Christopher Largen
Encyclopedia
Christopher Largen is a U.S.
award-winning journalist
, novelist, social satirist, actor
, public speaker and filmmaker, known for his iconoclastic writings on health and public policy, and his efforts to reduce child abuse
. Largen's work is featured in hundreds of news outlets and literary journals, including: Village Voice, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
, Nashville Scene
, The Hill
, Lone Star Iconoclast
, Creative Loafing
, Fort Worth Weekly
, LA Weekly
, and a Washington Post syndicated column.
to parents Robert and Karen Largen. Christopher's mother was only seventeen years old at the time of his birth, and both of them almost died during labor.
Family doctors later suggested that Largen's traumatic birth may have contributed to Largen's severe hyperactive behaviors, for which his parents treated him with marijuana from the ages of two until five years old, making him the youngest therapeutic user of Cannabis
on record. Largen received a formal diagnosis of hyperactivity at the age of five, when doctors switched his treatment to Ritalin. Despite the disorder, Largen was recognized as a gifted child, and skipped a portion of first grade.
Due to his father's advertising career, Largen grew up in several cities throughout the United States, including Austin
, Houston, Des Moines, Chicago
, St. Louis, New York City
, and Dallas. Absorbing cultural variety and adjusting to constant change, Largen would later recount that he struggled with a vague sense of being a perpetual outsider, a theme that would later influence his creative work.
, Fort Worth, and St. Louis, playing lead and supporting roles in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
, America Hurrah, Sleeping Beauty
, The King and I
, South Pacific
, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
, The Innocents
, Happy Birthday, Wanda June
, Oliver!
, and The Mousetrap
. Largen worked with notable stage actors like Ruta Lee
, Debbie Reynolds
, and Jerry Russell. He also fulfilled contracts in runway and catalogue modeling, and a television commercial for amusement park Old Chicago
, where director Brian De Palma
filmed scenes from his 1978 film The Fury . He studied theater at Creative Arts Theater School in Chicago
, and pursued Ballet at Barbara Wood Dance Studio in Fort Worth.
Largen attended Professional Youth Conservatory in Fort Worth, Texas
, a now-defunct private performing arts high school located in the attic of the Methodist church on the campus of Texas Wesleyan University
. While at PYC, Largen studied Drama, Dance, Voice, Mime, and Playwriting, taking classes with other professional performers including Grammy award-winning gospel singer Kirk Franklin
. Through self-paced study he received his four-year diploma in two years, and was honored with the Outstanding Student of the Year award in 1987. He was subsequently awarded a full drama scholarship at Texas Wesleyan University
, which he declined in order to pursue interdisciplinary humanities studies at University of North Texas
in Denton
.
, Henry Miller
, Katherine Anne Porter
, James Baldwin
, E.E. Cummings, and Allen Ginsberg
. The article was an investigative biographical report on the United States Government's little-known medical Cannabis
program, a subject which federal officials had remained silent about for decades.
Subsequently Largen's writing was featured in hundreds of print and online news and literary outlets in the United States
, Canada
, the United Kingdom
, Netherlands
, and Germany
. Many of his articles focused on the relationship between health and public policy, with a creative and personal perspective in the tradition of Gonzo journalism
.
A supporter of decentralized reporting, Largen developed an extensive social profile network of approximately 60,000 readers, through which he blogged and disseminated news stories absent in corporate media outlets.
In 2010 Largen received his interdisciplinary Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree in Psychology, Sociology, and Rehabilitation, from University of North Texas
.
. McMahon used the government Cannabis to treat pain, spasms and nausea related to repeated injuries, surgical and pharmaceutical maltreatment, and a rare genetic condition called Nail Patella Syndrome, which causes bone deformities, immune system dysfunction, and a propensity for renal failure.
During the authoring of Prescription Pot, Largen traveled the United States with McMahon, documenting the latter's efforts to educate doctors and legislators about the therapeutic value of the Cannabis plant. The book details one of their journeys through Texas, to the Arkansas
State capitol building in Little Rock, to Elvis Presley
's Graceland
, culminating in their arrival at the University of Mississippi
, where the U.S. Government grows marijuana for the federal Cannabis
program. Their journeys inspired articles in news outlets with an aggregate circulation in the tens of millions, and the book received positive reviews in a wide spectrum of international print and online venues.
