Students in this course will learn about the vital music and dance traditions that thrive in and among New York's Sri Lankan immigrant community, while gaining first-hand experience with the work of cultural institutions through the New School’s long-standing collaboration with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD). The course will examine traditional cultural expressions reflecting Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious diversity—including Sinhalese, Tamil, Burgher, and Muslim populations—and how these traditions can serve as platforms for social change in a postwar diasporic milieu. Students will get hands-on experience working with community members on the organization of a public program and, if possible given health and safety protocols, a community walking tour that includes visits to the Sri Lankan Art and Culture Museum and Lakruwana Restaurant on Staten Island. By engaging with methodologies used in public folklore and applied ethnomusicology for program planning, development, and documentation, students will get a taste of contemporary cultural sustainability work, and how it intersects with broader issues of immigration, multiculturalism, representation, and social transformation. The course will culminate with a final event to be held at the New School and the production of documentary video clips based on ethnographic interviews with guest artists.