Monthly Archives: October, 2011

Photo credit: Time

Oct 20, 2011 - Stephen Said, activist musician who is both of Iraqi and Austrian descent, grew up in Appalachia with blue grass and classical music from an early age, has come out in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In a Time Arts article he talks about how growing up around his father's ethnic heritage music influenced him from an early age and compelled him to have peace with himself and work for peace with his art. Recently has led crowds reciting a beautiful Arabic poem called, "Aheb Aisht Al Hirya", which translated into English would be, "I Love the Life of Freedom". The lyrics were written by the great Egyptian poet-laureate Ahmed Shawki, with music by the legendary singer composer Mohammed Abdel Whab written back in the 1930s. In a Examiner article he said about the song, "It's an anthem to global unity and equality that I learned from my father. Commenting on the Arab Spring and the youth uprising throughout the Middle East he said, "This is our moment - the moment when each of us must summon our highest, most poetic selves to courageously step into the brilliance of the next world, a world already in the making."

Said has made the MP3 available for use "by all those who are non-violently working to build the international movement for a more just society." You can download and check out the song at: http://stephansaid.com/audio/aheb-aisht-al-huriyah.mp3

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Rapper David Banner has thrown his support behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, and has called on everybody to stop separating ourselves and work together to solve our problems. He doesn’t like how Republicans leaders and even other Americans were putting down the Occupy protesters saying, "I hear comments like, they need to work hard or they need to take baths. Like, dude, why would you even say that about your people? Regardless of whether we agree with each other or not, we're all American. This is even our opportunity to show the side of the people, to allow people to really talk, especially the young people."

Banner also talked about how currently the movement has no “one leader”, but he admires how all the people out there are willing to get out there and make a stand. He added, "It's bad that it takes pain to unite people, but [it's good] to see people from all walks of life, all colors, all creeds come together to try to make something happen." In an MTV video he said, “to see Americans fight is something I am so very proud of. I just really wanted more than anything to be a part of." So, he went down to Zucotti Park and paid a visit, and below is the video of his experience.

R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn was arrested, along with Professor Cornell West and 17 others, as he marched from Occupy DC Freedom Plaza to the Supreme Court steps. It is unlawful to protest on the Supreme Court steps, so after being warned 3 times the police moved in and arrested them. The next morning the judge set them all free, and Raheem said even though he was shocked at the prison system and he described it as, "modern day slavery", said the guards were all supportive and treated them well.

Read a great article about the whole event on MTV.com.

JTMP stumbled upon this activist music video from Seattle filmmaker MJ Sieber, with the music track from Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, in support of Occupy Seattle and the whole Occupy Movement.

It has some awesome film work in it, especially the way he catches people's expressions. Check it out!