From July 17th-21st, thousands of people came together at locations around New York City and NY state to take part in Seeger Fest (www.seegerfest.org), a celebration of the lives, work, activism and music of Pete and Toshi Seeger. The RFC was proud to be one of this remarkable and historic event’s sponsors.

Click here to view a slideshow of Seeger Fest photos here

Scroll down this page to view Seeger Fest videos

Pete and Toshi’s grandson Kitama Cahill-Jackson created Seeger Fest as “a way for those who knew and admired Pete and Toshi to remember them, and for those who hadn’t heard of them, to get inspired by their compassion for the human race.” The festival included movie screenings, a memorial, a photo exhibit, boat rides, a square dance, and several star-studded concerts — all free and open to the public and mostly outdoors, as Kitama knew his grandparents would have wanted.

The RFC supported this event for many reasons. We could always count on the Seegers to come to our aid. Pete was the headliner at the kick-off benefit concert for the RFC in 1990, and he and Toshi were original members of our Advisory Board (see related article, here). Pete also performed for the RFC in 2001, when he and another grandson, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, helped us celebrate our 10th anniversary and gave the only public performance of a Woody Guthrie song about the Rosenbergs, which we had previously discovered in the Guthrie Archives.

Many other artists and activists who participated in Seeger Fest also have ties to the RFC. They included Harry Belafonte (whose daughter Gina co-produced the festival), Mike + Ruthy and Holly Near, (all RFC Advisory Board members), plus Peter Yarrow and Rebel Diaz, all of whom have performed for us over the years.

It also was particularly fitting for us to sponsor this event because of the work we do and the context in which we do it. RFC grants often enable our beneficiaries to participate in the arts, which can be a tre-mendous solace to children and youth experiencing trauma.

Furthermore, our motto is “Carry it Forward,” by which we mean that through our work, we strive to nurture and transmit progressive values from one generation to the next. We use that phrase because Ethel and Julius Rosenberg — in the last letter they wrote from death row to their sons Robert and Michael — said that they took comfort in the knowledge that others would carry on after them. Kitama, Gina, and the more than 200 Seeger Fest performers who ranged in age from nine to almost 90, and in many cases included two or even three generations of families, are doing just that.

The folk, hip hop, punk and indie rock artists who participated in the festival believe that the idea of so-cial consciousness in music must be heard louder than ever before. They are carrying on the fight for social, economic and environmental justice on many fronts.

It was a great honor for the RFC to support this event that celebrated not just two truly inspiring individuals, but also the power of the arts as a tool for change — or to borrow the slogan on Pete’s banjo, “to surround hate and force it to surrender.”

Visit www.rfc.org/seegerfestreport to see more photos and video.

"We Shall Overcome" closed both the "Memorial Concert for Pete & Toshi" at Lincoln Center Out of Doors (above) and the "New Songs of Justice" show at Central Park SummerStage (below) on the festival's final two nights

Steve Earle (below) performing "Walking Down Death Row" at the "New Songs of Justice" concert that closed Seeger Fest.

RFC Advisory Board member, Harry Belafonte (below), paying tribute to Pete Seeger at the Lincoln Center "Memorial Concert for Pete and Toshi Seeger"

Finale (below) of "New Songs of Justice," the final night of Seeger Fest, at Central Park SummerStage: "We Shall Overcome" and "Turn, Turn, Turn"