Laurel’s Legacy, Fannie Lou & Joe Hill’s Ashes

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We dedicate this week's show to Laurel Blaydes (1952–2022) — singer, organizer, and former director of the Labor Heritage Foundation—on the week she would have turned 73. Co-host Elise Bryant shares reflections on Laurel’s artistry and why labor culture sustains us in hard times, before we hear Laurel’s 1981 Labor Solidarity Day performance of “Hold the Fort” with Joe Uehlein, Tommy Moran, and John Gower.
Then: the work, art, and voice of Fannie Lou Hamer—sharecropper’s daughter, timekeeper, Freedom Singer, and SNCC organizer. We spin the brand-new “Fannie Lou” from Baltimore’s R.J. Phillips Band, followed by Hamer herself singing “Pick a Bale of Cotton.”
In our second segment, the Heartland Labor Forum talks with historian Marcella Bencivenni about Arturo Giovannitti—Italian-born union leader, poet, and a key organizer of the 1912 Bread & Roses strike—whose free-speech trial helped define labor’s voice.
Our third segment is the Labor Song of the Week: Otis Gibbs’ “Joe Hill’s Ashes,” and we go out with Laurel Blaydes singing “What Will I Leave” at the 2004 Great Labor Arts Exchange.

It’s also WPFW’s Fall Fund Drive this week. If this mix of music, memory, and movement matters to you, please become a sustaining member and keep Jazz & Justice strong: wpfwfm.org or call 1-800-222-9739.

Broadcast on October 16, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations across America.
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman.
The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.

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