Prior to the publication of Prescription Pot, Largen had no memory or knowledge of his childhood use of medicinal Cannabis
. Responding to the expected release of the book, Largen's parents finally revealed the secret they had kept from him for 29 years. Largen was stunned by the information, and initially responded with disbelief, but then verified his parents' account. Although Largen had concerns that some might misinterpret his personal story as an endorsement of drug use, and although he no longer took any medicine for hyperactivity, he decided to go public with his experience by giving a speech at a University of Virginia
medical conference sponsored by Patients Out of Time
, before an international audience that included legislators, doctors, and renowned scientists.
Largen became a sought-after public speaker, serving as guest faculty at colleges and conferences across the U.S. Largen appeared on stage with a wide array of artists, musicians, politicians, professional athletes, and renowned scientists, including talk show host Montel Williams
, funk icon George Clinton
, former NFL lineman and two-time Super Bowl champion Mark Stepnoski
, former Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Alex White Plume
, Kentucky Governor candidate Gatewood Galbraith
, acclaimed medical researcher Raphael Mechoulam
and Spoonfed Tribe.
, about a fictional war on junk food declared in response to obesity-related illness and death. Junk satirized a wide spectrum of issues, including religion, government, political correctness, organized crime, and the media.
Largen rewrote Junk with publisher and author Olga Gardner Galvin, who edited the works of best-selling authors Michael Crichton
, Ursula K. Le Guin
, Dennis Miller
, Terry Pratchett
, and Harlan Ellison
.
Junk received the Blog Critics award for Top Ten Books of the Year, and garnered positive reviews in alternative and college newspapers throughout the country, with some critics comparing Largen's novel to Mark Twain
and Kurt Vonnegut
.
In 2008 Largen adapted Junk to screenplay.
During his efforts to establish Building-BLOCK, Largen interviewed and befriended Mark Lunsford, the father of abducted and murdered Jessica Lunsford
and outspoken advocate for Jessica's Law
. Largen publicly advocates for longer prison sentences for child predators, closer monitoring of paroled pedophiles and violent felons, and greater prioritization of victim rights.
Building-BLOCK was featured in a Washington Post syndicated column written by Neal Peirce, and appeared in multiple U.S. newspapers, including Lone Star Iconoclast
.
about an arts community protest that evolves into arson and economic terrorism
.
In May 2006, the 100-block of Fry Street in Largen's hometown of Denton, Texas
was purchased by United Equities, a Houston
-based real estate company, which announced that several of the historic buildings would be demolished to accommodate a corporate strip center. A grass roots effort by the non-profit organization Save Fry Street was unsuccessful in preventing the development.
In June 2007, Largen arrived on Fry Street, hoping to obtain demolition process shots, when he discovered that activists had seized the gutted building that housed The Tomato Pizza. Largen decided to stay and keep filming, conducting interviews with dozens of people, including James Taylor Moseley, a local activist and musician who chained himself to The Tomato for three days.
Largen captured the building on video while it burned in a raging arson fire on June 27, 2007. Afterwards, Denton arson investigators acquired Largen's camera, and his video footage was used as crime evidence to obtain a warrant for Moseley, who was arrested and accused of setting the fire. Largen's footage was also utilized by Moseley's attorney to build a defense. The footage was thus considered both incriminating and exonerating.
During the investigation, detectives turned up evidence of an incendiary device placed in the burned building, set to detonate several hours after the arson blaze. Police searched the home of one of the activists (not Moseley) who reportedly had a background working with demolition technology, but they could not find enough physical evidence to get an arrest warrant for the activist.
Once Largen's camera was returned to him, he entered the editing studio and focused on transforming three days of footage into a cohesive film. In the meantime, local activists toppled construction fences and scattered bluebonnet seeds on the scorched Fry Street property, hoping to force United Equities to seek special permission to bulldoze the state flower of Texas
.
The completed film, The Burning of Fry Street, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at Thin Line Film Festival. During the festival, a mysterious firebomb was set to blow up the festival headquarters, almost killing several people and destroying the raw footage from the film. Arson investigators believed the perpetrator(s) may have been angered by the release of The Burning of Fry Street. Denton Record-Chronicle
did not report the incident, for fear of inspiring "copycat" attacks.
The Burning of Fry Street received critical acclaim among underground film aficionados, and is included in the extensive 2008 DVD compilation, Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street. The compilation chronicles the weeklong demonstrations, arson of The Tomato Pizza and aftermath, and includes the live music video ("The Denton Polka") Largen directed for the Grammy award-winning ensemble, Brave Combo
.
