Tireless Sacred Work: Performance by and Conversation with Ezra Furman

Singer, songwriter, musician, and critic Ezra Furman—“the most compelling live act you can see right now,” according to the Guardian—performs and opens Harvard Radcliffe Institute's “Minding the Gap: Gender and the Mental Health Crisis” conference. Her anthem-ballads are simultaneously transgressive and reflective, folk and art rock.

Furman has spoken about and advocated extensively for mental health. She explores in her music themes of identity and anxiety, angst and fearlessness.

Following her performance, Furman engages in conversation about music, gender, and mental health with discussant William Cheng, 2022–2023 Rita E. Hauser Fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and professor of music at Dartmouth College.

Introduction by Carol J. Oja, director of the humanities program, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; and William Powell Mason Professor of Music, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Harvard Radcliffe Institute gratefully acknowledges the Perrin Moorhead Grayson and Bruns Grayson Dean’s Leadership Fund for Academic Ventures, which is supporting this event.

For information about Harvard Radcliffe Institute and its many public programs, visit https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/.

Facebook:   / radcliffeinstitute  
Instagram:   / radcliffe.institute  
LinkedIn:   / radcliffe-institute  
Twitter:   / radinstitute  

0:00 Introduction by Carol Oja
4:39 Performance by Ezra Furman
43:08 Conversation with William Cheng