Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary has scheduled a performance of A Night of Conversation and Song with Peter Yarrow at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
At 75, Peter Yarrow of the historic folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary, continues to use his music as a way to reach out to people with his message of tolerance and acceptance. Yarrow spoke with the Cook County News-Herald regarding his upcoming performance, A Night of Conversation and Song with Peter Yarrow, which will be held April 26, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
Although he married Mary Beth McCarthy in her home town of Willmar, Minnesota in 1969, Yarrow is looking forward to his first trip to the Grand Marais area of the state. Born and raised in New York, where he still resides, he enjoys performing in the Midwest. “In New York, people are not neighbors and don’t take care of each other. Singing in Minnesota and places nearby, I have felt the greatest outpouring of warmth,” says Yarrow.
His performing talents have been passed on to his son, Christopher, and his daughter, Bethany, who often performs with him. It was his daughter who first introduced him to the song Don’t Laugh At Me after hearing it at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. Yarrow spoke of hearing the song for the first time, “We listened to it, loved it, we cried over it, and I realized that I’d found the anthem for a movement to help children worldwide.” That listening session became the basis for the nonprofit group Operation Respect, which was founded in 2000 to combat school violence and bullying and foster a climate of respect, tolerance and civility in schools.
In all, the program has now been presented to over 10 million children in the United States as well as places such as the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, and Croatia to name just a few. The planning has just been completed for Operation Respect: Don’t Laugh At Me to be performed in Japan as well.
When asked who Operation Respect is most intended to reach, Yarrow expounds, “The message is mostly directed toward the bystanders. It is not so much geared toward the bullies or the victims but focuses on dealing with the entire environment and works to change that to an environment of acceptance. Kids want to accept each other.”
He continues to explain that we live in an age of reality TV and other negative influences and children are being taught the wrong message. He cites the increase of children with depression, “the pandemic of suicide rates,” and the fear that many children experience in schools. “It’s the kind of cruelty that sets an entire school on edge.”
Yarrow’s philosophy involves improving the whole being, “I don’t deny the need for intellectual growth, but that can’t take place unless they’re feeling cared about. I try to help them feel empowered.”
His focal point is to turn schools into places that are hospitable and caring by working with the next generation to resist becoming intolerant. He adds, “Adults are stuck with what we have. We live in a highly polarized society where ridicule has become almost a sport.” Yarrow doesn’t think it’s possible that bullying will ever disappear altogether and that the right to a ridicule-free, respectful society will need to be won by each generation.
“It’s like the song If I Had a Hammer says ‘I’d hammer out danger, I’d hammer out a warning, I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.’ It’s about caring. We need to have it in our hearts, our laws and rules and regulations.”
His performance in Grand Marais will begin with a repertoire of Peter, Paul and Mary including Leaving on a Jet Plane and some of their more popular hits. The audience will be invited to sing the part of Mary Travers who passed away in 2009. “In the second half of the performance I will sing the requests and I usually have a few surprises. By the end it’s a combination of a party and a peace march. We’ll sing together and have a sense of commonality.”
In parting, Yarrow gave his views of his favorites among current vocal performers. “I continue to listen to contemporary artists, many not well known. Popular music now is more of a big business frame of reference. It’s become so commercialized.”
Among artists who have gained commercial success he states, “Alanis Morissette and Lady Gaga, they get it.”
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