As of today's date, nobody was ever indicted or formally charged with the arson blaze that consumed The Tomato Pizza. The crime remains unsolved.
, BADD was forged as a local partnership between Fry Street district bars and Big Mike's Coffee Shop, which distributed "After-Hours Happy Hour" coffee coupons to intoxicated patrons. The coupons contained contact information for taxi and safe ride services, and encouraged drinkers to sober up before driving. Within the first year of its inception, BADD garnered national trade journal coverage in Specialty Coffee, and the partnership expanded to include restaurants, universities, and fraternities/sororities. Journalists deemed BADD an asset: coffee shops drew customers and generated revenue, bars gained a layer of liability protection in the event of damages related to the actions of their customers, and the public enjoyed safer streets.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
award-winning journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, novelist, social satirist, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, public speaker and filmmaker, known for his iconoclastic writings on health and public policy, and his efforts to reduce child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
. Largen's work is featured in hundreds of news outlets and literary journals, including: Village Voice, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a major U.S. daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. Its area of domination is checked by its main rival, The Dallas Morning News, which is published from the eastern half of the Metroplex. It is owned...
, Nashville Scene
Nashville Scene
Nashville Scene is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with New Times Media early in 2006. In 2009 the paper was...
, The Hill
The Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
, Lone Star Iconoclast
Lone Star Iconoclast
The Lone Star Iconoclast was founded in 2000 in Clifton, Texas to cover the area of Crawford, Texas, reportedly as a community newspaper. Its initial publications mirrored small town life and centered around community events...
, Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
, Fort Worth Weekly
Fort Worth Weekly
Fort Worth Weekly is an alternative weekly newspaper that serves the Greater Fort Worth area . The newspaper has an approximate circulation of 75,000. The Fort Worth Weekly is published every Wednesday and features news, editorials, profiles, and reviews of art, books, theatrical productions, food,...
, LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
, and a Washington Post syndicated column.
Early years
Christopher Jon Largen was born at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, TexasTarrant County, Texas
Tarrant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, it had a population of 1,809,034. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County is the sixteenth most populous county in the United States and the third most populous in Texas. The county is named in honor...
to parents Robert and Karen Largen. Christopher's mother was only seventeen years old at the time of his birth, and both of them almost died during labor.
Family doctors later suggested that Largen's traumatic birth may have contributed to Largen's severe hyperactive behaviors, for which his parents treated him with marijuana from the ages of two until five years old, making him the youngest therapeutic user of Cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
on record. Largen received a formal diagnosis of hyperactivity at the age of five, when doctors switched his treatment to Ritalin. Despite the disorder, Largen was recognized as a gifted child, and skipped a portion of first grade.
Due to his father's advertising career, Largen grew up in several cities throughout the United States, including Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
, Houston, Des Moines, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, St. Louis, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Dallas. Absorbing cultural variety and adjusting to constant change, Largen would later recount that he struggled with a vague sense of being a perpetual outsider, a theme that would later influence his creative work.
Theatre Arts
At the age of eight, Largen became a professional stage singer, actor, dancer and model. Signing with Kim Dawson Agency, he performed in professional and community theatres in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Fort Worth, and St. Louis, playing lead and supporting roles in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay is the title of a book by actress Cornelia Otis Skinner and journalist Emily Kimbrough, published in 1942. The book presents a description of their European tour in the 1920s, when they were fresh out of college from Bryn Mawr. Skinner wrote of Kimbrough, "To know...
, America Hurrah, Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
, The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
, South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a 1967 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, based on the characters created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in his comic strip Peanuts...
, The Innocents
The Innocents (play)
The Innocents is a 1976 play written by William Archiblad. The show opened at the Morosco Theatre on October 21, 1976 and closed on October 30, 1976 after 12 performances.-Setting:...
, Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Happy Birthday, Wanda June is a play by Kurt Vonnegut, and a 1971 film adaptation, directed by Mark Robson.-Plot:The opening of this play is "This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing, and those who don't."...
, Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
, and The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...
. Largen worked with notable stage actors like Ruta Lee
Ruta Lee
Ruta Lee is a Canadian actress and dancer who appeared as one of the brides in the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...
, Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
, and Jerry Russell. He also fulfilled contracts in runway and catalogue modeling, and a television commercial for amusement park Old Chicago
Old Chicago
Old Chicago was a combination shopping mall and indoor amusement park that existed in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Illinois, from 1975 until 1980. It was billed as "The world's first indoor amusement park", and it was intended to draw visitors all year round, rain or shine...
