Bruce Springsteen Dedicates Harry Belafonte Social Justice Award to Minneapolis, L.A., Portland Citizens “Who Stood…

Bruce Springsteen became the latest recipient of the Tribeca Festival’s Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award on Saturday.

Ever humble, though, the legendary musician didn’t feel he was deserving of the honor, given to those who have used storytelling and the arts to enact change in their communities.

“I don’t even really consider myself an activist,” he said during a talk with Bono as part of the award presentation. “I’m a little embarrassed to get this award tonight, because I feel like at best I’m a concerned citizen. And what do I do? I sing my songs; I say a few things and wish for the best; help folks out a little bit here and a little bit there. There’s so many people that do so much more than I do.”

Luckily fellow musician and activist Bono, who said he was there presenting the award “as a fan pretending to be a friend,” and Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro enthusiastically made their case for why Springsteen should receive this recognition, but more on that later.

Past recipients of the Harry Belafonte Award include Stacey Abrams, Jane Fonda and Jasmine Crockett.

In recent months, Springsteen has spoken out repeatedly against President Donald J. Trump, and, in the wake of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti being fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year, he penned the song “Streets of Minneapolis,” criticizing the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations.

Accepting the Belafonte honor, Springsteen dedicated it to “all the citizens of Minneapolis and Los Angeles and Portland who stood against the federal invasion of their cities this year. So I’ll take this and keep this in their name.” His comments reference cities where people were shot by federal immigration agents.

After telling a story he’d heard from Belafonte about how Martin Luther King and members of the civil rights movement tried to find a way to work with Robert F. Kennedy when he was appointed attorney general, Bono asked Springsteen — in keeping with how he’d heard King ask for “one good thing about that soul, because that one thing is the door through which our movement will pass” — “What’s the one good thing we’re going to find here, too, so people can get back to being neighbors and in a neighborhood and not such a divided America?”

Though Springsteen quickly said he didn’t know the answer to that question, he acknowledged the divisive climate in the country and shared his view of the United States ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a philosophy that might provide a path forward.

“America is a sacred argument,” he said. “People aren’t supposed to be in agreement with each other all the time in the first place. [America] was born in disagreement. It’s a blessed, sacred argument that you’re supposed to be having every day with your fellow citizens and with your representatives. So that’s just a part of the country that’s embedded in the country itself. The key to that is you have that argument while recognizing each other’s common humanity and dignity. That is in short supply at the moment, from obviously the top of our administration on down, you know, but it’s through that argument and through that recognition of your fellow citizens, your brothers and your sisters and your neighbors, that’s where you find a common narrative. It’s very difficult for a country to survive an attack without a common story it tells itself about itself, and so I think that’s we’re in a struggle for that today. I believe we’re going to find that narrative, because I believe America renews itself.”

Though Springsteen was limited in his comments about Trump onstage Saturday, De Niro, as usual, couldn’t resist taking a few shots at the president.

“[Springsteen] knows what the problem is, and he names it: Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump and his feckless enablers” De Niro said introducing Springsteen. “That’s so important because this isn’t about reasonable disputes on policy. This is about the corruption and megalomania of one person. Bruce Springsteen puts a face on it, and he does it with the words of a poet.”

Springsteen expressed his appreciation for De Niro’s comments saying in part, “Nobody insults Trump better than Bob.”

“The thing I love the most is when Bob says Donald J. Trump,” he added.

The rocker, who received a Special Tony Award for his Springsteen on Broadway show, recalled his side of De Niro’s infamous introduction of his performance at the 2018 Tonys, when De Niro shouted “Fuck Trump” on national TV during the president’s first term.

Recalling how De Niro said he’d introduce him, Springsteen said he was excited to have one of his “heroes” do the honors.

“So we go to the show; I’m backstage; Bob comes out, and I have this arrangement of ‘My Hometown.’ I’m thinking this thing is going to kill everybody. There’s not going to be a dry eye in the house or any living room in the United States when I’m done with this,” Springsteen said. “I feel really good and really confident. Bob comes out and goes, ‘Fuck Donald Trump, Bruce Springsteen.’ It just fucked the whole thing up. I wanted to say, ‘Bob, why did you do that?’ You can’t come out after somebody says ‘Fuck Donald Trump.”

Introducing Springsteen, Bono recalled how Springsteen, Patti Smith, the Ramones and De Niro may have saved his life as a teenager. And he argued that Springsteen’s lyrics reflect the cinematic approach America uses to tell its story.

“Cinema is where the American dream was encoded before it was exported, and what followed American cinema around the world? American music: Jazz, rhythm, blues, rock and roll breached every barrier, cracked open every wall. American music let freedom ring to people in Europe and Africa and Asia. … Bruce Springsteen is America,” Bono said. “Bruce made poetry from the voices of the people and set that poetry to music. We honor him tonight as musician and poet, and as an activist and a patriot. And I would suggest that we honor him as a songster who’s also been making cinema this whole time. … Bruce Springsteen may have become one of the most visible Americans on the planet Earth by never appearing in the widescreen cinema he so loved; he made his music widescreen instead. … Bruce is not television; he can do theater, but he is cinema. Lights go down, there he is, 124 frames a second, 124 times larger than life, surround sound, so from intimate whisper to bellicose roar a life turned up to 11, always cutting away to the guy in the corner, guy sitting alone, that’s carrying something no one else can see, but Bruce can see it. Bruce can feel it. And more than that, Bruce can sing it, because in some ways Bruce is that guy in the corner. I once had the audacity to ask this great songwriter why he didn’t write more about himself, and I received one of the few cross looks I’ve had over the years from the only man I will ever call boss. I was 24, to be fair. He says, ‘Why would anyone be interested in my life? I don’t have much interest in writing about famous people. Infamous, maybe. I’m more interested in the lives of the people we walk by and don’t see. Why would anyone be interested in my life?’ Good question to ask, sir, but an easy question for everyone in this room to answer. We are all more interested in you than we should be. We have seen the present and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”

After receiving the award, Bono and Springsteen welcomed Smith to the stage, where she performed “Peaceable Kingdom” before Smith, Bono and Springsteen joined together for a rousing performance of Smith’s “People Have the Power.”

Smith ended the song by telling the audience in Lower Manhattan, “Don’t forget it; use your voice.”

Springsteen then stayed onstage for a rendition of “Land of Hopes and Dreams,” closing by saying, “God Bless America” and, just hours before New York’s NBA Finals victory, “Go Knicks.”