Josh Brolin (fresh off his turn as Dan White in Milk),
This was a quintessentially San Francisco event. It took place in the Mission High School Auditorium (a gorgeous campus and site of the Raza student Blowouts of a few years ago.) Socialists, Gay Rights advocates, The Haitian Action Committee, Students Against War and other like minded groups filled the steps outside the campus handing out fliers and gathering email addresses.
The performance’s intent was to breathe life into the words of people who resisted, protested and questioned the unfair practices of the US government and in turn put in motion movements that changed the United States forever. The show did highlight pieces that reminded the audience however, that things that have changed… have also remained all too much the same.
Josh Brolin as Vito Russo, a gay/AIDS rights advocate, received a well deserved standing ovation as did Kerry Washington as Sojourner Truth reading from “Ain’t I A Woman?”
Clarence Thomas and Boots Riley read from Muhammad Ali and MLK’s speeches that denounced the Vietnam War and were followed by Benjamin Bratt playing Camilo Meja a returning Iraq GI who is now an anti-war advocate.
These performances and others are going to be turned into the forthcoming documentary The People Speak which will be released later this year. I highly recommend you check it out.
I heard some non-performance going people on the sidewalk after the show wondering why there was such a crowd at the school on a Wednesday night. They determined that it was “some hippy, granola crap.” If the rights of humanity and the questioning of unfair governmental actions that lead to injustice and death is “granola”?… pour me another bowl please.
EB
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