Goodman’s new book chronicles two decades of activist journalism.
Amy Goodman is no stranger to Madison.
When nearly 200,000 people filled the Capitol Square to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting bill in 2011, Goodman, the host of Democracy Now!, was there, offering her characteristic, almost deadpan, coverage and analysis. Goodman recalled the scene during a recent book tour stop at Pitzer College in California: “I’ve never seen anything like it. You had kids with dreadlocks down their backs, they were drumming on anything in front of the governor’s office, and the police were rocking out next to them.”
Goodman will be back in Madison on May 18, sharing stories from her new book, Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America, which she co-wrote with her brother, David Goodman, and journalist Denis Moynihan. In addition to revisiting her experiences covering the “Wisconsin Uprising,” the book also chronicles the street clashes at the World Trade Organization Conference in 1999 (“the Battle in Seattle”) and the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City’s Zuccotti Park.
Goodman’s stop at the Barrymore Theatre is part of a 100-city tour celebrating the 20th year of her internationally syndicated news program, Democracy Now! The event will benefit WORT 89.9 FM, which has aired the radio program since the beginning. “We first started airing [Democracy Now!] during the presidential conventions in 1996,” says Norm Stockwell, operations coordinator at WORT.
The loyalty has been mutual. “Amy Goodman has always been incredibly supportive of the station and very generous with her time coming to town for benefit events like this one,” adds Stockwell.
Since its humble start on the small, independent radio station WBAI in New York City, Democracy Now! has grown into a public media powerhouse; it currently broadcasts on 1,400 television and radio stations as well as on the internet. “From the very beginning, Goodman has seen her role as giving voice to the unrepresented and underrepresented issues of our time,” says Stockwell.
The event at the Barrymore begins at 7:30 p.m. and will open with music from Newsical Muse with Ken Lonnquist and Dave Adler. The program is being presented by the Wisconsin Book Festival in partnership with A Room of One’s Own and WORT.
