(Un)easy Rider: A Journey Through America on Two Wheels

Photo credit: Peter Domorak

"You know this used to be a helluva good country.  I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." - Easy Rider

This summer, Nature Theater of Oklahoma's directors, Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska will be traveling across the country on motorcycles to meet and talk with Americans about their lives, fears, hopes and dreams about the country and the future - for a new project, (Un)easy Rider, loosely inspired by the 1969 film Easy Rider, in which a couple of long-hair hippie types travel across the country during a similar time of national polarization and strife.

The two will be regularly documenting their progress online - making updates from on the road - and they are very much hoping to meet and talk to all types of strangers along the way.  If you have any suggestions about places to visit and people to meet - or know of any fellow motorcyclists who might help them out or guide them along the way - be sure to write them an email at kelly@oktheater.org or pavol@oktheater.org.  And follow here and on instagram @okroadwhores to see where exactly this trip takes them.  Starting July 2023 from New York and heading due south...

This project has been made possible by a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, and was originally commissioned by the Onassis Foundation’s Eureka Commissions program.  With additional funding from the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards.

Photo credit: Peter Domorak

 "What you represent to them is freedom... But talking about it and being it -- that's two different things...  'Course don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killing' and maimin' to prove to you that they are... they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em... but that don't make 'em runnin' scared.  No, it makes 'em dangerous."  - Easy Rider