The Travelling People 2014

TVP poster April

https://www.facebook.com/events/514666085310792/

Poster by Alex Goodman: http://alexinpenryn.tumblr.com
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On the 17th April 1964, the BBC broadcast The Travelling People, a ‘radio ballad’ by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger. The last of their groundbreaking collaborations, this programme explored the lives of Gypsies and Travellers in their own voices, interspersed with songs by MacColl.

April 17th 2014 will be the 50th anniversary of this broadcast, so that’s the day we’ll celebrate it, as well as the lives and culture of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people. We’ll do this by creating a 2014 version of a radio ballad (albeit with visuals as well as sound!)

About the performers:
* The Gypsy Starshttp://thegypsychronicles.net/gypsy-stars-uk/
* Thomas McCarthy: www.thomasmccarthyfolk.com
* Damian Le Bas: www.damianlebas.com
* Keely T. Mills: www.sundownarts.org/2013/10/keely-mills-our-poet-for-peterborough/
* Alex Etchart: http://alexetchart.com/
* Peter Cox, author of Set Into Song, a brilliant history of the radio ballads: www.setintosong.co.uk
* Hedgemustard: www.hedgemustard.org

Brenda Downes will speak about her work with Travellers in Lewisham: www.lewishamirish.plus.com

Goldsmiths College Library houses an extraordinary and little-seen collection of material that once belonged to Seeger and MacColl. This collection is filled with material that explores and celebrates the incredibly rich folk music of these islands, as well as the struggles of the disadvantaged to carve out some justice in their own lives, and in those of others. More than anything else, the collection is an exploration of the extraordinary potential of music to transform social struggles.

There will be an exhibition of material from the Seeger/MacColl collection at New X LEarning from April 14-27th.

And there will be a talk by Peggy Seeger in the Goldsmiths Special Collections room from 11am-5pm on May 28th on making effective and inspiring political music in the 21st century. Contact holler@hedgemustard.org for more details.

Thanks to the Lipman-Miliband Trust for part-funding this event.

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