Rachel Garlin '96 to perform at Kendall Café
Rachel Garlin, now a Berkeley-based musician, started performing while she was a student at Harvard. She will perform at the Kendall Café, 233 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue in Cambridge, on Tuesday, December 4th at 8:00 pm. Garlin spoke with Spectrum about some of her early performance experiences at Harvard.
"In a word, my performing career began when Pete Seeger received
the ARTS FIRST Medal in 1996. At Harvard, I began as a walk-on member
of the basketball team and ended as a CityStep teacher in the Cambridge
schools. Throughout, I was a social studies concentrator who wrote a thesis
on the issue of childcare among low-income families. While none of these
all-consuming activities directly led to my songwriting career, they all
influenced my decision to join Teach for America, which in turn led to
a summer in Guatemala where my songwriting first began.
"During my first few years as a student, I used to go to open mics
in Harvard Square, but often felt too shy to sign up and perform. During
my senior year, I was thrilled to find out that Pete Seeger would be the
recipient of an ARTS FIRST medal. As a young man, Pete used to play at
the summer camp my dad attended. I spent my childhood going to Pete Seeger
concerts in Golden Gate park, always waiting in hour-long lines to have
him autograph the children's music records. During ARTS FIRST, I performed
several Pete Seeger songs at the tribute open mic held in Harvard Square.
In some ways, that was the beginning of my public singing career! After
that, I started playing at the open mic at the Cantab Lounge and Club
Passim, and performed one night at Loker Commons when it first opened."
Garlin will also be playing locally on the following dates: Sunday,
Dec 2 at the Kiva House Concert Series in Arlington, MA., Thursday, Dec
6 at the Rhythm and Muse Coffee House in Jamaica Plain, and at Café
Hoop at Wellesley College at a date yet to be announced. Details concerning
all of these shows are available at www.rachelgarlin.com, as is her album,
Green Light Distance.
