Viggo Mortensen and Eddie Vedder sing the revolution on a hot PDX night
by Kristi Turnquist/The Oregonian
Sunday May 18, 2008, 2:11 PM
Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian
Viggo Mortensen read and sang in Portland Friday night in support of Howard Zinn's "Voices of a People's History of the United Sates."
Friday night, the line outside First Baptist Church in downtown Portland stretched around the block. The still-blazing sun, on a day of record heat, blasted early birds as they waited for the doors to open at 7:15 p.m. In the crowd were children, teens, teachers, students, silver hairs, and babes in arms. Many wore tank tops, sleeveless shifts or shorts, revealing tender flesh abruptly liberated from winter layers, now reddened and sweating.
Despite the rivers of perspiration sliding down backs and foreheads, the mood in line stayed remarkably jolly. And the crowd's spirits were as high as the temperature. It's not every Friday night in Portland, after all, that mashes together, in one form or another, Viggo Mortensen, Eddie Vedder, Bob Dylan, John Reed, Cindy Sheehan, Billie Holiday, John Brown, Leonard Peltier and Malcolm X.
This Friday night event, "Voices of a People's History," featured famous actors, East Coast performers and selected Portlanders reading excerpts from "Voices of a People's History of the United States." Edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, the book is a companion volume to Zinn's bestseller, "A People's History of the United States." As the title indicates, "Voices" collects speeches, poems, letters, songs and other testimony from figures both obscure and renowned.
As Zinn, a professor emeritus of political science at Boston University, writes in the book's introduction: "I want to point out that people who seem to have no power, whether working people, people of color, or women -- once they organize and protest and create movements -- have a voice no government can suppress."
The event, presented by Portland's Illahee Lecture Series, was already a hot ticket -- no pun intended -- because of the participation of Mortensen. The actor (best known as Aragorn in the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy), in Oregon to film "The Road," adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel, has appeared in a "Voices" reading in Los Angeles. His connection with Zinn includes Mortensen's narration of "What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About American Empire," a video available on YouTube.
Taking advantage of Mortensen's local presence, Illahee added the "Voices" reading to its lecture series. "Our season is about why we believe what we believe," says Peter Schoonmaker, Illahee's president. "We thought this fit it, asking the question, 'Can you believe history? Do you believe these dissenters and activists, or do you believe the standard story?" And it's timely, Schoonmaker adds, in this political season, when voters are asking, "Do you believe in Barack or Hillary or John McCain, or none of the above?"
No doubt many in the sell-out crowd were on hand to hear the provocative, eloquent, sometimes inflammatory words of American dissidents. But there were also the starstruck women in flirty sundresses and strappy sandals, hair combed and shiny, talking and laughing among themselves, and it was impossible not to overhear the conversations.
"This was all over the fan club sites."
"I'm sure at least some of these people have read the book."
"Viggo is just such a hottie."
Once inside, the Viggo-gazers calmed down and paid attention to an evening of words from some of America's most incendiary advocates of revolution. Zinn's co-editor, Anthony Arnove, dedicated the evening to the memory of Howard Zinn's wife, Roslyn, who died earlier in the week. Then he surprised the crowd by bringing out "a friend to us all, Eddie Vedder." The singer-songwriter and frontman for Pearl Jam came out to thunderous applause, waved, and took a seat in the front pew.
The readers sat on a long pew at the front of the church and rose, one by one, for their selections. The words that rang through the church offered a revisionist view of America, as a land "discovered" with brutal exploitation by Christopher Columbus, its history woven through with oppression of the working class, minorities and the poor.
Portland poet and musician Trevino L. Brings Plenty quoted Tecumseh, a Shawnee leader: "white people came among us feeble and now we have made them strong...the white men are not friends to the Indians."
Lincoln High School student Sarah Levy animatedly read from Helen Keller's protest against U.S. entry into World War I: "Every modern war has its roots in exploitation.."
Mortensen, bearded, wearing jeans and T-shirt that said, "Make Art, Not War," read similar thoughts from Portland native John Reed, the journalist and Communist activist. In 1917, Reed wrote an article for The Masses magazine entitled "Whose War?" that opposed World War I.
"I know what war means," Mortensen read in a low, steady voice. "I have seen men die, and go mad, and lie in hospitals suffering hell; but there is a worse thing than that. War means an ugly mob-madness, crucifying the truth-tellers, choking the artists, side-tracking reforms, revolutions, and the working of social forces."
As his voice rose, parallels with current debates over war seemed to resonate among the audience. "Whose war is this?" Mortensen read. "Not mine."
"Not mine," echoed a voice in the crowd.
Sustained applause greeted Portland actor and teacher Eric Levine as he read from the 1918 speech that led to Socialist and union leader Eugene Debs' arrest: "Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug!"
New York-based Shontina Vernon sang a blood-chilling version of "Strange Fruit," the classic condemnation of the lynching of African Americans that became one of Billie Holiday's most wrenching songs.
The evening reached an emotional climax with Michael Ealy, of the Showtime miniseries, "Sleeper Cell," reading from Malcolm X's revolutionary "A Message to the Grass Roots"; Mortensen singing, a capella, Bob Dylan's "Masters of War"; and New York performance poet Staceyann Chin reading, with explosive emotion, from Cindy Sheehan's "It's Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing."
Then, Vedder went to the front of the church, sat on a chair, picked up a guitar and, after stopping twice to collect his emotions, devoted his song, "The Long Road" to Roslyn Zinn. "Without you," Vedder sang, "something's missing...Now I wish for you again/And the wind keeps blowin'/And the sky keeps turning gray/And the sun is set..."
When Vedder finished, the crowd -- some in tears -- applauded vigorously and went back into the hot Portland night.