, where director Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
filmed scenes from his 1978 film The Fury . He studied theater at Creative Arts Theater School in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and pursued Ballet at Barbara Wood Dance Studio in Fort Worth.
Largen attended Professional Youth Conservatory in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, a now-defunct private performing arts high school located in the attic of the Methodist church on the campus of Texas Wesleyan University
Texas Wesleyan University
Texas Wesleyan University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university founded by the United Methodist Church in 1890. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights Neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas, with branch campuses in Burleson and downtown Fort Worth.-History:Texas Wesleyan...
. While at PYC, Largen studied Drama, Dance, Voice, Mime, and Playwriting, taking classes with other professional performers including Grammy award-winning gospel singer Kirk Franklin
Kirk Franklin
Kirk Dwayne Franklin is an American Gospel music musician, choir director, and author, and is most notably known for leading urban contemporary gospel choirs such as The Family, God's Property and One Nation Crew .- Early years :...
. Through self-paced study he received his four-year diploma in two years, and was honored with the Outstanding Student of the Year award in 1987. He was subsequently awarded a full drama scholarship at Texas Wesleyan University
Texas Wesleyan University
Texas Wesleyan University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university founded by the United Methodist Church in 1890. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights Neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas, with branch campuses in Burleson and downtown Fort Worth.-History:Texas Wesleyan...
, which he declined in order to pursue interdisciplinary humanities studies at University of North Texas
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...
in Denton
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
.
Journalism
Largen's literary debut was a 2001 front cover feature article for Village Voice, which previously published writers including Ezra PoundEzra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim...
, James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
, E.E. Cummings, and Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
. The article was an investigative biographical report on the United States Government's little-known medical Cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
program, a subject which federal officials had remained silent about for decades.
Subsequently Largen's writing was featured in hundreds of print and online news and literary outlets in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Many of his articles focused on the relationship between health and public policy, with a creative and personal perspective in the tradition of Gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...
.
A supporter of decentralized reporting, Largen developed an extensive social profile network of approximately 60,000 readers, through which he blogged and disseminated news stories absent in corporate media outlets.
Caregiving
Before and since becoming a writer, Largen devoted several years as a personal caregiver and care manager for people with physical, psychiatric, and developmental disabilities, in a variety of private and public residential and institutional settings. He also worked in geriatrics and hospice care, and served as a counselor for emotionally disturbed children who were survivors of physical and sexual abuse.In 2010 Largen received his interdisciplinary Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree in Psychology, Sociology, and Rehabilitation, from University of North Texas
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...
.
Prescription Pot
In 2003 Largen co-authored the nonfiction book Prescription Pot with George McMahon. McMahon is a former Vice-Presidential candidate, recipient of the National Certificate of Heroism, and legal user of medical Cannabis from the United States Government's Compassionate Investigational New Drug programCompassionate Investigational New Drug program
The Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, or Compassionate IND, is a United States Federal Government-ran Investigational New Drug program that allows a limited number of patients to use medical marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi. It is administered by the National...
. McMahon used the government Cannabis to treat pain, spasms and nausea related to repeated injuries, surgical and pharmaceutical maltreatment, and a rare genetic condition called Nail Patella Syndrome, which causes bone deformities, immune system dysfunction, and a propensity for renal failure.
During the authoring of Prescription Pot, Largen traveled the United States with McMahon, documenting the latter's efforts to educate doctors and legislators about the therapeutic value of the Cannabis plant. The book details one of their journeys through Texas, to the Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
State capitol building in Little Rock, to Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's Graceland
Graceland
Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles from Downtown and less than four miles north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as...
, culminating in their arrival at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
, where the U.S. Government grows marijuana for the federal Cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
program. Their journeys inspired articles in news outlets with an aggregate circulation in the tens of millions, and the book received positive reviews in a wide spectrum of international print and online venues.
Prior to the publication of Prescription Pot, Largen had no memory or knowledge of his childhood use of medicinal Cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
. Responding to the expected release of the book, Largen's parents finally revealed the secret they had kept from him for 29 years. Largen was stunned by the information, and initially responded with disbelief, but then verified his parents' account. Although Largen had concerns that some might misinterpret his personal story as an endorsement of drug use, and although he no longer took any medicine for hyperactivity, he decided to go public with his experience by giving a speech at a University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
medical conference sponsored by Patients Out of Time
Patients Out of Time
Patients Out of Time, or POT, is a patient advocacy organization dedicated to educating public health professionals and the public about medical marijuana. Incorporated in 1995, the group is led by medical and nursing professionals and the five remaining participants in the federal government's...
