The University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies

07/21/2025

We're only a few days out from the conference, so here are a few more tips for Tulsa - from airport shuttles to exhibits at Philbrook, here are some additional details and recommendations. We can't wait to see everyone in a few days!

We hope that you are excited to visit Tulsa for the 2025 World of Bob Dylan Symposium. As you will soon discover, Tulsa is a wonderful music city, with a

07/11/2025

We’re now under two weeks from opening the World of Bob Dylan and are eager to welcome you all to Tulsa. We’ve moved away from our usual spring date this year to mark the anniversary of Dylan’s historic performance at the Newport Folk Festival. With our collaborators at the Bob Dylan Center, we’ve built a terrific program filled with panel discussions, round-tables, exhibitions, performances, and keynote addresses. Thanks to your efforts, we expect this to be a weekend full of discussion, insight, and discovery.

As you get ready to make the trip to Tulsa, check out our post on a few important pieces of information. https://dylan.utulsa.edu/world-of-bob-dylan-faqs/

07/09/2025

World of Bob Dylan attendees, you can still have a musical night even if you can’t make it to “Going Electric” at Cains Ballroom.

A local live recording event for 6 different Tulsa bands each year, with performances recorded in front of a live audience at Chimera Café in downtown Tulsa, and then pressed to limited edition vinyl and cassette. This is also a musician resource event and will host several local organizations who support & foster Tulsa’s music community.

Free and open to all, mark your calendars for July 26th for a 5:30 p.m. open and 6 p.m. start. Space is limited, so get there as soon as you can to be part of this landmark Tulsa event during your time in Tulsa. This event is sponsored by Sunset Club Records, Tulsa FMAC, & The Brut Hotel. In partnership with Chimera Café, Noisetown Studios, Bricktown Films, and The Church Studio Institute.

06/25/2025

World of Bob Dylan attendees – don’t worry if you don’t have anything planned for the evening of July 26th! The Bob Dylan Center will celebrate its newest exhibition Going Electric: Bob Dylan ’65 presented by Founding Members Bob and Debbie Russell, on Saturday, July 26, with two special performances by The Million Dollar Bashers! These shows will feature an exciting array of well-known indie-rock musicians and kindred artists coming together to perform a set-list of Dylan songs from 1965, when he shocked fans at the annual Newport Folk Festival by playing an electrified rock-and-roll set with members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

The 6:30 pm early show will be seated, with both reserved and general admission tickets available. The 9:00 pm late show will be all-standing general admission.

World of Dylan conference registrants will have exclusive access to purchase tickets to both shows on Thursday, June 26.

For more information on this event, you can go to https://dylan.utulsa.edu/the-million-dollar-bashers/

06/20/2025

Greenwich Village comes to the World of Bob Dylan with a panel comprised of David Browne, Terri Thal, and Sean Wilentz.

"A Complete Unknown" brought to life the energy and atmosphere of Greenwich Village in the early 1960s when it once again became the center of American art and innovation. In its winding street, basket houses, and hurried bustle, Dylan found not only a new sense of self, but a new way to imagine himself as a poet, songwriter, and performer. This panel of historians and journalists will take us back to that unique cultural hothouse as part of lively conversation about how Dylan moved rapidly through the folk world and into the avant-garde before taking the stage in Newport where his electric guitar changed American music.

This event will take place on Friday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Gussman Concert Hall (Lorton Performance Center).

06/17/2025

The World of Bob Dylan is excited to welcome Cynthia Riddle as a keynote speaker at this year’s conference. Riddle will be giving a sneak-peek screening of her current work-in-progress, "Invisible Legend: Bruce Langhorne". The film tells the life story of Bruce Langhorne, an African American musician who was the inspiration for Bob Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Though the winds of change made him repeatedly reinvent himself, Bruce personified the spirit of the ’60s and lived a life filled with joy and laughter, despite dealing with a life-altering tragedy.

Cynthia Riddle is an award-winning DGA Director with decades of experience in film and television. Her feature credits include Swing Shift, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Sports Theater with Shaquille O’Neal. Always an idealist, she was VP of Marketing for a natural products company. She also published books on holistic health and led an environmental non-profit. But of all these wonderful and varied adventures, the one that was the most fun was co-founding Brother Bru Bru’s (Hot Sauce) with Bruce.

This event will take place on Thursday, July 24 at 7:00 p.m. in the Gussman Concert Hall (Lorton Performance Center).

06/11/2025

We are excited to welcome Mitch Blank and directors Nick Canfield and Paul Lovelace to the World of Bob Dylan for a special screening and discussion of MY BACK PAGES. This documentary presents a portrait of Mitch, the world’s foremost collector of Bob Dylan memorabilia and recordings, all kept in his tiny New York City apartment.

Canfield and Lovelace were drawn to Mitch’s generous and charming personality in addition to being big Dylan fans. They were primarily interested in exploring the idea of letting go of one’s life’s work. What happens when you part with something that has taken over such a large part of a life? And how can these materials live on for future generations?

This event will take place on Thursday, July 24 at 8:15 p.m. in the Gussman Concert Hall (Lorton Performance Center).

05/28/2025

📣 Just announced!!

Elijah Wald will join us at the World of Bob Dylan for a talk entitled "Bob Dylan, Blues Artist."

We’re often told that Dylan arrived in New York sounding like Woody Guthrie and followed that lineage till he went electric. In fact, he started out playing blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, first performed in Greenwich Village as a blues harmonica player, was booked, reviewed, and recorded as an innovative young blues artist, and his second album was going to be solidly blues — and blues-based rock ‘n’ roll — until Albert Grossman matched him with Peter, Paul and Mary and he was redefined him as a folk poet and the father of the singer-songwriter scene. What do we hear, and how differently could we think about Dylan’s later career, if we go back to that earlier identity, and consider him as a blues artist.

Wald's keynote will be Saturday, July 26 at 2 p.m. This talk is sponsored by a generous gift from Mary Herr Tally and Rusty Tally.

05/21/2025

Anna Canoni, President of Woody Guthrie Publications and Woody's granddaughter, kicks off the World of Bob Dylan conference with an opening keynote address, co-presented by the Bob Dylan Center.

"When Bob Met Woody: Hey, Hey Woody Guthrie, I Wrote You a Song" is a new and entertaining multimedia program. Canoni delves into the personal and professional relationship between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Through photos, archival items, rare home movies, and stories passed down through the Guthrie family, we’ll explore the deeper creative impact Woody had on Bob Dylan in his early days. Bob Dylan said, "You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live. The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them." In this program, we’ll discuss what Bob meant by that!

Join us for her talk on Thursday, July 24 at 11 a.m. It's one you won't want to miss!

05/16/2025

Following his 2023 talk on "Noir Tones in 21st-Century Dylan," conference mainstay Greil Marcus returns this year for "First Unto This Country: Bob Dylan and the Little Sandy Review," a listening session and conversation co-presented by the Bob Dylan Center and moderated by Center Director Steven Jenkins.

In this program, Marcus will play and discuss a selection of songs featured in pages of the "Review" that have remained a dynamic core of Dylan's work ever since.

You can learn more about Greil's keynote on our website! https://dylan.utulsa.edu/wobd25-greil-marcus