4/30/2024 0 Comments Gober georgiafind a graveThrough their doors would come Paul Robeson (Eric’s godfather), Theodore Bikel, Peter, Paul and Mary, and numerous other performing artists, including Leon’s brother-in-law pianist and jazz composer John Lewis. I got to spend a lot of time in and out of that home-the Bibbs had twins, Eric and Dorie, four years younger than I was ,and a younger daughter Amy. When we moved to Hollis, Queens NYC when I was going into the 5th grade, a few blocks away from us was the home of friends of my parents-Leon Bibb, his wife and children. Among those activists were actors and musicians. I was blessed to grow up with parents who surrounded me with political activists. When Leon died in October 2015, I wrote about his life for both Motley Moose and Black Kos. With that conversation and my own childhood in mind, I did a quick Google search for ”Black folk singers.” I found a list of familiar faces, a few of whom I wouldn’t consider “folk.” (Or in the case of Pete Seeger, Black.) One key artist was missing from the results: Leon Bibb, who always let me call him by his first name as a kid, so I hope you don’t mind if I do so now. So, to continue my pandemic-driven series focusing on music, I’m offering a sampling of the vast repertoire that Black folk musicians have contributed, both to the genre and the struggle for freedom and justice. Instead, I always thought of their music as inextricably entwined with the politics of protest. I did a bit of a double-take, because I hadn’t thought of folk music that way-probably because I grew up surrounded by folk music and folk musicians of all colors, many of whom were Black. My friend mentioned that they rarely saw any Black people at these festivals, hypothesizing that “perhaps that’s because most folk singers and banjo players are white.” We were talking about the annual Clearwater Festival held in New York, which is not happening in 2020 due to a combination of financial issues and COVID-19. I had a conversation about music recently with a white friend, a “folkie” who annually attends the folk music festivals that take place frequently here in the northeastern part of the United States.
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