In West Bengal, India, a traditional caste community of artists, called "patuas", paint colorful scrolls to accompany songs which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, and cultural events to their audiences. These itinerant painter/singers are part of a long lineage that has passed the tradition down for generations. In this…

The folk songs and ballads of early America describe life as experienced by the common people. They were sung within the family, by neighbors and at gatherings of larger communities. The stories told were carried in the memories of those who heard them. Once a strictly aural and oral tradition, the words came to be written down, and the surviving…