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Author: Owain Jones
I work at Bath Spa University as a Professor of Environmental Humanities, and I am Director of the University's Environmental Humanities Research Centre
Bath Spa University Research Festival, Wednesday 17th July. BSU EHRC will be showing films on water, communities and climate change.
Great discussion on tides in the book, The Moon Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite by James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, 1874
International Seminar on Artists and Ecology; Universitat Politècnica de València; Monday Junes 10th 2019
Could someone become the Woodie Guthrie for the modern environmental crisis? (And Donald Trump!)
Woodie Guthrie has already been mentioned on this blog. Watching a recent film about his life on BBC TV makes me just say that he is a great example of a songwriter/musician who was, or who become, overtly political in his work – but also retained the ability to write very catchy, appealing songs. Most obviously ‘This Land is Your Land’. This song was sung in full by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen at the inauguration of Barak Obama as US president. Guthrie has the slogan “This Machine Kills Fascists” written on his guitar. Somewhat strangely, he lived in an apartment block in New York which he became to feel was run on a racist basis (excluding possible back tenants), he wrote about this. The landlord was Fred Trump. Donald Trump’s father.
Given Woodie Guthrie was known as the dust bowl balladeer there is a lot of environmental narrative in his songs, but he was writing at a time when the full extent of the extinction, pollution and climate crises were not known. What would his songs be like now?
Woodie Guthrie bio on Wikipedia here
