In 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary participated in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On the same day Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, the trio performed its hit “If I Had a Hammer” and covered Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” for thousands, cementing its role as a voice for activism.
Peter, Paul and Mary formed in 1961 during the American folk revival, right in NYU’s backyard in Greenwich Village. Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, auditioned and created the group, which debuted at The Bitter End and would later become known for its activity in the Civil Rights Movements and anti-Vietnam War campaigns. This history later led Paul — Noel Paul Stookey — to inspire other musicians to follow in his footsteps.
Stookey, along with his daughter, Elizabeth Stookey Sunde, formed the nonprofit Music to Life in 2018. The organization empowers musicians to bring their talents to grassroots social movements and create a network of changemakers. Together, they host the Musician Changemaker Accelerator Academy, a six-month incubator for musicians to partner with community organizations, industry leaders and government agencies to create social programs across issues from climate justice to poverty.
Stookey will return to Greenwich Village from Oct. 27 to 29 as part of NYU’s new Arts & Impact Initiative, as its first Artist-in-Residence and in collaboration with the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development’s Songwriting program. Through events like a conversation with NYU’s Director of Songwriting and an evening of performances from him, NYU students and Music to Life artists, Stookey’s residency will offer insight into his decadeslong career as a music activist, which started right here in New York City.
In anticipation of his residency, WSN spoke with the folk legend about his return to the Village and his legacy as a musicmaker who inspires social conversation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSN: You’re the first Artist-in-Residence for NYU’s Arts & Impact Initiative. As someone who was so involved in Greenwich Village’s folk scene, what does it mean to be returning here?
Stookey: I haven’t returned to this particular area for a while. NYU was always in the periphery of the Village, but I don’t think that I was ever aware of a large student attendance at the coffee houses that I worked, which, in retrospect strikes me as strange because of all the people who would be curious [about music], it would be students.
I’m going to talk to some songwriters who are in various stages of their realization of their art. I’m living in a small town, Blue Hill, Maine, and I’ve been hosting a songwriting class here each fall. What strikes me is that I’ve learned a lot from working with them, and I think it’s going to hold me in good stead [at NYU] because it’s a grassroots approach to singing and songwriting. No matter how unskilled or lacking in experience you are about the arts, your desire to express yourself in as transparent a fashion you can is what makes the song work. It’s just a question of finding the language that makes that transition work.
WSN: You’ve been using music as a form of advocacy for decades, from performing at the 1963 March on Washington to empowering other musicians to follow in those footsteps. What do you hope NYU’s community can learn through your residency and these pivotal moments in your career?
Stookey: I hope that they’re able to narrow the chasm between their sense of what popular music is and music of social change. By that, I mean it’s easy for us to look at success in the music world now as being glitter and flash to a large extent. And it’s always been that way, because the core of meaning in a lyric is personal realization and self-evidencing as the first entry into communication. But the awareness shifts to, ‘This is how I see things, how will that impact the people around me? Can I be more inclusive with my lyrics?’ I’m hopeful I’ll be able to encourage students of NYU to make good use of things like metaphors. It’s the largest embrace because it doesn’t specify meaning. It encourages a personal interpretation of meaning.
WSN: Much of NYU’s community is artists who are passionate about social change like you. What advice would you give to student artists who are looking to make a social impact?
Stookey: Don’t give up. That’s the bottom line, and it has two levels. It means not only persistence, but also pull that piece of paper that you wrote that idea down on two weeks ago and look it up again. If it has a value, it will stand the test of time.
WSN: This year’s Arts & Impact theme is “Remix the Future.” What do you hope the future looks like for music as a form of social conversation?
Stookey: Wow, that’s a great line. It’s the encapsulation of what I think every artist hopes for. I would hope even the reluctant participants, or the ones that are so well-trained that are skeptical of having this folk musician who barely knows how to read music coming in to instruct them about music, would have any kind of uplifting impact [from this] on their lives. I hope I open up doors for them in terms of permissions, and it may just be permissions to make mistakes.
Members of the public can still register for Stookey’s Oct. 27 Words & Music event and Oct. 29 History Rhymes event. Note that admission is free and space is limited.
Contact Dani Biondi at [email protected].