Busker Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (American inventor and statesman) was a busker of sorts. He composed songs, poetry and prose about the political situation of his time and went out in public to perform them. As he was busking, he would sell printed copies of them to the public.
His father was not happy about his son’s busking career… He dissuaded his son from busking, because he was convinced the stigmas that some people attach to buskers were not worth it.
It was this busking experience that helped form Benjamin Franklin’s beliefs in free speech, which he wrote about in his journals.

In the busking world (mostly on the East Coast of the USA), when somebody puts a $100 bill in a busker‘s donations’ box, it is called ‘an Oscar”. Buskers say that it’s as if the busker received the Oscar Award. It doesn’t happen often…
It is fitting that busker Benjamin Franklin’s portrait graces the buskers‘ Oscar Award bill 🙂