, before an international audience that included legislators, doctors, and renowned scientists.
Largen became a sought-after public speaker, serving as guest faculty at colleges and conferences across the U.S. Largen appeared on stage with a wide array of artists, musicians, politicians, professional athletes, and renowned scientists, including talk show host Montel Williams
Montel Williams
Montel Brian Anthony Williams is an American television personality, radio talk show host and actor. He is best known as host of the long-running The Montel Williams Show, and more recently as a spokesperson for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance...
, funk icon George Clinton
George Clinton (musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
, former NFL lineman and two-time Super Bowl champion Mark Stepnoski
Mark Stepnoski
Mark Matthew Stepnoski is a former American football offensive lineman in the National Football League. He attended Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania, and went on to star at the University of Pittsburgh....
, former Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Alex White Plume
Alex White Plume
Alex White Plume is the former Vice-President and Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, located in South Dakota of the United States...
, Kentucky Governor candidate Gatewood Galbraith
Gatewood Galbraith
Louis Gatewood Galbraith is an American lawyer and author from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He has been a perennial candidate for governor of Kentucky as an outspoken proponent of education as well as privacy rights and other civil liberties...
, acclaimed medical researcher Raphael Mechoulam
Raphael Mechoulam
Raphael Mechoulam is an Israeli professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel...
and Spoonfed Tribe.
Junk
In 2005 Largen authored the dystopian satirical novel Junk, published by ENC PressENC Press
ENC Press is a small, independent publishing house founded in 2003, in Hoboken, New Jersey, by New York editor and writer Olga Gardner Galvin and California writer and PR maven Beth Elliott...
, about a fictional war on junk food declared in response to obesity-related illness and death. Junk satirized a wide spectrum of issues, including religion, government, political correctness, organized crime, and the media.
Largen rewrote Junk with publisher and author Olga Gardner Galvin, who edited the works of best-selling authors Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
, Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
, Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
, and Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
.
Junk received the Blog Critics award for Top Ten Books of the Year, and garnered positive reviews in alternative and college newspapers throughout the country, with some critics comparing Largen's novel to Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
and Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
.
In 2008 Largen adapted Junk to screenplay.
Building-BLOCK
An outspoken survivor of traumatic violence in his childhood, Largen is a founder of Building-BLOCK (Better Lives for Our Communities and Kids), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing and preventing child abuse, improving public safety, and exposing legal injustices and sentencing disparities.During his efforts to establish Building-BLOCK, Largen interviewed and befriended Mark Lunsford, the father of abducted and murdered Jessica Lunsford
Jessica Lunsford
Jessica Marie Lunsford was a nine-year-old girl who was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida in the early morning of February 24, 2005. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 47-year-old John Couey who lived nearby. The media covered the investigation...
and outspoken advocate for Jessica's Law
Jessica's Law
Jessica's Law is the informal name given to a 2005 Florida law, as well as laws in several other states, designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend...
. Largen publicly advocates for longer prison sentences for child predators, closer monitoring of paroled pedophiles and violent felons, and greater prioritization of victim rights.
Building-BLOCK was featured in a Washington Post syndicated column written by Neal Peirce, and appeared in multiple U.S. newspapers, including Lone Star Iconoclast
Lone Star Iconoclast
The Lone Star Iconoclast was founded in 2000 in Clifton, Texas to cover the area of Crawford, Texas, reportedly as a community newspaper. Its initial publications mirrored small town life and centered around community events...
.
Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street
In 2007, Largen produced and directed The Burning of Fry Street, an award-winning documentaryDocumentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
about an arts community protest that evolves into arson and economic terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
.
In May 2006, the 100-block of Fry Street in Largen's hometown of Denton, Texas
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
was purchased by United Equities, a Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
-based real estate company, which announced that several of the historic buildings would be demolished to accommodate a corporate strip center. A grass roots effort by the non-profit organization Save Fry Street was unsuccessful in preventing the development.
In June 2007, Largen arrived on Fry Street, hoping to obtain demolition process shots, when he discovered that activists had seized the gutted building that housed The Tomato Pizza. Largen decided to stay and keep filming, conducting interviews with dozens of people, including James Taylor Moseley, a local activist and musician who chained himself to The Tomato for three days.
