“What Music Does”

Si Kahn, In His Own Words

Si Kahn, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 2018. Photo by Brendan Greaves.

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“What Music Does”

Si Kahn, In His Own Words

by Si Kahn, BrendanGreaves
Southern Cultures, Vol. 24, No. 3: Music & Protest

“I’m in my fifty-second year as an organizer—civil rights, environment, labor, community. You know, if it moves, I try to organize it.”

I’m walking down the hall in the Library of Congress, wondering what I’m going to do, and I see a sign that says, “Archive of Folk Music.” I went in the really raggedy-ass office and said, “You guys got any Joan Baez?” And they said, “That’s not actually what we do. We’re the archive for folk music.” “Like Joan Baez?” “Well, yes and no.”

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