Si Kahn to perform in concert

MARQUETTE — The Hiawatha Music Co-op, in keeping with its mission to bring quality traditional music to the area, with support from the Peter White Public Library presents its Master Artist Concert at 7 p.m. Friday in the Huron Mountain Gallery, featuring award-winning, singer, songwriter, author and playwright, Si Kahn.

Si Kahn will also host a Songwriting Symposium from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday in the library’s Shiras Room, free of charge.

A resident of North Carolina, Si Kahn writes bluegrass and folk songs as well as music for musical theater and children. His folk/bluegrass style songs such as “Aragon Mill” and “Gone Gonna Rise Again” have become part of an international oral tradition and are sung in folk clubs, living rooms, demonstrations, and picket lines around the world. He has written the script, music and lyrics for six musical theater productions. He set to music and recorded the classic children’s books, “The Runaway Bunny” and “Goodnight Moon.” His body of work includes over 18 CDs, many of which were honored as No. 1 on the International Folk DJ List.

In addition to his musical endeavors, Si Kahn has worked for over 50 years as a professional civil rights, labor, and community organizer. He began his organizing career in 1965 in Arkansas with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the student wing of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. His most recent book is “Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice.”

Among his other written works are two widely used organizing handbooks which together have sold over 80,000 copies.

There is a $5 charge at the door for adults and teens (children 12 and under are free) to attend this concert sponsored by the Hiawatha Music Co-op and the Carroll Paul Memorial Trust Fund of the Peter White Public Library. For more information, contact the Library at www.pwpl.info or call 226-4318, the Hiawatha Music Co-op at info@hiawathamusic.org or 226-8575, or Phil Watts at pwatts@nmu.edu or 226-9868.