Largen captured the building on video while it burned in a raging arson fire on June 27, 2007. Afterwards, Denton arson investigators acquired Largen's camera, and his video footage was used as crime evidence to obtain a warrant for Moseley, who was arrested and accused of setting the fire. Largen's footage was also utilized by Moseley's attorney to build a defense. The footage was thus considered both incriminating and exonerating.
During the investigation, detectives turned up evidence of an incendiary device placed in the burned building, set to detonate several hours after the arson blaze. Police searched the home of one of the activists (not Moseley) who reportedly had a background working with demolition technology, but they could not find enough physical evidence to get an arrest warrant for the activist.
Once Largen's camera was returned to him, he entered the editing studio and focused on transforming three days of footage into a cohesive film. In the meantime, local activists toppled construction fences and scattered bluebonnet seeds on the scorched Fry Street property, hoping to force United Equities to seek special permission to bulldoze the state flower of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
The completed film, The Burning of Fry Street, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at Thin Line Film Festival. During the festival, a mysterious firebomb was set to blow up the festival headquarters, almost killing several people and destroying the raw footage from the film. Arson investigators believed the perpetrator(s) may have been angered by the release of The Burning of Fry Street. Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
The Denton Record-Chronicle is the official newspaper for the city of Denton, Texas and Denton County since 1899.William Edwards consolidated the Denton Chronicle and the Denton County Record , as a weekly newspaper. It wasn't until August 3, 1903 that the paper was published daily...
did not report the incident, for fear of inspiring "copycat" attacks.
The Burning of Fry Street received critical acclaim among underground film aficionados, and is included in the extensive 2008 DVD compilation, Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street. The compilation chronicles the weeklong demonstrations, arson of The Tomato Pizza and aftermath, and includes the live music video ("The Denton Polka") Largen directed for the Grammy award-winning ensemble, Brave Combo
Brave Combo
Brave Combo is a polka/rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than twenty-five years...
.
As of today's date, nobody was ever indicted or formally charged with the arson blaze that consumed The Tomato Pizza. The crime remains unsolved.
Baristas Against Drunk Driving (BADD)
In November 2009 Largen founded Baristas Against Drunk Driving, an organization dedicated to giving bar customers a viable alternative to drinking and driving. Based in Denton, TexasDenton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
, BADD was forged as a local partnership between Fry Street district bars and Big Mike's Coffee Shop, which distributed "After-Hours Happy Hour" coffee coupons to intoxicated patrons. The coupons contained contact information for taxi and safe ride services, and encouraged drinkers to sober up before driving. Within the first year of its inception, BADD garnered national trade journal coverage in Specialty Coffee, and the partnership expanded to include restaurants, universities, and fraternities/sororities. Journalists deemed BADD an asset: coffee shops drew customers and generated revenue, bars gained a layer of liability protection in the event of damages related to the actions of their customers, and the public enjoyed safer streets.
Quotes
- "Birth is an experience that proves life is not merely function and utility, but form and beauty."
- "I'm a fundamentalistic agnostic. That means I don't know, but I KNOW I don't know, and YOU don't know either. I have faith, but faith is not knowledge."
- "If coffee was outlawed and sold by cocaine dealers, a cup of java would become a gateway mug."
- "Just how exactly does a violent predator get convicted of raping a four year-old child, yet receive not a single day in jail, in the most incarcerated nation per capita on earth?"
- "There's a new low-fat communion wafer on the market. It's called, I Can't Believe It's Not Jesus."
Filmography
- Quincy Jones: Grace (1987)
- The Burning of Fry Street (2007)
- Brave Combo: The Denton Polka Live at Dan's Silverleaf (2007)
- A Driving Peace (2008)
- Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street (2009)
External links
- Video: "A Cannabis Kid" - Christopher Largen speaks at University of Virginia
- Denton Record-Chronicle: BADD Idea Proactive
- Dallas Morning News: A Little Time to Clear the Head
- War On Junk - Official Site for the novel Junk
- Village Voice cover feature - "Kind Bud" by Christopher Largen
- Lone Star Iconoclast Article on Building-BLOCK
- Fort Worth Weekly: Prescription Pot Review
- Creative Loafing Atlanta - Junk review
- Denton Record Chronicle - "Filmmaker to Release a Collection of Short Films on Fry Street District"
- The Daily Maine "Holistic Health: A Book Review"
- Texas Cable News - "Thin Line Film Festival Announces Winners"
- Philadelphia City Paper - "A Blunt Lesson"
- The Writing Show Podcast with Christopher Largen: Writing Satire
- Seattle Times - "Targeting Child Molesters"