FROM WOODY GUTHRIE TO BOB DYLAN
In 1930, Cunningham formed The Red Dust Players, a traveling Oklahoma troupe that promoted political agitation. She played accordion and sang protest songs in union halls and migrant camps to educate workers on the importance of unions. In 1940, Oklahoma-born Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger met Sis in Oklahoma City, whose lasting influence on American protest music would be as profound as their own. The next year, during the trial of the Communist Party’s leadership in Oklahoma City, Sis and her new husband and fellow Oklahoman George Friesen feared their own arrest so they moved to New York City. She joined the Almanac Singer with Pete on banjo, Sis on accordion, and Woody on guitar. In the early 1960s, Cunningham launched Broadside magazine to promote and nurture the new generation of folk singers who were migrating to the Village, including 19-year-old Bob Dylan. Between 1962 and 1988, Broadside published more than 1,000 songs.