Sunday May 18, 2008, 2:11 PM
Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian
Viggo Mortensen read and sang in Portland Friday night in support of Howard Zinn's "Voices of a People's History of the United Sates."
Friday night, the line outside First Baptist Church in downtown Portland stretched around the block. The still-blazing sun, on a day of record heat, blasted early birds as they waited for the doors to open at 7:15 p.m. In the crowd were children, teens, teachers, students, silver hairs, and babes in arms. Many wore tank tops, sleeveless shifts or shorts, revealing tender flesh abruptly liberated from winter layers, now reddened and sweating.
Despite the rivers of perspiration sliding down backs and foreheads, the mood in line stayed remarkably jolly. And the crowd's spirits were as high as the temperature. It's not every Friday night in Portland, after all, that mashes together, in one form or another, Viggo Mortensen, Eddie Vedder, Bob Dylan, John Reed, Cindy Sheehan, Billie Holiday, John Brown, Leonard Peltier and Malcolm X.
This Friday night event, "Voices of a People's History," featured famous actors, East Coast performers and selected Portlanders reading excerpts from "Voices of a People's History of the United States." Edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, the book is a companion volume to Zinn's bestseller, "A People's History of the United States." As the title indicates, "Voices" collects speeches, poems, letters, songs and other testimony from figures both obscure and renowned.
As Zinn, a professor emeritus of political science at Boston University, writes in the book's introduction: "I want to point out that people who seem to have no power, whether working people, people of color, or women -- once they organize and protest and create movements -- have a voice no government can suppress."
The event, presented by Portland's Illahee Lecture Series, was already a hot ticket -- no pun intended -- because of the participation of Mortensen. The actor (best known as Aragorn in the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy), in Oregon to film "The Road," adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel, has appeared in a "Voices" reading in Los Angeles. His connection with Zinn includes Mortensen's narration of "What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About American Empire," a video available on YouTube.
Taking advantage of Mortensen's local presence, Illahee added the "Voices" reading to its lecture series. "Our season is about why we believe what we believe," says Peter Schoonmaker, Illahee's president. "We thought this fit it, asking the question, 'Can you believe history? Do you believe these dissenters and activists, or do you believe the standard story?" And it's timely, Schoonmaker adds, in this political season, when voters are asking, "Do you believe in Barack or Hillary or John McCain, or none of the above?"
No doubt many in the sell-out crowd were on hand to hear the provocative, eloquent, sometimes inflammatory words of American dissidents. But there were also the starstruck women in flirty sundresses and strappy sandals, hair combed and shiny, talking and laughing among themselves, and it was impossible not to overhear the conversations.
"This was all over the fan club sites."
"I'm sure at least some of these people have read the book."
"Viggo is just such a hottie."
Once inside, the Viggo-gazers calmed down and paid attention to an evening of words from some of America's most incendiary advocates of revolution. Zinn's co-editor, Anthony Arnove, dedicated the evening to the memory of Howard Zinn's wife, Roslyn, who died earlier in the week. Then he surprised the crowd by bringing out "a friend to us all, Eddie Vedder." The singer-songwriter and frontman for Pearl Jam came out to thunderous applause, waved, and took a seat in the front pew.
The readers sat on a long pew at the front of the church and rose, one by one, for their selections. The words that rang through the church offered a revisionist view of America, as a land "discovered" with brutal exploitation by Christopher Columbus, its history woven through with oppression of the working class, minorities and the poor.
Portland poet and musician Trevino L. Brings Plenty quoted Tecumseh, a Shawnee leader: "white people came among us feeble and now we have made them strong...the white men are not friends to the Indians."
Lincoln High School student Sarah Levy animatedly read from Helen Keller's protest against U.S. entry into World War I: "Every modern war has its roots in exploitation.."
Mortensen, bearded, wearing jeans and T-shirt that said, "Make Art, Not War," read similar thoughts from Portland native John Reed, the journalist and Communist activist. In 1917, Reed wrote an article for The Masses magazine entitled "Whose War?" that opposed World War I.
"I know what war means," Mortensen read in a low, steady voice. "I have seen men die, and go mad, and lie in hospitals suffering hell; but there is a worse thing than that. War means an ugly mob-madness, crucifying the truth-tellers, choking the artists, side-tracking reforms, revolutions, and the working of social forces."
As his voice rose, parallels with current debates over war seemed to resonate among the audience. "Whose war is this?" Mortensen read. "Not mine."
"Not mine," echoed a voice in the crowd.
Sustained applause greeted Portland actor and teacher Eric Levine as he read from the 1918 speech that led to Socialist and union leader Eugene Debs' arrest: "Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug!"
New York-based Shontina Vernon sang a blood-chilling version of "Strange Fruit," the classic condemnation of the lynching of African Americans that became one of Billie Holiday's most wrenching songs.
The evening reached an emotional climax with Michael Ealy, of the Showtime miniseries, "Sleeper Cell," reading from Malcolm X's revolutionary "A Message to the Grass Roots"; Mortensen singing, a capella, Bob Dylan's "Masters of War"; and New York performance poet Staceyann Chin reading, with explosive emotion, from Cindy Sheehan's "It's Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing."
Then, Vedder went to the front of the church, sat on a chair, picked up a guitar and, after stopping twice to collect his emotions, devoted his song, "The Long Road" to Roslyn Zinn. "Without you," Vedder sang, "something's missing...Now I wish for you again/And the wind keeps blowin'/And the sky keeps turning gray/And the sun is set..."
When Vedder finished, the crowd -- some in tears -- applauded vigorously and went back into the hot Portland night.
posted by peaceofmind | 10:52 AM
