Emma's Revolution Concert & Interview

Linda Richards, 27.05.2009 19:01

I was so uplifted to hear one of the best concerts of my life in Corvallis Oregon last week. It was emma's revolution, who sang their hearts out for war resisters including Benji Lewis (whom Ashland WILPF just hosted last week) and Vets for Peace.

Sandy O & Pat

If there is one present I wish I could give the wonderful activists in Southern Oregon, especially our own Vets for Peace, Citizens for Peace and Justice, Women in Black and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), it would be an evening basking in the music of emma's revolution, and singing along with these beautiful, powerful and inspiring women. They will be in Ashland this week at the Ashland Community Center, 59 Winburn Way, Ashland, OR 97520. Saturday, May 30,2009 at 7:30pm - The Rogue Valley Peace Choir will open the show.

emma's revolution have toured the world singing for peace, recharging activists nonstop since 2001. Pat even wrote the chant that I chanted during the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament-- a walk across the USA way back in 1986 and the chant sustains me still. Clap for an encore and see if they will sing it for you on the 30th at their upcoming show!

Before we sat down to talk, we toured the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Special Collection at OSU Valley Library. It was special for me that they both held Pauling's 1963 Nobel Peace Prize, for his work on the first atmospheric test ban treaty and we shared our hopes for anuclear free future before we sat down on campus to talk. We started with Linus Pauling...

Sandy-o - Sure, I was just hearing you say that his research, his war research then led to something that was used in incubators. I think that's great, but I'm really angry or frustrated that the money goes first to the research for war, and then something positive happens out of it - whether it's the internet or whatever and maybe you have information that's different than that, but I just really wish that, um and that's why things like the Department of Peace, which is a big initiative that probably a lot of activists are aware of, is such an important thing. What they're saying is "We need to funnel the same amount of talent, research energy, research money, enthusiasm, focus all that kind of stuff into - directly into research for peace or research for betterment of society, not as a sort of ancillary, piece to the war money. I find it really frustrating.

Linda - And actually, that was one of Pauling's original proposals to the War Department in 1945, but it was ignored.

Pat - Is that right?

S - There really was a Department of Peace?

L - It wasn't called the Department of Peace, but the proposal was first made at the end of WW II to devote some of the military budget to studying how to avoid war for the future but the Generals didn't consider it. It was an actual proposal that was dismissed. We could have had such a different future. Later, Pauling wrote out a proposal for the World Peace Research Organization. Pauling describes it in his book that was published in 1958 "No More War". In that book he did an amazing preface to the second edition that was published in 1983. He wrote in the 1983 preface to "No More War"--"In twenty five more years, I hope we've been able to get rid of the specter of nuclear weapons by 2008." He proposed this peace research institute based on lots of input he'd been getting, because people wrote him letters from all over - him and Ava Helen-and people also said we need to put money into peace research.

P - No kidding.

S - We can still push for it.

L - The progress made in the last few years with the Department of Peace is impressive.

P - That's a big part of our work - To point out to people that our priorities have been misplaced and the notion that the only thing than could possibly be profitable would be war is outrageous. It’s self-serving and it doesn't meet the needs of the most people. The truth is, if we are truly a democracy, if we're truly a country that cares about serving the common good - then we need to re-order the direction of our resources and our talent and our passion, the way Sandy said. Part of our work is to use some of the research that’s already been done. Use some of the tools that are already out there and available and not re-invent the wheel around these things and make the point - You know there's a great friend of ours in the Washington D.C. area who has a club called Busboys and Poets.

L - Oh yeah! I got to go to Busboys and Poet's when we were at D.C. for the delegation to Congress of the Iraqi women with Code Pink for International Women's Day and that mural on the wall? I still remember it.

P - It's packed every single night! Every one of his locations. He’s Iraqi-American and his wife is Iranian. They're making the point that peace in not only interesting from an artistic perspective and an esoteric perspective, but peace is sexy, it's profitable. It's about using what we understand in the culture and turning it back in the direction of things that are life-giving and sustainable. And it's not an impossible task at all. It's a matter of people on all sides this just 'getting it'. That it is possible to change the direction of this energy and it's necessary for the Left to give up on some level this idea that only approach to making things better is the total Spartan, Luddite kind of approach - people who want to do that ought to do that, that's a good thing, but ought not to be the only standard by which we address this transformation. Because it's got to happen on all levels. We don't want to keep it in this tiny elite niche. Get the folks in the shopping malls directed to our position.

L - That makes me feel so much better about some of my choices, because it's been really hard for me to leave behind the friends I had in the peace movement. I was always trying to build leadership and not hold on to it, and trying to push out and not have any elitist weirdness, and let peace be for everyone, let it be for everyone. Some people would always say "You're selling out" or..

P - Yeah, yeah.

