A fire alarm ended a conversation between comedian Stephen Colbert and cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre about 40 minutes into a planned 90-minute event on Thursday, Nov. 5, Harvard Magazine reported. Striking members of the Harvard Graduate Students Union picketed the theater before and during the event, the magazine said.
Related: Harvard Graduate Student Union Sets Oct. 27 Strike Deadline as Contract Talks Stall.
What happened inside Sanders Theatre
The event, titled “Arts for Life’s Sake,” was part of the Office for the Arts’ “Learning from Performers” series, Harvard Magazine reported. The series is marking its 50th anniversary, according to the magazine.
The alarm sent the two guests and a sold-out crowd outside, and the program did not resume, Harvard Magazine said. Firefighters arrived and the audience was sent home, Boston.com reported, citing Cambridge Day.
Before the alarm, Colbert and Ma took questions from Harvard students, according to Harvard Magazine. Colbert, who ended his 11-year run as host of CBS’s “The Late Show” this past spring, discussed co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie, the magazine reported.
Office for the Arts Director Fiona Coffey apologized in an emailed statement. She said she was “profoundly sorry that it ended in such a disappointing way,” Harvard Magazine reported.
What is known about the alarm
Harvard Magazine reported that no cause was identified. Scott Volz, assistant chief of operations for the Cambridge Fire Department, told Cambridge Day that firefighters “found no reason for the alarm activation,” Boston.com reported. The system was checked and reset, according to Boston.com.
Published accounts differ on how the alarm started. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that someone pulled it, and also said the cause remained unclear. Boston.com wrote that the alarm was pulled inside the venue, attributing that to the union.
The union denied any role. “The alarm was unrelated to HGSU’s picketing activity and we have no knowledge of its cause,” the union said in a statement quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. Union Vice President Evan Lemire told Harvard Magazine the evacuation was a coincidence.
The picket and the appeal to Colbert and Ma
The union’s more than 4,000 workers have been on strike since Oct. 27, Boston.com reported. The union cited a living wage, protections from harassment and discrimination, and safeguards for noncitizen and disabled workers as its core issues, according to Boston.com.
The union asked the pair to move the conversation off campus or reschedule it until after the strike, Boston.com reported. They went ahead with the event as scheduled, The Hollywood Reporter said.
“We were here to be loud, and to ask Yo-Yo Ma and Stephen Colbert not to cross our picket line,” Lemire told Harvard Magazine.
Estimates of the crowd outside varied. Harvard Magazine counted about 50 protesters, The Hollywood Reporter said dozens, and Boston.com said more than 100.
Graduate students had pointed to Colbert’s membership in the Writers Guild of America and his presence on its picket line during the 2023 strike, Harvard Magazine reported. The Hollywood Reporter said it had asked Colbert and Harvard for comment.
Other speakers and the earlier strike
Author John Green, scheduled the same day to give a lecture at Harvard Medical School, moved his talk to Zoom to avoid crossing the picket line, Boston.com reported. “It was not a hard decision for me,” Green said in a clip posted by the union, according to Boston.com.
The current walkout follows a spring strike that ended after 40 days without a contract, Boston.com reported. During that strike, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu backed out of a Harvard Law School speaking engagement, according to Boston.com.
What happens next
University officials had not confirmed whether the event would be rescheduled, Boston.com reported. At least one ticket holder received a note from the Harvard Box Office saying it would be canceled, according to Cambridge Day, as cited by Boston.com. For more local coverage, see the Boston News hub and the Entertainment section.
Sources
- Harvard Magazine: As Union Protests Continue, Stephen Colbert and Yo-Yo Ma Event at Harvard Cut Short
- Boston.com: Harvard event with Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen Colbert cut short by fire alarm amid student union demonstration
- The Hollywood Reporter: Stephen Colbert Evacuated From Harvard Event Due to Fire Alarm After Being Accused of Crossing Picket Line
Read next in Boston Local News
Boston Local NewsPlymouth Woman Finds Her 12-Year-Old Self in a 1974 Constantine Manos Photograph at the Boston Athenaeum
Boston Local NewsLate-Week Nor’easter Could Bring Rain and 40-MPH Coastal Gusts to Boston, but Track Remains Uncertain
Boston Local NewsBrigham Nurses, Hospital Return to Bargaining Table Nov. 9 as Open-Ended Strike Looms
Most read this week
- Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood Claims: What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t
- Stock Futures Erase a 2.4% Overnight Drop as Markets Digest Democrats’ Sweep of Congress
- Spain Transport Minister Óscar Puente Quits 26 Days Before Election Over Crash That Killed 69
- Boston Plans to Close 3 Schools in 2028 as Enrollment Drops as Much as 58%
- GM Korea’s Sales Jump 26.6% on Chevrolet Exports as Hyundai Slips 6.3% and Korean Factory Growth Cools
Latest
- Bikers and Bug Conservationists Unite Against Google’s Planned Data Center East of London
- Tesla Expands Robotaxi Service to San Antonio, Another City Where Waymo Already Operates
- To Keep Students Thinking in the AI Era, a South Korean City Turns to St. John’s College and the Great Books
- Trump Calls Jensen Huang an ‘Honorable Guy’ as Yale’s Sonnenfeld Puts the Nvidia CEO’s Survival at ‘About a 50-50’
- Rosneft Limits Gasoline Sales in Several Russian Regions as Ukrainian Refinery Strikes Continue, Reports Say