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40 years ago this August, the streets of Chicago became a bloody open forum on the politics of power and resistance, as the Democratic National Convention lapsed into chaos and protesters in the streets were met with the gas and bayonets of Law and Order. The ghosts of this unresolved history haunt us to this day. We meet on August 28 in Grant Park to peacefully purge these ghosts and to make sense of our past through ritual reenactment, a living history lesson for the city of Chicago which asks, where were we then?, and where are we now?

Armed with speeches, costumes, period props, rhetorical fireworks and a healthy sense of historical discourse, we will reclaim the art of historical re-enactment, long the purview of Civil War buffs. We will give voice to both the living and the dead, to the celebrated and the forgotten. We will share ideas and memories, music and food. There will be snake-dance training, and transcendental meditation in the grass. We will demand, once and for all: US Out of Vietnam! We will demand: no more Vietnams, past, present or future.

The protesters of '68 were met with violence and brutality; dare we hope to play with history and re-write the outcome? Will Michigan Avenue become an expanse of peace, love and brotherhood at last? Whatwill '68 look like in '08? How have we changed, and how haven't we?

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