01908nas a2200217   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002653003000043653003300073653001700106653001300123653002000136100002100156700002000177245013400197856015400331300001200485490000700497520116600504022002001670                                       d10aAfrican American heritage10aIntangible cultural heritage10aAuthenticity10aFolklore10aPublic folklore1 aMichelle Stefano1 aClifford Murphy00a"We Can Always Go Back Home : critical lessons in helping to safeguard and promote the Singing and Praying Bands living tradition  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84969195225&doi=10.1080%2f13527258.2016.1186104&partnerID=40&md5=4a4539185fd4096af4c3faefb0695338  a607-6210 v223 aThe article examines the process of promoting, with a view to safeguarding, the centuries-old Singing and Praying Bands living tradition, an African American musical and spiritual expression that is distinctive to the Chesapeake Bay region of the US. Discussed within the context of US public folklore, the process is understood as a co-intervention, representing an active partnership between the Bands’ community and public folklorists (including the authors) in attempting to reach new members as a means of keeping it alive. The article underscores the need for ‘bottom-up’ approaches in safeguarding living cultural traditions, bringing to light the potential strengths of public folklore work and the benefits its theories and methodologies can bring to the intangible cultural heritage discourse. Moreover, it analyses how community agency has been exercised, and community needs accommodated, through the dialogue-driven, collaborative intervention process. It also investigates how a nuanced view of ‘authenticity’ has been shaped, with regard to changes the living tradition has undergone, and is currently understood by those who embody it.  a13527258 (ISSN)