NewsAt the Common Table
Jamie S. Ross is the director of Red Dirt Productions and a non-residential Fellow at VFH. She’s working on a film, At the Common Table, that traces the history of …
NewsThe Road from Afghanistan
By David Bearinger Sughra Hussainy’s dark eyes sharpen when she says, “the body needs food to sustain itself, but the soul needs art to survive.” Sughra knows about survival, and …
NewsVFH Announces New Executive Director Matthew Gibson
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew S. Gibson as executive director. With deep knowledge of and passion for …
NewsVFH Receives $596,301 in Federal Funding for Public Humanities Projects
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) has been awarded three recent grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) totaling $596,301 for new public humanities projects: “Slavery and the …
NewsThe Art of Emancipation
Throughout the mid to late 19th century, Europe was in a state of social upheaval. Political changes, from the Revolutions of 1848 to the Franco Prussian war of 1871, swept …
NewsVirginia Folklife Program Announces Apprenticeship Class of 2017-2018
The Virginia Folklife Program at Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) announces the 2017-2018 class of Master Artists in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. Master Artists are selected through a …
NewsPrisoners of History
On Friday March 17, 2017 Karenne Wood, director of Virginia Indian programs at Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, delivered the keynote lecture at a conference in London marking the 400th anniversary of …
NewsFrom the Archives to the Stage
By David Bearinger Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Pitts was born into slavery near Onancock, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. In 1853, she married Parker Pitts, a free man, although the state did …
NewsHands On History
A set of gnarled dentures hang in mid-air. It rotates, exposing dents, ridges, and wear, either from use or years. “Those are actually human teeth,” says Peter Hedlund, the lead …
NewsTelling Untold Stories
These three fellows—of the dozen typically in residence at VFH during an academic year—are each at work on a biography of a relatively unknown figure whose story illuminates an era.
NewsThe Stars On My Grandfather’s Face
By David Bearinger Zenen Zeferino is a master of the musical and poetic tradition known as Son Jarocho that is native to the Gulf-coast and southern plains of Veracruz, Mexico, …
NewsThe Legacy of Kepone
Gregory Wilson, professor of history at the University of Akron, is researching the history of the Kepone disaster that took place in Hopewell, VA in the 1970s. Wilson recently sat down to talk with us about what he’s learned during his fellowship at VFH.
NewsThe Lost Art of Cherokee Letterpress
In 2009, VFH fellow and book artist Frank Brannon, began work with the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee, Norther Carolina, to revitalize the nearly lost art of Cherokee letter press printing. Now, he talks about his with the Cherokee community, as well as history of the Cherokee written language itself.
NewsBlock the Vote
Millions of African Americans were emancipated in 1865 and given the vote. By 1901, almost all of them had lost that vote. What happened in those intervening years? VFH’s Encyclopedia Virginia explores the history of the Readjuster Party in Danville, VA and how it changed Virginia politics forever.
