Hear the People Sing: A Journey Through American Folk Music – Session #4 at Parkway Central Library, Free Library of Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA

6:00 PM in the Music Department

Hear the People Sing is a four-part deep dive into the history of American Folk Music! Music educator Olivia Johnson will guide attendees through group discussion and musical analysis, and will provide examples on the autoharp. If you can’t join us for all four sessions, feel free to come for just one!

In session #4 we will discover how folk music continued to evolve and stay relevant from the 1980’s until today, and we will apply our knowledge to write our own folk songs! We will reflect on the themes that came up in the previous three sessions and brainstorm topics that are relevant to our lives today. Participants will be shown three simple melodies and will be given time to write their own lyrics with the opportunity to share at the end of the session. I hope that you will leave feeling inspired to continue writing and singing about your experiences!

Presenter Bio

Born and raised in South Carolina, Olivia Johnson is a musician, educator, and organizer based in Philadelphia. She is a classically trained Soprano and a self-taught autoharpist with a passion for keeping old music alive. Olivia’s dedication to justice and social change has led them to work with a variety of organizations including the Urban Leaders Fellowship, the Strother School of Radical Attention, Leadership for Educational Equity, and Spiral Q. They are also the founder of Raise Every Voice, a non-auditioned community singing group with a repertoire of folk and protest music.