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Switchyard Festival to explore rural issues

Tulsa’s Switchyard Festival will soon be underway in earnest.

This year’s theme for the festival that bills itself as a celebration of culture and ideas is rural America. Organizer Ted Genoways says the rural focus was inspired by our next presidential election and a desire to hear people outside of cities.

“If we want to have a kind of shared future, as we move ahead, we need to account for the values, and interests, and the needs of people outside of metro areas,” said Genoways.

Environmentalist Bill McKibben will meet with folk singer Andrea von Kampen Thursday night at the OKPOP Museum downtown. Genoways says he hopes their conversation will be a model.

“That we’re not just wanting to keep these discussions within the confines of academic settings, but to have these be open, public conversations that involve music, literature, art and food, and all the things that hopefully bring us together.”

For more information and for a schedule of events, visit Switchyard’s website.

Switchyard is attached to the University of Tulsa, and we must note TU holds the broadcast license for KWGS.

Before joining Public Radio Tulsa, Elizabeth Caldwell was a freelance reporter and a teacher. She holds a master's from Hollins University. Her audio work has appeared at KCRW, CBC's The World This Weekend, and The Missouri Review. She is a south Florida native.