It's been an active 2009 for Pete Seeger, and it will only get crazier. The world is throwing a 90th birthday bash for him at Madison Square Garden on May 3, and his message of pointed political protest is more salient than ever. He's also a 2009 Grammy Award winner and has just accepted an official - if not 50 years too late - apology from the San Diego school board: He had been "asked" to sign an oath condemning communism or cancel a concert that he had planned at a local high school. In addition, Seeger is the subject of the recently released biography The Protest Singer. He will headline a local gig under the umbrella organization Spirit of Unity this Saturday night at Poughkeepsie's Cunneen-Hackett Cultural Center.

In the 1930s and '40s, Seeger fought for farmers and unions; later he was there for the Civil Rights movement. He fought against the war in Vietnam and for every other "lefty" cause. But as author Alec Wilkinson points out, though Seeger was at one time a member of the Communist party, he is at heart really a conservative: "He believes ardently in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His interpretation of them is literal. There is no conceit he has more emphatically embraced than that all human beings are created equal. In the early and middle part of the 20th century, such a conviction made a person not a patriot but a socialist."

The Spirit of Unity is an interfaith organization throwing all denominations, genders, races and cultures into a big ol' artistic melting pot. For the Saturday, April 11 show at Poughkeepsie's Cunneen-Hackett Cultural Center, Seeger will be joined by gospel recording artist Ms. Bernadette and Abraham's Stars Youth Praise Band from the Mid-Hudson Chinese Christian Church. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and the show starts at 6:30 p.m. Call (845) 485-7036 for further details. Cunneen-Hackett Cultural Center (845-486-4571) is located at 9 Vassar Street in Poughkeepsie.