When Chris Pierce performs his somber take on “Southern Man” on Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, he brings personal experience to the line about crosses burning fast. Pierce was five-years-old when locals burned a cross on the front lawn of his family home in Pasadena, California. His parents, a mixed race couple, stayed in their residence, despite the hate crime and stood up to racism.
It was in that same spirit Pierce held his date at the Kennedy Center on March 12, in the face of the President installing himself as the cultural institution’s new chairman (he met with the board on Monday to see how he could wield influence over its annual lifetime achievement honors). Read more on Pierce’s remarks about the performance last week and watch the entire set in today’s edition of Down With Tyranny.
Filed under: anti-racist, anti-war, Arts and Culture, Chris Pierce, culture wars, Kennedy Center
Denise Sullivan 