The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration has already kicked off in New York, and soon cities around the country—including Tulsa—will be celebrating the legendary folk singer’s life with exhibits, symposiums, concerts, and other events.
This week, the Grammy Museum, Woody Guthrie Publications, and the Woody Guthrie Archives announced the lineup for “This Land Is Your Land: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration Concert,” happening Saturday, March 10 at the Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady St.
John Mellencamp, Arlo Guthrie, Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury Band, The Flaming Lips, Old Crow Medicine Show, Hanson, Tim O’Brien, and Jimmy LaFave will perform classic Guthrie songs. Tickets to the concert, which go on sale Saturday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. at protixonline.com, range from $45 to $250.
Hanson is among the musical acts performing at the Woody Guthrie centennial concert March 10.
“The show on March 10 kicks off a year long welcome home to Woody Guthrie,” said Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which recently purchased Guthrie’s archives and will be housing them in downtown Tulsa beginning 2013. “The concert will be a wonderful opportunity to launch the 100th anniversary celebration of this legendary Oklahoman.
“We are grateful to the Guthrie family and the Grammy Museum for ensuring that Tulsa be one of central concert sites in the year-long celebration of the Guthrie centennial.”
In addition to the concert, Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum will host an exhibition of drawings, lyrics, and journals from the Guthrie archives, titled “Woody at One Hundred: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration 1912-2012,” which runs Feb. 5 through April 29. March 5-11 will feature a weeklong series of programming to support the exhibit.
Additionally, the University of Tulsa will host a conference, “Different Shades of Red,” on March 10. The conference will host three panels—“A Culture of Protest,” which examines the political and cultural environment that shaped Guthrie’s views; “Red Dirt Roots,” which considers Guthrie’s musical influences; and “Echoes of Woody,” which addresses Guthrie’s legacy as it pertains to the Dust Bowl and Depression-era Oklahoma—each featuring three speakers. Author Jim Hightower will be the keynote speaker. Registration for the conference is $40 at utulsa.edu/guthrie and includes lunch.
Though the official celebration Guthrie centennial celebration ends in Tulsa in April when the Gilcrease exhibition closes, Tulsans—and visitors to the city—will have access to his archives indefinitely, once the Woody Guthrie Center opens at 116 W. Brady Ave.
“We are delighted to be bring the archives to Oklahoma, where we know they will be studied and enjoyed by generations to come,” Levit said.
—Holly Wall, News Editor