in fact, in 1997, jazz singer tony bennett performed there in celebrated fashion without a microphone. mr. speaker, the question i guess is, should taxpayers fund the restoration of a music hall where acclaimed artists such as bruce springsteen, lyle lovett and james taylor have performed? this theater was also the site for sceneses in movies such as "the preacher's wife" and "the good shepherd." is such a site not able to sustain itself with private donations? and if that is the case, that it cannot sustain itself with private donations, then i would suggest that, is there sufficient public interest to restore this hall so much, if private money can't be raised, that we should force taxpayers to pay for it? the fact -- in fact, according to its website, in the past year the theater itself donated over $80,000 of space and recently purchased land costing $2 million for staff parking and future expansion. madam speaker, this weekend you can attend a performance at the music hall for a minimum price of $58 a seat and a maximum prize of $80 a seat -- price of $80 a seat. madam chair, the

roger is a legendary jazz poiser, pianist, composer, recently toured with tony bennett, wrote the theme to "all in the family," as far as his imprint on popular culture and roger performed the original score and performed live. the award winning team of alex an marilyn bergman wrote original songs that were performed by grammy winner peat austin. -- patty austin. so this premiered for a week in philadelphia and now it's being refined to become a national and even international tour. along with the book, it's the latest iteration of joe's classroom work, his telling of the story of america. and so in addition to those projects, he's going to begin a national speaking tour and kicks that off today with you. so without further ado, allow me to introduce writer, producer, story teller, photographer, justin falconer of all trades, joe sohm. joseph? [applause] >> >> good afternoon. it's still morning for me. i just through in from california where i reside and i kind of dodged a few fires on the way and an earthquake that was centered in the town i live, so it's very nice to be here in washin