South Florida Folklife Center. Works Projects Administration Conference - 1989

This series consists of documents related to a 1989 conference—titled “WPA: In the Nick of Time”—on the Florida Folklife Program, a field research project conducted by the Works Projects Administration (WPA) between 1937 and 1942. The original WPA materials, which are archived in the Library of Congress and accessible online (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida/), combine sound recordings and manuscript materials from four discrete archival collections made by WPA workers from the Joint Committee on Folk Arts, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Music Project. This online presentation provides access to 376 sound recordings and 106 accompanying materials, including recording logs, transcripts, correspondence between Florida WPA workers and Library of Congress personnel, and a proposal to survey Florida folklore by Zora Neale Hurston. An essay by Stetson Kennedy, who worked with Hurston and other WPA collectors, reflects on the labor and the legacy of the WPA in Florida, and an extensive bibliography and list of related Web sites add further context about the New Deal era and Florida culture. The original WPA recordings—the sound quality of which is sometimes poor—document folktales, life histories, beliefs, and sacred and secular music of African American, Anglo-American, Arabic, Bahamian, Cuban, Greek, Italian, Minorcan, Seminole, Slovak, and Syrian cultures and communities throughout Florida. It features sound recordings in many languages, includes blues and work songs from menhaden fishing boats, railroad gangs, and turpentine camps; children's songs, dance music, and religious music. Materials include: documents related to the 1989 conference, such as depositors’ agreements; copies of original WPA documents; and audiocassette tape recordings of the 1989 conference featuring Ann Banks, Dale Olson, Stetson Kennedy, Alan Jabbour, and Alan Lomax.

Arranged into two series by format.

Finding Aid Authors: Katherine L. Fleming, David Font, Vanessa Navarro, and Katharine Labuda 2014-2016.

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