Presentations & Residencies

RECENT KEYNOTES AND PRESENTATIONS

International Country Music Conference (May 28th, 2014): ICMC is an annual academic conference dedicated to the scholarly study of country music. Si’s keynote was titled “Country Music, the Folk Revival and Social Justice.”

Arts Day North Carolina (May 20th, 2014: Si was one of the main speakers for this annual conference sponsored by ARTS North Carolina, a statewide organization that advocates for public arts funding.

Trinity Episcopal Middle School “Freedom Fete” (January 24th, 2014): At this annual event held in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Si spoke on the topic “Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue.”

Appalachian Studies Association 35th Annual Conference (March 23rd, 2012): Si’s keynote topic for this conference, held at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, focused on the historic relationship between social justice organizing and culture in the Appalachian region.

Southeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference (October 14th, 2010): Presented at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas, Si’s keynote, like all of his speeches, combined unaccompanied song with poetic rhetoric, and focused on music and resistance in both the Deep South and Appalachia.

RESIDENCIES

Main Stage West Artist in Residence (current): Si is in his fourth year as the Artist in Residence at this theatre company in Sebastopol, California. During that time, Main Stage West has produced four of his musicals: Silver Spoon, Joe Hill’s Last Will, Precious Memories and Mother Jones in Heaven. A new musical that looks at U.S. history from the grassroots up is currently in development, with the initial production planned for 2016.

Alaska Folk Festival Guest Artist (April 2013): Si was the official Guest Artist for the 37th annual Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau. In addition to two main stage concerts during the week-long event, he presented a series of workshops focused on the work of Musicians United To Protect Bristol Bay.

University of Kentucky Appalachian Center Artist in Residence (October-November 2012): Si was honored with a special two-week residency at the University of Kentucky’s main campus in Lexington. As a part of that residency, he did talks, workshops, training sessions, concerts and conversations all over Eastern and Central Kentucky, including a concert at the International Global Mountain Regions Conference organized and hosted by the Appalachian Center.

People’s Music Network Artist in Residence (2011-2012): In 2011, this national organization of progressive musicians announced that it was creating an annual Artist in Residence position, and asked Si to be the first person to hold that post. He participated in the organization’s June 2012 national meeting in High Falls, New York in that capacity.

John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellow: As a result of his 1974 fellowship study The Forest Service and Appalachia, published by the Foundation, Si was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate in hearings that resulted in substantially increased federal payments in lieu of taxes to hundreds of poor Appalachian mountain counties from Alabama to New York.

Ford Foundation Leadership Development Program Fellow: In the late 1960s, while working with a community action agency in rural Georgia, Si was selected to participate in a year-long program for emerging social justice leaders.