Caffè Lena
Encyclopedia
Located in Saratoga Springs, New York
, Caffè Lena is the oldest continually running coffee house in the United States
. Founded in 1960 by Bill and Lena Spencer, it features acoustic concerts and cultural events showcasing folk music
, traditional music, and singer-songwriter
s of a wide range. Since Spencer's death in 1989, Caffè Lena has been a not-for-profit organization, the whole place being run by dedicated volunteers.
Caffè Lena was born during the peak of the period known as the Folk Revival. During the 1960s in Greenwich Village
, Boston
, San Francisco and elsewhere, coffeehouses opened up to give a stage to authentic old time singers, as well as to young artists recreating or borrowing from traditional styles. Greenwich Village had the Gaslight
, the Bitter End
and Gerde's Folk City
, and was the home turf of Dave Van Ronk
, Bob Dylan
, and Phil Ochs
. Boston had Club 47, which introduced Joan Baez
and Tom Rush
. San Francisco had the hungry i
, which offered The Kingston Trio
and Tom Lehrer and The Limeliters. And Saratoga Springs had Caffè Lena.
In 1958, twenty-eight-year-old actress Lena Spencer left the home she shared with her parents and brothers in Milford, Massachusetts
, quit a position at a radio station in Boston where she’d met John F. Kennedy
on his inaugural tour and moved with her new husband Bill Spencer into a second-floor loft building at 47 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, New York. Inspired by the local Skidmore College
scene and the burgeoning folk revival movement, they were determined to create a successful American folk coffeehouse and theater with a European feel and a nurturing, home-like atmosphere.
From 1960 to Lena’s passing in 1989 (Bill Spencer left Lena and the Caffè in 1962), Caffè Lena presented prominent performers of the American folksong movement on its tiny stage, and theater productions in its Gallery Theater, now known as the Black Box Theater. Lena Spencer exposed hundreds of artists to new audiences at her Caffè, making music history and a name for herself in American cultural history. Her spirit lives on in the still active Caffè Lena, which continues to present new artists today.
Caffè Lena’s roster includes many notable names in folk music and theater history. Yaddo
artist community writers and poets dropped in, as did Skidmore College students, actor John Wynne Evans, activist and folk radio DJ Jackie Alper, photography legend Joe Alper, Jackie Washington (who with Sue Abel performed first on the Caffè Lena stage in May, 1960), Hedy West, Carolyn Hester, and the Wildflowers Music Collective. A longtime friendship with folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk led to early bookings with elderly Delta blues
legends Mississippi John Hurt
and Skip James
for some of their very last public performances, and the first booking of Bob Dylan outside of New York City. In the early 1960s, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon had her very first public singing engagement at Caffè Lena. Pete Seeger
dropped by to perform. Noel Stookey
performed there before his Peter, Paul and Mary
fame. Kate and Anna McGarrigle traveled from Canada to play at Lena’s, while Jean Redpath
, Jacqui McDonald and Bridie O’Donnell came from overseas in the UK. Spalding Gray cut his acting chops in the Caffè Lena theater long before Swimming to Cambodia
premiered. In later years, Rosalie Sorrels
, Utah Phillips
(always introduced by Lena as “the golden voice of the great southwest”), Emmylou Harris
, Ani DiFranco
, David Hyde Pierce
, the Gibson Brothers, David Amram, the Greenbriar Boys, Garrett “G.Love” Dutton, Jerry Jeff Walker, David Bromberg and many hundreds of other folk, country, blues, bluegrass, traditional artists, poets and actors would join the scene. While focusing primarily on folk music, Lena Spencer was also a fan of jazz
and presented a number of notable jazz artists, including Bucky and John Pizzarelli, jazz violinist Joe Venuti, and the Capitol District's own Nick Brignola and Lee Shaw. More recent concerts with Jeremy Kittel, Frank Vignola, Al Gallodoro, and John Jorgenson have kept the Caffe's jazz roster growing. Lena’s artist list continues to grow each year.
Lena Spencer and her Caffè continued through the 1970s with a growing role as one of the central figures and institutions of the folk music world. As some of the folk revival clubs dropped away, including Gerde's and the Gaslight, Caffè Lena inherited the status of Longest Continuously Operating Folk Club in the country and Lena herself began to achieve legendary status.
