Unsung Heroes & Mentors
Individuals that have strongly impacted my life
 Guy & Candie Carawan
Based at the Highlander Center in Tennessee for more than 30 years, have worked as cultural organizers in the South, and have performed nationally and internationally.
They have produced four books and a dozen documentary albums reflecting both traditional cultures of Deep South African American and Appalachian communities; and the adoption of these cultures into social movements. They have also produced 12 albums of their own music.
Guy is best known for spreading We Shall Overcome throughout the South in the early 1960's. He plays guitar, banjo, and hammered dulcimer. In addition to singing, Candie is an artist and potter.
 Larry Penn
He sings and tells stories of hard work, working people, trains, trucks, life on the road, love nonsense, and pink flamingos. Noted for their elegance in simplicity, his songs are not only popular with audiences, but are acclaimed by other artists, many of whom have recorded their own renditions of Larry's songs.
Larry's performances have delighted audiences from age 3 to 103 at schools, museums, music festivals, and just about every place in between the Hobo campfires of the Hobo Convention at Britt, Iowa and the Musica E. Lovoro in Torino, Italy.
 Walt Bressett
1947-1999
An Anishinabe peace and justice advocate died Feb. 21 from a heart attack while he was visiting some friends in Duluth. A member of the Loon Clan, the 51-year-old Red Cliff Chippewa defended treaty rights and fought to prevent metallic sulfide mining, and to prevent acid from a mining operation being shipped across northern Wisconsin.
Bresette was a US Army veteran. He was a co-founder of the Witness for Nonviolence, Midwest Treaty Network, Anishinaabe Niijii, Lake Superior Greens, Wisconsin Greens, and was an inspiration to many others.
 Bruce "Utah" Phillips
1935-2008
Was a labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and self-described "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.
Phillips was an elder statesman for the folk music community, and a keeper of stories and songs that might otherwise have passed into obscurity. He was also a member of the great Traveling Nation, the community of hobos and railroad bums that populates the midwest United States along the rail lines, and was an important keeper of their history and culture.
 Hilary J. "Sparky" Waukau
1922-1995
On April 7 Native American environmental leader, Hilary “Sparky” Waukau, was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. Sparky was a member of the Menominee Nation and was involved in environmental and conservation causes most of his adult life and was an early and unyielding protector of the Wolf River.
He is credited with playing an important role in no fewer than six separate efforts to protect or enhance the Wolf River and the surrounding environment in northeast Wisconsin. The following is a resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress on May 11th, 1996.
 Floyd Red Crow Westerman
1963-2008
American Indian activist and country folk singer, was born on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota in 1936. In the Dakota language Red Crow is pronounced 'Kanghi Duta.' At the age of ten, he was sent to a government boarding school 80 miles off the reservation. He graduated from high school on the Flandreau South Dakota Sioux reservation, and continued on to Northern State College, South Dakota, majoring in Speech, Theater and Art. He earned a degree in Secondary Education, as well as beginning work on a Law Degree.
 Roscoe Churchill
1916-2007
Coming soon!!! |
