This post in the Homegrown Plus series features Lily Henley, a talented singer, songwriter, and fiddler who performs traditional and original songs in the Ladino language. Just like other blogs in the series, this one includes a concert video, a video interview with Lily Henley, and connections to Library of Congress collections. Henley’s music is influenced by Sephardic Jewish traditions from across Europe and western Asia, as well as by Celtic music, American old-time, and other folk music genres. Ladino, also called Judeo-Spanish, is an endangered language that evolved from 15th century Castilian Spanish, with influences from Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and other languages of the Jewish diaspora. Ladino is spoken by Sephardic Jewish communities across the globe. In addition to performing ancient Ladino ballads and love songs, Henley is one of the few songwriters composing new songs in Ladino. The blog post features videos of her 2026 concert, which AFC hosted in collaboration with the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and in partnership with the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, and a conversation between Henley and Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center staff, discussing her career, the tradition of Sephardic music, and the Ladino language.