In 1985 on the occasion of Caffè Lena’s 25th anniversary, Pete Seeger performed alongside Nanci Griffith and a ten-year-old Rufus Wainwright
at a public concert to honor Lena’s contributions. That year the Kennedy Center called to congratulate Caffè Lena on its longstanding role in America’s music history. In the two years before she died, Lena received an honorary degree from Skidmore College, and the Saratoga Springs Arts Council’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1989, Filmmaker Stephen Trombley in association with PBS and the BBC
filmed a documentary entitled Caffè Lena narrated by Kate McGarrigle, which aired on WMHT
television. Lena’s on-screen debut as an actress came in 1987 when she acted opposite Meryl Streep
, Tom Waits
, and Jack Nicholson
in Ironweed
, a feature film based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel
by Albany, New York
author William Kennedy
.
Today, Caffè Lena is a living legend. A major fundraising campaign in 1998 with private donations and a grant from the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation enabled Caffè Lena to buy its building. Today, Caffè Lena is run by a small paid staff, a Board of Directors, and an ever-evolving team of volunteers from the ages of 13 to 75. It presents over 400 events annually and serves approximately 12,000 people per year. The Caffè is proud to stay true to Lena's founding vision of simplicity, kindness to strangers, and art above profit. Caffè Lena is an intimate setting with a concert hall atmosphere where people come to enjoy performances by the top players in the field. Three shows per weekend feature traditional and contemporary folk, blues, jazz and ethnic music by nationally and internationally touring professional musicians. Weekly programming includes an "Emerging Artist Breakout", which allows teens to enjoy concerts by their peers in a genuine club setting that is free of alcohol and smoke. Caffè Lena's weekly open mic has been running for twenty-five years. A supportive and attentive multi-generational audience is on hand every week to enjoy the work of both seasoned and novice performers. Caffè Lena maintains an active poetry program, with monthly open mics, an annual poetry festival, and occasional readings by nationally known poets throughout the year. The Albany Capital District’s only open mic exclusively for storytellers takes place at Caffè Lena every other month.
Fifty years after the folk revival, a new generation of musicians and music enthusiasts is discovering the sounds that have sprung up from America’s common experiences. About 25% of Caffè Lena’s roster consists of artists performing at the Caffè for the first time. Many of its artists headline major festivals and play regularly in large concert halls. The opportunity to see nationally touring performers in the historic, intimate, living room like setting of the Caffè keeps the seats filled and the interest strong.
In 2008, the International Folk Alliance recognized Caffè Lena with its annual “Best Small Venue” award (co-awarded that year to Berkeley, CA venue The Freight and Salvage
). In the same year, the Library of Congress
acquired the Caffé Lena archival collection for inclusion in the American Folklife Center
. In 2010, Caffè Lena celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a sold-out concert by Arlo Guthrie
and Robin and Linda Williams
at Skidmore College’s Arthur Zankel Music Center in Saratoga Springs. The evening began with an introduction by Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, also a Caffè Lena musical alumnus.
The Caffè Lena archives include 7,500 period photographs, original archival memorabilia and over 100 reel-to-reel tape recordings, documenting hundreds of folk artists who performed at Caffè Lena from the 1960s to the present. The Caffè Lena History Project is dedicated to preserving and cataloging Caffè Lena’s collection, researching and digitizing archival photographs, and gathering oral history interviews honoring Lena’s legacy in American cultural history, as the Caffè continues to present and inspire new generations of artists today.
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ...
, Caffè Lena is the oldest continually running coffee house in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Founded in 1960 by Bill and Lena Spencer, it features acoustic concerts and cultural events showcasing folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, traditional music, and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s of a wide range. Since Spencer's death in 1989, Caffè Lena has been a not-for-profit organization, the whole place being run by dedicated volunteers.
Caffè Lena was born during the peak of the period known as the Folk Revival. During the 1960s in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, San Francisco and elsewhere, coffeehouses opened up to give a stage to authentic old time singers, as well as to young artists recreating or borrowing from traditional styles. Greenwich Village had the Gaslight
The Gaslight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York...
, the Bitter End
The Bitter End
The Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End during the 1970s...
and Gerde's Folk City
Gerde's Folk City
Gerdes Folk City was a music venue in the West Village in New York City. Initially opened as a restaurant called Gerdes, by owner Mike Porco, it eventually began to present occasional incidental music. It was located at 11 West 4th Street , having moved in 1970 to 130 West 3rd Street before finally...
