A complete history and living culture through storytelling and tradition.
Folklife Fellowship is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and advancing living folk traditions through participation, education, and community. We believe culture is strongest when it is shared—not simply displayed. Through workshops, performances, artist residencies, oral history projects, cowboy poetry and public gatherings, we create meaningful opportunities for people to engage with the stories, songs, crafts, and traditions that connect us to one another and to the places we call home.
As a California Nonprofit we aim to connect Californians to ideas and to one another in order to understand our shared heritage and diverse cultures, inspire civic participation, and tell the complete story that includes all of us
Our Mission
Folklife Fellowship preserves, celebrates, and advances living folk traditions by creating opportunities for people to participate—not simply observe. Through storytelling, music, poetry, craftsmanship, and community gatherings, we connect contemporary communities with the cultural practices that shape our shared history.
Vision
We envision a future where folk traditions are not preserved behind glass, but practiced in public life—where every person recognizes themselves as part of an ongoing cultural story and has the opportunity to contribute to it.
Philosophy
We believe traditions survive through participation. Folk culture is not something inherited once; it is something renewed every time someone tells a story, writes a poem, sings a song, or shares a craft with another person.
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Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and fund our mission.
Our Fellowship Programs
Folklife Fellowship believes living traditions survive through participation. Our programs preserve, promote, and make accessible the folk traditions, stories, music, and cultural heritage of the American West by creating meaningful opportunities for people to learn, create, perform, and belong.
Cowboy Poetry L.A.
The Vintage Typewriter Project
American Songwriter Workshops
Oral History Lab
Artist in-Residence Program
Annual Cowboy Poetry L.A. Festival
Community Publishing Press
Traveling Folk Arts Exhibits
Join the Folklife Fellowship Today
Help us book a festival in your town
Help us book a museum or city concert
We'd love to perform and activate at your corporate event or wedding
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Donate to the Folklife Fellowship
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and fund our mission.