Michael Moore to speak at Fountain Street Church

This Thursday at 7:00 p.m., award winning documentarian and bestselling author Michael Moore will be reading from and talking about his latest book “Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life,” a series of vignettes chronicling his life from childhood to present day. The event is called “An Evening with Michael Moore” and will be held at Fountain Street Church as part of the Grand Rapids Public Library’s GR Reads series.

“I decided to write this book because I like to read short stories, and I’ve always wanted to write a book of short stories,” said Moore. “I thought, why don’t I just start with not made-up stories, but the ones from my own life, because I had a very interesting, to put it mildly, life before I was a filmmaker.”

His life after becoming a filmmaker is also interesting to many. From documentaries like “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Sicko” to comments he makes in the public eye, Michael Moore has been no stranger to controversy. In “Here Comes Trouble,” Moore writes about comments he made at the 2003 Oscars, five days into the war in Iraq.

“We like nonfiction, and we live in fictitious times,” Moore said on stage after receiving his award. “We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it’s the fictition of duct tape or the fictition of orange alerts. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush.”

These comments were immediately received negatively by supporters of George W Bush.

“Well, starting backstage, where people were wanting to punch me for what I said, it escalated over a series of months from threats to attempted assaults to actual physical assaults, to where I literally couldn’t walk down the street without somebody trying to hit me, punch me.” Moore eventually had to hire ex-Navy personnel to protect him from threats, which included plots to kill him as well as to blow up his house.

With the controversy and strong opinions that surround Moore, the library expects there to be a large turnout at this event. Representatives from the library were contacted for comment, but did not respond. Their website suggests people come down early.

Tied to this particular GR Reads event was a screening of Moore’s “Roger and Me” as well as an all day event called “Day of Change” being held at the downtown branch of the Grand Rapids Public Library on July 28. This event promotes citizens becoming proactive and changing something, whether it is in their own life or in their community.  

Moore will also be having a Q&A session following his presentation on Thursday.