New York Field Trip Schedule

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New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org

Main Conference Page | 2008 NY Field Trip

The Folk Music Revival: Politics and Community

A Symposium by the New York Folklore Society

Clark Auditorium, New York State Library
Albany, New York

From the left: Josh White Jr., Sonny Ochs, Oscar Brand and Moderator Paul Mercer at NYFS Fall Conference 2008

Saturday, October 18, 2008

10:00 a.m.	Welcome
10:15 - 11:30 a.m.	Panel: THE FOLK MUSIC COMMUNITY Ethel Raim, Center for Traditional Music and Dance; Andy Spence, Old Songs; Wanda Fischer, The Hudson River Sampler; Sarah Craig, Caffè Lena; and Moderator: George Ward
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Film Screening: FRIENDS OF OLD TIME MUSIC With Filmmaker Peter Siegel
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Lunch (on your own)
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.	KEYNOTE: Suze Rotolo Bob Dylan was 20 years old when they met. Suze was 17. Keynote speaker, Suze Rotolo, offers a frank view of Greenwich Village in the 1960s during the early years of the folk music revival. Her recently published memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, paints a portrait both of Bob Dylan at the start of his career and the excitement and energy of the time. Read the LA Times review.-
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.	Panel: FOLK SCARE! POLITICS AND THE FOLKSONG REVIVAL Sonny Ochs, Jaye Alper, Josh White, Jr., Oscar Brand, and Moderator: Paul Mercer Oscar Brand, who appeared at the 1963 New York Folklore Society conference, is a folk singer, songwriter, radio personality, and author who has played alongside such legends of folk music as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. He is host of the longest-running radio show, “Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival,” which airs on WNYC in New York City and which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2005. He has twice been awarded the Peabody Award for broadcast excellence. Josh White Jr. began his folksong career as a child, singing with his father, Josh White, who was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. After his father appeared before the House Un-American Committee and was blacklisted, Josh White Jr. continued to perform as a solo folksinger. Josh White, Jr. has produced over 20 recordings in his continuous career of more than 60 years.
5:00 - 6:00 p.m.	“The Songs of Rudyard Kipling: A Folk Music Performance” JOHN ROBERTS and TONY BARRAND Tony Barrand and John Roberts will perform a concert of the Songs of Rudyard Kipling, a series of folksongs based on the poems of Rudyard Kipling. These folksong-inspired pieces were first commissioned and performed by Roberts and Barrand at the re-opening of Kipling’s house, Naulakha, in Dummerston, Vermont. Tony Barrand and John Roberts are well known for their annual performances of “Noel Sing We Clear” and for their frequent appearances at the Old Songs Festival in Altamont, NY. Supported by the New York Council for the Humanities
6:00 p.m.	Reception and Book-Signing Keynote Speaker, Suze Rotolo, will signing her recently published memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time, which will be available for sale. Suze offers an intimate, first-hand account of the fertile years of the early Folk Revival of the 1960s when Bob Dylan was being transformed from an obscure folk singer to the spokesperson for a generation.

The Folk Music Revival: Politics and Community is funded, in part, by support from
the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the New York Council for the Humanities. Media sponsor is WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states—New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.