Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Moe FonerMoe Foner
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 592

together a huge stack of leaflets, articles, that describe many of the things that we had been doing and sent it to his home.

Sometime thereafter he called me up and said, “When can you come to Washington?” I said that I had a meeting scheduled at the AFL-CIO on health care policy and I knew I was coming in with Leon Davis that day so I said, “I'm coming in on that day. I have a meeting at ten o'clock in the morning. I could meet with you when the meeting is finished.” He says, “Fine. Come.” So I went to meet with him at the NEA. I had reason to believe that he was going to say to me, “What would you like to do? What do you have in mind?” So I'd been thinking about it. On the plane I talked to Davis that I had this meeting, and that very likely they were going to ask me what I wanted to do. I was going to describe what I wanted to do, what later was Bread and Roses. Because I'd been thinking about it. I said, “This is what I'm going to propose, is it okay with you?” He said, “Sure, fine. Nothing's going to happen, but propose it anyway.” My feeling was that it was nice and interesting, but nothing was going to happen.

When I came to the meeting Stover said, “I'm very impressed with the material you sent me. How come we never heard of you before.” I said, “Well you probably never asked for me.” He said, “What would you like to do?” So I described pretty much in detail, Bread and Roses. In pretty much every phase of it I outlined it to him. Performing in the hospitals -- the arts section of it that we would use. Talent that would come into hospitals and perform. That we would do exhibitions in the gallery. That we would do a street fair. What was later to become Bread and Roses. He listened to me and he said, “Wait a minute. I want to call somebody else in.” He called in someone from his staff -- Gail Simon. He said to me, “Moe, tell her what you told me.” So I told her. He said, “Okay.” She left. He said, “That's very interesting.” He said, “I'll tell you what. I want you to go back, and I want you to put in to a few pages a description of what you've said to me. At the same time make a request for a $15,000 planning grant for six months.” He said, “I think I might be able to get you a planning grant, during which time you could plan to see if you could carry out such a program. There's no guarantee that if you submitted the planning grant that you would get it, but it'll give you a chance to plan it.” So I said, “Okay -- good.” He said, “Keep in touch with me. Get it back to me.”

So I went back and the next day I called Jack Golodner. I said, “Gee, I had this meeting and he suggested I do this.” He says, “I know -- he called me. He says he's very interested. Do what he says you have to do.” I said, “I'm working on it.” He says, “Now I want you to call somebody else, at the National Endowment for the Humanities. A guy





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help