Connie Converse: American Cassandra with Author Howard Fishman

About this event

When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse's voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense-a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana, the Great American Songbook, Art Song, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later. When he learned that there was virtually no biographical information about her, and that she mysteriously disappeared in 1974, Fishman embarked upon a quest to uncover what remained of her life, culminated in his book, To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse, a finalist for the Plutarch Award for Biography of the Year. Since its publication, Converse's sui generis creative and intellectual output (she also did groundbreaking work in race relations, conflict resolution, musicology, and alternative education) have made her a new touchstone in cultural history. For this multimedia event, Fishman will talk about her life and work (including her intense connection to the Detroit/Ann Arbor scene in the 1960s and 70s), his own 12 year odyssey to uncover and gain recognition for this true American original who was nearly lost to history. L