“America’s Cassandra: Connie Converse at 100”
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 12:45 p.m. – 2 p.m. (Fuller 410)
Connie Converse could see the future. A trailblazing songwriter, composer, performer, thinker, activist, writer, and community organizer, Converse (1924-?) spent her known life engaged with creative and intellectual pursuits that pointed toward many of today’s cultural preoccupations, including: pioneering the DIY indie musician model; railing against fascism; agitating against institutional racism: exploring the roots of human conflict; and experimenting with alternative methods of public education––all decades before such ideas and practices entered the mainstream.
There was only one problem: she was invisible.
In 1974, frustrated by her lifelong inability to have her life’s work acknowledged in any kind of meaningful way, Connie Converse wrote notes to family and friends that spoke of her need to try to start over, somewhere else, and drove off. She was never seen again.
Fortunately, Connie Converse’s legacy did not disappear along with her. It lives on, preserved in a massive archive she left behind containing letters, diaries, music, artwork, photographs, intellectual projects and writing, and recordings of her music–the basis for Howard Fishman’s book To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton/Penguin Random House (USA); Wildfire/Headline (UK).
Howard Fishman is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, where he has published essays on music, film, theater, literature, travel, and culture. His bylines have also appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Telegraph, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, Jazziz, and Salmagundi. His play, A Star Has Burnt My Eye, was a New York Times “Critics Pick.” As a performing songwriter and bandleader, Fishman has toured internationally as a headlining artist for over two decades. He has released eleven albums to date, and is the producer of the album Connie’s Piano Songs: The Art Songs of Elizabeth “Connie” Converse. He is based in Brooklyn, NY.
The Hartt Music History Forum is free and open to the University of Hartford community.