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– Press Release
Michael Franti along
with his band, Spearhead and Guerrilla Management present the 7th Annual 911
Power to the Peaceful Festival (PTTP) at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate
Park, San Francisco.Now in its seventh year, PTTP is an annual series of free, outdoor music and
arts festivals with a social justice message bringing together international
musicians, local artists and renowned speakers in a large festival
atmosphere. The first festival drew over 6,000 people, but has expanded to
be one of California’s largest festivals of its kind with over 50,000
attendees last year. This year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will
proclaim September 10th Power to the Peaceful Day at the festival. This
year’s theme, Bring ‘Em Home, seeks to remind the public that the best way
to support American troops abroad is to bring them home today.Inspirational performances at PTTP have included such diverse speakers and
artists including Amy Goodman, Dennis Kucinich, Alice Walker, Ram Das,
Digital Underground, Talib Kweli, KRS-One, The String Cheese Incident,
Lyrics Born, Me’Shell NdegéOcello, John Butler Trio, Krist Novoselic, and
Jello Biafra. This year’s music line up includes Michael Franti and
Spearhead, Jean Grae, Saul Williams, Anti-Flag, Zap Mama’s Marie Daulne,
J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science and Glide Choir. Speakers include Angela
Davis, Woody Harrelson, Robert Greenwald (filmmaker – Outfoxed, Wal-Mart),
Rev. Cecil Williams (Glide Church), Paul Rieckhoff (opTruth.org), Tim
Goodrich (Iraqi Vets Against The War), DJ Miguel Migs and San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom.As festival organizer and Spearhead frontman Michael Franti explains the
history of the festival, “As a brainstorm of LA-based organization, Artist
Network of Refuse & Resist, Rage Against The Machine, artist Robbie Connell
and Franti, the festival began in 1999 as an international day of art and
culture with events in NYC, LA and San Francisco in support of political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The name and date 911 were chosen to call
attention to the emergency status of Mumia’s impending execution. Inspired
and wanting to continue the movement of music, art and social justice,
Franti adopted the moniker ‘911’ and expanded the event in 2000 to show
support for all prisoners on death row and to speak out against the
exponential growth of militarism and the prison industrial complex.”For those unable to attend, the event will be broadcast live on Pacifica
station, KPFA (94.1 FM in Berkeley or http://www.kpfa.org )
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