On the Road with WITNESS

stuck in nashville

Well not exactly... But our plane had to abort take off since the wheel broke on the runway.  Now they made us switch planes...  And airports.  But I hear we're getting free stuff...  Hooray.

The Final Day at Roo

Becky says:

It's Sunday already. I wish I could say time flew, but it kinda creeped along, real southern style. The festival comes to an end this evening with Widespread Panic closing out the weekend. It's been a great learning experience for us, and we're still digesting all the pros of being here. 

Regina Specktor played a great set yesterday to a packed crowd.  She's expressed interest in doing something special with WITNESS later this year, so keep a lookout for that. Damien Rice  also played a beautiful mellow set. It was nice to touch base with him and his crew. We saw him about 3 weeks ago in NYC when he screened our PSA on stage at Radio City Music Hall and had us speak about the work we do from stage before his concert.  I tried to see The Police, but from where I was standing, Sting looked about as big as an ant, and the 90,000 other people around me had me feeling slightly claustrophobic. I  finished the night with a truly inspiring set of music in the jazz tent by bay area drummer Scott Amendola, featuring  local Brooklynite Jenny Scheinman on violin and  the guitarist  Nels Cline from the band WILCO. Scott has been a WITNESS supporter for years and dedicated his song "The Believer" to WITNESS last night, and encouraged people to check out our tent in Planet Roo. Thanks Scott!

It's been a full few days here in Manchester, Tennessee. Thanks for checking in on us! We've had a lot of fun talking to all of the characters here at Bonnaroo and we've been moved by the significant interest in WITNESS' work, and the "Hub" in particular.

A big thanks to Nick Algee, Jill Franklin, Chris Crowell, Adam, Poli and all other Bonnaroo staff that made his happen for WITNESS.

Manu Chao in the house

Becky says:

It's Friday night and I finally found a little spot on the grass where our wireless works. It's dark and I just came from Many Chao's performance. It was hands down, my Bonnaroo highlight so far. Even better, I got to discuss WITNESS with Manu and the wonderful people working and traveling with him. They were kind enough to let me watch the show from the stage and it was pretty exciting to see what must have been at least 25,000 euphoric fans singing along with his music!

Hopefully we'll be able to collaborate in the near future. By the way, Manu will be playing in our home town of Brooklyn in about a week, so make sure you head out in full force.

That's it for now from Planet Roo.

Day Two

Becky here:

Hi Folks!

Wireless is spotty at best, but we'll do our best to stay in touch. Yesterday was really inspiring. We had HUNDREDS of people visit our tent to get materials, sign up for our free online newsletter and  hear more about what we're doing. Our volunteers are fantastic and it's refreshing to see how interested people are in what WITNESS does. Lots of students have been freaking out with excitement when they hear about the upcoming "Hub" launch.

Yesterday, I also had the honor of meeting the amazing Rodrigo and Gabriela. They are excited to get more involved with WITNESS and we talked about ways in which they can participate in our 15th Anniversary celebrations. They played to thousands of screaming fans last night and put on a  phenomenal show (see pic below). Keep your eyes out for them as they tour around the world.

This weekend is also a weekend of global action to end human rights abuses in Burma. It is timed to coincide with the birthday of the world's only imprisoned Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. We're screening videos about Burma all weekend (made with our partner Burma Issues) and asking people to sign a letter to the UN Secretary General, demanding UN Security Council action on behalf of the people of Burma. US Campaign for Burma also sent us some great Free Suu Kyi tatoos, which we've been doling out.

Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully you'll hear more from us soon.

wireless is down

We've been trying to live blog but the wireless connection has been down since last night. Hopefully it'll be up later. Yesterday was a lot better than expected, we got a ton of sign ups and the kids seem genuinely excited about the hub. Beck worked her magic and got some meetings set up.

it is still hot.

Day One of Bonnaroo

Becky here:

The people are arriving. YAY. And our tent looks pretty beautiful (if we say so ourselves). Our team has been up and ready to roll since 7 AM. We're camping with a bunch of other folks working at the festival and have about a 20 minute walk from our campsite to our WITNESS tent at "Planet Roo." Music begins this afternoon so we anticipate lots more traffic later. Bryan and I are preparing for our workshop this evening, where we'll talk about the launch of the "Hub" this year. The "Hub" is a MySpace or YouTube for human rights, where anyone in the world can upload and share footage related to human rights and then activate around it -- creating campaigns and promoting change.

More soon....

setting up the booth

Becky, Noelle and me are setting up the WITNESS tent. We are located right in the center of the entire festival. We're going to be able to hear The Police from our tented area. Good thing we arrived a day before the concertgoers. There's a lot to get done. We seem to be the only human rights organization present and already people have been wandering by wanting information. Our first real day of activities begins tomorrow, with a workshop and hopefully a rendevous with the dazzling duo Rodrigo and Gabriela who are psyched to get involved in our work.   Did we  mention that it's hot?

We found noelle!

We made it to Noelle's place (see pic). Noelle is a former WITNESS intern and total rockstar who is dedicating 5 days of her time helping WITNESS get the word out about video advocacy -- or in other words -- using video for to defend human rights. She also gathered 5 friends who are excited to volunteer for WITNESS, and now we're on our way outta Nashville.

In Nashville

Landed in Nashville.  Apparently there are some other people attending Bonnaroo on our flight. It sounds like it's going to be HUGE with lots of interesting org's and companies present. We can't wait to get there and look around.

we're on the plane!

So me and Beck made it on the plane after a total fiasco of a check in process that is American Airlines.   Note to self:  buy coffee AFTER the security check point.

Nashville here we come!