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Alan Lomax at Jazz Fest

The folklorist's film footage from his visit to New Orleans in 1982 includes his trip to Jazz Fest.

In 2011, film footage from folklorist Alan Lomax's 1982 visit to New Orleans was put online at the Association for Cultural Equity (ACE) website. The association's mission statement reads:

Inspired by the example set by Alan Lomax, our mission is to stimulate cultural equity through preservation, research, and dissemination of the world's traditional music, and to reconnect people and communities with their creative heritage.

Lomax filmed Ernie K-Doe, The Dirty Dozen, Mardi Gras Indians and social aid and pleasure clubs on his trip, including footage from Jazz Fest 1982. The site has made it easier to find footage of this trip - start here - much of which is worth seeing, particularly at a time when we have anxiety about our culture and its connection to its roots. The videos are also on ACE's YouTube Channel.