Postponed: Diane Taraz: Factory maids—The lives of New England millworkers (Concert)

UPDATE: This concert has been postponed to a future date to be determined.

In the early 1800s, the invention of the power loom disrupted the way fabric had been made for many centuries—and the lives of those who had made it. Diane explores the revolutionary changes that millwork brought to the lives of many people, especially women, who seized new opportunities for better pay and independence, flocking to the mills to “weave by steam.”

In the first U.S. mills in Waltham and Lowell, Yankee girls worked 12-hour days, 6 days a week, but still found time to publish a magazine. There were two songs in “The Lowell Offering,” and Diane will sing them, accompanied by her antique guitar which dates from the 1820s. She also plays lap dulcimer and wears the clothing worn by mill “operatives,” as they were called.

As a descendant of immigrant millworkers on both sides of her family, Diane is honored to tell their story through songs that capture both despair and hope for a better life.