PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Some songs are so familiar they seem part of us. We dance and romance to them, come together, and dream of somewhere over the rainbow. Yet each of their creators had no idea their song would live forever. Using a medley of film clips and talk, writer and documentary filmmaker Sara Lukinson traces how some of our favorites from the American songbook came to be and then as reimagined by different artists, unexpected arrangements, and changing national moods were transformed into something more.
Please Note: Individual sessions are available for individual purchase.
MAY 19 Songs of Hope and Yearning: Somewhere Over the Rainbow and You’ll Never Walk Alone
These songs were written to fit characters and moments in a 1939 movie and a 1945 Broadway show, but overtook their first lives to become the songs we most want to hear when our hearts need lifting: beautiful melodies and words that bring comfort and courage through the storms.
JUNE 2 A Simple Song and a Soaring Anthem: This Land Is Your Land and Bridge Over Troubled Water
These songs written by guitar-playing singer-songwriters took the country by storm to become unofficial anthems. One we sing together like a folk tune, and the other we take comfort in hearing, a quiet song given wings by strings, angelic voices, and soaring harmonies.
JUNE 16 Forever Favorites: Summertime and My Favorite Things
These great songs leapt out of musicals to become American standards, reimagined by opera stars, innovative jazz musicians, and pop divas, or remade as children’s songs and Christmas jingles. Through hundreds of versions from the simple to the soaring, the songs we love remain.
Lukinson, who has won three Emmys and seven Writer’s Guild Awards, now teaches at NYU and the 92nd Street Y. Her personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.
3 sessions
Photo caption (upper right): Clockwise: Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale; Woody Guthrie; Mary Martin and children from the Broadway production of "The Soundof Music" photo by Toni Frissell (Library of Congress)
PATRON INFORMATION
- If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
- Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
- Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of each session. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of each session, please email Customer Service for assistance.
- View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.
