For Pete’s Sake
As part of this month’s JMM Live: Jewish Folk Life festival, we will be celebrating the legacy of Pete Seeger (the hundredth anniversary of Pete’s birth ends on May 3rd).
The Smithsonian’s Jeff Place, who won two Grammys for the Anthology of American Folk Music, will join us for a lecture on Pete Seeger’s connections to the Jewish experience on the evening of the 19th and Nora Guthrie will be presenting on Pete’s influence on her dad in a program on Sunday the 22nd. As both programs are likely to sell out, I urge you to make reservations early.
As I suspect most of you know, Pete Seeger was not Jewish, but his music and his activism had a profound influence on some of the most important Jewish folk artists of his day – including fellow Weavers’ performers Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, as well as later folk/rock icons like Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. So, these presentations are offered in the spirit of the Israeli song that Pete and the Weavers transformed into an American hit tune:
Tzena, Tzena join the celebration
There’ll be people there from every nation
Dawn will find us laughing in the sunlight
Dancing in the city square*
*or in the aisles at the JMM
~Marvin
Caption: Pete Seeger performs for IDF soldies in Israel, January 10, 1964. Courtesy of the Israel National Photo Collection via Wikimedia Commons.
MARCH PROGRAMS
Yiddish Folksongs of Women
Presenters: Eleonore Biezunsky and Deborah Strauss
Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3:00pm
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Meet Me At the Scrap Yard
Monday, March 16, 2020 from 10:00am – 12:00pm
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Pete Seeger and The Tribe
Speaker: Jeff Place
Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 6:30pm
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March 20-22, 2020
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What Pete Taught Woody
Presenter: Nora Guthrie
Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 3:00pm
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Speaker: Lisa Cooper
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 6:30pm
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Her History
Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 10:00am
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WWII, the Steel Industry and the Home Front Scrap Army
Speaker: Professor James J. Kimble
Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 1:00pm
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>>View the full JMM calendar of events here.<<
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