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The
Wavy Gravy Yippy Hip Hop Peace Train rolled into Manhattan
in November 2002, offering up an evening of music, poetry,
art and politics that had all the elements one might expect
from one of the masters of the 60s "moment" - part
nostalgia, part schtick, part anachronism, part political
timeliness; and an all around zany evening of fun.
Verdict?
Any signs of fatigue in the savvy clowning and earnest peace
ministrations of Mr Gravy were quite inevident. The man who
ran a pig for president, got himself arrested at peace marches
while wearing an Easter Bunny outfit, and turned the anti-war
movement into a slightly absurdist dada affair in the 1960s
was in fine fettle, joining with contemporary activists and
artists whose forces have been gathering in recent months
into a kind of "festival of resistance" to war in
Iraq.
It
seems that in whatever corner of the universe the man occupies,
things are still wavy after all these years.
In part, the evening was an "Anti War In Iraq" insurgency
in Manhattan known as Not In Our Name. Organized by Michele
Esrick, the talented actress and poet, Wavy Gravy kicked off
the evening with a widranging one-on-one interview with hiphop
generation peace advocate Miles Solay. This intergenerational
moment of theater between an unreprentant yippy and a modern
day anti-war activist was billed as an item of nostalgia for
the future - the old guard giving the new guard a few pointers,
and for all the backward looking ministrations of Wavy, it
was clear that his interviewer - a hip hopper of uncertain
age - was ready to hear.
So
was the audience, members of which ranged from those who were
in lincoln park in 1968 to those who were still not yet born
when psychedlic rock and war protests were entering the realm
of of social studies discussions - and disco was going out
of fashion.
Gravy's
advice is as pithy as it is plain. Don't forget to have fun,
he advises. Make the cops laugh. Make sure there's music at
a protest.
As
if to illustrate this last point, the aging yippy made way
an hour into the show for a series of musical and spoken word
guests. Among them were impassioned anti-war poetry readings
and commentary from the likes of Esrick, Peter Gerety, Malachy
McCourt, Steven Ben Israel and Kathleen Chalfant; musical
performance by California folk guitarist Susanne, conch-shell
blowing singer Ekayani, anti-war folk singer Stephan Smith
and the electric performance of rapper Baba.
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