Folk Artist Josh White Jr. Performs at Montgomery College

Folk Musician Josh White Jr. will perform with Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary in a charity concert at Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center benefiting the Menare Foundation on Sunday, Feb. 13. The national nonprofit works with individuals and organizations to use the legacy of the Underground Railroad as a spark for human potential.

White hit the music scene when he was just four years old performing on stage with his father in New York City. This lead him into a career of Broadway and Off Broadway performances, TV shows and most recently education. He educates school children in Michigan about the Underground Railroad. 

White sat down with Patch to talk about his upcoming performance and his career as a musician.

Patch: When you started performing with your father what was that experience like?

Josh White:  I worked with him off and on for seventeen years before I went off on my own. The very first play I did when I was nine years old, it was typecasting and I played my dad's son. I went on to do four Broadway shows without my father and they all were dramatic performances and I never did a musical. In 1983, a show was written about my father called Josh: A Man and His Music and I did in fact play my father in that.

Patch: What part of perfroming do you enjoy most?

J. W. : I like interacting with the audience. To feel the same feelings. If they can feel what I'm saying and it's something that we all believe in we all feel it together. It's a wonderful thing to confirm with someone else whose face you've never seen, but you have the same heart. It's a good thing. 

Patch: You use your music to teach in schools, how do the student's receive the information?

J. W. : We have to make sure we learn from history. Here in Detroit where I live I teach about that time frame. The kids in class get up and they become the people that they are learning about. We remove the desks and the kids become abolitionists and become slaves and do this whole story. We let people know. The younger they know the better it is. It's good for us all.

Patch:  Do you teach only in Michigan, or do you travel nationally?

J. W.:  No, this way of teaching we have been doing only in Michigan because these are Michigan stories, except one is on the Underground Railroad, slavery, which is our story, and the other one is the sit-ins of 1960 where the young people sat in Nashville, Tennesee to change that. So those two can be done anywhere but its the way of teaching, where the kids get up and become the people instead of sitting. Well, if you walk a mile in someone elses shoes aren't you more apt to remember not only how it felt but how it felt emotionally?

Patch: You have children yourself. Did they inspire you to get involved in schools?

J. W.: No, actually it started at the Detroit Historical Museum with a friend, but I went to one of my children's classrooms when they were younger  and we did storyliving. We now call it living history.

Patch: We know you are excited to be coming to perform during the benefit concert, will you be performing a number of songs for the audience to enjoy?

J. W.: Yes. Noel and I will be sharing some songs, Betty [Noel's Wife] will be reading, and we will be doing appropriate songs. It's well programmed. We will sing some songs with the audience and some that Noel and I will do together. That's fun when you're a solo performance and you don't usually work with other people. It's fun to work with old friends.

Patch: You and Noel just performed at Dartmouth College. Do you have an ongoing relationship wtih Betty and Noel? Do you tour with them?

J. W. We have known each other for years, but not done a lot together. We've done some benefits together. But this gig we did before, and another one coming up, could be the start of us working more together, which is a great thing!