This commission commemorates Howard Zinn’s seminal book, A People’s History of the United States, with music and spoken word performances that will bring to life the extraordinary history of ordinary people in the book: those who built the movements that made the United States what it is today, ending slavery and Jim Crow, protesting war and the genocide of Native Americans, creating unions and the eight-hour workday, advancing women's rights and gay liberation, and struggling to right the wrongs of the day. Musicians, actors, and spoken word performers, including Staceyann Chin, Brian Jones, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Ealy, Gaby Hoffmann, Geoffrey Arend, and activist Linda Sarsour, will bring to life original source materials from the rebels, dissenters, and visionaries of our past—and present. Anthony Arnove, coeditor with Howard Zinn of the Voices of a People's History of the United States anthology and author of the introduction to the new 35th-anniversary edition of A People's History of the United States, narrates.
New York City, NY; NYC