Action
#IAmResilient
Join Rising Appalachia in inspiring each other to celebrate our collective resiliency. Include #IAmResilient in your social posts to tell your own triumphant story, no matter how big or small. Please post your resilient moments in photos, videos, banners, and artwork - to garner momentum that with our diversity, connection, and strength, we are resilient. #IAmResilient.
Filmed in North America's most diverse setting, New York City, Resilient is a stark telling of the songs' message through the grace and impact of the dancers' bodies as a reflections on the poetics. The video was made simple, stark, and direct; engaging the viewer into the intimate space of each artist. We wanted to strip away the clutter of objects and centralize the song on our common humanity, our humanness; eyes, skin tones, muscles, smiles, blood, power. Each dancer responded to the music both with choreography and improvisation, speaking in their unique ways to what resilience meant to them personally, and we sang the words straight into the camera to bring the listener in close to this intimate song. Resilient is meant to be a tangible, graspable, relatable folk song for people of all backgrounds and walks of life.
We are proud to share three wonderful non-profit organizations who are phenomenal examples of inspiring resiliency. Please click on each below to learn more, get involved, and to donate to their causes.
#1. Resilient Social Good: hatch
HATCH connects people to resources and a global network to accelerate ideas to action, working on solutions in education, energy, entrepreneurship, environment, empowerment, and equality.
#2. Resilient Environmental Justice: Honor the Earth
Honor the Earth's mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues, including water protection, carbon regulations, wild food harvesting...
#3. Resilient Human Rights: Prison Yoga
Prison Yoga teaches embodiment and yoga as a mindfulness practice for re-engaging prisoners, the underserved, and those re-entering society to create violence prevention and restore connection between heart, body, and mind.
Slow Music Movement
Rising Appalachia present’s its Slow Music Movement, an effort to promote sustainable touring practices, bring in local outreach to each event, reduce single-use waste at our shows, source farm-to-table food for backstage, and continue to create and promote sustainable touring practices across the board. “It’s our effort to take the glitz and glam out of the music industry and bring performance back to its roots- that of public service. A service where musicians are not just part of fast-paced entertainment world, but instead influence the cultural shift as troubadours, activists, story tellers, and catalysts of justice,” explains Leah.
The Slow Music Movement is like a ripple that moves outwards, scanning the soundwaves like sonar for the music, stories and songs that contain the same resonant frequency. We have been working alongside incredible leaders and organizations including Winona LaDuke, Joanna Macey, Climbing Poetree, Gulf Restoration Network, the Permaculture Action Network, the Prison Yoga Project, and 1 Billion Rising (along with many more on-the ground efforts) to bring you more direct action and involvement throughout our concerts, and to help maintain an independent musical spirit in the face of such a fast-paced world. We are also scheduling a host of intimate Meet-and-Greet events and workshops to accompany our tour route this year. Stay tuned for more ways to get involved!
The ‘Slow Music Movement’ encourages musicians to try out ‘non-industry standard’ ways of bringing music into the world by “linking to local communities and staying with local friends; pursuing alternative venues for performances and supporting local businesses with farm-to-table hospitality; providing local non-profits at each show a platform to display information; exploring alternative methods of travel including train, bike, low impact vehicles, boat, horse, or simply focusing on regional touring; and encouraging concert goers to take in more than just the catharsis of the music.”
To learn more, check out our current Tour Dates and check in with these Facebook event pages to see what kind of happenings are unfolding as we travel along.
In Partnership with Guayaki's Come to Life
Come to Life serves as the good news network for the regenerative movement. The music and media platform is fuelled by Guayaki Yerba Mate, whose mission is to steward and restore 200,000 acres of rainforest and create 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020. The meeting of this goal is made possible by the sharing and celebrating of Yerba Mate, Arts, Activism, Craft and Culture. In rhythm with Guayaki’s deeply principled journey, Come to Life is moving to change the model for interaction between artists and benefactors so to create collective change in the world. By facilitating partnerships and collaborations in authentic and holistic ways, Come to Life is creating a family of artists, activists and change-makers who seamlessly combine their voices, actions, and love to foster regeneration and create positive change in the world.
“We have always believed in building teams larger than ourselves, in extending our arms out into communities, and stepping into a larger network of hard working souls that unite their mission with art. In partnering with Come To Life we are allied in our common desire to see art effect real tangible change as well as celebrate simple unsullied beauty.”