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Taken from Redwood City Daily News (Sep 5, 2008)
Festival's message of peace evolves
Franti moves beyond politics, strives for collective social
conscience, action
by Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer
Michael Franti (center) and the members
of Spearhead will play the free Power to
the Peaceful festival in Golden Gate Park
on Sept. 6. |
Michael Franti's music not only entertains, but brings awareness and, ultimately, hopefully, change.
When the Bay Area musician, filmmaker and activist organized the first Power to the Peaceful Festival (PTTP) in San Francisco 10 years ago, the crowd numbered 6,000. Now the free event draws more than 60,000. It also attracts musical artists, speakers and exhibitors from across the globe.
This year's lineup features Michael Franti & Spearhead, Ziggy Marley, Warren Haynes, King Britt, Cheb i Sabbah and Tibetan Lama Namkha Rinpoche. Attendees of Saturday's festival are encouraged to bring 10 non-perishable food items to redeem for an exclusive PTTP poster. Donations benefit the San Francisco Food Bank. For details, visit www.powertothepeaceful.org.
"We never imagined that the festival was going to become as huge as it has become," says Franti.
"When the festival first started, it was like a protest, people saying, 'We don't want to see wars taking place.' But now people are looking to see the bigger picture, how the things we consume everyday lead into climate change, fighting wars for non-renewable resources."
The event's generators are run on bio-diesel fuels. Everything is biodegradable.
"A big part of our festival is the highlighting of positive things. We have a number of different installations, everything from converting your car to vegetable fuel, to getting involved in different organizations that are working to green our communities," Franti said. "So rather than being a festival about protest, it's now a festival about solutions."
Franti has performed his music on the streets of Iraq. "Sometimes I'd sing really political songs and they'd look at me quizzically and say, 'Sing us something that'll makes us clap and laugh and dance.' What I learned is that people want to be transformed. They want to feel through the music that there are new possibilities."
As a voter, Franti maintains independence. "I've never endorsed a political candidate. I've supported political ideas. The idea I'm endorsing today is that we bring our troops and our tax dollars home as quickly as possible, so that we can take that money and energy and put it into creating a sustainable future."
His vibrant new album, "All Rebel Rockers," due out Sept. 9, envisions a brighter future. Franti stirs reggae into his surging funk-rock-hip-hop sound. Uplifting lyrics add to the impact.
"With all that's going on in this country and the world now, I really wanted to make a record that inspires people to stay positive."
Franti dedicates his life to bringing about positive change. He has staged a PTTP festival in Brazil, raising money to provide kids with musical instruments. He'll be going to Tanzania to work with government, private enterprise and grassroots organizations to help incoming refugees develop job skills.
Social conscience is ingrained in Franti. "Both my parents are really loving and compassionate people. My father was not that way his whole life. But four years before he passed away, he had a stroke and he changed from this man who would just sit around and drink and be by himself to this man who was very open, very loving and very gracious to people. It was an amazing transformation. It inspired me a lot.
"My mother was a teacher in public school. She raised five kids on a teacher's salary. And today she's kind of a world traveler like myself. She was in Peru, working in an orphanage. She came down to Brazil and helped us there. She's an amazing giver."
Franti was speaking of his adoptive parents. "My birth mother's white. My father's black. They never married. My mother thought her family would never accept me being a brown child. So she gave me up for adoption. In the household I was raised in, I felt like an outsider sometimes," he said.
"That always led me to look beyond, to find friendship and family and connection with people who felt the same way - like outsiders. That's where my political voice has come from, always wanting everybody in the society to be heard, from the poorest of the poor on up."
Franti meets the challenge of lessening the world's cruelties and inequities. "Getting involved keeps me from feeling frustrated. I want to encourage other people, no matter if you're a teacher, accountant, doctor or lawyer, there's always some way to apply what you do to assisting others.
"I met a hairdresser recently who started a foundation that shaves (people's) heads and provides wigs for women who are going through chemotherapy. I was so inspired by this hair cutter finding a way to contribute to the world."
That's why he organizes the PTTP festival year after year. "We keep hearing from people that it's something that inspires them to go back into their life and make changes that they want to make, be it personal changes, like yoga, that we have there at the event, or be it political changes or larger world changes," he said.
"The festival has always been about music, consciousness and action. It's not enough to just be up there talking about stuff. We have to act and move beyond that."
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