Agnes "Sis" Cunningham (February 19, 1909 – June 27, 2004)[1][2] was an American musician, best known for her involvement as a performer and publicist of folk music and protest songs.
After graduating from Weatherford Teachers' College, Agnes Cunningham worked in the public school system teaching music.
[3] Completing her coursework and moving back to Oklahoma, Agnes Cunningham began recruiting for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.
[5] In late 1939, she was a founding member of the Red Dust Players, an agit-prop group in Oklahoma, that promoted propaganda and political agitation through short plays.
A lasting contribution of Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen was to publish a little magazine for 26 years: Broadside, which printed the words and music to newly written folk and topical songs by Bob Dylan, Malvina Reynolds, Phil Ochs, Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many others.
[3] Recordings of songs that had been published in their magazine were collected in 2000 in a five-CD set, The Best of Broadside,[9] on Smithsonian Folkways, which received two Grammy Award nominations.
[10] Despite Agnes Cunningham being out of the music scene for years, she and her husband were able to start Broadside when Seeger provided them with a subsidy for the endeavor in 1962.
[1] Many young musicians, including Dylan, Phil Ochs, Gil Turner, and many more, recorded tunes inside Agnes Cunningham's family apartment.
This magazine published the songs of many of the 1960s' most influential topical songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, The Freedom Singers, Buffy Sainte Marie, Len Chandler, and Malvina Reynolds.