Justice Comes Alive Raises $55,000 for the Plus1 For Black Lives Fund with Virtual Music Festival

The live music community came together to raise funds and awareness for racial equality with the new one-day, donation-based virtual event, Justice Comes Alive. The event, which partnered with the PLUS1 For Black Lives Fund, directly benefited organizations like Equal Justice Initiative, Impact Justice, and The Bail Project, as well as Black and Indigenous-led grassroots organizations combating racism. Additionally, Headcount partnered with the event to further encourage voter registration and participation.

With nearly 190,000 viewers across all platforms, Justice Comes Alive is proud to announce the event raised over $55,000 in support of racial justice. Just weeks prior, Quarantine Comes Alive raised over $170,000 which directly benefited participating artists and PLUS1's COVID-19 Relief Fund. The creators of QCA and mainstay events Brooklyn Comes Alive and Denver Comes Alive felt empowered to shift their focus to matters of racial inequality facing our nation, and thus put together Justice Comes Alive only weeks after the inaugural QCA virtual festival.

Two of the event's co-hosts, Nikki Glaspie & Robert Sput Searight each shared warm, hopeful sentiments about the experience. "I'm very honored to have been a part of an event that recognizes racial injustice and is trying to do something about it," shares Glaspie. "Raising awareness is key, and this event did exactly that." Searight is hopeful we are headed in the right direction toward real, meaningful change, sharing, "This is just the beginning. For so long, the lack of education has been a detriment to society on both sides. Now we must realize in this moment that it is a systematic structure for us to be ignorant about the history of black culture. Now we can begin to break the curse of 400 years by having open dialogue. Hopefully we are a lot closer to change."

Kunj Shah, founder of both Live For Live Music & the one-day virtual event, graciously expressed, "I'm so incredibly grateful for everyone who participated in the Justice Comes Alive experience to help us raise $55,000+ for Plus 1 Black Lives Fund. The amazing music and poignant conversations set this event apart from anything I've ever been a part of." Shah continued, "It was an honor to curate and help create something that was meaningful, educational, heavy, and uplifting all at the same time. I've learned so much from this movement that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. One day, we'll finally live in a world where TRUE JUSTICE comes alive."

Live For Live Music's push towards a racially just world does not end here. The two virtual experiences combined raised $225,000+ for extremely important organizations which have moved the founders to continue their efforts. All events moving forward will now benefit and help a larger cause. All of the company's events moving forward will now benefit and help a larger cause. "There's so much work to be done," explains Shah, "and I want Live For Live Music to be a part of the solution."

Featured Performances By:

Antibalas

Alvin Ford Jr.

BANDEMIC (feat. John Scofield, John Medeski, Billy Martin and Jesse Murphy)

Big Sam's Funky Nation

Bobby Rush

Brandon "Taz" Niederauer

Christone "KINGFISH" Ingram

Cory Henry

D'Vibes Trio w/ Adam Deitch & Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff

David Shaw

Doom Flamingo

Dumpstaphunk

Eric Krasno

Everyone Orchestra

Full Moonalice

The Funky Knuckles

G. Love

Galactic

George Porter Jr.

The Ghost of Paul Revere

Ivan Neville

Jennifer Hartswick w/ Nick Cassarino & Christian McBride

Kim Dawson

Lettuce

Louis Cato

Marco Benevento

Maurice "MOBETTA" Brown

Mononeon

Moon Taxi

The Motet

MoTown Getdown

Nahko

Neal Francis

Nick Cassarino & Erin Boyd

Nigel Hall

The OG's

The Original Nth Power

Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band

Robert Walter

Roosevelt Collier

Shaun Martin

The Soul Rebels

Southern Avenue

Stanley Jordan

Star Kitchen

Stout

Tank and the Bangas

TAUK

Terence Higgins & The Nola Krewe

Turkuaz

Umphrey's McGee

Speakers Included:

Christian McBride

Dennis Chambers

Ellis Hall

Eric Krasno

Gary Bartz

George Porter Jr.

Harvey Mason

Ivan Neville

Karl Denson

Oteil Burbridge

Patrice Rushen

Terence Blanchard

Weedie Braimah