Agnes Cunningham
| Sis Cunningham | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Agnes Cunningham |
| Also known as | Sis |
| Born | February 19, 1909 |
| Origin | Watonga, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | June 27, 2004 (aged 95) |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, magazine editor |
| Instruments | Piano, accordion |
| Labels | Folkways |
Agnes "Sis" Cunningham (February 19, 1909 – June 27, 2004) was an American musician, best known for her involvement as a performer and publicist of folk music and protest songs. She was the founding editor of Broadside magazine, which she published with her husband Gordon Friesen and their daughters.
Agnes Cunningham was born in Oklahoma in 1909, the daughter of Ada Boyce and William Cunningham,Blaine County, Oklahoma [small farmer], fiddler. Her father was a socialist and follower of Eugene Debs, socialist leader. As a child, she learned piano, accordion, and musical arrangement. She attended the Weatherford (Oklahoma) Teachers' College and then went on to the Commonwealth Labor College near Mena, Arkansas, where she studied labor organizing and Marxism. [Pietaro, 2004].
In 1937, she became a music teacher at the Southern Labor School for Women in North Carolina. She taught politically oriented music, including labor-union standards, political songs such as those written by Bertholt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, and topical songs, including some of her own original compositions. [Pietaro, 2004]
In late 1939 or early 1940, she was a founding member of the Red Dust Players, an agit-prop group in Oklahoma. Fleeing harassment, she and fellow Communist Party member Gordon Friesen married on July 23, 1941 in the course of fleeing to New York City. [Pietaro, 2004].
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