L - But as hard as it was for me to leave that and say, "OK, now I'm going to work with people who are not activists, with students"

P - Yep.

L - That's what I need to do.

P - It's got to come from all directions. Because the voice in these tiny little meetings is too small by itself. Not that it's not really important, it's an essential piece of it and there's so much that’s being done there that's part of that cutting edge, but it has to be broader than that, the leadership has to be broader than that. We have to bring in people that are completely uninitiated on these issues and if you're able to poke enough holes in their assumptions and shine enough light on the hypocrisy of what they've been sold, and help them through that process of healing from the sense of betrayal that they’re going to feel, that's a really important piece of it. You know, people have been taken for a ride on this "The market will fix everything" and all this stuff. And here, there are hundreds of thousands of people now suffering from having believed that. You still have people clinging to this... People who have a huge audience on television clinging to this "It's not over, it will be fine, just keep buying stuff, just keep trusting the same old institutions - it's bullshit! We've really go to reinvest in the things that really matter. With the banks; we really encourage people to get their money out of national banks.

L - Put it in the credit unions!

P- Put it in the credit unions - put it into the local community.

L - Credit unions are awesome.

P - Scale down. Scale down in the way that makes sense. Buy local. Eat local. We do a national thing, It doesn't mean there aren't people who still need to be doing things on the national level - that's one piece of the work, but people who can, just bring it down. Bring it closer to home.

We’re not at home a lot of the time. But we have a big sunny backyard, for instance. So what we do, it get our neighbors to grow food in our back yard. Because we have a lot of space. We live very near the City and it just makes sense for us, rather than hiring somebody to cut our grass with a gasoline powered mower, we have people growing food back there. We have a cordless electric mower that we share with our neighbors now. Our grass now is probably up to my eyeballs because we’ve been gone for a while, but eventually we'll get that all squared away.

L - One of the things I wanted to ask you both is about how much energy you bring to your show. It really amazes me. Watching you perform is like I could have been the queen or something, I mean, I wish I could find a different.. I felt like royalty, and so did everyone, it's such a great gift! How do you... in my mind, you’ve been traveling together on the road since 2001?Do you have any insight on how you sustain that? On how amazing that is? I'm very impresses by this.

P - Thanks. A lot of what we discovered in the process, and I know Sandy wants to speak to this too. A lot of what we discovered it's the sitting at home, watching the network news, listening to the party line of the power brokers that depletes our energy. I mean we have to do a certain amount of that because we have to know what people are being told. But it's getting out and being with people that are doing the work. It's hearing their stories, it's hearing their successes, it’s hearing their "We need to put more energy" It's hearing these incredibly inspiring personal stories, it's hearing about people who’ve been changed by the movement and now making changes themselves that powers everything that we do

S - We're actually in a very great position to be inspired, because every place we go, we are meeting people who are working on things. We never would have known about Linus Pauling and all of his peace work and his wife Ava Helen if we hadn't been shown that archive by you! Similar things happen. We learn about things like biodiesel being grown with algae when we were in San Diego. Or we learn about tons of things everywhere. We just sang with a peace choir in Portland called the Aurora Women's Chorus and they're slogan-line says 'Women singing for peace". Who would know there's a 100 women choir singing for peace in Portland and they've been around for a least a decade. So whenever we’re performing and I was saying this to Stan Taylor last night, Stan and his wife Ruth, because they're the people who are putting together the Lane Community Peace Conference that's happening this coming Friday (May 29-30) and I was saying to him, "Everywhere we go, there are people putting on events like this." And we need more media outlets to learn about each other. Amy Goodman cannot cover everything on Democracy Now! She can't possibly put on his conference and then conferences that are happening at every college campus! Which is encouraging. And also, so many social justice committees at churches like the Unitarian church we were at last night, and so many peace and justice groups in areas... The Rogue Valley Peace Choir is the one we’re going to be sponsored by down in Ashland and the Peace House. Everywhere we go we are meeting people who are caring about all of these issues and are working on them and the only thing that feels like it's difficult is they don't know about each other. So it's our work to say "Hey! We were here, and this happened here and we're going on to the next place where the next thing is happening and you are not alone"

L - And that's what Ava Helen did too. She went everywhere and she let everyone know about everyone else. It's very powerful.

P- It's a very important piece of the work.

S - It keeps the hope going.

P- For everyone.

L- Yes, a genuine hope, not just a manipulated hope. I have some concerns about hope, now that I've been studying the Holocaust this term. Different Jewish writers who survived writing "If we hadn't been so hopeful, we would have responded differently" or "If we hadn't had hope. The Nazis would continually throw out manipulated things and they would step back from armed resistance because they knew they'd be killed for sure if there was armed resistance and if they'd step back they wouldn't think all was lost, hoping until the very end.

S- Manipulation is tricky.

