An open mic night honoring Howard Zinn and the agitators, organizers and radicals who shaped US history.

In the groundbreaking book A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn educated millions of Americans about the ordinary people who shaped history: abolitionists, rank-and-file union organizers, civil rights activists who sat in at lunch counters, socialists, communists, anarchists and rabble rousers who forced the hand of those in power to achieve social change.

The original speeches, essays, letters, poems, songs, and diaries of these people, collected in the book Voices of a People's History, have been performed for audiences across the country, most recently by Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Marisa Tomei and others in the History channel special The People Speak.

To continue that tradition, Madison is hosting its own do-it-yourself People's Slam at Mother Fools.

Bring your favorite speech by Fredrick Douglass, Cesar Chavez or Leonard Peltier; your favorite poem by Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, or Allen Ginsberg; your favorite song by Joe Hill, Woody Guthrie, or Bob Dylan; or bring your own original composition and help keep the tradition alive.

This event will be $5 at the door and is a fundraiser for the International Socialist Organization. For more information about the People's Slam call 608-220-9395.