, and was the home turf of Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
. Boston had Club 47, which introduced Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
and Tom Rush
Tom Rush
Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
. San Francisco had the hungry i
Hungry i
The hungry i was originally a nightclub in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1950.-The name:How the club's name came about is something of a mystery...
, which offered The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
and Tom Lehrer and The Limeliters. And Saratoga Springs had Caffè Lena.
In 1958, twenty-eight-year-old actress Lena Spencer left the home she shared with her parents and brothers in Milford, Massachusetts
Milford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...
, quit a position at a radio station in Boston where she’d met John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
on his inaugural tour and moved with her new husband Bill Spencer into a second-floor loft building at 47 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, New York. Inspired by the local Skidmore College
Skidmore College
Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....
scene and the burgeoning folk revival movement, they were determined to create a successful American folk coffeehouse and theater with a European feel and a nurturing, home-like atmosphere.
From 1960 to Lena’s passing in 1989 (Bill Spencer left Lena and the Caffè in 1962), Caffè Lena presented prominent performers of the American folksong movement on its tiny stage, and theater productions in its Gallery Theater, now known as the Black Box Theater. Lena Spencer exposed hundreds of artists to new audiences at her Caffè, making music history and a name for herself in American cultural history. Her spirit lives on in the still active Caffè Lena, which continues to present new artists today.
Caffè Lena’s roster includes many notable names in folk music and theater history. Yaddo
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
artist community writers and poets dropped in, as did Skidmore College students, actor John Wynne Evans, activist and folk radio DJ Jackie Alper, photography legend Joe Alper, Jackie Washington (who with Sue Abel performed first on the Caffè Lena stage in May, 1960), Hedy West, Carolyn Hester, and the Wildflowers Music Collective. A longtime friendship with folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk led to early bookings with elderly Delta blues
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
legends Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
and Skip James
Skip James
Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter, born in Bentonia, Mississippi, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
for some of their very last public performances, and the first booking of Bob Dylan outside of New York City. In the early 1960s, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon had her very first public singing engagement at Caffè Lena. Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
dropped by to perform. Noel Stookey
Noel Stookey
Noel Paul Stookey is a singer-songwriter best known as "Paul" in the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. He took the stage name "Paul" as part of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary, but he has been known as Noel otherwise, throughout his life...
performed there before his Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
fame. Kate and Anna McGarrigle traveled from Canada to play at Lena’s, while Jean Redpath
Jean Redpath
Jean Redpath MBE is a singer of folk songs and Scottish music.Redpath was born in Edinburgh, to musical parents. Her mother knew many Scots songs and passed them on to Jean and her brother; her father played the hammer dulcimer. She was raised in Leven, Fife,Scotland, and later returned to...
, Jacqui McDonald and Bridie O’Donnell came from overseas in the UK. Spalding Gray cut his acting chops in the Caffè Lena theater long before Swimming to Cambodia
Swimming to Cambodia
Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia is a 1987 Jonathan Demme-directed performance film. The film is a performance of Spalding Gray's monologue which centered around such themes as his trip to Southeast Asia to create the role of the U.S. Ambassador's aide in The Killing Fields, the Cold War,...
premiered. In later years, Rosalie Sorrels
Rosalie Sorrels
Rosalie Sorrels is an American folk singer-songwriter who resides in the mountains near Boise, Idaho. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals...
, Utah Phillips
Utah Phillips
Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was a labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist...
(always introduced by Lena as “the golden voice of the great southwest”), Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...
, the Gibson Brothers, David Amram, the Greenbriar Boys, Garrett “G.Love” Dutton, Jerry Jeff Walker, David Bromberg and many hundreds of other folk, country, blues, bluegrass, traditional artists, poets and actors would join the scene. While focusing primarily on folk music, Lena Spencer was also a fan of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and presented a number of notable jazz artists, including Bucky and John Pizzarelli, jazz violinist Joe Venuti, and the Capitol District's own Nick Brignola and Lee Shaw. More recent concerts with Jeremy Kittel, Frank Vignola, Al Gallodoro, and John Jorgenson have kept the Caffe's jazz roster growing. Lena’s artist list continues to grow each year.
Lena Spencer and her Caffè continued through the 1970s with a growing role as one of the central figures and institutions of the folk music world. As some of the folk revival clubs dropped away, including Gerde's and the Gaslight, Caffè Lena inherited the status of Longest Continuously Operating Folk Club in the country and Lena herself began to achieve legendary status.
