In addition to regular programming that includes the Place Matters Awards and the People's Hall of Fame, the organization works with a wide range of partners to develop exhibitions, publications, and documentary films, and to advocate for the rights of street performers, ethnic clubs, and other grassroots cultural expressions in New York City.
Their collaborators include the Gotham Center for New York City History, the New-York Historical Society, Bank Street College of Education, and smaller groups such as Los Pleneros de la 21.
City Lore’s staff consists of professional folklorists (Steve Zeitlin), the founder and executive director; Elena Martínez and Amanda Dargan), historians; (Marci Reaven), photographers; (Martha Cooper); ethnomusicologist (Lois Wilcken); and arts and education specialists (Anika Selhorst).
Recipients have included the Pearls of Wisdom Storytellers, Peter Benfaremo ("The Lemon Ice King of Corona"), Jim Power ("New York's Mosaic Man"),[4] and Renee Flowers (original member of the Gowanus Wildcats Girls Drill Team).
Funds were raised by City Lore to support Peter Siegel's project to restore and issue tapes he made in the 1960s of folk music concerts by Mississippi John Hurt, The Carter Family, Jesse Fuller, Bill Monroe, and others.