Occupy Movement

Video and editing by Morgan Lesko for the artists, Occupy Sacramento, Wiki World Order, We Are Change, Peace Revolution, and peaceful Occupations everywhere.

Description by Brian McNally and Kimberly Sloan of Occupy Sacramento…

Occupy Sacramento invites you to an unusual night of diverse musical acts expressing in many unique ways our individuality within one unified community of many minds. See below for descriptions, bios, and links to the work of featured performers and show details. Please help us Occupy Coffee Garden and see for yourself without media filter who we are. People new to Occupy (in person) are most welcome). We promise you won’t get arrested.

FREE to ALL, but $5 Suggested Donation (no pressure!) will be solicited from the audience between acts to pay the artists.

SHOW DETAILS

Show starts promptly at 7:00 pm, and ends at 9:30 pm, Coffee Garden closes at 10 pm. Show will be in the outside back garden. Seating is limited and we may exceed capacity, so please arrive early. Volunteers wishing to help out with onsite arrangements – please message either one of the admins of this page.

MORE DETAILS on our PERFORMERS:

FREEDOM MOVEMENT featuring KNEEL and the STRAWMEN is a local Sacramento post hip hop group dedicated to personal freedom and financial liberation of the economically oppressed. They have performed for many community events in Sacramento focused on social justice. Influences include T-Reazy, DUC, Benner, and William Hung. Although several members are dedicated Occupy Sacramento organizers this will be their first performance at an Occupy Event. Much credit goes to Kim Sloan, Co-Producer and one of two lead organizers on the April 22nd Project for recommending and obtaining their participation. Like all our guest performers they prove that showcasing talent and an entertaining program are best achieved through a truly diverse offering of music styles. Our youngest performers on stage also invite you to check out their music tracks on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/kneelandthestrawmen/app_178091127385

JOE STEVENS, SPECIAL GUEST OF THE OCCUPY

Joe Stevens, performing solo on April 22nd, is a Sacramento local now taking a break from his band of many years, Coyote Grace. He has toured from coast to coast and recorded an impressive number of CDs, mixing bluegrass, blues, soul, and southern twang into a unique sound that hovers just beyond the edge of familiar. His touring schedule is very generous to small audiences in small towns. Whether solo for Occupy Sac or with his band on tour, he combines virtuoso craft as a musician, inspirational and introspective song writing, with a humble, warm, charming and humorous stage presence. Mr. Stevens is also seriously funny on stage in between songs and knows how to break the ice with some gentle, humble humor.

Website for Coyote Grace, featuring Joe Stevens and Ingrid Elizabeth
www.coyotegrace.com
Joe w/Coyote Grace performs DaughterSon at Marilyn’s on K, January 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWD3MyLadFU&feature=related
Joe performs Ghost Boy solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5bec5CsxQ&feature=related

“Talented and devoted musicians, Joe and Ingrid move forward into the mainstream public eye with personal integrity and a musical sound all their own. In honoring who they are, they refuse to be told who or what they should be as people. It is that candor, combined with impressive musical craftsmanship, that transcends boundaries and speaks to a wide audience.”
–Performer Magazine
http://performermag.blogspot.com/2009/08/coyote-grace.html

“There’s a yearning, freight-train-hopping, propulsive energy to many of (Coyote Grace)’s songs that suggests not only an indie-band road tour, but the road to one’s true identity, a destination on a map still being written. These youthful travelers depend on the kindness of strangers and of lovers, and on their journey they’ve experienced enough joy and heartbreak to last a lifetime (…) If wholeness and grace are forms of political power, Stevens and Elizabeth are wielding it with quiet intensity, in a growing community of kindred spirits. An army of lovers cannot fail.”
– Sylvia Sukop, Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sylvia-sukop/transamericana-from-folk_b_424035.html

Sounds like my time in the Occupy, but you decide.

EVAN GREER (Of Riot Folk, Now on tour with Bonfire Madigan):

Evan Greer, taking time out of a busy schedule to perform for Occupy Sac, is a radical gender queer singer/songwriter, parent, and community organizer based in Boston. (S)he writes and performs high-energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance. At 25 years old, Evan tours internationally as a musician and facilitates interactive workshops to support movements for justice and liberation. Wielding an arsenal of fiercely radical songs that vary in style from pop-punk poetry to foot-stompin’ bluegrass singalongs, Evan has been honored to collaborate, tour, and share stages with artists as musically diverse as Pete Seeger, Immortal Technique, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Pamela Means, Boots Riley of The Coup, Anne Feeney, Oi Polloi, State Radio, Leftover Crack, Emma’s Revolution, The Mammals, Defiance Ohio, Holly Near, Chumbawamba, and Vicci Martinez (featured on NBC’s “The Voice”.)

Picket Line Song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8KlKTZqp0g
Never Surrender - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XuuNFf0tUM
Evan Greer – Love Me I’m a Liberal (Phil Ochs Cover)
UPCOMING SHOWS – Evan’s Current Tour with Bonfire Madigan on the Tiny Fists Tour:
http://www.riotfolk.org/?m=evangreer&p=shows
Evan Greer on the Riot Folk Website
http://www.riotfolk.org/?m=evangreer&p=about

Reviews: Evan Greer
“Evan Greer is an eloquent and energetic writer. (S)he reminds me of Phil Ochs.” –Howard Zinn, historian and author of A People’s History of the United States
“Evan Greer continues to write inspiring folk music in the tradition of the great protest singers. ‘Never Surrender’ contains an urgency and earnestness that is uniquely her’s…and (s)he’s a heck of a guitar player. I suspect that songs like ‘Ya Basta!’ and ‘Picketline Song’ will be heard at the barricades for years to come.”–Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage Against the Machine
“Evan feeds off the energy of the crowd, putting some of the punk back into the sound with a raw and passionate performance. Being in the crowd at an acoustic show where the kids genuinely care about the message and dance and sing along with fists in the air in a crowded basement or open performance space, is a whole different type of folk show from the typical coffee house style. It’s refreshingly alive and a striking contrast to sitting down and listening to someone singing about their feelings.”–Urban Folk, NYC
“Current folk is sometimes stereotyped as sappy, weak, and boring. Despite this contemporary betrayal, the Riot Folk collective champions the genre’s radical roots … Behind all the exclamation points and proclamations of anarchy, lies a genuine sense of revolution. The Riot Folk Collective may just re-establish folk music as a revolutionary staple.” –VenusZine
“Phenomenal activist folk!” –Pacifica Radio KPFA-FM
“Examples of modern day singers who use their music to make political points.” –MSNBC, Today.com