American Folklife Center Barbara Dane collection

Barbara Dane collection

Collection

Identifier: AFC 1980/001

Scope and Content Note

Collection of sound recordings of interviews, readings by authors, lectures and speeches, and radio broadcasts with songs and music, recorded and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber for the Sing Out! radio program on WBAI-FM, New York City; and for other radio shows and documentation of other music and events from 1952-1978. Includes interviews with Vietnam War protesters, draft resisters, and topical songs written about the Vietnam War; many songs about other events of the 1960s and 1970s, including the African American civil rights movement; Native American survival movement; the women's rights and gay rights movements. The collection includes some tapes submitted by performers or listeners of Barbara Dane's shows, some with accompanying letters. Includes interview and songs performed by Catalan poet and composer, Raimon; Philippine songs; Cambodian songs; sound recordings of the Poor People's March on Washington, 1968; folk festivals and other recordings.

Dates

Creation: 1952-1978

Language of Materials

Collection material in English, a few recordings in Spanish

Access and Restrictions

The Barbara Dane collection is open to research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.

Copyright Status

Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Biographical Note

Barbara Dane was born May 12, 1927, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She is a folk, blues, and jazz singer, and co-founder of Paredon Records with her husband Irwin Silber. Paredon published songs, poetry, and oratory related to social and political activism. Throughout her life, Dane sang at demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and in small towns all over the U.S. and the world. During the 1950s and 60s, she performed and recorded with many great musicians from Earl Hines to Willie Dixon. She appeared on national TV’s Timex Jazz Show with Louis Armstrong. In 1966, Dane became the first American musician to tour post-revolutionary Cuba. In February 2018, the Smithsonian Folkways released a 2-CD retrospective, Hot Jazz, Cool Blues and Hard-Hitting Songs along with her historic folkways LP, Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers. On her 85th birthday, The Boston Globe music critic James Reed called her "one of the true unsung heroes of American music."

Extent

458 items (approximately)
43 sound tape reels : analog, various speeds ; 10 in.
80 sound tape reels : analog, various speeds ; 7 in.
35 sound tape reels : analog, various speeds ; 5 in.
6 folders ; 5 linear inches; 1 container

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