“There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth losing a job; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather be a free pauper than a rich slave. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with the lack of self-respect.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -
Here’s a few highlights from last week’s open mic that Baobob Tree Press hosts every Wednesday night at the Burnt Toast in Boulder.
Co-Editor of Baobob Tree Press, Olatundji Akpo-Sani, kicks the night off.
Olatundji performs.
Nathan Antar performs a short acoustic set.
Emily Owens performs.
Co-Editor of Baobob Tree Press, Rob Geisen, performs.
Bryan Aguiar performs.
Rob Geisen performs.
Nate Cook of Ego vs. Id plays a short acoustic set.
Marcus Palmer performs.
“If you look at the laws passed in the United States from the very beginning of the American republic down to the present day, you’ll find that most of the legislation passed is class legislation that favors the elite, that favors the rich. You’ll find huge subsidies to corporations all through American history. You’ll find legislation passed to benefit the railroads, the oil companies, and the merchant marine and very little legislation passed to benefit the poor and the people who desperately need help. So the Law should not be given the holy deference that we are all taught to give it when we grow up and go to school, and it’s a profoundly undemocratic idea to say that you should judge what you do according to what the Law says – undemocratic because it divests you as an individual of the right to make a decision yourself about what is right or wrong and it gives all of that power to that small band of legislators who have decided for themselves what is right and what is wrong.”
- Howard Zinn -
Backstage with Olatundji Akpo-Sani, Nate Cook, and Nathan Antar
Slaughterhos
Nathan Antar
Nate Cook of Ego vs. Id
Olatundji Akpo-Sani, President of the Artists’ Guild
Backstage with Nathan Antar
Nate Jordon, Vice-President of the Artists’ Guild
Olatundji and Antar diggin’ Sonnenblume
The Artists Guild of Boulder:
A conglomeration of artists working to further the arts and artists in Boulder through education, workshops, events and promotion. Saturday night’s show will feature Nate Cook of Ego Vs. Id, Slaughterhos, Rob Geisen, Olatundji Akpo-Sani, Ben Kaufman, Tiph Parrish, Nathan Antar, and many more.
It’s going to be a fun night with lots of great music and great spoken word performances, all for only eight bucks! Come check it out – be a part of the mayhem – dance and smile. You’ll live longer that way and enjoy it all the more.
Monkey Puzzle’s favorite band Ego vs. Id is opening for Stockholm Syndrome tonight at The Fox!
The following readings are from the Fast Forward Volume II Release Party on Sunday, July 12th. Some readers are Monkey Puzzle contributors, all are Monkey Puzzle friends.
Nancy Stohlman
(apologies for the shoddy video quality Nancy)
Shane Joaquin Jimenez
Nate Jordon
Leah Rogin-Roper
Kona Morris
Allie Lukens
Katharyn Grant
Bryan Jansing
Kelly Money
Nathan Antar
Daniel Staniforth
Jacob Young
Anne Waldman & Daniel Staniforth
Shy Mukerjee & Megan Fincher
Nathan Antar
Anne Waldman, Akilah Oliver, & Lavonne Caesar
Adrian’s Play
Rodrigo Gonzalez & Daniel Staniforth
Junior Burke, Lisa Birman, Max Regan, & Sara Nolan
Monkey Trial Begins
On July 10, 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called “Monkey Trial” began with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes had conspired to get charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense, and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in U.S. history.
On July 10, the Monkey Trial got underway, and within a few days hordes of spectators and reporters had descended on Dayton as preachers set up revival tents along the city’s main street to keep the faithful stirred up. Inside the Rhea County Courthouse, the defense suffered early setbacks when Judge John Raulston ruled against their attempt to prove the law unconstitutional and then refused to end his practice of opening each day’s proceeding with prayer.
Outside, Dayton took on a carnival-like atmosphere as an exhibit featuring two chimpanzees and a supposed “missing link” opened in town, and vendors sold Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and lemonade. The missing link was in fact Jo Viens of Burlington, Vermont, a 51-year-old man who was of short stature and possessed a receding forehead and a protruding jaw. One of the chimpanzees–named Joe Mendi–wore a plaid suit, a brown fedora, and white spats, and entertained Dayton’s citizens by monkeying around on the courthouse lawn.
In the courtroom, Judge Raulston destroyed the defense’s strategy by ruling that expert scientific testimony on evolution was inadmissible–on the grounds that it was Scopes who was on trial, not the law he had violated. The next day, Raulston ordered the trial moved to the courthouse lawn, fearing that the weight of the crowd inside was in danger of collapsing the floor.
In front of several thousand spectators in the open air, Darrow changed his tactics and as his sole witness called Bryan in an attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements to the amusement of the crowd. On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks. After eight minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, on July 26, he lay down for a Sunday afternoon nap and never woke up.
In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the Monkey Trial verdict on a technicality but left the constitutional issues unresolved until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Arkansas law on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment.
On July 1st, numerous Monkey Puzzle Contributors gave great performances at Naropa University!
Shy Mukerjee
Megan Fincher
Mitch Maraude
Megan DiBello
Justin Kulyk
Sarah Cooke