Yarrow to perform at Historic Ironwood Theatre

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood - The Historic Ironwood Theatre will host American singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow in a concert on Sunday, April 22, at 7 p.m.

The Peter in the folk music trio of Peter, Paul and Mary, Yarrow co-wrote - with Leonard Lipton - one of the group's greatest hits, "Puff, the Magic Dragon."

He said he was looking forward to performing, given the divisive political atmosphere around the country. He said his performances often produce a spirit in the audience that brings people together.

The music "taps into a certain historical part of our American DNA, whereby people got together and pledged their hearts and souls to make things right, or make things better," Yarrow told the Daily Globe Wednesday.

"When I sing in a concert, whether it's 'Blowing in the Wind,' or 'If I had a Hammer,' or 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' or even non-political songs like 'Puff, the Magic Dragon,' the singing together and my framing of this idea in a gentle way is an extraordinary gift to me to see how the audience afterwards comes to me and says, 'Thank goodness, we really needed this. We needed this sense that we can transcend this dilemma,'" he said.

"Having said that, these are drops in a bucket, no doubt, but they have a reverberation," he said.

The concerts are family friendly, with Yarrow often bringing kids onstage to sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon."

"It's a family gathering that's very focused on singing together and feeling a sense of unanimity of spirit," Yarrow said. "So it's a cross between a party, a concert and a peace march."

The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Yarrow was born in Manhattan in 1938. He began a love of folk music and social activism while at Cornell University, where he met Lipton and graduated in 1959. He later met Mary Travers and Noel Paul Stookey in New York and they formed their iconic trio in 1961 that became part of an American folk music revival.

They sang many songs they wrote, but also covered numbers by Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan that became anthems of the age, like Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," performed by them at Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington.

Peter, Paul and Mary received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.

Travers died in 2009 at 72 from complications from leukemia.

Stookey is 80.

The group sang in support of civil rights and the end of the Vietnam War, as well as presidential bids by Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and George McGovern in 1972. Yarrow actually married McCarthy's niece in 1969, and Stookey wrote and performed "Wedding Song (There is Love)" as his gift for the wedding.

One of Yarrow's latest political engagements is in the Better Angels project, which is an organization working to bring liberals and conservatives together to realize there is more common ground between people than differences.

"They completely dispel these stereotypes and they say, 'Yeah, there are some crazy people on the edges, but overwhelmingly the people we are being told we cannot talk to are good human beings," Yarrow said. "They're not stupid, they're not illogical and they're not rabid - they're good and we can work together with them and find common ground and build on it."

Founded by David Blankenhorn, the nonprofit accepts people will have different viewpoints and doesn't attempt to change anyone's political beliefs.

"That's not the exercise, that's not important," Yarrow said. "What's important is not to get us to not agree - we can disagree - it's to be able to like each other, embrace each other and respect each other as Americans who care about their country, no matter how we vote.

"That's part of why this concert I'm doing when I come to your neck of the woods is important to me," he said, comparing his current motivations to his participation in the civil rights movement and other causes. "I feel I continue to have a voice that matters. That I'm needed. And when I feel that, I want to go on the road - I want to do it."

Along with his frequent performances, Yarrow remains involved in Operation Respect - a nonprofit he founded with Dr. Charlotte Frank, an education professional, in 1999 to combat bullying.

He said he got the inspiration after hearing the song, "Don't Laugh at Me."

"When I heard that song, I knew I'd found the anthem for something that has become even more important since then," Yarrow said.

Founded roughly a year before the Columbine shooting, Yarrow said it was at a time when adult culture seemed to be sliding toward ridicule and disrespect, with the rise of reality television beginning around this time as well.

With the external pressures, it wasn't enough for schools to focus on academics, according to Yarrow, but also on growing students humanity, self-worth, kindness and willingness to work together.

To aid this effort, Yarrow and others developed a curriculum to help schools impart the message to school children.

"What we're trying to do is build a next generation that doesn't have this very problematic circumstance we're dealing with, in which there is an increasingly intense and dangerous black hole of empathy and compassion," Yarrow said.

Since the fall of 2000, Operation Respect has disseminated over 180,000 copies of 'Don't Laugh at Me,' free of charge, throughout the United States and across the world. The lessons have been translated into Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Cantonese and Ukrainian and used in countless classrooms, after-school programs and camps.

Despite his longtime activism in social justice causes - including organizing the famous 1969 "Celebration of Life" march on Washington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam War - Operation Respect ranks up there as one of the most important things he has done.

"I think this effort and this nonprofit has become more important than ever," Yarrow said. "I'm proud of this work."

Michigan natives Mustard's Retreat will open for Yarrow.

There are a limited number of "Meet and Greet" tickets for the April 22 performance. For ticket information, call the Historic Ironwood Theatre at 906-932-0618.

Along with the April 22 show, Yarrow will have a special performance the next day at the theater for some of the local elementary school children as part of his Operation Respect efforts.

Editor's Note: Daily Globe editor Larry Holcombe contributed to this story.