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For
about forty years, Guy and Candie Carawan have devoted
their lives to music making, collecting and spreading
songs, documenting cultural expression, organizing traditional
music festivals and designing workshops with the goal
of empowering participants to learn and inspire others
in their own communities. They have raised two chldren
while living on the Sea Islands off the coast of South
Carolina, finding themselves at the forefront of the
civil rights movement, and living and soaking up the
culture of Appalachia -- all while Guy maintained a
folk music performing career. They come to their work
with a strong social conscience, a love of music and
with the knowledge that music and other cultural expression
is often the very brick that builds bridges between
communities.
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Matt Watroba : Sing Out Magazine : Spring 2000
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Guy & Candie Carawan
New Market, TN, 1982
Photographer: Eve Arnold
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We
feel very fortunate to have found our way to Highlander
Folk School in Tennessee where we met in the Spring of
1960. This unique adult education center has brought together
community people since 1932 to struggle and work together
on the most pressing social and economic problems in the
South. Highlander played an important role in major political
movements from the labor movements of the 1930s, through
the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and an Appalachian
peoples' movement in the 1970s and 80s. It continues today
as the Highlander Research and Education Center working
on issues of economic justice and democratic participation.
We have learned that singing and songwriting, poetry,
story telling and drama can play a crucial supportive
role in social movements and in efforts to deal with community
issues and problems. |
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Furthermore,
people's indigenous cultural expression is something
of value in itself -- part of any community's heritage
which can give strength, a sense of identity, and confidence.
As
Highlander's work shifted focus from issue to issue
and region to region, the cultural fabric shifted as
well. We have found ourselves working in culturally
rich communities from Johns Island and the low country
South Carolina sea islands, to the Appalachian coalfields
and the deep black belt South during the turbulent years
of the Civil Rights Movement. Our goal here is to share
with you some of this richness.
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