work documenting the traditions of a Virginia whose demographics are rapidly changing.   To hear the stories, visit www.folklifefieldnotes.org

Southwest Virginia’s Carter Family made their first country music record in 1927. But favorites such as “Keep on the Sunnyside of Life” are still popular 81 years later, thanks mostly to the devotion of fans who preserve and adapt the Family’s tunes. But what is it about the Carter Family’s music that draws in such a loyal following? Reporter Beverly Amsler reports from this year’s Blue Ridge Folklife Festival in Ferrum, Virginia.

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Virginia’s Latino population has tripled since 1990, to nearly 480-thousand—two thirds of whom live in northern Virginia. With the illegal immigration controversy dominating the news, there’s a lot the public isn’t hearing about the Hispanic community; such as 35-percent of Latinos earned a college degree in 2006. Danielle Karson reports.

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Highland County , Virginia’s striking elevations and sweeping valleys have earned it the nickname ‘Little Switzerland.’ It could also be called “Little Vermont” — for decades, locals have been tapping the area’s Sugar Maple trees to make slick sweet maple syrup. Just weeks ago, however, the county’s sugaring community felt a terrible loss. Lydia Wilson reports from the Fiftieth Annual Highland Maple Festival.

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