A new exhibit at the Woody Guthrie Center will include a reproduction of a UE NEWS Feature written by UE Digital Organizer Samantha Cooney.

“The Peekskill Riots: Where Everyday Union Members Stood Up to Racism, Anti-Semitism, and Hate” [1] was written in 2024 to mark the 75th anniversary of the riots. In August 1949, right-wing mobs attacked an audience of union members and civil rights activists, including UE members, who had gathered to watch popular Black singer and actor Paul Robeson perform in upstate New York.

The exhibit, titled A Dozen Loops: The Radical Voice of Woody Guthrie, will explore Guthrie’s enduring fight for justice through 12 songs that confronted some of the most pressing social issues of his time, including racism, labor unions, environmental rights, U.S. politics, voting rights, anti-fascism and immigration. Each loop focuses on a song Guthrie wrote about the topic and pairs archival materials, audio, text and video interactives to show how Guthrie transformed folk music into a call for awareness and resistance.

The exhibit opens on April 17 and will run through November.