THE VOICE PROJECT

New Voice Project Episode: Bowerbirds cover Doug Paisley’s...

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:50:14 -0400

New Voice Project Episode: Bowerbirds cover Doug Paisley’s “No One But You”

New Voice Project Episode: Rick Barry » Rosi Golan...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:30:16 -0400

New Voice Project Episode: Rick Barry » Rosi Golan “Can’t Go Back”

Here We Go Magic » Gillian Welch “Revelator”

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:37:48 -0400

Here We Go Magic » Gillian Welch “Revelator”

Mike Bloom » Here We Go Magic “How Do I Know”

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:59:11 -0400

Mike Bloom » Here We Go Magic “How Do I Know”

New Episode: Sydney Wayser » Caveman “Decide”

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:06:45 -0400

New Episode: Sydney Wayser » Caveman “Decide”

New Episode: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers » Will Hoge...

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:08:06 -0400

New Episode: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers » Will Hoge “Too Old To Die Young”

We’re launching a new initiative to provide more support...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:38:49 -0400

We’re launching a new initiative to provide more support for FM radio station construction and “Come Home” programing in LRA affected areas of DR Congo and Central African Republic. These songs and messages are helping to bring the abducted out of the bush to end the war.

More info here: http://voiceproject.org/store/

Renewed International Effort Underway to Rid Africa of LRA Abou Moussa, head of the U.N. Regional...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:30:05 -0500

Renewed International Effort Underway to Rid Africa of LRA

Abou Moussa, head of the U.N. Regional Office for Central Africa, says LRA threat must be eliminated.

“If you go back into history, it is true that it has been very difficult to end this war because, on the one hand, Kony has refused to sign the agreement. On the other hand, we felt that, in the past, there was not enough coordination to tackle the issue. Today, we have renewed effort[s], renewed commitment of the international community to see that this issue of [the] LRA is dealt with once and for all.”

Great new film from Invisible Children launched yesterday....

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:01:24 -0500

Great new film from Invisible Children launched yesterday. “If the world knows who Joseph Kony is, it will unite to stop him”

newregimegroup: Please join us on Tuesday, March 6th from 6-8pm...

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:30:06 -0500

newregimegroup:

Please join us on Tuesday, March 6th from 6-8pm at 121 Fulton St. for an evening of charity, networking, and great drink specials!

RSVP: voiceproject.eventbrite.com

Ane Brun » Arcade Fire “Neighborhood #1...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:30:06 -0500

Ane Brun » Arcade Fire “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”

www.voiceproject.org

Peace Can Be New Report Argues Deployment of Advisors Creates Unprecedented Opportunity to...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:43:22 -0500

Peace Can Be

New Report Argues Deployment of Advisors Creates Unprecedented Opportunity to End LRA Atrocities

February 21, 2012 (Washington, DC) – Despite the political pressures of an election year, the United States government must continue to prioritize efforts to help combat the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and actively work with central African governments to arrest LRA leader Joseph Kony and put an end once and for all to the group’s atrocities in the region, argues a report issued today by Washington-based human rights organization Resolve.

“2012 is a make or break year for President Obama’s efforts to see an end to LRA violence,” says Resolve Executive Director Michael Poffenberger. “The LRA has relentlessly attacked civilians for over two decades. The President’s decision to deploy U.S. military advisors to the region creates a limited window of opportunity to finally see these atrocities come to an end.”

The Obama Administration released the first-ever White House strategy to address the LRA in 2010 and built on that effort by deploying 100 advisers to the region late last year, helping the Ugandan and other regional militaries protect civilians and apprehend senior LRA commanders.

LRA forces currently comprised of 200-300 fighters and commanders, down from as many as 10,000 in the 1990’s, have been skillful in adapting and evading efforts to defeat them. After a military surge led by the Ugandan government reduced the group’s core capacity in 2009, regional efforts have faltered, allowing a small number of LRA fighters to have an outsize impact on the civilian population. 465,000 people have been displaced as a result of the group’s attacks in an area the size of France which includes parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and the newly-formed Republic of South Sudan.

“Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders remain a very real threat to peace and stability in central Africa, and have proven they can survive half-hearted efforts aimed at defeating them,” Ronan added. “While it’s a huge step forward, President Obama’s LRA strategy runs the risk of becoming another well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful effort unless additional steps are taken immediately.”

