Anna Canoni – “When Bob Met Woody: Hey, Hey Woody Guthrie, I Wrote You a Song” – Thursday, July 24 @ 11 a.m.

President of Woody Guthrie Publications and Woody’s granddaughter, Anna Canoni will kick off the conference on Thursday, July 24 with an opening keynote address, delving into the personal and professional relationship between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Learn more about Canoni and her talk here.

Mitch Blank – My Back Pages Screening – Thursday, July 24 @ 7 p.m. Mitch Blank is the world’s foremost collector of Bob Dylan memorabilia and recordings, all kept in his tiny New York City apartment, and the subject of My Back Pages, a documentary directed by Nick Canfield and Paul Lovelace. Presenting a portrait of Mitch, this documentary asks the questions of “What happens when you part with something that has taken over such a large part of a life? And how can these materials live on for future generations?” Learn more about Blank and this screening here.

Cynthia Riddle – Invisible Legend: Bruce Langhorne – Thursday, July 24 @ 7 p.m.

The World of Bob Dylan is excited to welcome Cynthia Riddle as a keynote speaker at this year’s conference. Riddle will be giving a sneak-peek screening of her current work-in-progress, “Invisible Legend: Bruce Langhorne”. The film tells the life story of Bruce Langhorne, an African American musician who was the inspiration for Bob Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Though the winds of change made him repeatedly reinvent himself, Bruce personified the spirit of the ’60s and lived a life filled with joy and laughter, despite dealing with a life-altering tragedy. Learn more about Riddle and this screening here. 

Adam Bradley – “The Rap on Dylan” – Friday, July 25 @ 2 p.m.

Adam Bradley’s keynote address will show how Dylan shares certain bedrock lyric practices with rap artists, including an extravagance of rhyme, a choice of words attentive to the currents of popular culture and the qualities of everyday life, and vocal delivery that often prizes rhythm over melody. Learn more about Bradley and his talk here.

The Village Panel with Terri Thal, David Browne, and Sean Wilentz – Friday, July 25, @ 7:30 p.m

“A Complete Unknown” brought to life the energy and atmosphere of Greenwich Village in the early 1960s when it once again became the center of American art and innovation. In its winding street, basket houses, and hurried bustle, Dylan found not only a new sense of self, but a new way to imagine himself as a poet, songwriter, and performer. This panel of historians and journalists will take us back to that unique cultural hothouse as part of lively conversation about how Dylan moved rapidly through the folk world and into the avant-garde before taking the stage in Newport where his electric guitar changed American music. This discussion will be moderated by Sean Latham, Director of The Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. Learn more about the panel and this talk here. 

Greil Marcus – “First Unto This Country: Bob Dylan and the Little Sandy Review” – Friday, July 25 @ 8:45 p.m.

Conference mainstay Greil Marcus will be presenting his keynote address as a listening session and conversation co-presented by the Bob Dylan Center and moderated by Center Director Steven Jenkins. For this evening program, Marcus will play and discuss a selection of songs favored in the pages of the Review and indicative of an essential tradition that, as he lined out in his 2022 Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs, have remained as a dynamic core of Dylan work ever since. Learn more about Marcus and his talk here.