Folklife Friday is a new weekly digest of great culture reads from across the web. Read on for a selection of the week’s best arts and culture articles, and don’t forget to check back next Friday for a new set of recommended articles. Enjoy!
How Not to Be Elizabeth Gilbert
Travel writing doesn’t have to be overtly negative to deny people’s humanity, as Jessa Crispin explains in this essay for the Boston Review. What distinguishes the compassionate voices from the sentimental ones, Crispin argues, is their ability to resist the “modern impulse to turn these people into daemons helping you on your journey toward enlightenment.”
5 Ways to Spark Conversation around Your Thanksgiving Table
As the holidays near, so do gatherings around the family table and, with them, anecdotes aplenty. The key to drawing out those stories? Asking the right questions, says Marjorie Hunt, a curator at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Among the topics she recommends asking about are family recipes and stories of mischief-making.
Listening Clubs Tantalize Audiophiles in London
A new wave of listening clubs is sweeping across London, inviting visitors to experience recorded music in all of its hi-fi glory. Bucking trends to digital-only consumption, the cafe-style hangouts are a boon for London’s audiophiles and “bring a bit of ritual back into listening to music.”
What Is Your Comfort Food?
For Rebecca Lehrer, it’s rice and beans. For Amy Choi, it’s Spam and kimchi. In this survey of favorite comfort foods, Mashup American podcast hosts Rebecca and Amy asked multiracial celebrities from across the country which home-cooked meal is their go-to, and the result is a feast for the eyes.
Meet the Winners of GIF IT UP 2016
The Digital Public Library of America announced Wednesday the winners of this year’s GIF IT UP competition, an annual contest which asks users to design a GIF using materials in the library’s public domain. Winning entries include elegant women doing the wave, a flying moustache, and more.
Photo by Aga Putra
