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Remembering Pete and Toshi Seeger

Feb 3, 2014

A Surprise Party for Pete

Below is a video of a surprise party I organized for Pete’s 91st birthday back in 2010, which was also a release party for my latest book Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice. It took place in New York City, hosted by Demos: A Center for Ideas and Action, where I’m a Distinguished Senior Fellow.

A Tribute to Toshi Seeger

Toshi Seeger and her critical role in Pete’s life and work, as well as in her own, should never be forgotten. Click here to read the tribute to Toshi I wrote shortly after her death at the request of Folker, the German folk and roots music magazine. They’ve given me permission to have it reprinted, posted and/or read over the air, as long as they’re properly credited. It appeared in their August 2013 issue, translated into German. Folker’s website, also in German, is http://www.folker.de.

A Song for Pete and Toshi

I wrote “Sailing Down the Hudson” many years ago as a tribute to Pete and Toshi Seeger It’s on my 1996 CD Companion, produced by my great friends, Grammy winners Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Here’s both an MP3 of the song and the lyrics. What a great honor and gift to have lived in the same space as these two extraordinary people!

Click to read lyrics

In Honor of Si’s 80th Birthday Today, April 23,

Please Join Us in Launching the Si Kahn Living Legacy

Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, John McCutcheon

The goal of the Si Kahn Living Legacy is to build awareness of, support for, and public access to the amazingly large body of Si’s creative work that no one except Si has ever seen, and ultimately to keep it alive and easily accessible after he’s gone.  Si has been recognized internationally as one of the most important English language social justice songwriters, connecting his cultural work and social activism like so many before him, including Pete Seeger (with whom he worked, toured, and recorded) and Woody Guthrie.  

Nora Guthrie and others started the Woody Guthrie Archives long after Woody’s passing. As Si turns the corner to his 80th birthday, it’s a perfect time to think ahead, to gather, catalog, and make available those of his songs, stories, book manuscripts, poems, and other creative works that have never before been seen or heard by anyone except Si. The time to do this is now, while he’s healthy, still actively creating, and available as a friendly resource to the Living Legacy’s growth and development. 

It of course takes funding to build and maintain a major project like this. Your contributions are tax-deductible, as the project is managed by and part of the 501(c)3 non-profit Generations: Music for Justice (EIN 87-1647310).

Let’s do this together, recognizing the importance of Si’s life not just as an organizer and musician, but as a humane, generous, deeply kind person, who has spent his entire life trying to make this tired world a kinder, gentler, more just place for all of us.