The duo will perform on Saturday at the uNi Coffeehouse in Springfield.
emma's revolutionThe uNi Coffeehouse Concert Series begins the new year Saturday with songs of hope from emma’s revolution, the award-winning, activist musician duo of Pat Humphries and Sandy O, whose songs are imbued with the power and drive to turn cynicism into action.
Dancing on the edge of folk and pop, their performances have been described as “bold, profound, moving, hilarious and transformative; the sound of passion in deftly-turned phrases and dynamic harmonies.”
In the spirit of Emma Goldman’s famous attribution, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” emma’s revolution mixes activism with a dash of irreverence to concerts and peace and justice events across the United States, including Camp Casey with Cindy Sheehan and the School of the Americas Watch at Fort Benning, Georgia. They have performed by invitation at the World Culture Open in Seoul, Korea, the Scottish Parliament’s Festival of Politics, Palestine & Israel, and, in December 2007, in Santiago, Chile with Holly Near.
“We write primarily about all the things going on in the world. Lots of others write love songs, but we don’t call them love songs. Musicians have gotten used to that as being the standard. We figure, for the most part, that subject gets covered thoroughly. It doesn’t mean we don’t write about love, but it’s in a larger context….we write about lots of other things that have an impact on our relationship and families,” Humphries said.
The duo’s song, “Peace, Salaam, Shalom” (“peace” in English, Arabic and Hebrew), sung with 10,000 people in the streets of New York just days after 9/11, is now sung around the world. It has been called the “anthem of the anti-war movement.” Yet another song, “Keep On Moving Forward,” opened the NGO Forum at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Bejiing, becoming the unofficial theme of the conference.
Also, their song, “If I Give Your Name,” about undocumented workers killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11, won grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
“I find what is inspiring is to hear what people are doing….stories that aren’t getting coverage in the news, and what we hear through the independent media and by meeting people in various communities where we get to hear about the successes. People are doing all they can to make change in the community and in this country and around the world. And, I get very inspired to hear what people are doing and I want to spread the word that there are successes despite the continuing frustration over what is going on in Washington….what is or is not happening there,” said Humphries.
emma’s revolution’s latest compact disc was just released in November and is called “Revolutions Per Minute.”
“It’s very up-to-date and includes songs about the Arab Spring uprisings to Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting in Madison all the way through to the Occupy USA movement,” said Sandy O.
The compact disc features their most recent song to spread across the country, “Occupy the USA,” written back in October.
“People squeal with delight at the song. What inspired it was a Facebook post from a friend of ours who is a labor organizer in New York City. He said in the post that “the US should invade the US to win the hearts and minds of the people.” And the song took off from there,” said Humphries.