Southwest Folklife Alliance

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Folklife: Everyday things people make, say, or do with shared meaning in small groups.

We build more equitable and vibrant communities by celebrating the everyday expressions of culture, heritage and diversity in the Greater Southwest.
Click here to learn more about the important work that we do.

SFA_Partners2

José Soto, Mexican folkloric dancer

Learn about how we support traditional artists in Arizona through our Master-Apprentice Artist Award.

Thanks for a beautiful TMY!

We loved seeing you and your folklife.


Save the date: Oct. 9-11, 2020

End of Life Programs

SFA’s End of Life: Continuum (EOL) project shares cultural knowledge about traditions, expressions, and practices associated with end of life, grief, mourning and death ... [Continue Reading]

VozFrontera in Nogales

A city without culture is a dead city. You just live to eat and work. Where there’s no creativity, no spontaneity, it’s a challenge to get your dreams going. –Gustavo ... [Continue Reading]

Become a Member

Invest in the Beauty of Everyday Life. Become a Member of SFA Today!  Now more than ever, cultural learning is an important part of being a loving citizen and a ... [Continue Reading]

SFA News

My Sunrise: How I came of age the Apache way

Sunrise Ceremony

by Brooke Gregg The Apache Sunrise Dance is a beautiful ceremony that has been going on for centuries to strengthen a young woman during her coming of age and offer her blessings for a strong, long life.  Most of my friends had dances and they told me how they had fun and how special it […]

Honoring Traditions/Bridging Generations

We’re happy to share this video from Honoring Traditions/Bridging Generations, an educational program offered by the Arizona State Museum celebrating traditional artists in the state. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the program brought together master and emerging artists to learn from each other and to stimulate dialogue about their […]

The Latest from BorderLore

Singing Agaves: An Interview with Violin Maker Anthony Belvado

Anthony Belvado

Anthony Belvado is a violin maker from the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Traditional Apache violins are made by hand from a hollowed agave stalk and embody respect for plants and community. Their song is said to be a way of summoning true love, and the tradition—which dates back to the 1800s—is passed along male lineage. […]

Asylum/Asilo: Bearing Witness as Cultural Practice

Juan Carlos

by Kimi Eisele Tens of thousands of migrants, many from Central America, arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border last year seeking asylum. While the law allows them to arrive and seek refuge, the backlog of cases and ever-changing policies have mired their arrivals with injustices. For many Jewish Americans, these injustices have revived a sense of […]

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