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Nancy Hood
I’ve Got a Song: A Living History of the McCarthy Era in New England
This program, told and sung from the heart, depicts Nancy Hood’s childhood experiences of growing up in a leftist family in New England during the McCarthy Era. Complementing the stories is a selection of protest songs that range in style and origin from spirituals to union songs to a haunting love song written for the Rosenbergs. A backdrop of slides of family photographs and newspaper clippings completes this living history lesson that spans the mid 1940s through early 1960s.
Needs: Slide projector and screen; water
Nancy Hood grew up as a "red diaper baby" during the height of the McCarthy Era in the United States. Her father, Otis A. Hood, was the Communist Party Chairperson for the New England District, including Rhode Island. She was introduced to music at an early age by her mother, Fran Hood, and went on to study voice at Oberlin Conservatory and Boston University. A social worker by profession, Nancy earned her MSW from Boston College and is employed at the Counseling Center of Roger Williams University. She resides in Bristol.
Rick Keller graduated from Earlham College with a major in music. He has studied piano, recorder, guitar, pipe organ, and conducting. Like Nancy, he grew up in a left-wing family and learned to sing and play songs of protest at an early age. A professional urban and environmental planner, Rick is a consultant in community building in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has lived for 20 years.