Presentation: This Machine Kills Fascists: How the Banjo Inspired Nazi Resistance

With these words famously scrawled on his guitar, Woody Guthrie inspired musicians to use their music to fight authoritarianism and hate. However, years earlier, German youth were already using banjos (and guitars) to resist the Nazis. This presentation shares the stories of the Edelweiss Pirates and the Swing Kids, German youth who used U.S. music and banjos to resist the Nazis during the Third Reich.

Since 1998, the Banjo Gathering has been the platform for banjo collectors, scholars, instrument builders, and musicians to share new findings about the banjo as a historical, cultural, and design object.

Set against the backdrop of Norfolk's 400-year role as a key port city, this year's themes--Banjos Across the Water and Inspirations for Contemporary Banjos--explore how banjo history is shaped by travel, commerce and industry across the world's waterways, and how contemporary makers use historical banjos as well as domestic and international art and design as inspiration for their instruments.

ODU and Hampton University personnel may reserve free tickets to presentations, and others may register through the banjogathering.com website.