African american folklorist

An African American Folklorist is a cultural worker, tradition bearer, and researcher who documents, interprets, and preserves the lived traditions, expressive culture, and historical memory of Black communities. Rooted in both community knowledge and critical scholarship, African American folklorists center Black voices, experiences, and epistemologies—often challenging dominant narratives and institutional frameworks. They engage oral histories, music, ritual, language, foodways, and everyday practices not only as cultural artifacts but as forms of resistance, identity, and survival.

Whether working in the academy, public sector, or grassroots spaces, African American folklorists serve as caretakers and communicators of Black folklife—grounded in legacy, accountable to community, and active in the cultural continuity of African American people. Click here to engage with the course and explore AAF in depth.

ARCHIVE

Archive, in our framework, is not just a repository of documents or artifacts, but a living, breathing record of Black experience, knowledge, and cultural expression. It includes oral histories, music, photographs, personal stories, rituals, performances, and everyday practices that have been passed down, adapted, and sustained across generations. Our archive is both physical and embodied—held in communities, performed in traditions, and preserved through storytelling, song, and sound. It is a tool of resistance and reclamation, allowing us to assert narrative authority, protect cultural memory, and preserve the voices and lifeways often excluded from dominant historical records.

Check out Blues People, Music, and Folklore, a course developed by Lamont Jack Pearley through the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation.

BLUES ECOLOGY

Blues Ecology is a holistic environmental philosophy blending Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge connected to the legacy and expression of Blues people, culture, traditions, and music. It is the framework to explore Black traditional music, folklore, land-based knowledge, and ancestral memory.

BLUES NARRATIVE

Blues Narrative centers on the lived experiences, oral histories, and cultural expressions of African Americans shaped by the afterlife of slavery, the Great Migration, systemic racism, and ongoing social struggle.

Cultural heritage conservation

Cultural heritage conservation, as we define it, is the intentional safeguarding and transmission of Black ancestral knowledge, cultural memory, and traditional practices—rooted in the lived experiences of our communities. It goes beyond preserving physical objects or sites to include oral histories, music, language, rituals, and lifeways that shape identity and continuity. Through documentation, education, and community-based initiatives, we ensure that these cultural expressions remain accessible, meaningful, and alive for present and future generations.

Our approach centers the voices of tradition bearers and honors the historical and spiritual significance of Black spaces, stories, and sound.

Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is the interdisciplinary study of music as culture, investigating how sound, performance, and musical practice shape and are shaped by social life, identity, power, and place.

Folklore

Folklore, as we define and engage it, is the lived knowledge, cultural expression, and creative practice of everyday people—especially rooted in Black communities and traditions. It includes oral history, music, foodways, beliefs, rituals, language, and artistic expression that reflect collective memory, ancestral knowledge, and cultural survival. Far from being frozen in the past, folklore is active and evolving—shaped by social conditions, migration, and resistance. At Jack Dappa Blues and The African American Folklorist, we treat folklore as a critical tool for self-definition, cultural preservation, and reclaiming narrative authority within and beyond academic or institutional spaces.

Intangible cultural heritage

Intangible cultural heritage, as we understand and uplift it, refers to the living traditions, expressions, practices, and knowledge systems rooted in Black experience and passed down across generations. These include both ancestral and contemporary lifeways—rural and urban, sacred and secular—that have evolved through migration, resistance, and adaptation. This heritage is held, shaped, and transmitted by the communities themselves, offering a sense of identity, cultural continuity, and collective memory. At Jack Dappa Blues, we center these living traditions not as relics, but as active forms of knowledge, belonging, and survival.

What Are Personal Narrative, Reflexive Writing, and Reflective Writing in Folklore and Ethnomusicology?
A Note for Contributors to The African American Folklorist

In the context of folklore and ethnomusicology—especially as it relates to Black American traditions—personal narrative is more than autobiography. It is lived folklore. It is how individuals express and document their cultural realities, ancestral ties, and community experiences through storytelling. Personal narratives are firsthand accounts rooted in memory, heritage, and identity. They are testimonies of survival, resistance, and self-definition—critical tools in preserving the oral and musical traditions of our people.

Reflexive writing builds on that by acknowledging the position of the writer as both insider and investigator. It means naming our standpoint: where we’re from, who we’re speaking to, and how we came to know what we know. In the field, reflexivity helps us remain accountable to the communities we work with and speak from. As tradition-bearers and cultural workers, our presence and perspective shape the story, and reflexivity helps us unpack that.

Reflective writing takes a step inward. It’s about making meaning of what we’ve experienced—whether in the field, on stage, or in ritual practice. It’s the pause that allows us to connect the dots between emotion, memory, and insight. Reflective writing in this tradition honors the fact that intellectual work is also spiritual and embodied work.

For our contributors, personal narrative essays grounded in reflexivity and reflection are welcomed and encouraged. We invite you to share how the Blues, Black folklore, and cultural heritage live in and through you, in your voice, on your terms.