
About 100 people gathered at Lincoln Center last week to watch a performance inspired by “A People’s History of the United States,” the seminal book by late historian Howard Zinn, who studied the United States through different social movements.
The free program, “250 Years of Dissent,” took place at the David Rubenstein Atrium, where actors read contemporary and historical speeches, articles, and songs about resistance. The piece was produced by writers Anthony Arnove and Haley Pessin, who co-edited a 21st-century version of Zinn’s work, to mark the 250th anniversary of independence in the United States.
“You can’t really understand how we got to this very bleak moment, in a lot of ways, without understanding the way that this country was founded and how that reverberates into the present,” Pessin said.
“It’s really, we feel, a crucial time to gather in public spaces with other people to defend spaces and institutions like this and the truthful telling of our history,” Arnove said.
According to free-expression organization PEN America, 15% of the books banned in United States public schools during the 2023-2024 school year were related to activism, including Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.”
The Trump administration, which supports banning certain works, launched its own semiquincentennial programming in May. The White House website dedicated to the anniversary features links to a virtual museum on America’s founding, created with PragerU, a conservative media organization. The site also highlights an initiative encouraging people to pray for the country.
Pessin, who uses they/them pronouns, announced to the audience before the performance that they do not agree with how the milestone is being commemorated and sees the Trump administration as trying “to exploit this anniversary, to whitewash our history and insist on white nationalist narratives about the country’s past and present,” said Pessin.
For the show, all the actors selected their own pieces to read from a list curated by Pessin and Arnove. The idea of a public reading originated over 20 years ago to celebrate Zinn’s book, which sold one million copies. The publishers of “A People’s History of the United States” suggested celebrating with an academic conference, but Zinn wanted to “bring these voices to life in a public setting,” said Arnove, who has organized similar performances ever since.
Actor Jeorge Bennett Watson read a 2025 article about the Trump administration rewriting racial history and a 1963 James Baldwin speech on education. He said his pieces were opposites but “part of the same organism, which is writers of color speaking about the current situation.”
Among the 14 works shared was a 1991 essay about a Japanese-American’s intermittent camp experience and a foreword by Zinn, where he writes history should “emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past, when, even in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist.”
Some performers read pieces about the White House’s call for a review of the Smithsonian Institution material and the mandate for museums to “celebrate American exceptionalism.” Another reader advised people to document injustices on social media to create their own history.
The performance resonated with several audience members.
Jill Sakowitz said she attended the reading for a “feeling of being with like-minded people.”
One audience member called out, “What do we do?” after hearing a performer say, “Nothing can happen if we don’t take action,” from a 2024 letter to young organizers.
“It’s very powerful,” said Rakhi Datta about the show. “I’m leaving with inspiration and with hope, with gratitude for people coming to these kinds of things to hopefully make a difference.”