Tag: music

JTMP reminds you to register to vote, get educated, and VOTE. Vote in the primaries and the general elections. Vote local, and vote at the federal level. You can register to vote ONLINE right here on the JTMP website!

To get smart about your voting, check out Project Vote Smart!

Rap-musician and activist Lupe Fiasco tweeted (click here to read tweet and see pic) to let his fans know he was donating 50 tents for Occupy Wall Street, in a show of solidarity with the movement. One of the "sponsors" of the event is Adbusters.org, and on their website it states, "The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America." In addition, Lupe Fiasco also wrote a poem. (click "Read More" below to read poem)

On August 18, 2001, rock bands Maroon 5 and Train played a benefit concert in Indianapolis, Indiana for the victims of the tragedy at the state fair last month. The concert was originally scheduled to play at the fair, but the event was rescheduled and moved to Conseco Fieldhouse, and they agreed to donate their performance fees, and profits from concession sales. Fans in the audience could help donate via a text message on their cell phones. Train guitarist Jimmy Stafford said, "Everybody wins. We can help the families, we can still perform, and the fans still get to see a show."

More than $500,000 for the victims and their families was raised, and you can see some pictures of the event at IndyStar.com.

Also, Sara Bareilles donated the proceeds from ticket sales from one of her recent shows to the victims and their families, read more here. Please help us spread music activist news and register voters by donating to JTMP here, and to help out the Indiana State Fair Victim Fund, go here.

We blogged about this the other night, and now a full version of the whole event staged by the Foo Fighters to drown out the Westboro Baptist Church clowns from a flatbed truck is out.

In a statement the Foo Fighters said, "On Aug. 30th, 2011 Westboro Baptist Church called for a picket of the Foo Fighters show in Kansas City. We had a little something up our sleeve. God Bless America."

Oakland's Museum Of Children's Art's Epic, Shameful Fail

Photo credits: mecaforpeace.org

We here at Justice Through Music Project, a national non-profit that focuses on the impact of art and music on young people around the world, strongly condemn the September 8th decision by the Oakland, California Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) to cancel a planned exhibit of art created by children of Gaza during the last war in Gaza. More than 250 children were killed and more than 1000 were injured during that three week war. 

"In dictatorships, art is censored because authorities do not want the population to see the truth," said JTM Director Brett Kimberlin. "And now, here in the land of the free, thugs masquerading as activists, have forced MOCHA to buckle to keep art, as seen from the eyes of children, from being shared with the public. These children, who have no political or religious agenda, innocently expressed themselves in very poignant ways yet they have been censored by those with an agenda because they don't like what the children portrayed. While it is antithetical to a free society to censor such works, it is shameful that a museum that professes to exhibit children's art would cower under pressure from a handful of belligerents who gleefully cheered when the exhibit was cancelled. We urge MOCHA to fire all those board members who voted to cancel the exhibit and to establish strong written standards prohibiting censorship of and outside influence on future exhibits."

JTM works with artists around the world to express themselves through their art, and to challenge injustice and abuse of power wherever it arises.

Read our press release here, check out the Middle East Childrens Alliance website for more information on this, and watch a video of the art made by the Children of Gaza, Art of War below: