I feel so lucky to have known Archie Green -- what an amazing person. I'm sure everyone who met him had this experience -- whenever I saw him, within one minute we were deep into an intellectual, philosophical and politicial discussion. Someone has mentioned how he was a genius about connecting people with each other (Chris Strachwitz said the same thing last night -- he told a long story about how Archie was the one who really got him connected up with the Mexican musicians and folklorists) but he also had a terrific way of re-thinking various things within new frameworks. He could articulate things about connections between music and politics that I felt were true instinctually, without ever being didactic. Plus he was so enthusiastic, being around him always made me feel I could and should go out there and accomplish something good and I can see he had this effect upon everyone. He understood, too, the subtle effects that traditional music can have upon people in terms of changing their political viewpoints without the music itself being explicitly political. There is a tiny snippet of him in the upcoming NLCR film, it was filmed in 2007 when he was about 89 and he looks at least 15 years younger than that. I know that he had a good long full life -- he is already sorely missed.
Suzy Thompson