Harry Smith In The Pacific Northwest @ Hollywood Theatre
Thurs, May 16, 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Free
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Where did Harry Smith come from? What cultural forces worked together to produce this self taught anthropologist, musicologist, filmmaker, and record producer? In what ways can we see regional influence in his deep populism, DIY aesthetic, and permanent outsider status?
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Short presentations by three speakers will be followed by panel discussion.
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Presenters:
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Michael Munk, of Portland Red Guide, will speak about labor issues and the role played by the Wobblies, whose membership crested in 1924, the year after Harry Smith was born. Harry Smith’s father worked in a cannery. Harry has cited the Wobblies in interview as part of the cultural landscape in which he grew up.
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Gus Frederick, Silverton based historian, will discuss the early presence of Free Thinkers in the Willamette Valley, and the nature of their attraction to the West. Harry Smith’s parents were hard core Theosophists, and dabbled in spiritualism.
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Rich Wandschneider, of the Josephy Library of Western History and Culture in Joseph, will speak about cross culturality as experienced by European Americans who taught on Indian reservations. Harry Smith’s mother, Mary Louise Hammond Smith, held that position. Harry’s teen age anthropological work, collecting field recordings of Lummi Indians, happened within this context.
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I am pleased to announce that the Harry Smith In The Pacific Northwest will begin with a screening of Kaveh Askari‘s brand new, as yet untitled, experimental documentary short about Harry Smith’s Bellingham years.
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Askari’s film will be making its official Portland debut the following Sunday, May 19, at the Harry Smith Free For All, which will take place at The Cleaners in downtown Portland, 11:00 – 4:00 PM.
Harry Smith PDX 
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I trust some has spoken about Harry being a Thelemite; that’s the whole gig vibrating through his Genius
I thought someone in the audience would bring up this aspect of Harry’s life. It didn’t happen at this event. The discussion became very specific. Both Michael Munk, panelist, and Chuck Pirtle, audience member, were interested in pinning down the exact year Harry heard Woody Guthrie perform. With the input of several audience members, including Rani Singh, we arrived at the tentative consensus that it was in Seattle, in 1944. One thing everyone agreed upon – it is time for a full fledged, carefully researched Harry Smith biography.