A fundraiser
for the Independent Middle East Media Center
I am releasing a new 21-song album, both digitally and in CD form, a
compilation recording of just about all the songs I've written about
the Palestinian struggle from 2000-2014, representing songs from 13
different CDs I've put out over the years.
I feel like I should explain why I'm doing this in some depth. (But
if you don't want to hear about it, scroll down to the bottom for how
you can concretely support this project, buy the CD, etc.)
Every effective social movement in history that I am aware of has had
music at its core, from the Civil Rights movements in the US,
Ireland, or South Africa to the Palestinian struggle from 1948 to the
present. At every level of successful social movements, there has
been an awareness of the centrality of music – both as a means of
communicating important messages in the most impactful way possible
and as a means of fostering and maintaining a sense of community and
a sense of the vitality of the movement among its participants.
A little more on that. Communicating messages. What is the way
forward for Palestine? Israel is able to function as the Apartheid
state that it is because of massive support from countries like the
US and the UK. In order for that support to be seriously challenged,
in order for the governments of these sponsor nations to change their
egregious policies, first the people of those countries need to
truly, viscerally understand what is wrong with them.
Hearts and minds in the English-speaking world must be won. And in
order to win one, you have to win the other. At the risk of sounding
superior, this is my area of expertise. Words, when sung, go
directly to the emotional centers of the brain. Short of being there
yourself, there is nothing that can transport someone's heart and
mind better than a song. Songs can get under the rhetorical radar
better than any newscast, I'll wager.
And, contrary to popular mythology, the choir needs preaching to.
Cheerleaders are important. When you're surrounded by pro-Israel TV
anchors and their many rabid followers among the US population, your
culture is your primary antidote, your primary way to keep going,
along with taking action itself.
In order to win new hearts and minds or to embolden others, what
musicians like me need is access. Unfortunately, there are no
pro-Palestinian record labels that have come forward to get this CD
played on your local Clearchannel station or sold at your local
Wal-Mart. And even more unfortunately, perhaps, you're very unlikely
to hear any of these songs in the music breaks on your favorite
leftwing radio show from New York City, because they don't understand
how to effectively use culture to make their show even better than it
is... And no, they're not going to have me on the Daily Show either,
it doesn't work that way in America, even on Comedy Central.
There are no shortcuts. It's up to you. I can write the songs (as
can many others). But there's only so much (little) I can do to get
them out there into the world, to do the educating and inspiring that
people keep telling me they do well.
There are things you can do with no money, such as download the album for free on Bandcamp and share the songs with people. You can
organize a show on my upcoming tour, where I'll sing songs such as
these live, which is always the best way to hear them, they say. 50%
of any donations made on the Falasteen Habibti Bandcamp page will go
to the IMEMC. (The other half will go toward printing and
distributing the CD.)
If you can contribute money, you may click on one of the “buy now”
buttons below. For $25 you can order a physical copy of this
fundraising CD. Postage is included in the cost, for anywhere in the
world. $10 from each of these purchases will go to the IMEMC.
Or you can become a distributor of the CD yourself. Buy 10 or more
of the CDs at a time and I'll send them to you for $5 each or less (postage
included worldwide for those orders, too). Then you can do whatever
you want with them. One suggestion would be for you to sell them for
$20 each and use the money to raise funds for IMEMC or some other
Palestine-related cause.
Subscribers will get a copy of the new CD in their mailboxes, as with
all my new CDs. Please click the link to read more about that if
you're not already a subscriber!
Buy one CD for $25
No comments:
Post a Comment