Tag: pete seeger

Beacon Sloop Club to host Annual Pumpkin Festival on October 16

The Beacon Sloop Club will once again host an Annual Pumpkin Festival on Sunday, October 16th at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park in Beacon. The rain or shine event offers free admission to all and runs from Noon to 5pm.

The Beacon Pumpkin Festival features Hudson Valley pumpkins of all sizes & shapes, fresh homemade baked pumpkin pie, hot pumpkin soup, hot and cold apple cider and much more available for purchase.

You’ll also find many free children’s activities,many food and craft vendors, hula hooping, free sails on the Sloop Woody Guthrie and much more. Environmental non-profits will feature displays of local Hudson River history and the environment including information about their organization.

On two solar powered music stages (one just for the kids), much music is on tap at Beacon Pumpkin Festival, with performers including Betty and the Baby Boomers, The B2’s, Rick and Donna Nestler David & Jacob Bernz, The Judith Tulloch Band, Last Minute Soulmates, Spirit of Thunderheart, Beacon High School Chorus Singers, Beacon Songsmiths, Cosby Gibson and Tom Staudle, Bindlestick Bill, Pat Jones & Laurie Siegel, The Neverly Brothers, and Lydia Adams Davis.

Pete and Toshi Seeger Park is located at 2 Red Flynn Drive in Beacon, right next to the Metro North Train Station.

The Beacon Sloop Club’s boat, the Woody Guthrie, will be taking guests on free sails from the Beacon Harbor, weather permitting. The public may sign up for an afternoon sail to relax and experience the beauty, power and grandeur of the Hudson. Sign up at the Beacon Sloop Club table starting at noon.

The Beacon Sloop Club is an all volunteer and non-profit organization. The Beacon Sloop Club’s Strawberry, Corn and Pumpkin Festivals raises money for the public sailing program on the Woody Guthrie and other environmental education programs. The Beacon Sloop Club meets the first Friday of each month at the clubhouse in Beacon for a potluck dinner, business meeting and live music. The clubhouse is located on the banks of the Hudson River near the Metro-North train station. Everyone is always welcome.

October 3, 2022
U.S. Postal Service Honors Pete Seeger with New Stamp

On July 21, in Newport, RI, the United States Postal Service will honor folk musician Pete Seeger with a unique stamp as part of their Music Icon Series.

The Pete Seeger Stamp from U.S. Postal Service

Pete Seeger, known for his American folk music and social activism, was born in Manhattan in 1919. Over the course of his long career, one of his most famous songs includes “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” which became a hit for its anti-war stance. Other songs of Seeger’s rose to popularity in the ‘60s, such as “If I Had a Hammer” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Seeger’s work as a musician and activist inspired many – including artists Bob Dylan and Tom Morello. His adaptation of the spiritual, “We Shall Overcome,” became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. The folk singer truly believed the power of song could transform and spur people into action for good and he continues to be a huge influence in music to this day.

The Pete Seeger stamp will be the newest and 10th stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s Music Icon series which began in 2013. Other musicians who have been honored include, in order, Lydia Mendoza, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Sarah Vaughan, John Lennon, and Marvin Gaye.

The stamp is based on a photograph of Seeger taken in the early 1960s by his son, Dan Seeger. With his iconic banjo in hand, Seeger performs in the picture as he did for much of his life. Art director Antonio Alcalá designed this latest stamp issue and the black-and-white original photo was color-tinted by Kristen Monthei.

A recipient of multiple Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, Seeger will long be remembered for his music and his contribution to American political activism.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide.

July 10, 2022
Clearwater Festival In Croton Makes Plans for the Future

The Clearwater Festival, held at Croton Park in Croton, NY, will not take place in 2022 as the event undergoes a re-envisioning process to help create a festival the Clearwater organization can sustain into the future.

The festival began in the 1960s as a small “folk picnic” by Pete and Toshi Seeger to help raise funds for the building of the sloop Clearwater. The festival has since grown to be one of the country’s oldest and largest annual music and environmental festivals. Its award-winning Zero Waste program has also been a model for many festivals around the country.

The Clearwater Festival.

Clearwater Festival usually takes place on Father’s Day weekend. Over the years, it has been staffed by a team of volunteers, and it has become the organization’s way of reaching out to others. It helps bring together community, celebration, education, and activism for the protection of the Hudson River.

The pandemic has affected the festival due to the severe reduction of cash flow usually brought in by the event. The organization did not have enough cash to begin planning and production for a 2022 Clearwater Festival, so therefore there will not be a festival this summer. Although there were two virtual events in 2020 and 2021, online event participation has gone down as more things are moving in-person, so a virtual option is not viable.

Hopefully, the new re-envisioning process will bring the festival back in person for years to come.

March 24, 2022
New York Series: Pete Seeger Honors MLK with “Take it From Dr. King”

Folk and protest music legend Pete Seeger performed on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2008, performing “Take it From Dr. King,” a tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Seeger, who helped popularize the Civil Rights movement’s protest anthem “We Shall Overcome,” first met Dr. King in 1957 at Highlander Folk School, a social justice leadership training school and cultural center located in New Market, Tennessee. Seeger recalls the day:

I met her, I met all three of them that day. As a matter of fact there is a picture taken of us out standing out standing in front of a cinder block wall that they enlarged the barn which became their library and King, Abernathy, Rosa, Me and Miles and Zelphilia’s teenage daughter were there.
Pete Seeger

Seeger would later write the song “Take It From Dr. King,” a tribute to the legacy of a man who led a non-violent movement that championed civil rights and equality.

Seeger connected with King in 1957, in this story from The Kennedy Center

On September 2, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. Part of the school’s mission was to help prepare civil rights workers to challenge unjust laws and racist policies that discriminated against African Americans. The school also made a point of bringing blacks and whites together to share experiences and to learn from each other. It was a dangerous idea. At a time when southern laws kept blacks and whites segregated or separate, some white racists terrorized African Americans with deadly violence.
Dr. King delivered the main speech that day, honoring the school’s 25th anniversary. As part of the meeting, folk singer Pete Seeger got up with his banjo. He plucked out a song he had learned at Highlander, and led the audience in singing it.
Later that day, Dr. King found himself humming the tune in the car. “There’s something about that song that haunts you,” he said to his companions.
The Kennedy Center

That song in question was the protest movement song “We Shall Overcome.”

“Take it from Dr. King” lyrics

Down in Alabama, 1955,
Not many of us here tonight were then alive;
A young Baptist preacher led a bus boycott,
He led the way for a brand new day without firing a shot.

Don’t say it can’t be done
The battle’s just begun
Take it from Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
So drop the gun.

Oh those must have been an exciting 13 years.
Young heroes, young heroines.
There was laughter, there were tears,
Students at lunch counters,
Even dancing in the streets.
To think it all started with sister Rosa
Refusing to give up her seat.

Song, songs, kept them going and going;
They didn’t realize the millions of seeds they were sowing.
They were singing in marches, even singing in jail.
Songs gave them the courage to believe they would not fail.

We sang about Alabama 1955,
But since 9-11 we wonder will this world survive.
The world learned a lesson from Dr. King:
We can survive, we can, we will.
And so we sing

Don’t say it can’t be done
The battle’s just begun
Take it from Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
So drop the gun

January 17, 2022