Lincoln Center Local: Voices of a People’s History of the United States

Montclair Public Library has announced its winter and spring 2017 lineup for Lincoln Center Local: Free Screenings series, which offers streams of programs from Lincoln Center’s growing digital content collection, including world-class performances from Live From Lincoln Center and other previous live events.

Voices of a People’s History of the United States
Saturday, February 4 at 2pm
(This is a screening of Voices of a People’s History of the United States filmed at Lincoln Center on November 5, 2015. Run-time: 1h 30m 49s)

This Lincoln Center commission commemorates the 35th anniversary of 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 work day, advancing women’s rights and gay liberation, and struggling to right the wrongs of the day.

Actors Susan Pourfar, Brian Jones, Viggo Mortensen, Kathleen Chalfant, Fatou Thiam, and Peter Sarsgaard with musicians Allison Moorer, Stew, Teddy Thompson, and Hayes Carll bring to life original source materials from the rebels, dissenters, and visionaries of our past—and present. With narration by Anthony Arnove, co-editor with Howard Zinn of Voices of a People’s History of the United States and author of the introduction to the new 35th-anniversary edition of A People’s History of the United States.

Voices seeks to educate and inspire a new generation working for social justice. This free performance kicks off a year-long project with New York City students at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, a New York City public school located at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus, co-founded by Lincoln Center Education. Some of tonight’s artists will be helping students to engage with this history and develop their own interpretations of these incredible stories, culminating in a performance of their own work at the Atrium on May 19, 2016.