In 1985 on the occasion of Caffè Lena’s 25th anniversary, Pete Seeger performed alongside Nanci Griffith and a ten-year-old Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
at a public concert to honor Lena’s contributions. That year the Kennedy Center called to congratulate Caffè Lena on its longstanding role in America’s music history. In the two years before she died, Lena received an honorary degree from Skidmore College, and the Saratoga Springs Arts Council’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1989, Filmmaker Stephen Trombley in association with PBS and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
filmed a documentary entitled Caffè Lena narrated by Kate McGarrigle, which aired on WMHT
WMHT (TV)
WMHT is the call sign for a television station and radio station in Schenectady, New York owned and operated by WMHT Educational Telecommunications A non-profit corporation...
television. Lena’s on-screen debut as an actress came in 1987 when she acted opposite Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, and Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
in Ironweed
Ironweed (film)
Ironweed is a 1987 film directed by Argentine-born Brazilian Héctor Babenco.The picture is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by William Kennedy and concerns the relationship of a homeless couple: Francis, an alcoholic, and Helen, a terminally ill woman during the Great...
, a feature film based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel
Ironweed
Ironweed is a 1983 novel by William Kennedy. It received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is the third book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle...
by Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
author William Kennedy
William Kennedy (author)
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist born and raised in Albany, New York. Many of his novels feature the interaction of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family, and make use of incidents of Albany's history and the supernatural...
.
Today, Caffè Lena is a living legend. A major fundraising campaign in 1998 with private donations and a grant from the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation enabled Caffè Lena to buy its building. Today, Caffè Lena is run by a small paid staff, a Board of Directors, and an ever-evolving team of volunteers from the ages of 13 to 75. It presents over 400 events annually and serves approximately 12,000 people per year. The Caffè is proud to stay true to Lena's founding vision of simplicity, kindness to strangers, and art above profit. Caffè Lena is an intimate setting with a concert hall atmosphere where people come to enjoy performances by the top players in the field. Three shows per weekend feature traditional and contemporary folk, blues, jazz and ethnic music by nationally and internationally touring professional musicians. Weekly programming includes an "Emerging Artist Breakout", which allows teens to enjoy concerts by their peers in a genuine club setting that is free of alcohol and smoke. Caffè Lena's weekly open mic has been running for twenty-five years. A supportive and attentive multi-generational audience is on hand every week to enjoy the work of both seasoned and novice performers. Caffè Lena maintains an active poetry program, with monthly open mics, an annual poetry festival, and occasional readings by nationally known poets throughout the year. The Albany Capital District’s only open mic exclusively for storytellers takes place at Caffè Lena every other month.
Fifty years after the folk revival, a new generation of musicians and music enthusiasts is discovering the sounds that have sprung up from America’s common experiences. About 25% of Caffè Lena’s roster consists of artists performing at the Caffè for the first time. Many of its artists headline major festivals and play regularly in large concert halls. The opportunity to see nationally touring performers in the historic, intimate, living room like setting of the Caffè keeps the seats filled and the interest strong.
In 2008, the International Folk Alliance recognized Caffè Lena with its annual “Best Small Venue” award (co-awarded that year to Berkeley, CA venue The Freight and Salvage
The Freight and Salvage
The Freight and Salvage is a nonprofit musical performance venue in Berkeley, California, that primarily hosts folk music and world music acts. It was founded in 1968 and derived its name from the used furniture store that previously occupied the same space on San Pablo Avenue...
). In the same year, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
acquired the Caffé Lena archival collection for inclusion in the American Folklife Center
American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife" . The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music...
. In 2010, Caffè Lena celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a sold-out concert by Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They began their musical association in Nashville, TN in 1971, performing in local clubs....
at Skidmore College’s Arthur Zankel Music Center in Saratoga Springs. The evening began with an introduction by Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, also a Caffè Lena musical alumnus.
The Caffè Lena archives include 7,500 period photographs, original archival memorabilia and over 100 reel-to-reel tape recordings, documenting hundreds of folk artists who performed at Caffè Lena from the 1960s to the present. The Caffè Lena History Project is dedicated to preserving and cataloging Caffè Lena’s collection, researching and digitizing archival photographs, and gathering oral history interviews honoring Lena’s legacy in American cultural history, as the Caffè continues to present and inspire new generations of artists today.