Events

Historic Talks in Historic Buildings Hosted by Joel Underwood (Sold Out)

Date

November 12, 2025
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
$10

Location

Good Shepherd Center-Chapel Space
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103 United States

About

This program is sold out. If you'd like to be placed on the wait-list, please email [email protected].

“Historic Talks in Historic Buildings”: A New Lecture Series Presented by Historic Seattle and the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation

The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and Historic Seattle are thrilled to announce our partnership on a new lecture series titled “Historic Talks in Historic Buildings.” This series brings public programs into historic places across Seattle—places rich with history and meaning—while highlighting the voices and scholarship shaping our understanding of the past. Speakers have been selected from the 2024-25 Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, and together showcase the range of topics, questions, and discussions at the heart of historic preservation in Washington state.

“That Ribbon of Highway: Woody Guthrie in the Pacific Northwest,” presented by Joel Underwood 

Folk singer and activist Woody Guthrie composed 26 songs in 30 days while riding along the Columbia River and touring the Grand Coulee Dam Project in 1941. With his unique, authentic voice, he chronicled both the grandeur and the perils of what he called “the greatest thing that man has ever done” as an employee of the Bonneville Power Administration. His time here in the Pacific Northwest inspired a swell of patriotism that led Guthrie to enlist in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II, after which he returned home to fame and notoriety but also to tragedy and tremendous personal loss. Historian, teacher, folk singer, and actor Joel Underwood performs an hour that is part concert, part theatrical drama, and part lecture. Sing along to “Roll on Columbia,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and of course, “This Land is Your Land,” and learn the sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic stories behind the songs.

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