Shelter Island Library Friday Night Dialogue — Pete Seeger and music at the heart of social change

On July 21 at 7 p.m., as part of the Friday Night Dialogue series, please join two very special friends of the Shelter Island Public Library, Barbara Barnes and Erland Zygmuntowicz, for a celebration of the amazing life and work of one of America’s most beloved cultural icons and exceptional humans — Pete Seeger.

“To describe him as a folk singer would be true, but insufficient — he was also an activist and citizen of the world,” Ms. Barnes said. “Pete Seeger serves as a model of a rich life dedicated to social and political change that made use of a native musical talent to further that cause.” His musical activism involved major human rights and environmental movements of the 20th and 21st centuries and continues to inspire action today.

Ms. Barnes came to know Seeger through her participation in the New York City Labor Chorus, a 60-member vocal group, founded by the 1199 Hospital Workers Union and advised by him.

“He was a very centered person with a very clear view of the world and what it could be,” she said. “It was an honor and rare treat for the chorus to sing for him at Madison Square Garden on the occasion of his 90th birthday.”

Music as social action also brought Ms. Barnes into the orbit of her program co-presenter, Erland Zygmuntowicz.  In the early 1980s, the two met while singing in a group called Four Parts of the Movement that traveled to Nicaragua in support of the Sandinistas. Years later, during the height of the pandemic, they reunited on Crescent Beach.

“It was a cool, fall day and when, from afar, I encouraged a woman who turned out to be Barbara into the water, she recognized me by the sound of my voice,” said Mr. Zygmuntowicz, who chaired the History Department at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn for over 20 years and recently retired full-time to Shelter Island.

A lifelong political activist, guitarist and singer, Mr. Zygmuntowicz serves in the leadership of the People’s Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, a 50-year-old community of musicians fighting for social justice.

“Each generation creates the songs relevant to its own experience,” he said.

“Erland will be performing a contemporary song in the Seeger tradition at the library,” Ms. Barnes added, “so get ready to join in.”

The program on July 21 will be a participatory, multimedia presentation, capturing the salient features of Seeger’s life: his friendship with Woody Guthrie, singing with the Weavers, being blacklisted for a decade, his work with the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements in the 1960s and his leadership in cleaning up the Hudson River.

Through video, recordings, discussion and singing, the co-presenters hope to convey Seeger’s immense integrity and generosity of spirit. “We want folks in the audience not only to enjoy themselves, but also to be inspired to think about how they want to be in the world, what’s possible,” Ms. Barnes said.

Don’t miss this opportunity to step into the river of historic social action through song with these two remarkable veterans of the progressive movement, each with a rich background of engagement and riveting stories to tell. Our special Island community may be small, but it has the potential to be  mighty. As Mr. Zygmuntowicz paraphrases Pete Seeger, “We have to think globally and act locally, because, if we’re ever going to salvage the world, we’re going to have to do it together.”

Please register for the July 21 Friday Night Dialogues Program with Barbara Barnes and Erland Zygmuntowicz by visiting the Events calendar on the library’s website at silibrary.org. It will be a hybrid event (both in-person and online). For further information or assistance, contact Jessica Montgomery via email at [email protected] or by phone at 631-749-0042.

All library programs are free to the public, however donations are gratefully accepted.