For Woody’s Birthday, A New Book About “1913 Massacre”

Just in time for Woody’s birthday — he’d be 105 years old today — a new book about 1913 Massacre by Daniel Wolff: Grown up Anger. Wolff’s book explores the deep personal, cultural and historical connections between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, following a trail that leads from Dylan’s “Song…

Read more

People’s Stories and The Italian Hall Memorial

There’s a discussion underway in Calumet right now about the design of a new Italian Hall Memorial. We contributed the following thoughts to that discussion today. To the Italian Hall Memorial Group and The Village of Calumet, As producers of 1913 Massacre, the feature-length, 2012 documentary film about the Italian…

Read more

From Bowling Green to 1913

In an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC last night, inveterate liar Kellyanne Conway defended Trump’s travel ban by claiming, falsely, that Trump is only doing what Obama did; then, in a weird twist, she went on to say that Obama “had a six month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two…

Read more

A Letter to the Students at Lincoln Elementary School In Madison, Wisconsin

Hi! We are thrilled that you watched our film and so happy that you took the time to write letters to us and to Arlo and Nora Guthrie. A couple of weeks ago, Ken and I attended an event honoring Pete Seeger at Symphony Space, here in New York City.…

Read more

“Joins the Ranks of Great Progressive Movies”

Bill Meyer sums up his review of 1913 Massacre: Seamless editing, engrossing interviews and a stirring well-integrated music soundtrack make the film flow like long lost friends catching up on history. Arlo makes the point early on that it was folk songs where people learned about working class history, such…

Read more

Newtown, Calumet and Dark Anniversaries

Sometimes during the Question & Answer periods after screenings of 1913 Massacre, people ask why the tragedy held the town of Calumet in its grip for so long. Why did the memory of the Italian Hall disaster last? Why did it take so long for the town to come to…

Read more

“They Try to Create Despair Among the Miners”

One of the small treasures I brought back to New York from Lake Superior is Hannu Leppanen and Daniel Schneider’s 2013 letterpress edition of Tyomies, the Finnish workingman’s newspaper published during the strike of 1913. I’ve mentioned the project here before. Daniel set up his Chandler & Price Pilot Press…

Read more

Everyone Was In It

One of the enduring and iconic images of the 1913 strike is this photograph, of a boy carrying a sign that reads, “Papa Is Striking For Us.” Both the sign and the photograph were probably created by WFM organizers, who were pretty savvy when it came to media relations. (So,…

Read more

“Unfinished Business”

Mike Ragogna interviews Nora Guthrie today on Huffington Post about her father and his music. MR: Were there certain topics brought up in his material, such as the plight of the Mexican worker in “Deportees,” that resonated with you more than others? NG: Woody wrote over 3000 songs for every…

Read more

Woody Guthrie, Mother Bloor and The New Marker at the Italian Hall Site

Here’s a recent local news story about the changing of the Michigan historical marker at the Italian Hall site in Calumet. The sign at the site no longer says that the doors of the Hall opened “inward,” as it did for years. As author Steve Lehto sees it, the story…

Read more