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The Radicalism of Woody Guthrie

Arvind Dilawar Jacobin
Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie is best known for his anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” which can come off as an innocuous ode to America if you aren’t listening closely. But the singer-songwriter was a lifelong socialist.

Friday Nite Videos | April 24, 2020

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The Writers and Directors Who Saw Coronavirus Coming. The Liar Tweets Tonight | Roy Zimmerman. Unorthodox Trailer | Netflix. Anti-Lockdown Protesters Harass COVID-19 Nurses. Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals Broken System In U.S. Nursing Homes

Odetta, the Shy Folk Singer Who Defied McCarthyism's Fear Tactics

Ian Zack Literary Hub
It wasn't only Odetta's selection of material that set her apart from many other white folk singers in the early 1950s. It was also her extraordinary interpretive ability. Among Her Fans Were Rosa Parks, Bob Dylan, and Martin Luther King.

Rhiannon Giddens and What Folk Music Means

John Jeremiah Sullivan The New Yorker
Rhiannon Giddens's multicultural background has presented particular challenges of self-definition. She is an artist of color who plays and records what she describes as "black non-black music," reviving a forgotten history.

Friday Nite Videos | May 3, 2019

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William Barr's Master Class on Hair Splitting. For Pete at 100 | This Land Is Your Land. Elizabeth Warren: Time to Open Impeachment Proceedings. How Quantum Computers Break Encryption. Ady Barkan Testifies on Medicare for All.

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger

Dick Flacks and Peter Dreier Jacobin
Pete Seeger would have turned 100 today. Few figures in American history have lived as influential and deeply radical lives as he did. Let's celebrate him today.
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