Tom Page is a guitarist and songwriter based in Wichita, Kansas. Growing up in the 1970s as a blind American musician allowed him access to many of the great folk artists of the time and sparked his interest in the roots of American music. This program is derived from Tom’s experiences as a year-round touring blind musician, traveling the country and making his living as an itinerate folk musician.
This program will inform the audience of the conditions that created the cultural phenomena of the “blind blues man”. With story and song, Tom will journey from the late nineteenth century to the present. The stories will serve to highlight the evolution of the possibilities available to blind Americans . How blindness skills (cane travel, braille literacy, etc…) have allowed some blind persons past and present to explore their dreams.
“As I have had the fortune to travel and meet all kinds of people in the music business as well as other blind people, I began to become aware of the great economic disadvantages faced by most of us. I began volunteering with the National Federation of the Blind and through those experiences began to understand the historical background and continuing social problems facing blind people today. I began seriously studying the music made by the blind and how it has changed with society…”
Tom and his partner, Nicole Taylor, live in Wichita. His sister Katie is the associate dean of the architecture and design school at Kansas State University, and his brother Will works as an appellate attorney in New York. “As a musician, I guess I’m the black sheep of the family,” he jokes. But Tom is, in reality, pleased with where his life journey has led him so far, and his mentees and peers throughout the Federation are certainly enjoying and benefitting from his many talents.