San Francisco–“That was for librarian Cynthia Hurd, murdered two nights ago for being black in America,” said Penelope 
Houston from the stage of Friday night’s musical Centennial Celebration of City Hall, punctuating her 38-year-old song, “The American In Me,” concerning the country’s culture of violence. Accompanied by Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express, Houston, who works by day as a city librarian and archivist, originally cut the song in 1977 with her history-making punk rock band the Avengers (they opened the last ever show by the Sex Pistols in San Francisco). Her remarks were welcome commentary at the mid-point of an impressive cross-generational revue assembled by Prophet to sing the songs of San Francisco…
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Filed under: Arts and Culture, Concerts, San Francisco News, Avengers, Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra, Penelope Houston, punk, SF City Hall Centennial
Denise Sullivan 