An Alan Lomax Tribute9, 11 & 12 April 2003
"Honoring Alan Lomax, Folk-Music Crusader"
by Jon Pareles appeared in The New York Times, Monday, 14 April 2003
You must register to read articles, and after approximately one week pay a small fee
To register for the festival and to purchase tickets for the Lomax Tribute concert, please call Continuing Education and Public Programs at the CUNY Graduate Center, 212-817-8215. Tickets for the concert can also be purchased through City Lore, 212-529-1955.
The portable recording machine, which my father and I were the first to use, provided the first breakthrough...by making it possible to record and play back music in remote areas, away from electrical sources, it gave a voice to the voiceless.... Thus the portable recorder put neglected cultures and silenced people into the communication chain. |
 |
So wrote Alan Lomax in Land Where the Blues Began (1993), recalling his earliest memories of collecting southern folk songs with his father, John A. Lomax. In 1937, only four years after his first southern field trip, twenty-two-year-old Alan Lomax was named head of the Archive of American Folk Song. Over the next six and half decades, until his passing in July of 2002, his relentless advocacy for "people's music" made him a legend among folk music scholars and enthusiasts alike. His efforts as a folk song collector and publisher, music promoter, radio/record/TV producer, and world music researcher have immeasurably enhanced our understanding and appreciation of folk music and its place in the modern world.
In honor of Alan Lomax's enormous contributions to the field of folk music, the Institute for Studies in American Music, the Lomax Archives, City Lore, and the People's Poetry Gathering will bring together a distinguished group of scholars, journalists, and performers to assess his role in collecting and promoting folk music in America and around the world. We invite you to join us for three days of lectures, discussions, and performances that will explore the Lomax legacy and the role of traditional music in 20th-century American life.
ISAM, Brooklyn College
CUNY Graduate Center
City Lore and People's Poetry
Alan Lomax Archive
—Ray Allen
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & SCHEDULE UPDATES CONTACT:
718-951-5655
depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam
212-817-8215
web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp
212-529-1955
www.peoplespoetry.org
212-268-4623
www.alan-lomax.com
An Alan Lomax Tribute is sponsored by:
The Institute for Studies in American Music & the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College CUNY
Ph.D./D.M.A in Music & Continuing Education and Public Programs at the Graduate Center, CUNY
City Lore, Poets House, and the People's Poetry Gathering
Alan Lomax Archive/Association for Cultural Equity
An Alan Lomax Tribute is made possible by major grants from the Baisley Powell Elebash Endowment, The Folk Alliance, and the New York Council for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities; with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Odyssey Productions, Inc., the Cerf Foundation, Routledge Press, and Rounder Records.