Tagged: Woody Guthrie

Just when we thought the recently revitalized Downtown Tulsa really couldn't get any cooler.... Guthrie Green, a new park located at the corner of Boston Avenue and Brady Street --- in the heart of Tulsa's increasingly thriving Brady Arts District --- opens today, Friday the 7th, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3pm. Then, at about 5pm, the music gets underway --- and live, festive, free-to-the-public music (of all kinds, for all tastes) is a big part of what this Opening Weekend for Guthrie Green is all about.

Earlier this month, in the pages of The New York Times Book Review, the acclaimed American historian Douglas Brinkley and the accomplished Hollywood actor Johnny Depp offered a co-written essay that made at least two rather surprising announcements.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Woody Guthrie's hometown will celebrate the folk singer's 100th birthday this weekend, even though a local state lawmaker said Guthrie was "probably not one of the favorite sons" while he was alive.

Saturday marks the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie, which will be feted as part of the 15th annual Woody Guthrie Festival in the eastern Oklahoma town of Okemah.

Democratic State Senator Roger Ballenger notes that while Guthrie wasn't popular while alive, fondness for his music grew in the years following his death in 1967.

"1913 Massacre" is the name of a song that Woody Guthrie wrote circa 1941; it recounts an early-20th-century tragedy that happened at the Italian Hall building in Calumet, Michigan, on Christmas Eve of 1913, when hundreds of miners, along with their families and friends, had gathered for a party. At that time, Calumet was at the heart of Michigan's then-lucrative copper-mining activity.

[Aired on Monday, March 5th.] On today's show, we look ahead to the exciting and far-reaching day-long symposium, "Different Shades of Red: Woody Guthrie and the Oklahoma Experience at 100," which will happen on Saturday the 10th at the University of Tulsa's Lorton Performance Center. Our guest is Brian Hosmer of TU's Department of History; he's serving as the committee chair for this symposium.