Women Musicians & Activists of Culture Project Visit New Orleans

Culture Project has announced that Emancipate, a project of its annual Women Center Stage series, will bring a group of female musicians (who are also activists in their communities) to New Orleans to meet with activists doing rebuilding work in New Orleans, and bring their stories to a national audience.  The artists will be in New Orleans March 2-6, 2008, and will create new songs to premiere at Culture Project's 2008 festival this spring.

Emancipate will gather Pamela Means, Alix Olson, Vicki Randle, Cris Williamson, Charmaine Neville, Asia Rainey, Gabrilla Ballard and Sunni Patterson in New Orleans to meet with community organizers leading the rebuilding and advocacy efforts in the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The musicians will meet with Louisiana ACORN, New Orleans Outreach, Silence is Violence, Renew Our Music, Friends and Family of Louisiana's Incarcerated, INCITE, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and the Grand Bayou Community.  People can follow the musicians' trip by visiting EmancipationInititaive.net, which will have daily blogs from the musicians, photos and video diaries.

The March trip is the first of 3 phases in a long-term project connecting these musicians to each other and to New Orleans.  On April 27, 2008, as part of Culture Project's Women Center Stage series, all eight participants will perform brand new songs inspired by their March visit to The Big Easy.   In June 2008, the artists will meet again to record their songs.  Proceeds from the CD will be donated to a New Orleans service-oriented community organization, which will be chosen collaboratively by the participating artists after the initial March visit.

"The struggles that New Orleans and the surrounding region face are not going away. In nearly three years, they've increased.  Emancipate is working to keep New Orleans in the national conscience (and consciousness) by taking stories around the country through the voices of these extraordinary participating musicians. They will continue to speak on behalf of New Orleans and build a motivational demand for action," declare press notes.

Emancipate is housed by Culture Project's Women Center Stage, a multidisciplinary producing arm focused on supporting and vigorously promoting the work of women artists, writers and change makers.

Culture Project's mission is to bear witness to injustice, to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time and to convert interest, energy and engagement into a motivational demand for progressive change.  Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo, AMAJUBA: Like Doves We Rise and Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda and most recently presented Dan Hoyle's acclaimed solo show Tings Dey Happen, Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's Rebel Voices and their provocative A Question of Impeachment series.  They are currently presenting the World Premiere of George Packer's critically acclaimed play Betrayed.

For more information visit www.EmancipationInititaive.net or www.cultureproject.org