A 501(c)3 organization Get the FREE WXOX App

ABOUT

SCHEDULE

PROGRAMS

EVENTS

ARTICLES

LISTEN

PARTICIPATE

SUPPORT

CONTACT

WXOX @ Folklife 2025 MICHELLE BANKS, LEAD CURATOR Michelle Banks, Lead Curator 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Youth & the Future of Culture Interviewed by Max Selby WXOX Next Wave Academy July 7, 2025 “Youth are not a monolith and cannot be easily defined,” lead curator of the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Michelle Banks stressed during the Welcome Ceremony, inside the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building.  “They’re poetic, and multilingual, contemporary and old-school. They vibe with hip-hop, and country and classical and dembow and cumbia and jazz and K-pop and all things in between.” In 2025 the Smithsonian Folklife Festival presented a wide-ranging theme: Youth and the Future of Culture.  This vast topic was set to highlight one simple fact: about 41 percent of the world population is under age 25.  Visitors had the opportunity to explore the perspectives and experiences of today’s young people through the revival of Native languages, intergenerational techniques of traditional craftwork, and new trends in street art, skating, and rapping. The Festival opened Wednesday, July 2, and ran through Monday, July 7, 2025 on the National Mall between Seventh and Twelfth streets.  Admission was free, and the hours were from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day, with special evening concerts beginning at 5:30 p.m.  The Festival was presented by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and co-sponsored by the National Park Service. Michelle Banks was the Lead Curator of the 2025 Festsival.  She has an MA in Cultural Sustainability and is currently a PhD candidate in Sustainability Education at Prescott College, where she is Associate Faculty in the department of Social Justice Studies.  Her research disciplines include historical memory, spiritual ecology, and biocultural diversity. In the final hours of the 2025 Festival, Michelle spoke with WXOX DJ Max Cash about the selection of the "Youth and The Future of Culture" theme and what it was like to bringing the Festival to life in the heart of the Nation's Capital. Visit The 2025 Folklife Festival Website Find Smithsonian Folkife on Facebook Follow Smithsonian Folklife Festival on Instagram Check out Smithsonian Folklife Festival on YouTube Return to Folklife 2025 Episode List If you have any questions please e-mail nextwave@artxfm.com

           

ARTxFM / WXOX 97.1 FM Louisville  *  P.O. Box 5103  *  Louisville, Kentucky 40255