Bound for Local Glory at Last ( Woody Guthrie)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/music/woody-guthrie-gets-a-belated-honor-in-oklahoma.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=AR-E-FB-SM-LIN-BFG-122811-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=clickNice story. Excerpt:
TULSA, Okla. — Oklahoma has always had a troubled relationship with her native son Woody Guthrie. The communist sympathies of America’s balladeer infuriated local detractors. In 1999 a wealthy donor’s objections forced the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City to cancel a planned exhibition on Guthrie organized by the Smithsonian Institution. It wasn’t until 2006, nearly four decades after his death, that the Oklahoma Hall of Fame got around to adding him to its ranks.
But as places from California to the New York island get ready to celebrate the centennial of Guthrie’s birth, in 2012, Oklahoma is finally ready to welcome him home. The George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa plans to announce this week that it is buying the Guthrie archives from his children and building an exhibition and study center to honor his legacy.
“Oklahoma was like his mother,” said his daughter Nora Guthrie, throwing back her tangle of gray curls as she reached out in an embrace. “Now he’s back in his mother’s arms.”
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I think another reason his reputation hasn't been quite what it should be in his home state was the association of his music with the Dust Bowl era and the Okie stereotype that the state saw as a putdown during the 30s and for some time after.
Whatever the reasons, I'm happy to hear his archive is coming home. I still remember my first trip to Okemah (for the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival) and how I wished, at the time, that his house was still standing. I had an older friend, a musician and a stout lefty, who told me about how he and his friends used to make pilgrimages to it on occasion, hanging out in the ruins and playing music until the cops would chase them off.
Saw this while digging for some pictures of the house itself. It's from the Tri-City Herald, which is based in Southern Washington, along the Columbia River.
The United States will be slightly poorer in the heritage department if Woody Guthrie’s birthplace in Okemah, Okla., is torn down, as now seems imminent. The foundation was destroyed in early April.
(snip)
Not enough time has yet passed to make Woody Guthrie a truly historical American figure in his home town.
Inevitably, such a time will come. But by the, Guthrie’s small birthplace will have been obliterated for many years, and we’ll each be just a slight bit poorer for it.
Few people refuse to listen to Beethoven symphonies because Beethoven was outrageous in the conduct of the affairs of his personal life. The time will come when we will all appreciate Woody Guthrie no matter what the neighbors thought of his depression-era politics
I thought the editorial was particularly interesting in light of the fact that the editorial page isn't exactly left-leaning. Above "Save the Birthplace" is an editorial attacking a federal domestic violence law as "Big Brotherism" and below it is an editorial insisting that state workers have no right to strike and should be jailed for doing so. (Can't imagine Woody would be too happy about that
)
I wonder if the newspaper's attachment to Guthrie stems from his involvement in promoting Columbia River hydroelectric projects by commission from the Bonneville Power Administration. There's some great work in those Columbia River Ballads.
