Ken Waldman, musician, poet, and storyteller

The Western Illinois Museum welcomes Ken Waldman for an evening of fiddle music and storytelling on Our Front Porch. Ken will present his program, Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones: From Western Illinois to the Real Alaska on Friday, February 2, 2024, on the Museum’s indoor porch. The doors and bar open at 6:30 pm, with the program starting at 7:00 pm. There is a suggested $5 donation at the door.  

Ken Waldman, known as the Alaskan fiddling poet, will be joined by local multi-instrumentalist John Lane for a program that takes you from McDonough County to Alaska and back. Waldman combines old-time string band music with original poems, weaving both into an Alaska-set story that takes audiences on a journey to unimaginable places. Ken has honed his genre-merging performance at venues from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, Australia. This is his first-ever Macomb appearance. Visit https://www.kenwaldman.com/ to learn more about Ken Waldman.

The Museum’s programs are supported, in part, by grants from Illinois Humanities and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

The Western Illinois Museum is a non-profit organization celebrating and nurturing the history, culture, and traditions of McDonough County. It is quickly becoming a vibrant community hub that features exhibits, an open collection, lectures, music, and other programs located in a historic building. The Museum is located at 201 S. Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square.

A full schedule of events can be found at wimuseum.org or on social media @wimuseum. For further information, call 309-837-2750, text 309-837-2613, or email info@wimuseum.org.