Hilton Obenzinger on Protest from Vietnam to Iraq August 5, 2008

A conversation with HILTON OBENZINGER, author of _Busy Dying_, _Running Through Fire_, _American Palestine_, and other works of poetry, fiction, history and criticism; Associate Director, Stanford Program in Writing and Rhetoric.

At Columbia University in April 1968, Hilton Obenzinger was one of many students who dramatically occupied the president's office. For six days they protested the university's secret research to support the Vietnam War and its plans to build a gym in Morningside Park despite the opposition of Harlem. The occupation and subsequent strike was a generational moment repeated in universities around the country and throughout the world. _Busy Dying_ is both a history and an autobiographical novel -- a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic portrait of the author’s Polish Jewish family, a coming of age in poetry, music, and politics, and a continuing journey of exploration.

"No one tells the story of the Columbia University variation of Apocalypse 1968 -- its prelude and its up-to-date fallout (e.g., This Is Your Life) -- better than Poet-and-Communard-in-Residence of that and other histories, Hilton Obenzinger. When Politics meant something other than Brute Force, Obenzinger was there, observing and making it happen…. In deft, benign, deep and often hilarious prose, he has kept the faith." — Bill Berkson

Copies of _Busy Dying_ will be available for purchase and signing.

Free and open to the public – Be a part of the studio audience! Wheelchair accessible.

Broadcast live on Mid-Peninsula Community Media Cable Channel 27, webcast at www.communitymediacenter.net, and rebroadcast throughout August as part of the ongoing "Other Voices" television series produced by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center. Schedule at http://PeaceandJustice.org/index.php?topic=tvschedule

Sponsored by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center ~ 650-326-8837 ~ www.PeaceandJustice.org ~ ppjc@PeaceandJustice.org

Official Website: http://peaceandjustice.org/