Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Mar 22, 2011

Happiness Event Recap and Celebration

Sustainable Seattle is getting a reputation for putting on fantastic events. I say this as a completely unbiased source; Sustainable Seattle events with the aid of collaborators, performers and our dedicated donors truly are unique and wonderful outings that inspire, educate and entertain.

The Good Sheppard Center as a venue is beautiful. Our event corresponded with sunset and the stain glass windows colored our faces with reds, blues and yellows as Alan AtKisson took to the stage to perform a few of his witty and insightful songs and deliver a informative speech about the history of Sustainable Seattle. He spoke about the first meetings, the intents and the decisions that the group of founders made back in 1991 with a few winks and rib pokes to his fellow founders as they listened, shouted out anecdotes and laughed and laughed.

The night was a collection of talks, songs, music, potent potables, documentaries and socialization. The night started with a powerful performance by local band "Now We Are Six," a group that reminds one of "Muse," "Spoon," and an early "U2." We all crammed into the space which was not sufficient for the amount of revelers that arrived and we sampled food, booze and mingled with the founders raising a ruckus that lifted our hearts.

We showed a film documentary from the early nineties where the founders were featured talking about the launching of Sustainable Seattle. The crowd laughed, jeered and cheered when their younger versions of themselves spoke to the camera about their vision of the future. Many people shouted out at the screen yelling advice like "Get a haircut!" or "Shave!" The film brought back memories and challenged us as many of the issues and problems that the younger versions of the founders brought forth still are problems that we have yet to be solved.

We exceeded our fund-raising goals even when you include the ten percent offering that we are turning over to the Red cross for Japanese Tsunami relief. We would never had made our goals if not for the generosity of every single donor that reached deep into their own pockets and gave to an organization that is creating and maintaining innovated programs, projects and communication that will lead us to be more happier, more sustainable and more content.

Thank you for anyone who gave and thank you for any who attended, spread the word either word of mouth or social media. We really appreciate it and we will use your time and trust to bring about our mission "to be a resource and catalyst for positive change," by continuing to tie all of our work to our Happiness Initiative work.

Our programs and projects are based in and supportive of our indicator work. Our Happiness Initiative propagates and permeates all of our work. We are focused on the results and we have re-crafted and retrofitted all of our existing programs to be aligned with the Happiness Initiative. We are measuring our success and our work by the nine domains of happiness and targeting those domains in which the greater Seattle area scored low upon. We have even created a new program that focuses on individual actions and lifestyle changes called The Flow Campaign.

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our partners and collaborators including: Taylor Shellfish, Honest Tea, Dry Soda, Yes! Magazine, Essential Baking, Ideal Network, EOS Alliance, Now We Are Six and many more. THANK YOU!

Feb 12, 2010

Human Rights Music

SEATTLE, WA Alex Kajumulo, the soulful World fusion R&B artist, will be performing February 21st at Olympia's hottest gay bar, Jake's on 4th, to raise awareness for the Gay & Lesbian Liberation Front of Africa (GLLFA). Doors open at 5pm with a 7pm show time. With the recent hate-filled laws passed in Uganda criminalizing homosexuality, it is more important than ever for global citizens to keep African Gays and Lesbians in their minds. Kajumulo hopes his message of universal acceptance among African youth will help change attitudes toward Gays and Lesbians in African countries.

In addition to One Love is the Law which says directly that we must respect each other no matter what sexual orientation, religion or race and What is Love which was inspired by the passage of Proposition 8 in California, Kajumulo will be performing selections from his 6th and latest album, Never Surrender. Praised as his most personal album to date, Never Surrender tells of Kajumulo's struggles during his childhood that helped make him the artist, performer, and teacher he is today. Many of the tracks on this album were co-written, co-produced, and performed with his close friend and fellow Tanzanian James Dandu before he passed away.

Kajumulo was born and raised in the bush of Tanzania, Africa. As a youth, he started playing professional soccer, which took him all over the world and introduced him to all kinds of people. Today, Kajumulo lives with his family in Seattle, WA where he is a full time youth select soccer coach and has written a soccer book for youth entitled Soccer Monster.

His first album, Never Before, was released in 2007 and has played on radio stations around the world rising to the top ten on the charts in many African countries and on the World Music Charts in Canada. Since then, Kajumulo has received numerous awards and featured slots on countless programs. Even television has embraced his music. In 2009, Kajumulo and three members of his band were featured on the Seattle Cable Channel show, "ArtZone with Nancy Guppy", and Ed Mays Productions, created two one-hour documentaries on Alex Kajumulo and his music for Pirate TV. Theses programs have been aired on public access and local cable in the Seattle area. Lastly, to round out the full spectrum of his exposure, non-profit environmental agencies around the world, like the New Zealand Trust for Conservation Volunteers, the Audubon Society of Central Oklahoma, the Earth Charter Youth Initiative, and The Climate Project have been using Kajumulo's song Global Warming from the Bushman Vision album in their promotional campaigns.

Join the GLLFA online at http://gllfa.webs.com/ and help reduce stigma and build community for Gays and Lesbians in Africa.

You can find Kajumulo's music for sale wherever digital music is sold, including iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby. Check out his websites http://www.alexkajumulo.com and http://www.babukaju.com or visit him on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/alexkajumulo.

Press release prepared by PressReleaseRocket.com

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.showDetails&friendid=114394226&Band_Show_ID=38569378