Lore – narratives, stories, testimonies, folk tales, oral traditions, myths, rituals, humor, customs, beliefs, ways of knowing and of being  – passes knowledge and practices down through generations. Embedded in the histories, traditions, and identities of communities, lore is a repository of collective wisdom. The life lessons passed down through families… Your grandmother telling you not to go outside with your hair wet, lest you catch a cold… The stories folks tell about which hospitals have good doctors and which ones to avoid…. Deeply rooted in experience, lore is the memory of what things were and visions of what may yet come to pass. 

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Lore contains serious commentary, vital information, wit, imagination, and wonder. Lore-keepers and tellers are custodians of memory, and lore takes forms not documented in traditional archives, classrooms, or clinics. In the field of health, the significance of lore is often overlooked, though it plays a vital role in the narratives, knowledge, and practices that impact the health and well-being of diverse communities. 

 

For our first annual theme we ask: What are the health narratives that exist outside of formal institutions? What traditions, practices, and beliefs are transmitted through oral tradition, material culture, assemblages and gatherings, embodiment, expressive and creative forms? How do people cope with illness, and how do they seek healing? What lore circulates in spaces of health - in built environments contemporary and historical, and amongst staff and practitioners? 

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We define lore broadly, drawing from its etymological core, “that which is taught: knowledge, science, doctrine, art, and learning.” What record does lore create and keep? How does lore influence health in Washington, DC, from the way Washingtonians conceptualize the history of health in the District to stories circulated in communities to shaping belief systems and health-related behaviors and offering multifaceted approaches to healing? Lore, in other words, is ubiquitous, whether we acknowledge it as such or not. And in the sense that it is everywhere and ever-present, lore is a carrier of survival. Social worker and writer Toni Cade Bambara put it this way: 

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Stories are important. They keep us alive. In the ships, in the camps, in the quarters, fields, prison, on the road, on the run, under siege, in the throes, on the verge–the storyteller snatches us back from the edge to hear the next chapter. In which we are the subjects. We, the heroes of the tales. Our lives preserved. How it was; how it be. Passing it along in the relay. – “Salvation is the Issue.”