In “Peace Can Be: President Obama’s Chance to Help End LRA Atrocities in 2012,” Resolve argues that only progress in reducing the LRA’s threat to civilians should drive decisions made about the deployment of U.S. forces and other policy measures. “This kind of bold leadership from the White House may be threatened by political attacks made in an election year. But persistence could provide a real victory for the Administration’s commitment to stop and prevent mass atrocities,” added Poffenberger.

The report, based on three months of research conducted in late 2011 in remote areas of central Africa impacted by LRA violence, also argues that the U.S. needs to augment the troop deployment with additional steps, including:

High-level diplomacy, in partnership with the African Union, to overcome a breakdown in cooperation among regional governments;
Deployment of helicopters to help regional military respond to reports of LRA attacks and movements; and
Investments in civilian infrastructure, including early warning systems, and programs focused on securing peaceful defections from LRA ranks to complement military investments.

The full report is available for download here.

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:23:49 -0500

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Wow.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:30:05 -0500

Wow.

This is amazing: Leonard Cohen’s Prince of Asturias...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:30:05 -0500

This is amazing: Leonard Cohen’s Prince of Asturias Speech.

An ode to Joe Purdy. “Music just sort of makes everything...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:30:05 -0500

An ode to Joe Purdy. “Music just sort of makes everything better. When people sing music or listen to music or dance to music or celebrate music, the outcome is always better than it was before.”

The Voice Project started because Joe’s song “Suitcase” came to mind when we first heard the women in Uganda sing their ‘come home’ songs, and because he was willing to help us get this going. If you don’t know Joe’s music, have a listen to this beautiful piece he did about a year ago and to his music in general, the outcome will be better than it was before.

www.voiceproject.org

Cillie Barnes » Dawes “”Million Dollar...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:30:05 -0500

Cillie Barnes » Dawes

“”Million Dollar Bill”

www.voiceproject.org

I remember seeing those early TVP sessions with Dawes and then later us all talking about the different themes that we thought might run through the episodes, not just lyrically and stylistically, but the ideas of forgiveness, love, loss, and the idea of home. Those Dawes episodes always seemed special to me and set a lot of the tone in my mind when I would think of The Voice Project, artists at home, things stripped down, relaxed, the lack of pretense. Shooting this episode seemed to parallel that one, not just in that Vanessa was covering Dawes, but in the feeling of sitting around at a friend’s home and someone pulls out a guitar - to me, these are the best ‘concerts’ there are. And there was that certain slant of light coming in through the windows giving the afternoon a dreamlike quality, like an old memory that took place at golden hour.

I first heard Vanessa when she was opening up for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in a band she was playing with called Family of the Year. It was a couple years ago at a show they played at down in San Diego at the Belly Up. Last year I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few of her soon to be released tracks under the band name Cillie Barnes and immediately fell in love them. We’ve wanted to do a Voice Project episode with her for a while and when she choose Dawes we were excited since they were one of the very first bands to support us. Her voice is hauntingly beautiful, distinct, it has this ephemeral quality and almost paradoxical combination of shyness mixed with a unique, persistent individuality. And that coy individuality shone through in her flipping the perspective on this song with a few word changes, slyly shifting the emotionality as it’s sung from the other side. John Dos Pasos wrote in an essay called A Question of Elbow Room that “individuality is freedom lived” and about the importance of carving out space, making “enough elbow room in society to exhibit unashamed the little eccentricities and oddities that differentiate one man from another man. From within his separate hide he can look out at the world….” It’s so much of what we often respond to in people and in music, when someone has the courage to use their own voice, to be truly themselves. This day at the little studio up in the hills of Happy Valley in that sun-drenched room with Joe Keefe on the guitar, her voice and the afternoon had that feeling; a separate hide, a place and a moment of elbow room. — Ryan

Watch this, and if you want to get your club/self/band/homies...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:55:18 -0500

Watch this, and if you want to get your club/self/band/homies involved, drop us a line at r2r@voiceproject.org and we’ll make it happen!

Ending a war with music and FM radio. It can be done. #thisishappening:

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:06:01 -0500

“We were dispersed in various groups. One of the Acholi songs played on radio – ‘The children of other people have returned home, mine has never surfaced’ – appealed to our hearts, and we decided to plan to escape and return home to Uganda.” -Male, 28, who spent 9 years in the LRA (source: Conciliation Resources)

The stations being built are designed to reach combat zones…and music has been a central element http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/12/voice-project-builds-radio-program-to-rescue-child-soldiers.html

Most combatants and dependents coming out of the bush are citing radio/sensitization programming as their main reason for doing so. (source: United Nations/MONUSCO)

Raise your hand if you’re excited about...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:30:05 -0500

Raise your hand if you’re excited about this.