Pete Seeger’s river of song flows into River Forest May 10

RIVER FOREST IL - Music& Potlucks, a community organization will present “A Tribute to Pete Seeger” on Friday, May 10 at 8:00 pm. The event takes place at Martin Recital Hall in the Dominican University Performing Arts Center, 7900 W. Division Street.

“Thousands upon thousands of people over the years have taken up the banjo, the guitar and
began opening their ears to the world of music because of Pete,” said Chicago
folk artist Mark Dvorak who will lead the audience through a program of
Seeger’s most enduring songs. He will be joined on stage by bassist Manuel
Adduci and a community singing ensemble, the Power of Song Singers.

The event is being presented in Seeger’s centennial year to support the Oak Park River Forest Food
Pantry, The Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation and Housing Forward.

“Pete taught us how to use music to grow our communities and celebrate our heritage,” said
Dvorak. “He also demonstrated over many decades the importance of using
art and song to help build a more just and peaceful world.”

After a long life filled with music and activism, Seeger passed away in January 2014 at age 94.

After WWII, Seeger along with Fred Hellerman, Ronnie Gilbert and Lee Hays enjoyed a number of chart hits as The Weavers, introducing the work of seminal folk artists like Woody Guthrie
and Lead Belly, and reintroducing American listeners to their own roots music traditions.

Seeger left The Weavers in the mid-1950s after being called to testify before the House on UnAmerican Activities. He was consequently banned from radio and television. At the same
time he and his wife Toshi were raising a family in a log cabin they had built
near Beacon, New York on the banks of the Hudson River.

Seeger scrambled to earn an income. He embarked on a long string of performances at community centers,colleges and grade schools, crystallizing the powerful essence of American folk music.

By 1969, The Sloop Clearwater was launched, a 106-foot long replica sailing vessel common on
the Hudson in the19th century. The Clearwater served to draw attention
to the problem of pollution of the Hudson River, which included mercury
contamination, PCBs and raw sewage.

Seeger’s greatest legacy may have been saving the Hudson, according to those who worked with him to preserve the waterway. And his environmental activism didn’t stop with the
river. In the autumn of 2013 he put in a surprise appearance with Willie Nelson
and Neil Young at a Farm-Aid benefit. Seeger added an extra verse to his
anthem, “This Land Is Your Land” by singing, “This land was made to
be frack-free.”

“It’s such a fitting tribute to Pete,” said Dvorak who is artist-in-residence at Chicago’s Old Town
School of Folk Music and performed with Seeger on a handful of
occasions. “There is a very strong community singing tradition here in the
Chicago area. ‘How Can I Keep from Singing’ is a beautiful hymn that Pete
helped popularize. It begins, “My life flows on in endless song, above
earth’s lamentation…'”

Dvorak has performed in
thirty-eight states and in parts of Europe and Canada. He has won awards for
journalism and children’s music. In 2008 he received the Woodstock Folk
Festival Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lantern Bearer Award from Folk
Alliance International in 2013. In 2012, WFMT 98.7 fm Midnight Special host
Rich Warren named him Chicago’s “official troubadour."

General admission
tickets are $20. Complimentary beverage and dessert will be served at
intermission. Donations will gratefully be accepted.

Order tickets online at events.dom.edu/PeteSeeger For information on the event phone
312 451 5101.