DAVID ROVICS:OBSERVING HIS BRAND OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

FOR APPLICATIONS TO MY OWN

Frank Prochaska

MGD 120

David Rovics: A Bio

• Born into a family of classic musicians, David passed on a traditional music career to become the troubadour of social justice issues and leftist politics

• Originally from Connecticut and spending his early career in Boston, he is now based in Portland, Oregon

• David travels to shows and protests around the world, performing in over 2 dozen countries to date

http://davidrovicsnz2010.wordpress.com/

The content of David’s workinspires introspection on myown work.

Many of his songs provide insights into history that are untouched in the modern classroom.

His strong belief in the freedom of thought and information, and his distain for copyrights is unique aspect of his social justice work, and prompts thoughts on funding for my own.

A prolific songwriter andperformer, David has written over 200 songs.

From stinging critique to satirical commentary and even love songs, his work covers a broad spectrum.

The content of his work is thought provoking.

Songs such as “Drink of the Death Squads” regarding Coca Cola’s actions in Columbia, “Song for the Mavi Marmara” about the Turkish supply ship bound for Palestine, and “Who Would Jesus Bomb” are all poignant commentary on current or recent world events.

Others, such as “I’m a Better Anarchist Than You”, are more humorous commentary of the movement itself, and how we are sometimes our own worst enemies. This song was written after various events during a protest march across Europe regarding the Chernobyl disaster.

Many songs treat subjects I’ve never heard about in either public school or

college.For example, “Saint Patrick Battalion” is about an ignored piece of the Mexican-American War, in which American soldiers, mostly immigrants, disgusted by what today would be considered American war crimes, mutinied and joined the Mexican side. Mexico and Ireland still have monuments to these forgotten fighters.

In another, “Sugihara”, I learned a great deal about one Japanese diplomat’s efforts to save Jew’s from Nazi persecution during World War II. His efforts were key in saving thousands of innocent lives during the war. If not for this song I would have never heard of him.

Songs like these two have inspired me to research these and other neglected points in social justice history.

His work reminds me that I should consider how I educate others, how to convey information or perspectives not

otherwise known, in my own work.

Freedom of information & thought, copyrights, and crowdsourcing…

“Steal This MP3” is a song/commentary on David’s ideas on copyrights. All of his work is freely available on his website, including his performances, the music, and his lyrics.

davidrovics.prognet.dk

This has let him to be creative and innovative in funding his career. It is hard to provide for yourself and your family when you give your work away for free. While he does some paid gigs, many of the venues at which he most likes to perform are protests or non- or low-paying events.

Rovics has turned to crowdsourcing as a way to continue to do the work he enjoys. Donations are accepted on his website and people can become recurring supporters, essentially sponsoring him in small amounts annually through partners like Amazon.com.

www.protestmusic.net/rovics

Crowdsourcing, continued…

For a his own thorough discussion on crowdsourcing, various business models he considered, and his motivations for these experiments in his career, check out his blog post about it here:

http://songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-thousand-friends-crowdsourced-career.html

Funding Social Justice

With plenty of work to do, but limited funds with which to do it, creativity like this reminds me think not only of the work, but how to get the work done. If non-traditional funding can work in this way, could it support more development and social justice work?

David Rovics and daughter Leila, davidrovics.com

Well, one of my classmates funded her trip to Rome to start Cohort 9 through crowdsourcing on gofundme.com.

Summary

Knowledge and inspiration can be found anywhere, and entertainers like David Rovics are no exception. Similar politics or not, his songs and commentary are thought provoking. His popularization of near forgotten events prompts careful research into pieces of history not commonly treated. His creativity in funding his career spurred thoughts on my own applications, now reinforced by new friends and classmates.

An ongoing goal of mine is to be open to absorb information and inspiration from as wide a group of sources as possible, and be able to turn around a generalize and apply that information and inspiration in a way that makes the world a better place. Even listening, if critically listening, to a folksinger can help to work towards that goal….

Resources

• David Rovics websites• http://davidrovics.com/index.php• http://davidrovics.prognet.dk/index.htm

• Music websites• http://protestmusic.net/rovics/• http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310

• Personal discussions:• Pacific Northwest Labor History Association Conference, Portland,

OR, June 2010• Mother Jones Awards Banquet, Springfield, IL, August 2013