During the summer of 1969, Woodstock became a watershed in America’s cultural history. What many do not know is that the legendary music festival almost didn’t happen.
Enter one Elliot Tiber.
Tiber was working to save his parents’ motel in the Catskills when he heard about a concert that was cancelled and lobbied to have it take place near his motel in White Lake, N.Y. He was the only man to have a festival permit, and his actions set off a chain of events that brought half a million people to rally around Woodstock.
Forty years later, Tiber’s best-selling memoir about his journey that summer was adapted into a film of the same name. Directed by Academy Award-winner Ang Lee, “Taking Woodstock” (Focus Features, August 2009) stars Demetri Martin as Elliot.
Tiber will discuss the story of Woodstock as well as an individual’s ability to create change on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. at Reamer Campus Center Auditorium. His talk is titled, “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life.”
Screenings of the movie will be held in the auditorium Monday, Nov. 9 at 8 and 10 p.m. and Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Empowered by the gay rights movement of the time, Tiber was no stranger to cultural revolution. He had socialized with Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol and a talented young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe in Greenwich Village, the mecca of gay life in New York. Present at the June 1969 Stonewall Inn riots in the village – frequently cited as the first time American’s homosexual community confronted government-sponsored persecution of sexual minorities – Tiber was a witness to an event that would galvanize the gay movement in the United States.
Tiber’s first novel, “Rue Haute,” was an instant bestseller in Europe, and was published in the U.S. as an Avon Paperback under its English title, “High Street.” Tiber has appeared on television shows around the world and has performed his one-man standup show, “Woodstock Daddy,” for clubs, theaters and TV.
He currently resides in New York City and California.
Tiber’s visit to Union is sponsored by U Program, Spectrum and Speakers Forum.