People’s Slam tribute to Howard Zinn
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MADISON, Wis.--Mother Fool's, a small but very popular coffeehouse here was packed and standing-room only on June 5, for the first annual People's Slam, a tribute to Howard Zinn featuring local activists, poets and musicians performing works from Zinn's Voices of People's History, as well as original spoken-word poetry and writing from radicals throughout history.
The event was a fundraiser to help people attend the annual Socialism 2010 conference, that will be held in Chicago June 17-20.
People performed works from Eugene Debs, August Spies, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Rachel Corrie, Vito Russo, Muhammad Ali and others included in Zinn's book--but also from Carolyn Forche, Christos, Jim Northrup and Meena. Original work by local poets touched on issues of gender, capitalism, poverty and the current economic crisis.
In light of the recent attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the ongoing war in the Middle East and on the working class here at home, the evening brought together people from all over the area eager to draw strength from the fighters and struggles of the past as they look toward pushing the current struggles forward.
