Paul Revere's Ride: A Reading and Performance at The Atlantic Festival

The Atlantic Festival and Ken Burns's "The American Revolution"

• 🎙️ Jeffrey Goldberg welcomed attendees to The Atlantic Festival in New York City, highlighting the magazine's history and its move from Boston to Washington D.C.
• 🎬 The event featured a New York premiere of Ken Burns's 12-hour PBS documentary series, "The American Revolution," exploring America's founding struggle and War for Independence.
• 🤝 Goldberg noted the auspicious timing of the film's release, emphasizing its potential usefulness in the cause of democracy.

Special Guests and Film Contributors

• 🎬 Directors Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein were present for a conversation about the making of the film.
• 📜 Historian Annette Gordon Reed and actor Tom Hanks, both contributors to the documentary, were also slated to join the discussion.
• 🎶 A live performance of "Hector the Hero," an original song from the series, was to be performed by musician Natalie McMaster and her daughter Mary Frances.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"

• 📜 Jeffrey Goldberg introduced the reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, "Paul Revere's Ride."
• 💡 Longfellow, a founder of The Atlantic in 1857, intended the poem as a metaphor for justice and prophecy, aiming to awaken the American people to impending danger.
• 📢 The poem, considered one of the most important ever published in The Atlantic alongside "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," served as a call to action during the American Revolution.

John Lithgow's Reading of "Paul Revere's Ride"

• 🎭 Actor John Lithgow delivered a dramatic reading of "Paul Revere's Ride."
• 💡 The poem recounts the midnight ride of Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, to spread the alarm through Middlesex villages and farms.
• 🚨 The narrative details the signal lanterns, Revere's readiness to ride, the British troop movements, and the eventual alarm spreading through the countryside, culminating in the battles of Lexington and Concord.
• 🌟 Lithgow's performance emphasized the poem's enduring message of the people awakening in times of darkness and peril.