CANCELED | An Evening with Norman Kennedy

CANCELED | Please note that this event, previously scheduled for October 2, then November 13, has been canceled. 

Master weaver, singer, and storyteller Norman Kennedy was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, into a family that had been shipbuilders and merchant seamen for generations. He learned Scottish and Gaelic songs, stories and folklore from family members and neighbors. In his youth, Norman made annual trips to the Outer Hebrides to learn the local weaving, Gaelic songs, and cultural practices. In 1965, he performed at the Newport Folk Festival, representing Scotland in a program on the origins of the American ballad tradition. Making the US his home, Norman served for years as master weaver in the living history museum at Colonial Williamsburg and then founded the Marshfield School of Weaving in Marshfield, Vermont. Today he travels the country performing old Scottish songs, telling stories, and instructing people in traditional weaving techniques, including the rarely practiced community method of waulking (shrinking) cloth accompanied by group song.

Norman Kennedy is an international legend whose concerts have a relaxed informality about them – he comes out on stage, takes a seat and seemingly starts a conversation with the audience. Norman shares what is enduring about traditional songs: their authenticity, humor, the beauty. As Norman explains it: “These songs are my roots; they’re older and more important than I am.”