Description

Will Kaufman is Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire. He is also widely regarded as the world's leading authority on Woody Guthrie. He has written three books on Guthrie: Woody Guthrie, American Radical (2011), Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues (2017), and Mapping Woody Guthrie (2019). He was consultant to Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley for the publication of their co-edited edition of Guthrie's posthumously discovered novel, House of Earth (2013). Will is also a singer and multi-instrumentalist who has performed extensively throughout the USA and Europe presenting what he describes are 'live documentaries' based on Woody Guthrie's life and times.

We are delighted to welcome Will back to Durham Book Festival to present the third in his series of fascinating live documentaries. His latest work 'Woody Guthrie and Old man Trump', tells the story of Guthrie's battles against his racist Brooklyn landlord, Fred C. Trump who just so happens to be the father of the current US president. Based on unpublished songs, letters, and notebooks that Will discovered while researching in the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the show brings to life all the anger and contempt that Guthrie felt for those in power who deny justice to their fellow human beings on the basis of skin colour.

'Guthrie's songs made my head spin, made me want to gasp.' Bob Dylan

'No one can understand the American people without listening to Woody Guthrie. Will Kaufman's doing important work here.' - Tom Paxton

'I thank Will Kaufman for introducing a new generation of Europeans to 'the other America'. It's a wonderful job he's doing.' - Pete Seeger

Description

Fowlers Yard, Back Silver Street,

Durham,

County Durham,

England,

DH1 3RA.