Hundreds of people entered the First Presbyterian Church on Symphony Circle downtown Thursday, fanning themselves with their flyers to combat the sweltering heat, and packed into the balconies as if awaiting an Atticus Finch trial.
Outside, candles were being distributed for a silent candlelight vigil to be held in remembrance of the 1,000 American soldiers killed in Iraq and the uncounted dead Iraqi civilians.
The clergy in attendance sat and watched as the pews filled one by one and even the standing room in the aisles became impossibly crowded. After an introduction by Professor of American Culture Bruce Jackson, the audience rose to its feet to feverishly welcome their speaker.
Arundhati Roy was a vision in copper and cr?(c)me, humbly and graciously picking her way across the stage in tiny, flat sandals, her gauzy skirt sweeping the floor, a red flower tucked behind her ear, dangling earrings swinging above her delicate frame.
Roy is internationally recognized for her galvanizing essays against political and economic oppression. Her best-selling book, "The God of Small Things," won England's prestigious Booker Prize, and has been published in more than 40 languages.
Just Buffalo Literary Center chose the book for their annual literary campaign, "If All of Buffalo Read the Same Book." Along with other sponsors and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, they sponsored the evening entitled "Another World is Possible."
Roy's host, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, is an author and vigorous proponent of human rights herself, as well as a dedicated advocate for fairness in journalism.
Goodman, with her natural hair and black, zippered pants, looked an appropriate vessel for anti-state fervor.
Each woman took a seat in velvet-cushioned wooden chairs situated beneath a giant golden cross, suspended from the church's domed, calico ceiling.
Though Roy's quiet voice was barely audible, her powerful words echoed boisterously against the walls, and repeatedly roused the crowd to fierce applause.
Goodman made the objective of the evening clear.
"Tonight is a night to discuss politics," she said.
Though both women often referred to "The God of Small Things," and Roy gave two readings from the book, politics never left the table.
"All literature is political," Roy said. "Literature is the offering of a world view, not a story."
Indeed, her book tells the story of two twins from India, but is an affront to the caste system in which Roy lived, as well as to childhood alienation, bigotry and oppression in general.
She rattled off several countries she visited on her book tour and said she was struck by the response she got in each.
"Everywhere I went, the people said to me, 'that was my childhood, how did you write about me?'" Roy said.
Roy talked about spending the first half of her life battling tradition; only to grow up and find herself pitted against government sanctioned oppressions.
"It is that high wire act we all have to go through," she said.
That balancing act has become increasingly consequential. Her activism continues to provoke bitter criticism from the institutions she fights against.
Her passionate and urgent style of writing has managed to make typically unglamorous subjects like the rerouting of waterways and the building of dams so interesting that she sells millions of copies of her essays. It has also severely irritated the powers that be.
"Dams have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, but if you question a dam, you are called anti-national, almost a terrorist," Roy said.
She told of elderly women who refused to leave as rivers were rerouted through the villages in which their families had lived for centuries.
"They stood as the water began to rise. Police came and dragged them away," she said. "People criticized them for doing that."
She said she has even been accused of being a CIA agent because of the work she has done to fight large and various governments in the struggle against economic oppression.
"If being on the side of the poor in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe makes me a foreign agent, then I am a foreign agent," she said.
Roy said that her international fame and social work have put her in an unlikely spot.
"I am in the extraordinary position of defending the people of America," she said.
She made it clear that she vehemently disagrees with George W. Bush's policies.
"Bush bashing is fun, because he makes such an easy, sumptuous target," she said.
Still, she said, a distinction must be made between his decisions and the will of the American people.
"Holding Americans responsible for the actions of their government is as unfair as holding Iraqis responsible for the actions of Saddam Hussein, or those in Afghanistan for the actions of Osama Bin Laden," she said.
However, she said, "Those of us who live in a democracy are more responsible for our governments than those who live in dictatorships."
She championed government by the people, but was quick to point out the flaws in the way it is practiced.
"We have to really examine the hollowness of what there would be without democracy," she said. "But what is tragic about the American election is it's just these two men; it's not political anymore."
"What I don't understand is if all the polls show that the majority is against the occupation of Iraq, why is it the Democrats don't see it as a popular move to stop the invasion?" she said. "Why is what we want not on the public agenda?"
During the question and answer period that followed the talk, a member of the audience approached the microphone and said Roy is India's second greatest export since Mahatma Gandhi. Those in attendance cheered in agreement.
Roy was quick to diffuse that compliment, though, saying it is that cult of personality, at the expense of the issues, that has helped to create the mess that American politics is in.
Dennis Reed, 29, of Buffalo was equally impressed.
"I happened to see both these women on C-Span last week. They're both pretty brilliant, but Arundhati Roy blew me away," he said. "She's a real firebrand."
