The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is a national, even international, family reunion asserting the ability of people to converse with and understand each other. At the Festival, tradition bearers, local scholars, and Smithsonian curators speak for themselves, with each other, and to the public. The Festival typically includes daily and evening programs of music, song, dance, celebratory performance, crafts and cooking demonstrations, storytelling, illustrations of workers' culture, and narrative sessions for discussing cultural issues. The Festival encourages visitors to participate - to learn, sing, dance, eat traditional foods, and converse with people presented in the Festival program. This year's festival will include: Haiti: Freedom and Creativity - From the Mountains to the Sea This program marks the 200th anniversary of the Haitian Revolution and will celebrate and highlight the cultural creativity of the Haitian people that continues to sustain them. Carnival performers from the town of Jacmel, stone carvers at work on the restoration of the Haitian Citadel, and bead workers from Souvenance will join over one hundred Haitian musicians, cooks, storytellers, other traditional artists and community experts in this ten-day independence salute. Water Ways: The Past, Present, and Future of Maritime Communities in the Mid-Atlantic Waterways celebrates the region stretching from Long Island, New York, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, bringing together maritime workers and artisans from a number of communities to demonstrate their skills and share their stories, with Festival visitors and one another. Development, pollution, and population shifts all have had their effect on the region's distinct identity; the Festival program has as its goal increasing public understanding and appreciation of the contributions that mid-Atlantic maritime traditions have made to America's artistic and cultural heritage-and helping to encourage their preservation. Music in Latino Culture: Nuestra Música This program will present the Latino face of American life through music and dance - exploring how Latinos use the highly charged, symbolic, and appealing medium of music to build community, to give meaning to life, and to assert their presence in a multicultural society. When: Wednesday, June 23 - Sunday, July 04 Where:The National Mall, Washington DC, USA Admission: Free For more info, contact: The Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Phone: 202-275-1150 Fax: 202-275-1119 Email: folklife-info@si.edu Web: www.folklife.si.edu/CFCH/folklife.htm