Banker here reporting as promised from SXSW 2011.
Good morning warm weather. I already can hear live music before noon─the air smells like spring flowers and BBQ─good to be back here in the lone star state. Definitely bringing back memories of our 2006 trip. I know I have reported multiple times that 2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Independence for Sierra Leone. These kinds of milestones are exciting, a reason to celebrate and a reason to take pause. Celebrating independence is about celebrating standing on your own and your individual freedoms.
On another note, I’ve been reflecting on the collaborative philosophy that has gotten our program and group to where we are today. WeOwnTV has always been about working together as a group, about being mutually accountable to each other and about functioning like a family.
Fostering these things is essential to how we are working at WeOwnTV. All the talented folks both in North America (yes, that’s a nod to our Canadians) and in Sierra Leone who have given their individual ideas, their creativity, their advice and their hard work during the last few years created this new family.
Almost eight years ago Chris Velan, Zach Niles and I traveled to refugee camps in Guinea to make a documentary about the Sierra Leonean civil war seen through the eyes of a musician. In meeting the band our project both pulled into focus, but it also
Chris Velan with Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars working on Inez.
expanded to become so much more than what we had envisioned. We have all remained close during the last eight years and have worked together in different ways.
Today, I write to highlight a recent collaboration that brought us all together again in fall 2010. Chris Velan invited the All Stars to record a song with him while he was in a Boston studio working on his new album.
Please visit the wonderful, media-rich site for the INEZ recording project here. It’s definitely worth a look and a listen.
Proceeds from sales of the recording are going to support the WeOwnTV project, “Meet Sweet Salone: Celebrating and Documenting 50 years of Independence.”
The program is a 12-episode documentary series that explores the Sierra Leone of yesterday and today. WeOwnTV and the SLRAS band will also be collaborating in various ways to bring these stories and the spirit of celebration to the US during their upcoming tour.
Chris and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars both have new albums coming out and many shows scheduled this spring and summer. Please go check out the infectious music of these talented musicians and wonderful friends.
p.s. calling all San Francisco folks – Chris is playing in San Francisco @ the Boom Boom Room 8:00 PM 3/26/2011. That’s this next Thursday…see you there.
