The Si Kahn Collection documents Kahn's musical career and his work and interests in student activism, unionism, community organizing, voting rights, health and safety of textile workers and coal miners, and environmental justice. Union materials document his work on the 1970s campaign to organize in J.P. Stevens textile plants across the South and the 1974 Brookside coal miners' strike in Harlan County, Ky. Materials include correspondence; songbooks and song sheets with original lyrics; organizational records for Grassroots Leadership and Citizen Action, Inc.; printed items and publications; name and subject files; newspaper clippings; t-shirts, pin back buttons, and posters; and audio and video recordings. Organizational records include memoranda, meeting minutes, reports, manuals, contracts, financial documents, and bylaws for Citizen Action, Inc. Other organizations represented in the collection include Jewish Fund for Justice, Youth Project, Forest Service, Save Our Cumberland Mountains, United Mine Workers of America, Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and AFL-CIO.
Audio and video recordings consist of interviews, musical performances, recorded folk music, radio programs, lectures, conferences, and other events recorded or collected by Si Kahn. Of particular note are audio recordings or collaborations featuring Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens, Guy Carawan, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, John Lee Hooker, John McCutcheon, Holly Near, and Studs Terkel, among others. The collection also includes demos, masters, work tapes, and live recordings of Si Kahn, including audio materials related to Si Kahn's releases Home (1979), Doing My Job (1982), Bristol Bay (2013), as well as open reel demo recordings that Si Kahn made for Judy Collins, Mel Tillis and Sherry Bryce, and others. The collection also contains audio recordings related to Grassroots Leadership, including audiocassette recordings of conferences, board meetings and retreats, and fundraising parties. Audio recordings are on 1/4" open reel audio tape, audiocassette, digital audio tape (DAT), and born-digital files, while video recordings are on VHS, U-Matic, 1/2" open reel video, and born-digital files.
