Gobbledygook

At the Smithsonian Youth Culture Fair in Washington, D.C., visitors can see how language and art reflect the changing world of teenagers. My favorite exhibit at the fair features a large wall covered in colorful wooden tiles, each one carved with a slang word. Some of the words include gnarly, slay, delulu, and gobbledygook. Next to each word is the decade when it became popular. This wall shows how slang can change meaning over time and come back in new ways. For example, gnarly first meant something gross, then it meant something really good, and now people use it to describe things that are cool in skating and surfing. The wall is part of the Museum of Contemporary American Teenagers, which is a project by students from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. It helps show how young people shape the words they use to fit who they are.

Along with the wall of slang, the fair also has a display of paintings made by teenagers. These artworks explore what it feels like to grow up in our modern world today. Some paintings show stacks of comic books and computer screens, such as in Asher Coelho’s In My Element, which mixes old and new ways of telling stories. Other pieces, like Bilen Tamirat’s Smile for the Camera, show how hard it can be to look happy on the outside when you feel imperfect inside. Leda Pelton’s What I will pack when I run away from home and Elizabeth Shanefelter’s Falling show feelings of wanting freedom but also being afraid of the unknown. Together, these paintings let visitors see what teenagers care about and how they express themselves through both words and art.

The wall of words and the student art gallery remind us that youth culture is constantly changing but always powerful. By sharing their slang and their artwork, these teens show how their voices, ideas, and creativity shape the world around them. The fair proves that when young people tell their own stories, everyone can see the world in a new way.

Darth Vader

On July 6, I visited Washington, D.C. to explore the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The festival brought together artists, students, and skilled craftspeople from around the country to share their work and tell their stories. People were carving stone, weaving colorful threads, painting murals, or sharing parts of their culture through hands-on exhibits. It was a celebration of both tradition and innovation.

At the event, one of the most impressive areas showcased how artists are helping to restore the Washington National Cathedral from the 2011 earthquake damage. Skilled stone carvers worked carefully to repair damaged pieces and recreate new ones using the same tools and techniques that have been passed down for generations. At the Washington National Cathedral, one of the carved statues is Darth Vader, created after a 1985 children’s “Draw-a-Grotesque” contest. The figure is more than 200 feet off the ground and is part of a collection of about 1,500 grotesques. This is a fascinating example of how new culture elements are included in historical settings.

The festival also included booths that celebrated crafts from different parts of the world. I saw a weaver using a loom to create colorful fabrics in traditional patterns. There were leather ropes and beadwork from ranching traditions, gold-painted ornaments, and intricate hand-carved decorations. One beautiful painting in the exhibit showed a woman surrounded by corn, flowers, and peppers, representing food, nature, and heritage all in one image. Each artwork and object had its own story and history.

All around the festival, people were making things by hand and showing how their work connects to their families, cultures, and communities. The Folklife Festival helped me see how traditions survive when people take the time to share them. Through stone, fabric, paint, and words, the fair showed that creativity is one of the most powerful ways to keep culture alive.