On July 14, 2018, Rosalie Barnes and I hosted “The Man With the Hat: A Celebration of Larry Harvey’s Life and Legacy,” at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre.
It was initially slated to be a storytelling event in honor of Larry’s love of language, talking and storytelling, but it soon morphed (as any good Burning Man project will) into a full-blown multimedia event with live music, video, dance, performance, processions and, naturally, a raucous marching band. With a packed house of Burning Man community members old and new, it was a truly beautiful evening of celebration, tribute, and inspiration.
We wanted to share this experience with those who weren’t able to attend in person. But most importantly, we wanted to share the stories — because after all, Burning Man was built on storytelling. How else would a gathering of 80-some-odd freaks in the vast nowhere of the Black Rock Desert grow into a thriving annual metropolis of 75,000+ souls? Because people went home and told their friends about it.
The wonderful stories told at The Castro shine a light on Larry in quite possibly the best way: through the perspective of those who knew and loved him, and were mentored or inspired by his philosophical leadership. Thank you to everybody who participated, but especially our storytellers including Harley K. DuBois, Kate Raudenbush, Jerry James, Andrew Johnstone, Stewart Harvey, Bryan Harvey, Tristan Harvey, Flash Hopkins, Jennifer Raiser, Stephen Raspa, Brian Doherty, Tony “Coyote” Perez-Banuet, P Segal, and Marian Goodell.
All proceeds from the event were donated to The Larry Harvey Art & Philosophy Fund — if you’re inspired, please make a donation in Larry’s honor. We hope you enjoy these stories, and more importantly, we hope you share them. Here’s the full playlist, and here they are, in order: