SI KAHN

Echo Lake Coffeehouse

Saturday, December 11, 7:30 pm

Si Kahn is an accomplished author and musician who incorporates his passion for people’s rights and dignity into his songwriting, concert and festival performances, conference keynotes, workshops and residencies.

His songs of family, community, work and freedom such as Aragon Mill, Wild Rose of the Mountain and Gone, Gonna Rise Again have been recorded by hundreds of artists, including Dick Gaughan, Robin and Linda Williams, June Tabor and the Oyster Band, Patrick Street, Laurie Lewis, Planxty, Hazel Dickens, Dolores Keane and Renaud Séchan.

In addition to his 16 CDs of original songs, he partnered with Pete Seeger and Jane Sapp to record Carry It On (Flying Fish, 1982), a double album of traditional songs from the labor, civil rights and women's movements.

The May 2010 publication of Creative Community Organizing, A Guide for Rabble-Rousers; Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice is a moving memoir. Faith Petric's review. states  . . it is a pleasure to read, full of stories, written in everyday English.

Courage, a CD with 16 new songs about the quiet heroism of everyday people, superbly produced and accompanied by Jens Kruger and featuring harmonies and liner notes by Kathy Mattea, was ranked Number 1 played CD and Si as Number 1 most played artist for May and June 2010 on the Richard Gillmann Folk DJ survey. Rich Warren's Sing Out! review reports: " Kahn’s writing and energy remain at the peak of his career. He addresses subjects overlooked by most writers, and he always defends the underdog."

 Si Kahn has worked for over 45 years as a civil rights, labor and community organizer and musician.  He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos: A National Center for Ideas and Action.  He also serves as Executive Director Emeritus of Grassroots Leadership, the Southern-based national organization he founded 30 years ago.  For the past 11 years, Grassroots Leadership has worked to oppose privatization and to defend the public sector.  This work currently includes a campaign to abolish all for-profit private prisons, jails and detention centers, including immigrant detention centers, as a step towards helping create a prison and criminal justice system that is truly just and humane.