Woody Guthrie: live documentaries

Subject: Woody Guthrie: live documentaries
From: GUEST,Will Kaufman
Date: 27 May 10 - 10:46 AM

Hi - I'm Will Kaufman, a Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire, England, as well as a folk music scholar and performer. I have just finished writing the first full-length political biography of Woody Guthrie, "Woody Guthrie, American Radical," which will be published by the University of Illinois Press in 2011.

In addition to my Guthrie scholarship, I have been taking a pair of multi-media performance programmes on Guthrie – "live documentaries," as I call them – to universities, music festivals, literary festivals, and folk clubs across Europe since 2006. The presentations are called "Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travellin'," which presents the story of Guthrie's radical politicization, and "'All You Jim Crow Fascists!' Woody Guthrie's Freedom Songs," which covers Guthrie's transformation from a casual, youthful Oklahoma racist into an anti-racist champion. I have already presented these shows at some prestigious events here in England including the Bath Music Festival and the Chester Literature Festival, I am booked this year to present Guthrie shows at three of the UK's major folk festivals (Whitby, Priddy and Wadebrige) as well as the Glastonbury Festival (Avalon Cafe Stage); and I continually present the shows at folk clubs up and down the UK.

The reason I am writing here is because I have won a grant that will release me from my university teaching this autumn, and I will be coming to the USA for a few weeks (mid-Sept to mid-Oct), basing myself in the New York area. I have been invited to present Guthrie shows at a number of universities in the autumn, but I am also keen to give more public presentations in the New York/Philadelphia/Washington DC area. I am thus writing to ask if anyone knows of anyone who might be interested in a Guthrie presentation, either as a house concert or in a more public venue. If so, could they please contact me at [e-mail] .

My presentations are roughly 90-minutes long, in a multi-media format of song, spoken word and projected images. If anyone is interested, they can visit www.myspace.com/willkaufman to access some audio and video clips of the presentations and read some very glowing testimonials, not only from colleagues but also from some of Woody's more high-profile champions including Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Ry Cooder, Martin Carthy, and Ralph McTell (who has generously written an entire review of my "Hard Times and Hard Travellin'" show after seeing it a few weeks ago in Cornwall - it's up there on my MySpace page, too).

With many thanks if you've read this far!

Will Kaufman
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Woody Guthrie: live documentaries
From: greg stephens
Date: 27 May 10 - 12:05 PM

When are you on at the Avalon Cafe? I'll come and see you

Subject: RE: Woody Guthrie: live documentaries
From: GUEST,Will Kaufman
Date: 28 May 10 - 05:11 AM

Hi Greg - I'm on the Wednesday night (I think it's about an 8 pm start). Hope to see you there!

Best,

Will