“A world without art is a world without interested, loving, united audiences. It’s a world without a healthy way to find each other and to celebrate communally outside of sports or religion. No thank you. I don’t want to stop finding you.”
— Neko Case, Entering the Lung, 9/26/2023
As described in our “About”page, this blog was born out of the experience that is the Newport Folk Festival. The idea was to spread the festival’s pervasive sense of joy, good will, and community as widely as possible, throughout the year. Of course, this year the “folk family” stayed home. Nevertheless, via social media, the tremendous efforts of the Festival Foundation, Jay Sweet, and numerous other organizers and musicians, we all managed to be together even while apart. Thank you Jay Sweet, Caps, and everyone else for making the weekend happen.
“Here’s another one from our tiny attic sessions we did in January. We miss playing together and we miss playing for our fans but we feel inspired by the connection and community that’s resulted from everyone trying to get thru this together. This song is a good reminder not to sweat the small stuff. Enjoy and be safe!”
“What you’re seeing is empty businesses, empty schools, empty playgrounds. What is the emotional toll that takes? How can we replace some of that emptiness with images of hope, resilience, anger, and also dreams of a future that is hopefully not far off?” –Mark Strandquist, Mural Arts Philadelphia
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Click here for a Vox.com article, with photos and additional links.
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As stated on our about page, the idea for this blog was born out of the experience of attending the Newport Folk Festival each year. This letter from the Executive Producer captures some of the reason why.
“You soak people in enough imagination, they see in each other what they can create.” –daniel johnson
