Related Events & Exhibitions | Smithsonian Folklife Festival

In addition to daily performances and activities on the National Mall, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival recommends events and exhibitions relating to our programs at other Smithsonian museums and venues around Washington, D.C. All events are free unless otherwise noted.

Upcoming Events

A person holds a wooden drum beater and an animal-skin drum, smiling slightly. Black-and-white photo.

Friday, June 28, 2024, 6–7 p.m.

Nadia Larcher: Tinya Raíz
Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage (and livestreaming)
kennedy-center.org

Tinya Raíz is the embrace and celebration of the Andean roots. The Indigenous Argentine musician Nadia Larcher delves into her Andean roots to honor her Daiguita Calchaquí lineage and celebrates the music of her region: the great Argentine north. Presented in collaboration with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Collage of photos of five artists of color, some singing into microphones.

Saturday, June 29, 2024, 6–7 p.m.

Sisterfire Reunion
Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage (and livestreaming)
kennedy-center.org

Evelyn Harris and Kim Jordan reunite at Sisterfire after forty years. They are joined by Be Steadwell, Marcia Gomes, and Yasmeen Williams. Sisterfire is a cross-generational celebration of resistance, coalition, and emancipatory imagination, creativity, and performance in the arts.

Artist Waikil is wearing a green and white headband. He is looking at the camera and is up against a white background.

Friday, July 5, 2024, 6–7 p.m.

Waikil
Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage (and livestreaming)
kennedy-center.org

Jaime Cuyanao Venegas is a Mapuche artist who, under the name of Waikil, makes rap music in Spanish and Mapuzungun (Mapuche language). He is currently working on an acoustic LP and videos with his band, and fusing genres of Latin American music, Mapuche music (ayekawe), and rap.

Exhibitions

Black and white photograph of Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing and holding a guitar. — Sister Rosetta Tharpe performs at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival.
Photo by Diana J. Davies, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives

On view until July 21, 2024

Music HerStory: Women and Music of Social Change
National Museum of American History
library.si.edu

From our earliest musical encounters to the formation of complex social identities, the American musical landscape wouldn’t be what it is today without the countless contributions of women changemakers, groundbreakers, and tradition-bearers. Women’s leadership in music and social change is central to the American story. Music HerStory explores these contributions through unique media collections from across the Smithsonian.

Children play a game outdoors, forming a circle around someone in the center. Black-and-white photo. — Nanticoke schoolboys playing “bear in ring”, Delaware, ca. 1911. Boy facing the camera is Roosevelt Perkins.
Photo by Frank G. Speck (N01304)

Ongoing

Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake
National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.)
americanindian.si.edu

Meet the Native peoples of the Chesapeake Bay region—what is now Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware—through photographs, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactives. This compact exhibition educates visitors on the continued Native presence in the region, and provides an overview of the history and events from the 1600s to the present that have impacted the lives of the Nanticoke, Powhatan, and Piscataway tribes.

Four teenage parade queens wearing sashes and holding flags of Latin American countries. — Photo by Kike Calvo/Universal Courtesy of Group via Getty Images

Ongoing

¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States
National Museum of American History
(Presented by the National Museum of the American Latino)
latino.si.edu

Reexamine what you know about U.S. history by learning more about Latino identity, immigration, historical legacies, and how Latinas and Latinos have shaped the nation. Listen to first-person oral histories, examine 3D objects, dive into historical biographies, and explore some of the objects found in the exhibition to see how the past relates to the present.

Painting of various scenes of Native American life on a yellow background. — *Red Bear’s Winter Count*, 2004. Canvas, acrylic paint; 116.5 x 116 cm. (26/8020)
Artwork by Martin E. Red Bear (Oglala/Sicangu Lakota, b. 1947)

Opens June 1, 2024

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.)
americanindian.si.edu

Celebrate the full expression of narrative art among Native nations of the Great Plains. The exhibition juxtaposes historical hides, muslins, and ledger books with more than fifty contemporary works commissioned by the museum. Illustrating everything from war deeds and ceremonial events to family life, Native identity, and pop culture, the artworks are as diverse as the individuals who created them.

Past Events

Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival, 2024. February 21 to 24. Washington, DC. Background design is a film still of two people smiling, looking right into the distance, with an illustrated frame of pale pink, blue, and yellow circles.

February 21–24, 2024

Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival
Various locations
mothertongue.si.edu

The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world, highlighting the crucial role languages play in our daily lives. In 2024, the festival will showcase films that record personal journeys and explore the drive to find balance and harmony within our world, communities, families, and selves.