Read Weston Blelock’s Blog: Roots of Woodstock
Weston Blelock is in touch with everything that is Woodstock—from his roots-of-Woodstock chronicles about the world-famous festival to what’s happening today.
Underground Screening and Reception
On August 13th, the Historical Society of Woodstock (HSW) screened Jud Yalkut’s Clarence and Aquarian Rushes at Upstate Films. The first film is about Clarence Schmidt, a sculptor and sixties pop icon, and the second one is a documentary about the Woodstock Festival of 1969. The event was a fundraiser for the HSW. Over 75 attended on a very busy...
Jud Yalkut Underground Film Fest
On August 13, 2011, at 1 p.m., the Historical Society of Woodstock plans to hold a special screening of Jud Yalkut’s films, Clarence and Aquarian Rushes, at Upstate Films in Woodstock. Yalkut, an award-winning film and visual artist, will be on hand to introduce his work. Clarence is a short 16 mm experimental piece on Clarence Schmidt. Schmidt was a local sculptor and pop icon who lived in a...
Woodstock Folk Fest, Part III: Sonia Malkine
Sonia Malkine, an accomplished chanteuse, joined Woodstock’s folk singing establishment in the late 1950s. Together with Eleanor Walden, Sam Eskin, Billy Faier, and several others, she co-founded the Woodstock Folk Festival in 1962. Sonia was born in France in 1923, the daughter of Anarcho-Syndicalist activists. When the Second World War broke out, she and her family fled Paris to Toulouse. In...
Woodstock Folk Fest, Part II: Billy Faier
Billy Faier, one of the co-founders of the Woodstock Folk Festival, came to Woodstock as a 14-year-old in 1945. According to Eleanor Walden, Billy was a very independent teenager. She remembers visiting his apartment in the mid-1940s in Greenwich Village and listening to folk and blues records. One time in 1946, she and Billy came up to Woodstock for the...
The Woodstock Folk Festival
Eleanor Walden, social activist, and folksinger, recently told me in a phone interview that she believes she was the catalyst for the first Woodstock Festival. That festival took place in 1962 at the Woodstock Estates on Friday, September 14th, through Sunday, September 16th. Pete Seeger donated concert proceeds from an August gig at the Woodstock Playhouse to help fund the festival. According...
Nina Yankowitz Recalls Woodstock’s Group 212
The Woodstock Festival of 1969 was officially named the Woodstock Music & Art Fair. According to Michael Lang in Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, the inclusion of “art” in the festival name was a nod to Woodstock, NY's status as an art colony—beginning in the early 1900s with Byrdcliffe and the Maverick Festivals and later with organizations like Group 212. Recently I spoke by phone...
Peter Blum and the Sound-Outs
Peter Blum is a long-time resident of the Woodstock area. His shamanic sound healing practice is widely recognized and supported by the community. In 2009 he was honored with an award from the National Guild of Hypnotists for “a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication, and service.” I spoke to him recently by phone to learn about his connection to the Sound-Outs. Peter started his...
Woodstock and Camp Woodland
The Historical Society of Woodstock's Folk Songs of the Catskills: The Spirit of Camp Woodland exhibit and related events drew hundreds of attendees this past summer. For example, on August 14, nearly 100 people attended the presentation/folk concert with Sue Rosenberg, Pat Lamanna, Joe Hickerson, Mickey Vandow, and Eric Weissberg. During the exhibit, people asked about the linkage between Camp...
From Camp Woodland to the Woodstock Music Festival
Raising Reds Author to Give Talk and Sign Books Woodstock, NY—On Sunday, September 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., Paul C. Mishler, author of Raising Reds: Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture, will give a talk at the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive in Woodstock. Mishler’s presentation will be titled “From Camp Woodland to the Woodstock Festival and Beyond.” Camp...
Camp Woodland Presentation and Concert
Presentation and Folk Concert Woodstock, NY—On Saturday, August 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., Pat Lamanna and Sue Rosenberg will give a talk about Camp Woodland at the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive in Woodstock. Located near Phoenicia from 1939 to 1962, Camp Woodland helped to spark a revival in Catskill Mountain roots music. Throughout the presentation, Pat Lamanna, a folk singer with The Raggedy Crew...