L- But you are sincere and when you tell your stories about the peace movement and what you say is true, when I come out of my house then I see the peace movement is there. It is so essential. The first time I heard you sing was at the Phil Ochs honoring concert in Ashland. It was a wonderful event, a fundraiser for Peace House that a local concert producer arranged for us, and you all made a lot of money for us that night! It was such a special show. The Rogue Valley Peace Choir brought you to Ashland the next time. They went to Hiroshima and sang there at the official Hiroshima ceremony on August 6. This is important for you to know, one of the Hiroshima survivors Hideko Tamura Snider lives in Medford and she is a member of the Rogue Valley Peace Choir. She survived the atomic bombing but her mother and best friends did not. Hideko helped to invite the choir to the official commemoration, and it was the first time an American choir sang at the official commemoration. At the ceremony the Choir sang songs written by Hideko and her daughter also sang at the official site, at the Hiroshima Peace Park. It is just an amazing story of what they did in 2006 (read more at  http://www.sing4peace.org/japan_cont.html)and I think it is one reason why they were so moved by your music because they had this deep connection with the need for peace and with Hiroshima, and they invited you to play in Ashland.

L- When you are doing this work what is the one thing you feel you have always wanted to say but have never gotten to talk about? You have such wonderful stories you tell, and that it is one reason why I wanted to show you the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling collection because you are such amazing, wonderful story tellers. I love that you have on your website the story of what happened in New York City.(ed. This story is incredible: http://www.emmasrevolution.com/bio/peace-salaam-shalom/)

S- We say a lot of what we want, but here is a new thing we have started.

L- I want the scoop.

S- So here is a scoop- here is one thing we haven't said yet in our shows, but I have been talking to people after the shows. People know about the shirts that we designed, the shirt that you are wearing right now, that says "Saalam Shalom Peace" on it. The shirts we really designed for ourselves to wear just to show the words peace and counteract what we were seeing after September 11, the jingoism. So we have these t-shirts, and we have them in a variety of styles because it matters to us that people feel like they look good in the shirt.

P- Right!

S- You could have a shirt with a great slogan on it, but if you don’t feel like you look good in it, you aren't going to wear it and therefore the slogan won't get out there. So we really want people to feel good in the shirts, but in addition to that, I have started using this phrase, "clothing empowerment." We have people, women, who come up to us and say, "well, I like that, but it is going to be too fitting and I have these kinds of rolls or I have these kinds of bumps in my body," or whatever, and I always say to them, "Well, you haven’t taken our clothing empowerment workshop."


P- We don't really have a clothing empowerment workshop!

S- But what we do have is the idea that we, women, have actual real bodies with all of our extra shakes and jiggles and roles that we have, we need to be in and on the planet. We need to not have to hide ourselves, we need not to have to change ourselves. We need to be able to be exactly as we are and be who we are at whatever age we are, we are all not going to look seventeen for the rest of our lives, and why should we, why would we want to look different than we do? This is apiece of the community and culture that is skewed against us. I can't tell you how many moments we have had already in the short time since I started saying this, which I just started saying to people in the last two and a half weeks or so. Like this woman who took both of two types of shirts into the bathroom to try them on and she came out and she said, "Guess which one I am getting? The closer fitting one, my partner said that one looks really good!" If you can make peace sexy, and we have said this from the beginning, that when you make peace sexy you are going to make a whole lot of people more interested. And that is good, we want people interested, we want people's enthusiasm and their passion for life and their passion for love to be part of creating peace, because that is much more exciting and thrilling and enticing to people. Why should guns be turning people on? We want peace to turn people on.

L- It"s a magnet.

P- When we are not okay with who we are, how we look, we are spending a lot of energy trying to make ourselves look like somebody else, somebody we are not. The culture is all about that, especially when it comes to women, and then a lot of energy, our resources, get diverted on these tangents that have nothing to do with allowing us to be stronger in who we are, more effective, clearer communicators, better partners, all those things that would serve the common good, for us to fully in ourselves. I think it really pushes back against all these conventions that require us to be something else. We have a role in that. It's not to say that every woman has the same resources the same amount of financial ability or income, but it is a really different place to start. If you are really standing firmly in your own skin. It really changes the world around you to be in that place, and that is something that women on every place on the economic racial ethnic religious gender spectrum can do from wherever they are. We really want women to feel the power of that invitation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And I hope this interview invites you to their show and invites you to get a shirt - they have shirts for men too, and those also look sexy! Tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Paddington Station, 125 E. Main, Ashland, Oregon(541-482-1343) and Music Coop, 131 A Street, Ashland, Oregon(541-482-3115). To learn more about Ava Helen and Linus Pauling see the website from OSU Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement at  http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/peace/

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awesome interview 28.05.2009 - 02:27 Linda, thanks for posting this! Sun> Homepage:: http://