Beads, felt and bark are turned into masterpieces at Smithsonian Folklife Festival
This summer, artisans from Kenya, Mongolia and Uganda shared the story of their centuries-old traditional crafts — including the art of "barkcloth," declared a UNESCO world heritage "masterpiece."
Since this blog began in 2014, we have covered the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It's a two-week event in Washington, D.C., that brings artists and artisans from around the world to share their crafts, their songs, their food.
We've interviewed an Armenian calligrapher and a leather craftsman from Niger and attended a Peruvian alpaca blessing. We even sampled goat stew courtesy of a Kenyan chef with a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Then came the pandemic. The festival was off for a couple of years but this year returned – and so did we.
From our global perspective, we were most interested in talking to crafters from the Global South
