Rhythm Nation

On Earth Day 2021, Rhythm Nation held a Green New Deal Party with a panel of climate experts and musical performances from @maarquii, @cay-horiuchi and Cee White (in that order) This is a recording of the entire event that was livestreamed from Holocene.

The Green New Deal is both a specific piece of legislation, but also a framework for dealing with climate change through bold and equitable investment. It was introduced. by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019 and re-introduced in a bill last month that calls for a decade-long mobilization to achieve a zero emissions economy, create good paying jobs, and invest in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. It’s the first proposal to seriously confront climate change at the scale necessary to address it and it’s popular with the vast majority of voters. Perhaps most significantly, though, it's having a clear and beneficial influence on nearly every other Democrat-backed climate policy that's not called the Green New Deal.

While the Biden administration does not endorse an explicit “Green New Deal”, per se, the stated goals of his administration would achieve many parts of a Green New Deal. The Biden Sanders Unity Task force, which included representative Ocasio-Cortez and Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash, increased the ambition of the Biden Administration’s climate goals to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035 and carbon neutrality by 2050. Pieces of a Green New Deal with these goals in mind are already making their way through congress in the form of the Biden infrastructure package and a number of other proposals.

Just like the original New Deal, which was not one piece of policy but a collection of policies, a Green New Deal will be a number of pieces of legislation on a state level but also a local level. Unlike the original New Deal, which made no substantive effort to rebuild in an equitable manner and explicitly left Black people out of key pieces of legislation like the GI Bill, a Green New Deal must tackle equity head on.

In this moment, there’s an appetite for bold change on climate justice and racial justice unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. You can be a part of that change. To show you how, listen to the event and hear from a panel of local and national Green New Deal leaders about the path forward.

For more information, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/22

Eli Goldstein is one half of the DJ and production duo @soulclap, which has built an international reputation for their dance music over the past 20 years. Throughout his music career, Eli has played key roles on music activism projects, including DJs for Climate Action and more recently “Rave the Vote”. On the show, Eli and I talk about how his experience as a DJ, producer and record label owner brought him to activism.

For links to Eli's music and events as well as a playlist of his jams, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/21

The 20th episode of Rhythm Nation drops today! This 60 minute party mix weaves together the best jams selected by my podcast guests so far along with jams that have been getting me through these strange last 12 months. Rhythm Nation has been a really gratifying project for me during these strange last six months. I’m so thankful for all the guests and other folks who have taken time to be involved in it. To the next 20 episodes!

Tracklist:

Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (Episode 12 - Nina Turner)

Meshell Ndegeocello - Hot Night (Episode 2 - Anne Marks)

Skull Snaps - It's A New Day (Episode 4 - Mia Fermindoza)

Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop

Jay Prince - LINK UP

Mura Masa, Octavian - Move Me (Episode 5 - Shabd Singh)

Nas - If I Ruled the World (Episode 14 - Shasti Conrad)

D.N.A. Feat. Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner

The Freedom Riders - I'm On My Way (Episode 13 - Josh MacPhee)

Reptaliens - Listening

The Notorious B.I.G. - Notorious Thugs (Episode 15 - Teffanie Hale)

Om Unit - Transformation

The Internet - Girl (Episode 6 - Misty Rebik)

Om Unit - Testimony

Alicia Keys - We Gotta Pray (Episode 3 - Skipper Osborne)

Amber Mark - Lose My Cool

Change - Lets Go Together

Fantasia - Lose to Win (Episode 12 - Nina Turner)

Jex Opolis - Subsystem

Bullion - Yawn

Killer Mike - The Time Is Now

Gil Scott-Heron - B Movie (Episode 1 - Bill Brewster)

Toots & the Maytals - Revolution (Episode 16 - Tyler Evans)

On February 20th, Rhythm Nation hosted a “Medicare for All Rave” at Holocene featuring a panel of Medicare for All leaders from across the state to discuss the current strategy to make Oregon the first state to implement a single-payer system. Following that was live musical performances streamed from Holocene, including one from @theoryhazitofficial included in this podcast. Over 500 people joined the livestream and took collective action. Even if you missed it, you can learn and join the fight at https://www.oregonaction.net/healthcare-for-all

On January 20th, we celebrated the end of the Trump era, the end of the majority leader McConnell era and the passing of Oregon's landmark ballot measures by chatting with the leaders who made them happen. We talked about the importance of staying involved and how to do so, then celebrated with a dance party live streamed from Holocene. It was a truly special event that included a cameo from @berniesanders official and felt like the closest thing to an actual party in nearly a year. Expect more live events like this, starting next month!

Panelists: Anthony Johnson, Devon Downeysmith, Sam Chapman, John Bethencourt

DJs: @chantidarling, @sappho-presents-chingo, @lincolnup, Deena B's cut for copyright reasons. Sorry, had to have been there!

More info at http://petermarks.us/podcast/18

Drake Hunt is a college activist and a rising leader of the Sunrise Movement, the nation’s leading youth activism organization centered around climate justice. On the episode, we talk about the Drake's upbringing in Georgia, the upcoming Senate runoff and Sunrise Movement's youth organizing taking place in the state. We also go through a playlist of jams that inspired Drake's activism.

For links to Drake's work and a playlist of his music, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/17

Tyler Evans was the lead designer of the Bernie 2020 campaign and continues to play that role in the Friends of Bernie Sanders PAC. On the show we talk about how much of the work he’s produced for Bernie has been directly inspired by album art. We also dive through an eclectic playlist of mostly metal bands that inspired his activism journey.

For links and images of tyler's work as well as playlist of the music playled in this episode, visit http://petermarks.us/podcast/16

Teffannie J. Hale is a strategic leader for the underserved and underrepresented. She’s the CEO of The Community And Parents (CAP) Projects, which examines and leads conversations and initiatives to eradicate implicit biases in underserved at-risk schools with predominantly African American students. On the episode, we discuss the interdependent relationship between activism and parenting as well as the jams that keep her going.

For a playlist of Teffannie's music and links to her work, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/15

Shasti Conrad is a versatile strategist and thought leader with a broad range of political, policy and operations experience within government at all levels. On the show she tells several amazing stories about music that inspired her journey as an adopted kid growing up in rural Oregon, as a staffer in the Obama White House, to a leader on the Bernie campaigns, to Washington state politics where she just helped triple the number of women of color in the state legislature.

For more on Shasti's work, visit http://www.shasticonrad.com/ or follow her on Twitter and IG at @ShastiConrad. For more information on her Opportunity PAC, visit https://www.opportunity-pac.com/ or follow them on on Twitter at @OpportUNITY4PAC. For a playlist of the music played in this episode, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/14

Throughout history and across the globe, music has been used as a tool for activism. Josh MacPhe is a designer, artist, archivist and author of a wonderful book called An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, chronicling the vinyl produced by leftist organizations in America, South America, Europe and Africa. In the latest episode of Rhythm Nation, we talk about the motivation and crate-digging behind the book and discuss Josh’s favorite political record labels from the nearly 800 labels the book catalogues.

For more info, visit https://petermarks.us/podcast/13