The New Jersey Folk Festival has a long tradition of featuring singer songwriters in the tradition of the Folk Revival. In the past, we have featured a singer songwriter contest on our Shore Stage. This year, in light of the past year of renewed global struggles for racial justice, social change, and responses to the pandemic, we wanted to revisit the essential role of folk music in these arenas, both in the past, the present, and the future.
Thus was born the “New Directions in Folk” program arm of the festival, which we hope will continue to grow as we feature the ways people use music and dance to address contemporary social issues, adapt traditions and identities to modern genres, and use music to move the people! We have a suite of events lined up as part of our New Directions in Folk program
Our Virtual Concert includes live and pre-recorded performances. We invite you to participate by registering for the webinar or following along with the livestream on our youtube channel.
Saturday April 10th, 7pm
Watch Live on our YouTube Channel
Josh White Jr. Josh White, Jr., son of the legendary Josh White, has been performing as a singer, guitarist, actor, and social activist for 77 years. He has released twenty five albums, starred in four TV Concert specials, toured the world greatest stages, and has been awarded a TONY Award for acting, named the Voice of the Peace Corps and the Voice of VISTA, and honored with several humanitarian awards. Most recently, he was seen co-starring last year in PBS-TV’s Centennial Concert Tribute to Pete Seeger.
Yeimy Gamez Castillo is an artist and community activist based in Newark. She is a graduate research fellow at Rutgers Newark’s Newest Americans project and co-founder of ImVisible Newark, a community-based arts education project that empowers migrant and undocumented communities in New Jersey. She is also a co-executive producer and founder of the Healing Sounds of Newark at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies.
See her work here: https://www.storiesfromthepandemic.com/stories/truth-in-song
Paul Lewis Paul Lewis is a singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer from San Jose, California. He enjoys blending a wide array of musical influences together to make a unique and unforgettable sound. Additionally, Paul currently attends Rutgers University with a major in psychology and minor in philosophy. Paul is involved in the spoken word group Verbal Mayhem.
Miran Mijangos (CELIA REVISE) Mirian Mijangos Garcia is a singer, songwriter, and naturopath. She is also a mother, ethnographer, and an immigrant rights activist. She is a co-author of the book Decolonizing Ethnography: Undocumented Immigrants and New Directions in Social Science.
She volunteers at Casa Freehold. As a volunteer of Casa Freehold she has been able to work very closely with the community, being a part of the National Alliance of “Trabajadoras de Hogar.” She fights for the rights against any injustice, and the songs she’s written are based on what she has seen in her surroundings.