Mike Daisey Comes to Georgetown

Posted in Events

On March 19, 2012, Mike Daisey, the New York Times-acclaimed monologist, comes to Georgetown University for a one-night free performance of his original talk, “A Hammer With Which To Shape It: Art and the Human Voice in the Global Labor Struggle” at 7:30pm at Lohrfink Auditorium.

In an age dominated by corporatism at the birth of the new globalism, what does it mean for human beings to speak? Mike Daisey, author and monologist, creator of “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” examines the threads of dominance and submission that bind together the story of labor across our globe, and ties that story to action. He examines the ways that our imagination has failed this age, and how the oldest human arts can come together with the latest social platforms to amplify our voices in ways unknown a generation ago. By provoking us to confront our assumptions, he tears open the shutters we unknowingly close, and sheds a different light on a story that was always sitting right in front of us.

Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His latest work, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” was called “the best new play of the year” by the Washington Post and was adapted into an episode of This American Life that was the most downloaded in that program’s history. It has led to widespread protests, Apple’s decision to open its supply chain to outside auditors, and has started a real conversation worldwide about globalism and labor in electronics manufacturing.

Since 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed “The Last Cargo Cult,” the controversial “How Theater Failed America,” the twenty-four-hour saga “All the Hours in the Day,” and the international sensation “21 Dog Years.” He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan.

He’s been a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher and the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, This American Life, Harper’s Magazine, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production.  He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation’s Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn with his collaborator and partner Jean-Michele Gregory.

The Kalmanovitz Initiative is pleased to bring Mike Daisey to campus, with the support of the Georgetown University Lecture Fund and The Corp. For more information and to reserve your free ticket, please visit sites.georgetown.edu/lwp or call 202-687-2951.