Dear Friends in Music,
Tonight at Caffe Lena I am proud to lead a tribute to Utah Phillips, on his 90th Birthday. More info below, but you can attend in person for those who may be in the Saratoga Springs region. Or you can also live-stream from anywhere you happen to be. Please do! Debra Cowan, Rik Palieri, Carol Crittenden and I will sing songs, tell stories, share some laughs, and celebrate a man whose music and life touched us all.
Event Link:
On Friday May 16th, I will be in Brattleboro, VT to perform a benefit concert at All Souls U.U. Church Saturday in support of refugees and asylum seekers who were receiving assistance from ECDC and CASP, local organizations who lost much of their funding when U.S.A.I.D. was shuttered earlier this year.
Saturday May 17th, I will be back at the Mt Toby Quaker meetinghouse in Leverett, MA. I am excited to return to this wonderful concert series.
May 28th, I am off to South Africa. More on that in the next newsletter. For now, please read more about the Utah Phillips concert at Caffe Lena.
Thanks for your support, encouragement, and for understanding the value of LIVE music!
In Gratitude & Song,
~ Joe Jencks
"Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision, not of where we're going, but where we want to go." ~ Utah Phillips
Unveiling the Official Utah Phillips Table at Caffe Lena
It started with a casual remark made by Sarah Craig in a Caffe Lena Board meeting. I was winding down my 2nd year on the board. She mentioned that there was one table left in the Caffe that was unnamed. Naming rights to tables had been part of a fund raising campaign at the Caffe prior to my time on the board. But as soon as I heard that, I had a vision - Utah Phillips name on a table at the Caffe, in perpetuity. Of the 65 years now that Caffe Lena has been thriving - Utah performed there for nearly 40 of those years.
U. Utah Phillips (Bruce) was a complex and brilliant man. He was a folksinger, activist, satirist, entertainer, organizer, and a walking cultural institution. I knew some of his music, but we did not meet in person until February of 2000 at a Folk Alliance International Conference in Cleveland. We both showed up for a musician’s union meeting, A.F.M. Local 1000. Utah and I ended up in the same committee meeting during a break-out session, and it was an education. I never met someone more fired up about worker’s rights.
One of the surprises in getting to know him was to learn that he was also a Korean War Vet. And he had been a bona fide Hobo. And a professional clown. And he had done some serious labor organizing. And he was a huge fan of Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, and the Catholic Worker Movement. And Utah was, near as I could tell, an atheist. Clearly a complex fellow with a lot of stories, and life experiences to back them up. Over the next 8 years between our meeting and his passing, Utah was a mentor to me in so many ways, and also a friend.
So when Sarah said, we have one table left to name, I caught her after the meeting and asked her how much funding it took to name a table. She said “Ten-thousand dollars.”
GULP.
I said, “OK. Please hold that table for me. I am not sure how I am going to get this done, but I want to see that table named in honor of Utah Phillips.”
Tonight, on Utah’s 90th Birthday, we will officially unveil the Utah Phillips: Long Memory Table at Caffe Lena. Furthermore, we will celebrate with an evening of Utah’s music performed by Debra Cowan, Rik Palieri, Carol Crittenden, and yours truly. The timing could not be more fitting. With the arts coming under attack, with the working class, education, free speech and free thinking all in the cross-hairs of would-be fascists, it is fitting to remember and celebrate this remarkable humanitarian, activist, musician, and advocate for the downtrodden.
I want to thank Andy & Bill Spence, Ron & Kathy Cooke, George Ward, Jack & Connie Hume, Chet & Karen Opalka, Gordon Boyd, MarySue Twohy, Ray Saunders, Debra Cowan, Rik Palieri, Carol Crittenden, and members of A.F.M. Local 1000 and the I.W.W. for generously contributing to this project.
I also want to thank Sarah Craig - Executive Director of Caffe Lena - and the staff of Caffe Lena, especially Mateo Vosganian, Hannah Stirzaker, and Joanne Brown for their support with this project. And our engraving artist Kelsi Lee who did an amazing job turning all of this into a work of table-top art.
This month marks the 65th anniversary of Caffe Lena. And it has been 17 years this month since Utah passed. It is hard to imagine that a man I knew for 8 years had such an impact on my life, art, music, songwriting, and ideas. But he did.
In the years that I knew him, Utah took his work seriously, but never took himself too seriously. A really great combination of traits. He was one of the wittiest people I ever met. And he always, always made time for younger folks and those who were on the margins. I encourage you to troll the net for more information about him, and listen to some of his music. And the next time you are at Caffe Lena, ask to be seated at the Utah Phillips: Long Memory Table.
For now, join us in person or online for the concert in celebration of The life, legacy, and music of Utah Phillips.
Event Link:
Caffe Lena:
***The live-stream will also be available after the fact. So, even if you can’t be there with us, you can catch the celebration later.
In Song and Solidarity,
~ Joe Jencks
