Mumming and the American Folklife Center

About this episode

Rheagan Martin interviews Folklife Specialists Stephen Winick and Jennifer Cutting about the mumming tradition and its connections to the American Folklife Center.

Rheagan Martin of the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled interviews Folklife Specialists Stephen Winick and Jennifer Cutting about the connections of the mumming tradition to the American Folklife Center. Mumming is a folk drama tradition in which groups of performers go house to house singing and performing a play. Jennifer describes the James Madison Carpenter Collection, which contains play scripts, recordings, photos, and drawings related to mumming. Stephen explains how the mumming tradition was brought the Library of Congress. Both talk about the connections of mumming to the solstice and to other wintertime traditions.

People in this episode

Host: Rheagan Martin

Guests: Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting

Topics covered

• mumming
• American Folklife Center
• folk drama
• wintertime traditions
• James Madison Carpenter Collection

Keywords

• mumming
• folk drama
• American Folklife Center
• James Madison Carpenter Collection
• winter traditions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Library of Congress, American Folklife Center

Books & works: James Madison Carpenter Collection