Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, has been canceled from appearing at the 2019 Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival in Norwich, N.Y., because of a backlash stirred up over a decades-old crime. (Michael Appleton/The New York Times)Written by Rick Rojas
Over the past five decades, Peter Yarrow, the singer and songwriter known for being the Peter in the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has earned multiple accolades and honors.
He sang at the former Sen. John Kerry’s wedding and at inaugural events for President Bill Clinton. He collected lifetime achievement awards. He lent his voice and name to various causes, strumming his guitar for the crowd at Occupy Wall Street.
But Yarrow will not be making a planned appearance at a free, outdoor arts festival in the small town of Norwich, New York, because of a backlash stirred up over a decades-old crime.
In the era of the #MeToo movement, offenses that had been actively hidden away or, in some cases, faded from memory after decades have burst forward and ignited fresh outrage. Performances have been canceled. People have been “canceled.” And this week, Yarrow, 81, emerged as the latest case.
Last month, organizers of the Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival billed Yarrow as one of “America’s longtime favorite musicians and performers” as they announced his performance. Then, this week, they announced that his performance, which was scheduled for September, had been canceled.
The furor was over an episode involving two teenage sisters, one 14 and the other 17, visiting his hotel room in 1969 to seek an autograph. Yarrow answered the door naked.
Yarrow was charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months in jail. President Jimmy Carter pardoned him in 1981.
“Some members of our community expressed concern, and after further investigation and careful consideration,” Melissa DeCordova, the president of the festival’s board, said in a statement Tuesday, “the decision was made to remove Yarrow from the music schedule.”
The cancellation was reported by The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin.
The festival takes place on the weekend after Labor Day every year in Norwich, a town of just more than 7,000 people about 180 miles northwest of New York City. The event typically draws some 10,000 people with live performances and displays of arts and crafts.
In an emailed statement, Yarrow said he did not believe the organizers’ choice was “unfair or unjust.”
“I fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury — most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty,” he said. “I do not seek to minimize or excuse what I have done and I cannot adequately express my apologies and sorrow for the pain and injury I have caused in this regard.”
He continued: “However, beyond any of my words and feelings expressed, I will walk the walk, do all I can to make amends, and dedicate myself to helping bring more justice and peace to the world.”
This was not the first time that Yarrow’s arrest has affected his career. He acknowledged that other performances have been canceled because of what he described as “my most reprehensible and deeply regretted sexual offense.” The incident has been invoked by the opponents of politicians he has campaigned for. Parents protested and students refused to perform when his high school, LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, planned to add him to its Hall of Fame. The kerfuffle drew a round of coverage from the city’s tabloids (The New York Post called him “the guest of dishonor”).
Yarrow has expressed contrition over the episode with the girls, sharing his regret in interviews and public statements over the years. “It was an era of real indiscretion and mistakes by categorically male performers,” he once said. “I was one of them. I got nailed. I was wrong. I’m sorry for it.”
The festival announced its decision to cancel Yarrow’s performance with a post on its Facebook page. “For some in the community,” the event’s organizers wrote, ”the nature of the incident was especially problematic.”
Some praised their choice, but it also brought about another wave of blowback.
“This is an absurd decision,” one person said in a comment on the post. “His contributions to society have far outweighed a 49-year-old indiscretion.”
Another added, “Norwich is being robbed of having a cultural treasure in our town.”
