‘All hands on deck’: The Minnesota Music Resistance launches in response to Trump 2.0

In life Front Row Paul Engebretson championed music and musicians and railed against the creeping right-wing fascism of the day After his death from pancreatic cancer in March Engebretson s legacy is forever cemented in the fledgling action group he co-founded The Minnesota Music Resistance Noted Engebretsen s widow Sheila Knight Paul hated Trump and so do I and he was so angry when he was elected again that he demanded to do any little thing to stand up against this autocrat this fascist and all this hate and he craved to do it with people who shared that idea He needed to take action Paul was a political science major in college and back then he distrusted Reagan and the entire system who gave to the rich and didn t care about the masses The Minnesota Music Resistance MMR is an extension of that It started there The late Front Row Paul Engebretson co-founded Minnesota Music Resistance in the wake of Trump Credit Courtesy of Minnesota Music Resistance So far the self-described nimble little group exists as a small but growing collective with a website and a mission report that reads The Minnesota Music Resistance uses music good trouble and grassroots collective activism to raise guidance and backing and connect communities We are committed to human rights inclusion and the fight against authoritarianism that threatens all our livelihoods and existence Claire Luger frontwoman for punk rockers The Silent Medicine put it this way We are an organization that is really figuring out how we can advocacy human rights and inclusion and fight back against authoritarianism and fascism and how we can do that is with people involved in the music public The polling was so appalling and Paul had this idea and the whole thing started in December We met and reported What do we want to do We need to do something and so how are we going to do it At this point we re really in the infancy of it but we ve planned our first event and we re looking to do more fundraisers for organizations that are really needing the funds and the backing in order for them to encouragement our greater part marginalized communities Reported singer songwriter Edie Rae who wrote the Minnesota Music Resistance s fruitful proposal for the Lift Up Lake Street grant Paul is the one who kind of shepherded this and one of the things we were talking about was how musicians have a lot of power Throughout history music has often spoken truth to power and we have a fantastic music society here Paul s perspective was What can we as a music area do to make our voices known and resist this authoritarian regime So we certainly all know how to organize do events and fundraise First Minnesota Music Resistance event to benefit ACLU The first Minnesota Music Resistance MMR event is a Fight For Your Civil Rights benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union June at the Hook Ladder Theater and Lounge with Ganser Christy Costello Turn Turn Turn The Silent Medication The Muatas Dad Bod M A Y Strong Buffalo Walken Schweigert August Judd and The Daily Norm We sought to make it really inclusive and a diverse representation of what we have in Minneapolis and St Paul Luger reported And we ve invited different organizations to come to the table ACLU will be there and I know Minnesota Women s March will be there We ll have the MMR banner there and then we ll have actions that people can do I m gonna set up a phone booth so people can make calls to their representatives We ll have postcards We will have QR codes for us and all the organizations We ll have voter registration too We re really trying all these ideas and trying to balance out all the ideas with all of the legwork that goes into being a force for good for resistance In the wake of Trumpism one of the the bulk common rallying cries has been satisfaction as an act of resistance and all concerned agree that one way to create and engage in that happiness is through live music and the region it naturally fosters Music can become such a rich part of our life if we want it to MMR member Mikkel Bee commented And music increasingly from what I m hearing from people who come to the shows I m involved with is that music has become a lifeline for them live music as a way to break their isolation and connect with others as a reprieve from what has become an hourly onslaught of bad news around authoritarianism and things that are happening I think music is a part of the entirety of a way to resist but it certainly demands to be a part of the way that people can experience connection Meet other people break out of their routines break out of their isolation Part of our mission is to provide that sense of music as a way to give people power and courage and positivity and hope and to deal with their emotions around all of this The other part is that music is a way musicians who do really feel strongly about what s happening can show specific leadership around resistance by hosting opportunities for people to organize events but it s also about taking a society stance If you re in a band that s involved in a charity event for the ACLU as a way to resist then you are publicly saying Democratic values are fundamental to me the rights of individuals are central to me and my band And that s just a way to spread that courage for other people to step up and say Yes I also believe that civil and human rights are fundamental that values of a democracy are central and worth defending You know it s pretty much that simple We want to instill hope in area and we also want to provide material assistance to organizations in the population doing good work Kickstarter campaign planned So far so good Next up for the Minnesota Music Resistance is more events a Kickstarter campaign and ongoing pointed passionate activity in the face of so much political paralysis When Paul was still with us one of the things we talked about when we first all got together was I m indeed kind of tired of talking about it right Rae commented We can complain and vent There s nothing wrong with complaining and venting you ve got to have an outlet But this makes me feel like I am doing something It s kind of like the concept of put your money where your mouth is If you really feel this way and strongly and you still want to retain specific level of civil rights in this country we have to do something about it We naturally as musicians are promoters and we re naturally organizers Luger noted I mean it s a lot of cat-herding a lot of organizing goes into it which is why I like it it s like a lot of my union organizing stuff because you use the same strategies to put together a bill that you use to put together an event Or you use the same audience that you use to promote your show to promote doing good Whether that s making phone calls whether that s writing postcards whether that s just telling people Hey this is bullshit and this bleeper he s got to stop and it s going on right in front of our eyes and if you don t speak up now I mean it s all hands on deck Everybody s got these inherent skills and inherent communication styles of how we get that messaging out and that s just how it works with art So countless forms of art are by just existing our resistance Born out of that push to resist So using that voice and reaching people who might otherwise not be watching the news is really critical and it s really critical to build locality and build a force and a broader multi-tiered fight against evil Somewhere somehow Front Row Paul is throwing his fist in the air in solidarity The post All hands on deck The Minnesota Music Resistance launches in response to Trump appeared first on MinnPost