Voices of a People's History

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Voices of a People's History

howardzinn.org News
February 2009

Steve Earle reads Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Steve Earle reads Bartolomeo Vanzetti's Speech to the Court (April 9, 1927), from Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's book Voices of a People's History of the United States, November 11, 2006, at the Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, California.
watch this video ›

Latest news from Voices of a People's History project
Additional recent Howard Zinn

Latest news from Voices of a People's History project
Dear friends of Voices,
Voices of a People's History kicked off the new year with warmth, good
cheer, and a terrific
performance at the Sundance Film Festival 2009 in
snowy Park City, Utah.
The performance at Sundance ASCAP Music Cafe on January 22 featured
three 2009 Oscar
nominees, who had all just gotten word that very
morning about their nominations: Josh
Brolin (for "Milk"), Melissa Leo
(for "Frozen River"), and Marisa Tomei (for "The Wrestler").
This trio joined Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, Benjamin
Bratt, Woody Harrelson,
and Q'orianka Kilcher, along with superb
musical sets by Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes
and Wyclef Jean.
Howard Zinn narrated, and then hugged Wyclef and his band at the end of

the show.
See video clips from the Festival Spotlight on Voices produced by Sundance Channel
here:
http://www.peopleshistory.us/

See Getty Images photos here:
http://www.jamd.com/gallery/

Speak: http://www.thepeoplespeak.com
The People Speak headlines the opening night of the 2009 MoMA
Documentary Fortnight, on
Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York at
11 West 53rd Street.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers
(Howard Zinn, Anthony
Arnove, Chris Moore) and several of the featured
actors and musicians including Staceyann
Chin, Michael Ealy, Martin
Espada, Lupe Fiasco, Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, David Strathairn,

Kerry Washington, and Harris Yulin.
Seating is extremely limited and advance tickets are only available in
person at MoMA,
starting on February 4. Please get your tickets early.
This screening will sell out.
For ticketing information and event details, please visit:
http://www.peopleshistory.us/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
..just a few premium seats available for a $100.00 tax
deductible
donation at: https://www.peopleshistory.us/

Meanwhile, away from the paparazzi flash, our work continues in the
Performing Arts Program
with ongoing readings across the country,
including most recently a beautiful, small event with
Voices board
member Brian Jones and Hip Hop Theater Festival staffer Elz Cuya at a
Martin
Luther King Day celebration in downtown Brooklyn, accompanied on
turntables by DJ Reborn.
We shared the stage with teenage breakdancers
and spoken word artists.
The next major performance is on February 26, with Howard Zinn, at the
historic Mission High
School in San Francisco. Clarence Thomas of the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
will read with actors
Benjamin Bratt, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Kerry Washington, and Robin

Wright Penn. "All-gal teardown" band Stairwell Sisters will bring to
life Woody Guthrie and
other people's balladeers on the musical front.
Details at: http://www.peopleshistory.us/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?

Voices also continues our own version of non-corporate "R&D" as we
develop the Literary Arts
and Education Program. After interviewing
dozens of educators and students in the last several
months, and
attending conferences including the National Council for the Social
Studies and the
National Association of Multicultural Educators, we're
confident of the high demand for a multi-
media curriculum based on
Voices. With sufficient funds in place, we hope to launch the first

phase later in 2009. Stay tuned for details. Updates and news about
Voices are regularly posted
on our website at http://www.peopleshistory.us

Our goal is modest: To transform the way U.S. history is taught and understood!
We know that now may seem an unlikely time for donations, but we also
know that arts and
education are the first to go. Unless of course it
is the artwork on the walls of John Thain's
$1.2 million renovated
office at Citibank! For the price of one sconce on one of Thain's
office
walls we can bring Voices to more communities in 2009. Please
visit
http://www.peopleshistory.us [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
Also, please be in touch if you want to bring Voices to your community or school.
May we organize, agitate, and do whatever is necessary to make 2009 live up to its
promise!
In solidarity,
Voices of a People's History
http://www.peopleshistory.us

Other recent Howard Zinn material
For Howard Zinn, play is much more fun
January 23, 2009
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/ae/

Authors@Google: Howard Zinn
See the video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch? [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?
Socialist Worker
http://socialistworker.org/ [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?

[
And a recent Howard Zinn article written for l'Humanité in France:
OBAMA'S HISTORIC VICTORY
by Howard Zinn
Those of us on the Left who have criticized Obama, as I have, for his
failure to take bold
positions on the war and on the economy, must join
the exultation of those Americans,
black and white, who shouted and
wept Tuesday night as they were informed that Barack
Obama had won the
presidential election. It is truly a historic moment, that a black man

will lead our country. The enthusiasm of the young, black and white,
the hopes of their
elders, cannot simply be ignored.
There was a similar moment a century and a half ago, in the year 1860,
when Abraham
Lincoln was elected president. Lincoln had been criticized
harshly by the abolitionists, the
anti-slavery movement, for his
failure to take a clear, bold stand against slavery, for acting
as a
shrewd politician rather than a moral force. But when he was elected,
the abolitionist
leader Wendell Phillips, who had been an angry critic
of Lincoln's cautiousness, recognized
the possibility in his election.
Phillips wrote that for the first time in the nation's history "the
slave has chosen a President
of the United States." Lincoln, he said,
was not an abolitionist, but he in some way "consents
to represent an
antislavery position." Like a pawn on the chessboard, Lincoln had the
potential,
if the American people acted vigorously, to be moved across
the board, converted into a queen,
and, as Phillips said, "sweep the
board."
Obama, like Lincoln, tends to look first at his political fortunes
instead of making his decisions
on moral grounds. But, as the first
African American in the White House, elected by an
enthusiastic
citizenry which expects a decisive move towards peace and social
justice, he
presents a possibility for important change.
Obama becomes president in a situation which cries out for such change.
The nation has been
engaged in two futile and immoral wars, in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and the American people
have turned decisively against
those wars. The economy is shaken by tremendous blows, and
is in danger
of collapsing, as families lose their homes and working people,
including those in
the middle class, lose their jobs, So the population
is ready for change, indeed, desperate for
change, and "change" was the
word most used by Obama in his campaign.
What kind of change is needed? First, to announce the withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq and
Afghanistan, and to renounce the Bush doctrine of
preventive war as well as the Carter doctrine
of military action to
control Mideast oil. He needs to radically change the direction of U.S.

foreign policy, declare that the U.S. is a peace loving country which
will not intervene militarily
in other parts of the world, and start
dismantling the military bases we have in over a hundred
countries.
Also he must begin meeting with Medvedev, the Russian leader, to reach
agreement
on the dismantling of the nuclear arsenals, in keeping with
the Nuclear Anti-Proliferation Treaty.
This turn-around from militarism will free hundreds of billions of
dollars. A tax program which
will sharply increase taxes on the richest
1% of the nation, and will tax their wealth as well as
their income,
will yield more hundreds of billions of dollars.
With all that saved money, the government will be able to give free
health care to everyone,
put millions of people to work (which the
so-called free market has not been able to do). In
short, emulate the
New Deal program, in which millions were given jobs by the government.