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.
Like the mythological Cassandra, the character she chose to base her final known musical project on, Converse seemed cursed. Her music was ignored. Her ideas about America, conflict, and race were relegated to niche academic journals and sparsely attended lectures. Her deeply-rooted activism was anonymous. And her stubborn refusal to play by the gender rules of her day made her a social misfit.
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)).
Twelve years in the making, Fishman’s book excavates the life and work of an American visionary, positioning her as a major artist and thinker of her time, overlooked until now. The book was a finalist for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography, appeared on a number of prestigious year-end “Best Of ” lists, and has been hailed by both press and contemporary voices alike (including Ken Burns, Greil Marcus, Susan Orlean, and Rick Moody) as an important contribution to cultural journalism.
Converse’s music, first released on the 2009 compilation How Sad, How Lovely, has garnered her a new legion of fans that continues to grow exponentially with every passing year. Converse’s songs have become a phenomenon on streaming and social media platforms, inspiring cover versions, articles, performances, theatrical projects, essays, and renditions by some of today’s brightest young stars.
But Converse was more than just a pioneering musician and songwriter. She worked on an opera; she wrote art songs; she was a published cartoonist and poet, a painter, a sculptor, a thinker, and an activist. The depth and breadth of her activities and contributions are only just beginning to be appreciated.
As her biographer and champion, Howard Fishman is on tour to help celebrate Converse’s extraordinary vision, to contextualize her contributions, and to talk about why she matters and why her story is a cautionary tale for our culture. His presentation includes recordings of her music, photographs from her life, readings from her letters, and short excerpts from Fishman’s Plutarch Award-nominated book.
Howard Fishman is an author, musician, composer, theater-maker, and cultural essayist, based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a regular contributor to both The New York Times and The New Yorker, and his writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Telegraph, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, ArtForum, and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has released eleven albums of his own to date, continues to tour internationally, and is the producer of the album Connie’s Piano Songs: The Art Songs of Elizabeth “Connie” Converse.
For more information or to book Howard Fishman, please email:
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You may also like the following events from Manchester Community Library:
- Next Monday, 14th July, 10:00 am, Southern Vermont Musikgarten: Animal Friends in Manchester
- Next Tuesday, 15th July, 05:00 pm, Death, Dying & Danishes in Manchester
- Next Wednesday, 16th July, 03:30 pm, Not On Tobacco (NOT): A Drop-In Group for Teens Who Want to Quit in Manchester
Also check out other
Arts events in Manchester,
Literary Art events in Manchester,
Entertainment events in Manchester.
