APRIL 29 – WGC THEATER PROGRAMS
10:30 AM – David Amram and Joy Harjo – “Kerouac, Woody and Their Embrace of America” Oklahoma Indigenous Studies Alliance
11:45 AM – Conversation with Nora Guthrie
1:00 PM – Eric Andersen performance
2:15 PM – Betsy Siggins discusses Joan Baez
3:30 PM – Bob Merlis program
Betsy Siggins Schmidt – BETSY SIGGINS has been a central figure in the Cambridge folk music community since she happened upon the local coffeehouse scene as a college freshman in 1958. Betsy was a founding member of Club 47, the legendary venue where musicians such as Joan Baez, Jim Kweskin, and Eric von Schmidt helped to launch the folk revival. Club 47 remained the center of activity in folk music for nearly a decade. Betsy witnessed firsthand the infamous evening concert at Newport 1965, where her friend Bob Dylan went electric. She was there when photographer Dick Waterman rediscovered and brought to the North blues performers Son House and Mississippi John Hurt. Music journalist Robert Shelton corresponded frequently with Betsy in order to write New York updates on the Cambridge scene.