MOLINE, ILLINOIS (March 30, 2022) — Humanities scholar and musician Bucky Halker presents his Illinois Humanities Council program “Down in the Mine: American Coal Miners and Their Songs, 1890-1960” at the Moline Public Library, Monday, April 18, 3PM. Space is limited for this performance; registration is required. Sign up by calling the library’s Information Desk at 309-524-2470 or visiting //molinelibrary.com/events.
“Down in the Mine” combines music performance (guitar and vocal) and commentary to tell the stories of coal miners in Illinois and the US. These laborers have a long tradition of writing poetry and music related to their occupation, and this program brings that tradition to the forefront. Halker’s presentation features songs by coal-miners, including Illinois miners. The commentary places this important folk tradition in historical context and offers details on coal-mining, mining accidents, labor struggles, coal-miner bards and songwriters, early country music, and individual songs.
This is an Illinois Humanities — Road Scholars program. Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA)], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations.
About Bucky Halker
Bucky Halker is a songwriter, performer, and historian with fifteen albums to his credit, including Anywhere But Utah: Songs of Joe Hill (2015), a musical tribute to martyred labor songwriter Joe Hill (1879-1915), and The Ghost of Woody Guthrie (2012), an original music tribute to the legendary folksinger. Halker, a PhD in American History, has lectured and published extensively on music in America and has toured Europe regularly since 1990. He is the author of For Democracy, Workers, and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895 (University of Illinois Press) and the scholar-producer for the five-volume Folksongs of Illinois CD series. Bucky received the prestigious Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress — American Folklife Center in 2012. He served as guest professor of American Studies at Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany, in the spring of 2016.
