Our nation is founded on a diversity of cultures and voices, each with songs from long ago to today. The dream of a brighter future in the United States of America continues to be a powerful draw for many.

More than 40 million people living in the United States were born in another country.

40 percent of Americans are descendants of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island.

This program celebrates our rich, unique and powerful voices through music: the songs of Irish, English, Scandinavian, Jewish, Mexican and Cuban immigrants, all now Americans.

“Folk music is the great unifier. It’s about telling stories
that connect us all to a deeper sense of who we are.”
–Joan Baez

“Folk music is the voice of the people, the songs of
the people, and the heartbeat of the culture.”
–Alan Lomax, ethnomusicologist, folk musician

“The main thing that folk music does is to bring people together, to make them feel like they’re part of something larger than themselves, and to help them remember that they’re all part of the same community.”
–Pete Seeger

People from more than one hundred nations across the globe have come to this land in their own way, and each person contributes a voice that, when joined with others, becomes the beautiful and extraordinary patchwork quilt that is the United States of America.