The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the Association for Cultural Equity, and the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Studies at Coastal Carolina University are pleased to announce that the entirety of John A. Lomax's historic South Carolina recordings—made between 1934 and 1940 under the aegis of the Library of Congress' Archive of Folk Song—are now freely available online via the Lomax Digital Archive. This collaboratively produced catalog* provides free access to more than 12 hours of historic audio, accompanied by extensive descriptive metadata, documenting a diversity of Black and white folk and vernacular music in the Palmetto State: spirituals, hymns, blues, lullabies, ballads, children's game songs, work songs, as well as stories and personal narratives. Only a fraction of these recordings have ever been published or otherwise made available publicly.

A personal letter from Anna Lomax Wood on the occasion of her retirement.

In December, ACE traveled to Italy to present on the Global Jukebox at a conference hosted by the Fondazione Ignazio Buttitta in Palermo, and to attend a repatriation of Lomax recordings and photos in Calabria.

The Association for Cultural Equity (ACE) is now accepting applications for the position of Executive Director.  We are looking for a visionary leader for our organization, which is committed to sustaining the world’s expressive traditions through preservation, research, dissemination and reconnecting communities with their cultural heritage.

Anna Lomax Wood, the visionary longtime head of the Association for Cultural Equity, is leaving the role of President and Executive Director after 26 years . While she is leaving these positions, Anna will still be quite active in the organization and its work until a new Director is able to take over and will remain on the board as Co-Founder of the organization.

At a time when diversity and equity in music education is critical, the Global Jukebox offers a brand-new set of resources for K-12 learners and their teachers. Star-Songs and Constellations is a ready-made sequence of educational resources in music and its sonic, cultural and social meanings, for both in-person and online learning.  Its curricular core of 40 plus K-12 lessons spring directly from recordings within The Global Jukebox.

Songs of Earth: Aesthetic and Social Codes in Music, by Anna L. Wood and published by the Association for Cultural Equity, is available for pre-order now!

This October 9th marked the unveiling of the John Avery Lomax Literary Landmark at the John A. Lomax Amphitheater in Meridian, Texas, as one of the four sites presented with the distinction in Texas in 2021.

Literary Landmarks are designated sites located across the country that attract tourists, book lovers, and history buffs to educate the public about important literary works and history. 

You can read more about this years honorees here.