One Month After the RNC: Continuing to Cultivate an Artist/Activist Alliance

photo by Jon Behm

From late August through the first week of September, the Twin Cities played host not only to the visiting Republican National Convention delegates, but to a vast array of protesters, musicians, artists and organizers as well. Artists of all stripes came together as a response to the RNC – from nationally and internationally recognized acts like Rage Against the Machine, dead prez, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, Mos Def and the Coup, to local luminaries like I Self Divine, Low, P.O.S., Haley Bonar, Atmosphere, and many, many more. I even performed at a good half-dozen shows.

And this alliance—activists alongside artists—is to be applauded. The potential for cooperation between the activist community and the arts community is huge, and it’s a relationship that has to be cultivated.

Like all relationships, however, it has to be continually worked on. If taken for granted, by either side, it will fall apart. If artists and activists cannot work together in a healthy, organic, and above all effective way, their partnership is doomed – potentially to disaster, but almost certainly to irrelevance.

And the shows that took place, SUBSTANCE’s Ripple Effect on the Capitol lawn, the SEIU’s Take Back Labor Day show on Harriet Island, the Eight is Enough show at the Turf Club, Spark24 at Orchestra Hall, Rage at the Target Center, the Black Dog Block Party, convergence space performances at Macalester College and other places, various Provention and UnConvention events and countless others, whether explicitly anti-RNC or nonpartisan, were all good events, with good people behind them.

But there is a difference between “good” and “effective.” And while it is not my intention to call out organizers who are at least trying to do a positive thing, I do think that a little self-reflection and constructive criticism can be very healthy. As both an activist and an artist, I know that I made mistakes and learned a lot over that week, and I’d like to apply these lessons to future events.

photo by Jon Behm

Because while the RNC is over, the energy that was generated by artists coming together with activists has to be sustained, and there will no doubt be other events that look to build on the progress that was made. What follows are simply a few observations and points to help ensure that that building process goes smoothly.

1. Identify the strengths of all involved parties
Musicians, generally, know how to organize and produce good concerts -putting together sensible lineups, ensuring smooth transitions, keeping a schedule, making sure that there aren’t any lulls or rough patches, etc. Activists, in my experience, aren’t very good at this. What they are good at, however, is making sure that a concert or event stays on message, remains action-oriented and doesn’t devolve into a bunch of people yelling about how bad Bush is and patting themselves on the back for it. Activists can organize tabling, speakers between sets, passing out literature and handbills to the audience, getting the permits, etc. It’s important that, when in the planning stages of a politically-themed show, this relationship is balanced, playing to both sides’ respective strengths.

2. Be intentional about the goal of the event
Related to the first point, I believe politically-oriented concerts and events should be more than just parties or music-only affairs. Obviously, they don’t have to be. There’s nothing wrong with just getting a bunch of people together to have a good time and network or whatever in the name of a particular cause; that’s a positive thing. But it’s also easy, and I think it’s a missed opportunity.

In my opinion, these events should have concrete goals: raise money for a campaign or event, spread the word on an upcoming referendum or rally, educate people on a particular issue, register voters, circulate a petition… something. Political music by itself is great, but it doesn’t change the world; indeed, a “political” concert with no real substance behind it flirts with opportunism. As artists and activists, we can acknowledge the power of our cooperation, or we can harness it.

3. Have an effective promotions plan
I’ve seen this happen again and again: an activist group books a band to play a benefit or rally. The band assumes that, since the show is being organized by someone else and is “for a cause,” they don’t have to promote it. The activist group, in turn, overestimates how much of a draw the band’s name by itself is, as well as how many people are really down for their cause, and also doesn’t take the time to promote. No one shows up.

Our communities have different networks; rather than a weakness, this should be a strength. If the organizers and artists get together beforehand and map out a solid promotional plan (organizers mobilizing their followers and people who care about the cause, artists mobilizing their fan base), there’s no reason why the show can’t be successful.

4. Work together with other organizations and events to coordinate schedules
For the RNC, the police and city government made scheduling events more difficult, so I’m not going to go after people for having huge events at the same time as other huge events. But as a general rule, we need to avoid this. Everybody wants to be the driving force behind the biggest, best show or event ever, but sometimes we need to put our egos aside and be more deliberate in our planning. We can accomplish more good by joining forces; conflicting events don’t help anyone. This is an issue that transcends concerts and events—progressives are fractured and don’t work together nearly enough. But that’s the subject of another article.

5. Challenge the audience
When you’re playing a progressive event, the odds are good that you won’t have to convince people how bad the Republicans are. Artists: ditch the platitudes and vague revolutionary rhetoric – challenge yourself, and challenge your listeners to actually get involved. Speakers: we don’t need to hear yet another litany of harmful things the Bush administration has done. Let’s talk about solutions; let’s talk about action.

6. Think twice before organizing a concert in the first place
Concerts can be amazing, transformative experiences; they can also be big parties where everyone goes home afterwards and forgets about what was talked about. It takes a lot of time, energy and resources to produce a successful show. I think we need to ask ourselves: are we doing this just for the sake of doing it, or is this really supporting “the movement” in a concrete way? Are there more effective ways to achieve the goals we’ve set? Maybe the thousands of dollars that are going into paying artists’ fees could be better spent organizing a canvassing campaign, or starting a new community organization, or starting an after-school program, or something like that. These things don’t come with the glory of throwing a successful show, but they’re effective ways to create real change.

photo by Jon Behm

Despite that last point, I’m a firm believer in the potential power of politically-oriented concerts, fundraisers and other artist/activist events. I just think they have to be produced intelligently. And again, I think the events over the RNC week here in the Twin Cities were, for the most part, great. But once we get satisfied and fail to critique ourselves, we’ve lost. There’s always room to grow.

And maybe I’m way off-base here. Maybe these points don’t apply to whatever specific event you’re planning or have planned. But if nothing else, it’s a conversation that needs to happen.

I sincerely hope that the level of cooperation we saw during the RNC between our two communities doesn’t just dissipate now that the Convention is over. There’s a hell of a lot more issues to be addressed, money to be raised and causes to be championed. Even after the RNC, even after the elections have passed, we’ll always have a lot more work to do.