I can think of no better band to be a part of the Cherry City Musical Festival than Mecca Normal — the Vancouver, BC – based folk rock duo whose voice is soft and mesmerizing like Salem’s cottony cherry trees but with a seering political edge worthy of Oregon’s state capitol.
Mecca Normal, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, takes the stage tonight at Willamette University’s Cone Chapel.
They are just one of 112 bands coming to town this weekend for the festival.
112!
At at On Friday at 1:00 pm, one half of the twosome, Jean Smith, will present “How Art and Music Can Change the World”‘ at Willamette University’s Montag Den.
Smith, a brilliant indie promoter and book author, spoke with me about how to animate a music scene ahead of the group’s big splash in Salem tonight.
DSS: What is the greatest challenge right now in creating cultural revolution?
Jean Smith: Typically the voice of the activist — political and cultural — is a voice in opposition. How do we find a way to define and present ideas for progressive social change when we are essentially not in opposition? Why is the voice against easier to find? Someone said to me the other day that the vote for Obama was really a vote against Bush.
I think that creative partnerships are a viable way to remain inspired — there is be a built-in sense of accountability. Doing things differently is actually how change happens. Academic and author Howard Zinn has talked about this — how our individual actions multiply to create significant change.
Jean Smith: Since the current downturn in the economy, I have begun encouraging people to not succumb to fear which can lead to depression and a sort emotional of paralysis. Maintaining and inventing methods of being that include creativity, healthy living and community – as opposed to negative behaviors and isolation — are enactments of social change — rising to the challenge of surviving these times.
At this juncture — with recent optimism surrounding new leadership and chaos in the economy — there is a need for cultural and political activists to find new voices.
For a long time opposition has been our expression. Now, it seems like what arises from the decline of financial structures and lifestyles many thought of as stable, will be defined by complacency unless there is a sense that people want to re-structure rather than cobble back together the house of cards that capitalism proved to be.
As soon as the government used socialist methods to prop up capitalism, capitalism was over. What now? Capitalism is only a concept — one that didn’t work – based in everyone being entitled to take possession of goods and services and then refuse to pay for them. That’s called greed and f**king stupidity.
Capitalism is not intrinsically hinged to democracy. As a specie,s we will evolve beyond electoral politics and take more responsibility for our ways of being, encouraging creative communities and reciprocal relationships.
