Folksinger Joyce Katzberg, of Warren, will perform tonight at the University of Rhode Island at 7:30 in Edwards Auditorium as part of the school’s Honors Colloquium on social justice.

University of Rhode Island News Bureau

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Local folksinger and activist Joyce Katzberg and the folksinging duo of Charlie King and Karen Brandow will speak and perform tonight at the University of Rhode Island as part of its Honors Colloquium. This fall’s semester-long Honors Colloquium is titled “Songs of Social Justice: The Rhetoric of Music.” It explores music as a mean of expression, persuasion and mobilization.

Tonight’s concert and discussion will begin at 7:30 in Edwards Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

The three local activists/singers/musicians will explore the contemporary issues they sing about on a daily basis, according to a URI news release.

Katzberg, who lives in Warren, has performed for more than 30 years. She was born on a military base into a musical family. Her father, Jody Gibson, was the leader of the Muleskinners, a racially integrated rock-a-billy band in the 1950s.

She grew up singing with her father and gave her first performance in 1968 in Pawtucket. She has been performing ever since, teaching and testifying in coffeehouses, taverns and picket lines along the East Coast.

Many of her songs explore the American working class and the rise of the labor movement. She also sings about the civil rights and women’s equality movements.

Folksinging icon Pete Seeger has said that Katzberg has one of the best voices he has ever heard.

King and Brandow, both folksingers and musical storytellers, sing and write about ordinary people who lead extraordinary lives.

King is a native of Brockton, Mass., who has been performing folk music for more than 40 years. His music is representative of the folk movement of the early 1960s, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War era.

Brandow has performed with King since 1998. A native of Philadelphia, she worked for human rights in Guatemala from 1986 to 1994. She has studied voice and classical guitar and performed at political and cultural events in Guatemala as a soloist.