Woody Guthrie celebration to be held Saturday at Carrboro ArtsCenter

Local residents will flock to the Carrboro ArtsCenter Saturday to celebrate a legend.

The ArtsCenter will host a celebration of the life and works of folk music icon Woody Guthrie, who would have turned 100 this year.

The event will feature local speakers as well as musical and spoken-word performances, making it as diverse a program as the man it commemorates.

Art Menius, executive director of the ArtsCenter, will be one of the speakers.

Menius, who is a self-proclaimed Guthrie fan, will be reading from a selection of Guthrie’s writings on folk singer Aunt Molly Jackson, as well as introducing the grand finale singing of Guthrie’s famous version of “This Land is Your Land.”

Menius said the revival of the folk music scene is very important to the ArtsCenter.

“Folks will know a lot more about Woody Guthrie as a folk musician, as an icon and as a social activist in America during the Great Depression, which resonates very truly today as we go through such difficult economic times,” Menius said.

Charles Pettee is a local bluegrass performer who will play two Guthrie songs Saturday. He said he got involved with the event because he admires Guthrie as a musician and social activist.

“It’s not only the quantity and quality of Woody Guthrie’s work but also his willingness to tackle tough social issues and to use folk music as a vehicle for positive change.”

Menius said the center advertised the event to appeal to a younger demographic, and he hopes students who attend will gain an appreciation for an icon that thrived generations before they were born.

Another keynote speaker is Robert Cantwell, professor of American Studies at UNC, who has published several works on folklore.

Cantwell’s portion of the program will provide the audience with context surrounding Guthrie’s life and work during the 1930s and 1940s.

Cantwell said he hopes to both enlighten listeners about who Guthrie was and to spark further interest in folk music — the seeds of which he believes have already been planted.

“I’ve noticed in my students that there’s kind of a folk revival going on on campus,” Cantwell said, adding that it ties into progressive social ideas.

“It all sort of comes together as a social-political package, which recovers the history of the folk movement,” he said.

“Folk music is interested in telling a story, and each generation therefore becomes interested in where the music comes from and has to work to piece together a story for themselves.”

The event will begin at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door at $5 for ArtsCenter Friends and $7 for the general public.

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.