2012
UEA London Annouces Upcoming Conference
On September 15, 2012 UEA London will host the conference "America Changed Through Music": Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music at 60 with keynote speaker Professor Geoffery Ward.
Call For Papers:
University of East Anglia, School of American Studies
“America Changed Through Music”: The Anthology of American Folk Music At 60
UEA London, Saturday 15th September 2012
Keynote: Professor Geoff Ward, Royal Holloway, University of London
2012 marks the sixtieth anniversary of Harry Smith’s landmark Anthology of American Folk Music, which over the six decades of its existence has exerted considerable influence on generations of musicians, artists, and writers. In his acceptance speech for the Grammy Awards that the Anthology received in 1997, Smith claimed: “I’m glad to say that my dreams came true. I saw America changed through music.” This one day interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the UEA School of American Studies at UEA London, invites papers that will consider Smith’s claim: to what extent has America “changed through music”, specifically the music brought together on the Anthology of American Folk Music? More generally, discussions on the day will examine the wider legacy of the Anthology of American Folk Music on twentieth-century music, art, and literature. Possible topics could include:
More information available here.
Public Radio Tribute to the Anthology of American Folk Music
The Public Radio Exchange show "Blues Unlimited" recently featured a tribute to the Anthology of American Folk Music.
More information available here.
2011
"Anthology of American Folk Music" inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame
The tremendous cultural influence of Harry Smith's landmark "Anthology of American Folk Music" has been celebrated by its inclusion as 2012 inductee into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
More information available here.
A Tribute to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
Columbia City Theater
Seattle, WA
November 25, 2011
American Standard Time, Ball of Wax and the Seattle Folk Festival presented "A Tribute to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music"
More information available here.
The Filmmaker's Cooperative Benefit Concert
Filmmaker's Cooperative
New York, NY
November 16, 2011
This benefit concert for the Filmmaker's Cooperative featured live musical performances by Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson and a screening of films by Smith, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs and others.
More information available here.
4th Annual Harry Smith Festival
Elk Creek Café and Ale Works
Millheim, PA
November 6, 2011
Elk Creek Café and Ale Works and Chicken Tractor Deluxe host the 4th Annual Harry Smith Festival with bands performing music from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Proceeds will benefit the Penns Valley Hope Fund.
More information available here.
Visionary Animation: A series of influential films by experimental American Animators
BFI Southbank
Southbank, London, England
November 1, 2011
The BFI presents a series of films by Harry Smith, Stan Vanderbeek, Lawrence Jordan and Robert Breer, introduced by curator Adam Pugh.
More information available here.
The Old Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
Warsaw Film Festival
Warsaw, Poland
October 7-16, 2011
The Warsaw Film Festival is pleased to present a screening of Rani Singh's documentary The Old Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.
More information available here.
Silent Film Night: Heaven and Earth Magic by Harry Smith
APK Live
London, Ontario
August 18, 2011
APK Live presents a screening of Heaven and Earth Magic with live musical accompaniment by Ian Doig Phaneuf (A Person Disguised as People), Patrick Cahill (The riderless) and Jeremy Ive (A Priori, Exit 2012).
More information available here.
Visions: Animation and Abstraction, 1908 to 1994
Northwest Film Forum
Seattle, Washington
August 10, 2011
The Northwest Film Forum, Sprocket Society and Third Eye Cinema proudly present Visions: Animation and Abstraction, 1908 to 1994. This program includes an array of masterworks of experimental animation including works by Len Lye, Harry Smith, Robert Breer and Mary Ellen Bute.
More information available here.
The Unfinished Film
The Gladstone Gallery
New York, New York
June 24 - July 29, 2011
This exhibition, curated by Thomas Beard, examined what can be learned from fragmented and unfinsihed cinema works. The intermedial array included works by Harry Smith, Ken Jacobs, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
More information available here.
Watch Me Move: The Animation Show
Barbican Art Gallery
London, England
July 28, 2011
Writers Alan Moore and Edwin Pouncey provided live musical accompaniment to a screening of Harry Smith's Heaven and Earth Magic, as part of the Barbican Gallery's Watch Me Move: The Animation Show exhibtion.
More information available here.
Harry Smith: "The Paracelsus of the Chelsea Hotel"
Mara Goldwyn recently published the article Harry Smith: The Paracelsus of the Chelsea Hotel in the online magazine Nework Awesome.
Article is available here.
Harry Smith, Unpublished Footage
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Paris, France
May 25, 2011
Screening of Early Abstractions and rare, unpublished footage.
More information available here.
Anthology Related Building Listed as Historic
For the first time, a building has been officially designated as historic mainly based on a connection to Harry Smith's Anthology.
Music researcher Kurt Gegenhuber discovered in 2006 that a Saint Paul, MN, theater was once the Victoria CAfe, whose 1927 house band recorded "Moonshine Dance Part One," familiar from the Anthology.
When the Victoria was threatened in 2009, local residents asked Gegenhuber to seek historic status for the structure. The Saint Paul city council voted unanimously, on April113, 2011, to list the Victoria as a Historic Preservation Site.
More information available here.
Special Issue of Bombay Gin
The newest issue of the Naropa's Press journal Bombay Gin is devoted to the Anthology of American Folk Music. This special issue includes work by Greil Marcus, Amiri Baraka,the Fugs and Allen Ginsberg.
Harry Smith Program
Anthology Film Archives, New York
New York, New York
May 26, 2011 7:30
Anthology Film Archives presents an evening of films by Harry Smith, including Early Abstractions, Mirror Animations, Late Superimpositions and Oz, The Tin Woodman's Dream.
More information available here
New Directions in Animation: Harry Smith and Storm de Hirsch
Max Palevsky Cinema, University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
April 25, 2011
An evening of avant-garde films from the 1960s including Heaven and Earth Magic, Peyote Queen and Third Eye Butterfly.
More information available here
Abstract Expressionism and Film
Museum of Modern Art, New York
New York, New York
February 13- April 23, 2011
MOMA presents six programs of films inpsired by the New York School in conjunction with the Abstract Expressionist New York exhibition. Screenings include Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy, Shirley Clarke's The Cool World and films by the Whitney Brothers. Harry Smith's Early Abstractions will screen with the animation program.
More information available here