A small bazaar sprang up on the steps of Mission High on Thursday night as people passed out flyers and chatted up the crowds streaming in to see a sold-out show featuring historian Howard Zinn and a cavalcade of A-list actors and local figures.

The varied crew, featuring actors Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane and Benjamin Bratt; hip-hop artist Boots Riley; activist Clarence Thomas; civil rights attorney Renee Maria Saucedo; musicians the Stairwell Sisters; and historian Anthony Arnove, read and sang selections from "Voices of a People's History," the companion volume of first-person accounts plucked from Zinn's 1980 best-seller "A People's History of the United States."

It was a very San Francisco affair, from a woman outside hawking a socialist newspaper to the long line of activist booths hugging the hallways, no leftist group was left behind.

"I got a ticket, but I'm giving it away," said Matt Kline, who was in the midst of discussing immigrant-rights-rally T-shirt sales with two comrades before the show started. "I can read the book."