Tag: Jtmp

OCT 22, 2011 - Pete Seeger, along with grandson and musician Tao Rodriguez Seeger, 60s activist musician Arlo Guthrie, composer David Amram, and bluesman Guy Davis joined a crowd of a thousand or so Occupy Wall Street protesters in a march from Symphony Space to Columbus Circle. They sang protest and activist songs as they marched, and then they all sang "We Shall Overcome" at Columbus Circle. Watch the footage below.

OCT 21, 2011 - Musicians at Occupy Boston have helped spark discussion at Dewey Square in downtown Boston it says an article by TheCrimson.com, and requests for bands to perform on the stage have swamped the organizers. In the article media representative Philip J. Anderson says, “[Music] boosts morale and builds community, especially on rainy days. Music is just one of those things that can galvanize movements—especially with songs that everyone knows and can connect with.”

Organizer Kelley P. said, “[Performers] are fighting for the same causes and the same rights that we are. It’s not as easy for a band to get nationally signed to a worldwide record deal anymore. The music industry has changed so dramatically and a lot of these artists struggle with their art and their music. They write songs about situations like these and they’re there [at Occupy Boston] because they are part of the 99 percent.”

Read the rest of TheCrimson article here.

OCT 20, 2011 - The rap duo group Rebel Diaz, comprised of RodStarz and G1, seek to bring Hip Hop into the liberal world of Occupy Wall Street. In a recent Wash Po article, RodStarz said, “We wanted to bring hip-hop to the white liberal table,” RodStarz says. “For the first time in a long time, large numbers of young white kids are no longer benefiting from the privileges of capitalism. Maybe they’re feeling what immigrants and poor communities have been feeling for years.”

They have launched the #occupytheairwaves campaign and made available for download 2 new songs, "Troy Davis Lives Forever" and "We the 99%" on their website here. Below is the duo performing live down on Occupy Wall Street on Democracy Now.

OCT 20, 2011 - Local DC area activist musicians Pat Humphries and Sandy O, known as Emma's Revolution, recently wrote a song in support of Occupy Wall Street and the other movements that have sprung up in thousands of cities across America. The song is called "Occupy the USA", and you can check out the song in a video below, performing at a anti-Tar Sands rally in Washington DC on October 7, 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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