June 27: Today’s Events at the Folklife Festival

The 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival kicks off today and we’re here to help you take full advantage of the many performances, talks, crafts, and demos that are taking over the Mall for the next two weeks. Each morning of the Festival, Around the Mall will publish a list of events to help you navigate the National Mall and get the most out of your visit. This year’s event features three programs: Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150, Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding The AIDS Memorial Quilt, and Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River. Come celebrate summer with ten days of food, music, dancing, storytelling, culture and more on June 27-July 1 and July 4-8. Take part in a quilting workshop, discover new ideas about dinosaurs, and listen to master storytellers. At night, “bring back the funk” with George Clinton, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Dumpstaphunk.

Campus and Community: Public and Land-grant Universities and the USDA at 150

Morrill Performing Arts Center

11:00 AM 12:00 PM Festival Opening Ceremony

12:00 PM 1:00 PM Univ. of Hawai’i Ensemble

1:00 PM 2:00 PM Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

2:00 PM 3:00 PM West Virginia University Steel Band

3:00 PM 4:00 PM Univ. of Hawai’i's Hula Halau Unukupukupu

4:00 PM 5:00 PM U.T.-Pan Am Mariachi Aztlán

5:00 PM 5:30 PM Dennis Stroughmatt et L’Esprit Creole

Commons Discussion

12:00 PM 12:30 PM Land-grant University Tradition: Research, Learning, and Engagement

12:30 PM 1:15 PM Reinventing Ag.: What’s New at the USDA?

1:15 PM 2:00 PM Transforming Communities: Local, Regional and Global

2:00 PM 2:45 PM Lifelong Learning: Beyond the Classroom

2:45 PM 3:30 PM Building on Tradition: Mississippi Hills Cultural Tourism

3:30 PM 4:15 PM Research Into Action: High Tech to Everyday

4:15 PM 5:00 PM Sustainable Solutions: Sustainability by Design

5:00 PM 5:30 PM The Next 150 Years: Campus of the Future

Smithsonian U

12:00 PM 12:30 PM The Father of USDA and America’s Land Grant Colleges: The Life and Times of

Senator Justin Smith Morrill

12:30 PM 1:00 PM Teaching Dinosaur Science Using Unthinkable Methods

1:00 PM 1:30 PM Empathic Design Research Strategy

1:30 PM 2:00 PM Expanding Educational and Career Opportunities for Students with Severe Physical

Disabilities: The Illinois Model

2:00 PM 2:30 PM The United Soybean Board Research and Partnerships with the Land-grant Universities

2:30 PM 3:00 PM How Songs Find Their Meanings: Que Sera, Sera

3:00 PM 3:30 PM A Brief History of the University of Illinois Rehabilitation Education Program

3:30 PM 4:00 PM What Really Bugs Us: Pests in the Garden and Integrated Pest Management

4:00 PM 4:30 PM The Story of New France, the Other Colonial America

4:30 PM 5:00 PM Teaching Dinosaur Science Using Unthinkable Methods

5:00 PM 5:30 PM Art Science Fusion

Test Kitchen

12:00 PM 12:45 PM Food Safe Families

1:00 PM 1:45 PM Cooking with Buffalo: Buffalo Snacks – Wasna; Buffalo Mini Pizzas

2:00 PM 2:45 PM Olive Oil Presentation

3:00 PM 3:45 PM Vermont Maple Syrup

4:00 PM 5:30 PM Food as Medicine: Posole with Mushrooms; Rose Hip Jam; Rosehip Raspberry Fizz

Creativity and Crisis: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Red Hot Stage

12:00 PM 12:45 PM The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: The Start of the AIDS Epidemic

12:45 PM 1:30 PM The NAMES Project Performance Troupe

1:30 PM 2:15 PM The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: Imagining The Quilt

2:15 PM 3:00 PM Spoken Word

3:00 PM 3:45 PM The NAMES Project Performance Troupe: The Last One

3:45 PM 5:30 PM “Sometimes I Cry” by Sheryl Lee Ralph

Giving Voice Stage

12:00 PM 12:45 PM History of The Quilt and The NAMES Project Foundation

12:45 PM 1:30 PM HIV/AIDS Through Spoken Word

1:30 PM 2:15 PM Sheryl Lee Ralph

2:15 PM 3:00 PM The Last One

3:00 PM 3:45 PM Quilting Workshops and Panel Makers

3:45 PM 4:30 PM Community Responses to AIDS

4:30 PM 5:00 PM Stories from The Quilt

5:00 PM 5:30 PM Reflections on The Quilt Display

Citified: Arts and Creativity East of the Anacostia River

Panorama Room

12:00 PM 1:30 PM Soul & Funk: Faycez U Know

1:30 PM 2:30 PM Hip Hop: Head Roc

2:30 PM 3:30 PM Da Originalz: Beat Ya Feet

3:30 PM 4:30 PM Soul & Funk: Faycez U Know

Good Hope and Naylor Corner

12:00 PM 1:30 PM Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

1:30 PM 2:30 PM Quilting Workshop: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

2:30 PM 3:30 PM Storytelling: Master-Griot Storyteller Baba-C

3:30 PM 4:30 PM Hip Hop: Head Roc

4:30 PM 5:30 PM Da Originalz

Douglass Hall

12:00 PM 1:30 PM Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

1:30 PM 2:30 PM Ongoing Activities

2:30 PM 3:30 PM Art Workshop: Jay Coleman

3:30 PM 4:30 PM Quilting Workshop: Daughters of Dorcas & Sons

4:30 PM 5:30 PM Ongoing Activities

Evening Concerts

Morrill Performing Arts Center

6:00 PM 7:30 PM West Virginia University Steel Band, featuring Ellie Mannette

Panorama Room

6:00 PM 9:30 PM Bring Back the Funk, featuring George Clinton, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Dumpstaphunk

Aviva Shen | | READ MORE

Aviva Shen is a reporter/blogger for ThinkProgress. Before joining CAP, Aviva interned and wrote for Smithsonian magazine, Salon, and New York.