Filmmakerobit: Toshi Seeger

Toshi Seeger, archivist, organiser and film-maker, has died.

For many years, Toshi programmed the Great Hudson River Revival festival, booking folk artists who had yet to break.

There's a wonderful story on Persimmon Tree by Sue Leonard about the time she met Toshi and her husband, Pete Seeger:

Toshi also shot films, folklore research films. At one point she went to Huntsville, Texas, where she produced a film of the prisoners chopping trees and singing their songs. The film, “Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison,”can be found online in the Library of Congress archives. When Pete’s career became all-consuming, her projects were “bookshelved”.

This “bookshelving” prompted Sue to ask, “How did you keep from losing your identity being married to Pete?”

“I didn’t. My girl children taught me not to lose so much.”

Toshi Seeger was 91; she died July 9th.