Derek Piotr, a local folklorist from New Milford, goes around the state of Connecticut, and other areas, collecting stories and folk songs that have survived the “TikTok era,” as he put it. His goal is to show how oral tradition is still alive even through this digital age.

Piotr is teaming up with the C.H. Booth Library to share his fieldwork archive, which currently has over 1,400 recordings of different folk songs he has collected throughout the country. Not all the songs included on his website, fieldwork-archive.com, are complete. Piotr said that there are more people interested in those songs than one may think, and he wants to hear those songs, even if it is just a line or two.

For those who are interested in learning more about his work, or have folk songs they are willing to share, Piotr’s program will take place at 6 pm on Tuesday, August 19. The program has been moved to Zoom due to the ongoing HVAC construction at the library. Registration is required for this event.