Norris Gallery Concert Celebrates Women's Suffrage Centennial

St. Charles, February 11 -- Folk singer Phil Passen celebrates the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage with songs and stories of the time when the Norris Cultural Arts Center's "Music and More in the Gallery" series continues at 2 p.m., Sunday, February 23.

Tickets for Passen's program, "March of the Women: Music for the 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage," are available online at www.NorrisCulturalArts.com or by phone at 630-584-7200. Advance purchase tickets are priced at $10. Tickets purchased at the door will be $15.

The year 2020 marks 100 years since ratification by the states of the 19th amendment, forbidding states to deny the right to vote on the basis of sex. Phil Passen's program consists of songs about women’s suffrage from as early as the mid-nineteenth century through 1920. In addition, the program will include songs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries about the role of women in society, including songs about equal work for equal pay; reproductive rights; and other relevant topics. It begins with “Winning the Vote,” a humorous but pointed song written in 1912 as a conversation between men and women about women’s suffrage, and ends with “Bread and Roses,” the anthemic song of women workers inspired by the 1912 Lawrence textile strike.
This is an entertaining and informative look at the fight for women’s right to vote and the continuing fight for women’s rights.

ABOUT PHIL PASSEN

Soon after Phil Passen joined the Old Town School of Folk Music in the early 1970s, he began learning to play the hammered dulcimer. It quickly became the consuming passion of his life. In 1996 Phil left his work in the graphic arts industry to devote his time to the dulcimer.
Few musicians play the hammered dulcimer. Fewer still sing while accompanying themselves on this fascinating instrument, whose name means “beautiful song.” Phil Passen does both, playing and singing traditional American and Celtic music.