One of the highlights of the NAFA conference for me was getting to see, hear, and speak with Holly Near. It was through Holly that my exposure to the wider world of folk music first got started. My awareness of Holly began with the Weavers.
I had not really been aware of the Weavers during most of my youth. I've learned that I was familiar with many of their songs while I was growing up, but I don't think that I would have recognized the name "The Weavers" as even being a musical group, much less a focus for musical and political change.
My first awareness of the Weavers began with an episode of Lou Grant. The episode featured the reporters researching stories about a reunion of an old folk music group. The group had been blacklisted and mostly disappeared from public awareness but one of the reporters on the show (Joe Rossi?) had been a fan of their work and was excited about finding out what the former group members were currently doing. After watching the show, my wife told me that it was based on the real-life story of the Weavers. (MM is often more aware of history, popular culture, and other aspects of the world than am I. This was especially true at that time when much of my energy was focused on my comic book collecting.)
MM was able to locate a video about the 1980 reunion concert of the Weavers. Doing more than simply showing the concert, the video told a great deal of history about the group, how they had been blacklisted and what that meant to them, and what the members of the group have been doing over the years. This was all new territory for me.
One of the segments of the documentary featured one of the Weavers, Ronnie Gilbert, singing with a young singer who had been inspired by Ronnie. That young singer was Holly Near.
After watching the video we started looking for Weavers recordings for our new CD player. It was exciting that many of the old Weavers recordings were being re-released on CD, but not very many titles had been released and I was still hungry for more such inspiring music. That hunger led me to "H.A.R.P." featuring Holly, Arlo Guthrie, Ronnie Gilbert, and Pete Seeger (another member of the Weavers). That in turn led me to look for more of Holly's recordings, some of which were available on CD. After buying all I could find of her recordings I started looking for compilation recordings featuring Holly or the Weavers. In listening to those compilations I was introduced to many other performers and songwriters. Those introductions eventually led to me spending occasional long weekends (and hundreds of dollars) attending NAFA conferences.
Holly led one of the songs at the noon Peace Sing which was held on Saturday. She also helped to lead some of the workshops on different issues.
One of those workshops involved finding ways to get the GLBT community more involved in the folk music scene. In the course of the discussion, one of the things Holly discussed was that it was important to reach out to various groups beyond simply trying to get people to attend concerts. She recounted how people in some of her previous activist efforts had talked about getting the black community involved in the issues in which the activist groups were interested, yet they didn't bother doing anything to support the black community. They didn't go to rallies about civil rights for blacks or otherwise involve themselves in the concerns of the black community. She suggested that reaching out involves more than simply asking for support. It involves trying to understand and support people in the things about which they are concerned. Thus, if the folk music community wanted to get support from the GLBT community, then a good way to start would be by trying to support the GLBT community on issues and activities of concern to them and to get to know them more personally.
After hearing her comments I felt motivated to point out that sometimes efforts to reach out to the GLBT community are not always welcomed. I recounted my own experience with a local group that promotes itself as being gays, lesbians, and straights who are "committed to building friendships and strengthening neighborhoods through social events and community action" (I took this quote from their web site. I didn't have the quote with me at the workshop, but I tried to convey something of their purpose as I described them). In an effort to reach out to them I contacted them through their web site and attended one of their pot luck dinners in an attempt to get to know them better. While at the dinner I was questioned about why I was there as the only other straights who had ever bothered with their group were politicians who were trying to get their votes. When I talked to my contact in the group after the dinner I was told directly that they did not want me to join their group.
Holly responded directly to my comment. She said that I should not take such a rejection personally and that I should not stop attempting to reach out to the GLBT community. If I get rejected 50,000 times in such attempts, I should remember that these rejections are inspired by 500,000 painful experiences of members of the GLBT community. She suggested that rejection such as I experienced might be inspired by a fear of further painful experiences and not necessarily as a rejection of me personally.
In her singing, in her comments, and in her living, Holly Near continues to inspire many people to be more compassionate towards others and to seek peaceful ways of living together. In these days of increasing governmental scrutiny playing on people's fears and prejudices we may need people like Holly more than ever. I am certainly grateful to her and look forward to seeing her again some day.
Posted by JoKeR at February 10, 2003 01:45 PM | TrackBack