From:
John Pietaro leftmus@earthlink.netFriends,
Well, if this is July it must be another Woody birthday anniversary. He would have been 97 this time around. Like many others around the world, I organize this annual salute to Woody in the world's most famous little village, Woodstock NY, and this year will be spectacular. Come on up to Woodstock early---check out the galleries, the shops, the memorobilia, the Byrdcliffe Art Colony (where Dylan had his home), the Bearsville site that was Albert Grossman's digs and Todd Rundgren's studio and where Jimi Hendrix lived for a time, and then come over to the Colony Cafe to celebrate Woody.
By the way, at the end of this announcement, look for the radical prose by Woody. I will be reciting this to the accompaniment of Laurie's bass and my own drumkit on Saturday evening....just one of the many reminders of Woody's revolutionary art!
In Solidarity,
John Pietaro -
www.flamesofdiscontent.orgWOODSTOCK WOODY GUTHRIE FESTIVAL RETURNS TO COLONY CAFÉ, JULY 25
Woodstock NY: Woody Guthrie, legendary folksinger and prototypical protest musician, will once again be celebrated at Woodstock's historic Colony Café. This is the third annual event in his honor. This July would have been the 97th birthday of Guthrie, who died in 1967 but has long been remembered not only by fans of folk song but progressive thinkers all over the world. Guthrie, who fought against racism and fascism as well as for workers' rights and a more equitable society in his lifetime, has been acknowledged as the father of the folk song revival that begat the likes of Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, the Almanac Singers, the Weavers, and their 1960s offspring, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and numerous others.
This year's event will feature not only some of Woody's most powerful songs but also his poetry, prose and even a member of his family. The Keynote Address will be given by ANNA CANONI, Woody's granddaughter and the Outreach Coordinator for the Woody Guthrie Archive. The Festival is very pleased to present Ms. Canoni in Woodstock for the first time.
A special feature will include guest speakers who are both journalists: DAN MARGOLIS, New York Bureau Chief of the People's Weekly World newspaper who will discuss Guthrie's contributions as a columnist for the Daily Worker, and GARY ALEXANDER, Music Writer with the Woodstock Times.
Music will be provided by festival hosts THE FLAMES OF DISCONTENT who perform 'alternative protest song', folk expansionists HOPE MACHINE, Mexican revolutionary musician ZENOTE SOMPANTLE, and Labor singer JOHN O'CONNOR. And there will also be recitation of Guthrie writings by performance poet PATRICIA MARTIN.
THE WOODSTOCK WOODY GUTHRIE FESTIVAL 2009
When: SATURDAY, JULY 25, 8 – 11PM
Where: The Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock NY, (845) 679-5342
Admission: $10.
For more info:
www.flamesofdiscontent.org or
www.colonycafe.com ----------------------------------------------------------------
Art is a weapon and as deadly as steel cannons or exploding bombs.
It is the job of poets to untangle all of the knots, wipe away all of the clouds and fog.
It is the job of all artists, painters, dancers, writers, singers, sculptors, musicians, critics, actors, everybody everywhere, to join hands with the workers and root out, expose, and kill out the fascist enemy everywhere. Words must be turned against the Nazis like red hot machine gun bullets, mowing their poor, misled soldiers to the ground like brutes and monsters, blowing their factories and munitions dumps into 10 million pieces. Unless words do this job, they are useless……
I carted my paints and my water color brushes today down the street two short blocks and painted some fancy leafs and weeds and stems all around the edge of the window of the Communist Party.
I painted, "Join the Communist Party" on a strip of wrapping paper and "Kill the Taft-Hartley Slave law" on some more strips. "Lets Have a Low-Cost Housing Project in Coney Island" and "Read Your Daily Worker". Gwen, my 11 year old daughter from Texas helped me clean, sweep, scrape and paint and fix the windows of the Party office and book shop.
When we got it all done, I went in next door to a little eat shop and the soda jerker told me, "Your work is just one big, gigantic smudge!"
I didn't even say one single word. Just drunk my coffee and walked out.
I drew pen sketches for the Peoples World and Daily Worker and learned all I could from the speeches and debates, forums, picnics, where famous labor leaders spoke. I heard William Z Foster, Mother Bloor, Gurley Flynn, Blackie Myers.
I heard most all of them and played my songs on their platforms…….
Art is a weapon and as deadly as steel cannons or exploding bombs.
-Woody Guthrie
