As a kick-off to Hardwick's participation in the VERMONT READS 2018 Mark Greenberg presents his Vermont Humanities talk "Solidarity Forever: Songs of Unions and Labor" at the Hardwick Town House on Tuesday, September 18 at 7 pm. Using live and recorded music, Greenberg surveys American labor songs from the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, through the Wobblies, and into the coal wars of the 1930. For centuries, working people have used songs to express protest and hope and as an organizing tool. In the U.S., the I.W.W (or Wobblies), which led the 1912 Bread and Roses strike, was especially known for its rousing and satirical songs, including the anthemic "Solidarity Forever." This year's VERMONT READS book is BREAD AND ROSES, TOO by Vermont author Katherine Paterson. The book centers around the 1912 labor strike in Lawrence, MA.

Mark Greenberg is an educator, writer, musician, and media producer. He has taught at Goddard College and the University of Vermont and produced award-winning recordings and radio and video documentaries. He wrote for the JVC-Smithsonian Folkways Video Anthologies of Music and Dance of the Americas, Europe, and Africa and has recorded music by recent immigrants and refugees in the state for the Vermont Folklife Center's New Neighbors project.

The talk is free and open to the public, and accessible to those with disabilities. This Vermont Humanities Council program is sponsored by the Friends of the Jeudevine Library and in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information contact Jeudevine Library Director, Lisa Sammet, at 472-5948 or jeudevinelibrary@hardwickvt.org.

Free copies of the book will be available to take, read and share!