Professor David Peimer
Art Garfunkel: Grandchild of Romania
Summary
Professor David Peimer discusses the life and work of Art Garfunkel and explores why his journey was a classic immigrant story.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
That’s really interesting. Not as far as I know, really, in any way that he would call professional standard.
No, I said that it has Black, African-American connection to a gospel group who made a song of it based on a religious, spiritual song from the 19th century, that Paul Simon was inspired by. And, he took the line from that gospel group, and he wanted to make it a hymn, originally. And I spoke about the third verse and what Garfunkel, with a full spectre influence, radically changed, and he introduced the third verse.