EMANCIPATE: Artists & Allies

EMANCIPATE Founding Artists

GaBrilla Ballard: New Orleans artist GaBrilla Ballard is a singer, guitarist, songwriter and performer, who is spending her considerable energies keeping the musical history of New Orleans ever strong and ever growing.
Pamela Means: Pamela Means is a Brooklyn-based Out (spoken), Biracial indie folk artist whose "kamikaze guitar style" and punchy provocative songs have worn a hole in her guitar.
Alix Olson: Alix Olson is an internationally touring folk poet and progressive queer artist-activist. One part peace vigil, one part protest rally, and one part joyful raucous concert, Alix ignites audiences everywhere she performs.
Sunni Patterson: More than a poet, more than a singer, more than an emcee--it's not just what she says, it's how she says it. Emerging from the musical womb that is New Orleans, artist and visionary Sunni Patterson combines the heritage and tradition of her Native town with an enlightened modern world view to create music and poetry that is timeless in its groove.
Vicki Randle: Vicki Randle - vocalist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter - is one of the most visible and hard working musicians in America.
Asia Rainey: Born and raised in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, the diversity, simplicity and adversity of Asia Rainey's early life fueled her growth as an eclectic artist with an intense passion for poetry.
Cris Williamson: As a pioneer of “Women’s Music”, Cris paved the way for today’s independent women artists who now regularly top the charts, and helped foster the birth of an entirely new genre of music.

New Orleans Partners

Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children: Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) is a statewide membership-based organization that fights for a better life for all of Louisiana's youth, especially those involved in or targeted by the juvenile justice system.
Grand Bayou Community United: Grand Bayou is a Native American Atakapa and Creole fishing village, accessible only by boat, whose community members can trace their roots back thousands of years. No one from Grand Bayou has been able to return home since Katrina hit - they remain scattered in FEMA trailers and their community looks as it did days after the hurricane. Grand Bayou Community United is fighting to come home, and advocating for green rebuilding, alternative energy sources, and the establishment of the first worker-owned cooperative shrimp and fish dock in Plaquemines Parish.
Louisiana ACORN: ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.
Renew Our Music: The mission of the Renew Our Music Fund is to preserve New Orleans’ cultural traditions by providing assistance to the individuals and institutions that will carry them forward. Renew Our Music offers grants to leaders in the music community, extends financial assistance to New Orleans musicians of all genres, and helps connect musicians with instruments and gigs in order to revive, uphold and perpetuate New Orleans’ unique culture.
Silence Is Violence: SilenceIsViolence is an anti-violence campaign, holding Youth Music Clinics for young people - offering an activity in the early evening as well as provide an introduction to musical performance. The clinics are accessible forums for young people to explore the world of music and spend time in a non-violent environment.
Women's Health and Justice Initiative: The New Orleans Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI) was formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina through the organizing efforts of INCITE! New Orleans and local health care practitioners and activists challenging the social invisibility of women color and poor women experiences, vulnerabilities, and health care needs.

summer 07 EMANCIPATE artists

Aguafuego
Taína Asili
Christina Courtin
Eisa Davis
Marta Gomez
Chantal Kreviazuk
DJ Nicole Leone
Mahina Movement
Pistolera
Queen God-Is
Imani Uzuri

Community Allies

Casa Atabex Ache
CEETA Project
CULTURE PROJECT
The Gathering
Make the Road by Walking
New York Jobs with Justice
Sistas on the Rise