In May, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled plans for the Obama Presidential Center and park to be built in Chicago’s South Side. Aside from the presidential library, the three-building complex will include an auditorium, restaurant, spaces for exhibition and education/meetings, plus a recording studio. According to the New York Times, the former president said, “I could invite Chance [the Rapper, a Chicago native] or Bruce Springsteen, depending on your tastes, to talk about how you could record music that has social commentary and meaning” and “a studio where I can invite Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg to do workshops on how to make films.”
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Musicians Recognized for Community Service
Three AFM musicians received 2017 Ford Musician Awards for Excellence in Community Service in May. Violinist Diane McElfish Helle of Local 56 (Grand Rapids, MI) leads the Grand Rapid Symphony’s Music for Health initiative, which sends symphony musicians into hospitals to assist with patient rehabilitation and support. Since 2002, she has also worked with the String Discovery Ensemble, a violin quartet offering hands-on musical experience to 4th graders. In her 37th year with Grand Rapids Symphony, McElfish Helle also created Grand Rapid’s Upbeat pre-concert lecture series.
In addition to being a violist with The Phoenix Symphony since 1995, Mark Dix of Local 586 (Phoenix, AZ) has been active in educational and health and wellness programs including Mind Over Music (science based string orchestra programs), B-Sharp Music Wellness, and A WONDER Project Alzheimer’s Initiative.
Kansas City Symphony principal flute since 2007, Michael Gordon of Local 34-627 (Kansas City, MO) has worked hard to promote the value of music in his community through Community Connections. He collaborated with Arts in Prison to produce a series of chamber music concerts for inmates at Lansing Correctional Facility. He’s also a board member of the Northeast Community Center, which operates Harmony Project KC, a tuition-free music education program for underprivileged children.
A panel of peer professionals selected the musicians through a competitive nomination process. The awards include a $2,500 grant for each musician and a $2,500 grant to each musician’s home orchestra to support professional development focused on community service and engagement for musicians.
Sensaphonics celebrates May as Better Hearing Month with 3rd annual Facebook giveaway
Sensaphonics is running a Facebook giveaway contest for the month of May in celebration of Better Hearing Month. The company will award one winner with a pair of classic 2X-S custom in-ear monitors and a dB Check in-ear sound level analyzer.
“Better Hearing Month is the perfect time to show musicians how the right in-ear equipment can deliver amazing, high-impact audio while still supporting long-term hearing health,” says company founder and president, Dr. Michael Santucci. “As our clients know, Sensaphonics is committed to delivering both.”
Known for their dedication to hearing wellness, Sensaphonics designs IEM products that help prevent hearing loss. The 2X-S custom in-ears feature soft silicone earpieces for maximum isolation and comfort. The patented dB Check in-ear level analyzer is the only device that measures actual IEM levels in real time and displays how long one can listen safely at that volume.
Click below to see how you can enter!
Progress for Tyson Food Workers
Tyson Foods pledged last week to build a better workplace for its 95,000 workers. The promise came after a long campaign by hunger-fighting coalition Oxfam America, which challenged four large chicken producers—Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue, and Sanderson Farms—to improve on their worker safety, poverty-level wages, and anti-union attitudes.
Though the other companies have so far refused to engage with the Oxfam-led coalition, Tyson has pledged to: improve worker illness/injury 15% year-over-year; improve company retention by 10%; hire more safety trainers; shorten the time required for new workers to move to higher pay rates; and expand company-wide programs to improve worker health and well-being.
“Tyson Foods’ commitment to worker safety and worker rights shouldn’t just be applauded—it should serve as a model for the rest of the industry,” says United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) president Marc Perrone. UFCW is the largest union at Tyson, representing around 24,000 workers.
Beyond the Red Carpet Demonstrates Importance of Intellectual Property Protections
In April Creative Rights Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Rudy Chu (D-CA) and Doug Collins (R-GA) hosted “Beyond the Red Carpet: Movie & TV Magic Day” to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the creativity, talent, and innovation of the television and film industry that supports two million workers in all 50 states. Chu says she founded the Creative Rights Caucus to give creators a voice in Washington, DC. The event was designed to demonstrate the need to have strong intellectual property protections in the US.
“It is inspiring to see the tremendous innovation of our industry and to understand the positive impact that copyright protections have on those in front of and behind the camera,” says SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris.
Savannah Exhibit Honors Musicians Union Leader
A new exhibit that opened in April in Savannah, Georgia, honors Westley Wallace “W.W.” Law, a prominent Civil Right leader, historian, community leader, and the founder of Savannah’s black musicians union (AFM Local 704). He was known for his large and diverse collection of music. Through the exhibit at the Beach Institute African American Cultural Center, the city hopes to encourage people to discover music they are not familiar with. The exhibit will feature Law’s music, book, periodical, and photograph collections. Interactive components will introduce children to math and science concepts embedded in music.
Letter to Congress Calls for NEA, NEH, CPB Funding
The AFM joined 11 other arts and entertainment groups in sending a letter to Congress opposing President Trump’s elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the privatization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The letter urges Congress to at least maintain current funding for the institutions. It reads, in part:
Ending federal support for the NEA, NEH, and CPB would be radical, unprecedented action that would harm everyday people, particularly individuals who live far from metropolitcan cultural centers. Through grants, seed money, and technical support, the NEA, NEH, and CPB ensure that Americans of all means, geographies, and abilities have access to artistic and educational content. Private money cannot fully replace lost funding from the NEA, NEH, and CPB. Without continued funding for the NEA, NEH, and CPB, we expect the loss of good, middle-class jobs, with the most acute economic pain being felt far from the soundstages of Hollywood and bright lights of Broadway.
Among those joining AFM President Ray Hair in signing the letter were: Actors’ Equity Association President Kate Shindle; AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees President Paul E. Almeida; International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees President Matthew D. Loeb; SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris; and Writers Guild of America, East President Michael Winship.
WGA May Seek Strike Authorization
Writers Guild of America (WGA) resumed contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing broadcast and cable networks and movie studios, on April 10. An initial two weeks of talks in March ended in impasse. If no settlement is reached Guild members will begin voting on authorization to strike April 19.
The current three-year Minimum Basic Agreement expires May 1. This season there are more series than ever, 455, but fewer episodes, with many of the shows having eight to 12 episode seasons, compared to a traditional 22 to 24 episode broadcast series. Because writers are generally paid on a per-episode basis many are earning a fraction of what they did previously.
Hollywood is hoping to avoid a work stoppage like the 100-day strike in 2007, which forced primetime shows to run reruns while many movie projects were put on hold.
Former Nike Worker Calls on Students to Cover Their Logos
In her nationwide United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) tour Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) President Sophorn Yang, a former Nike garment worker, describes the life of an overseas sweatshop worker. She describes how they would pile into trucks traveling long distances and leaving their families behind to work 10 to 14 hours a day for about $150 per month. Employees could be reprimanded for sitting down, yawning, or using the restroom. Despite factory temperatures in excess of 90 degrees they were discouraged from drinking water to lessen the frequency of bathroom breaks. The workers are intimidated from registering with unions. Yang says she was most shocked by the price tag of one Nike sneaker—almost equal to one month’s salary.
The USAS tour is part of a series of student protests organized against Nike for refusing to allow its factories to be inspected by the independent labor rights monitoring organization Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), affiliated with more than 180 colleges and universities. The social media campaign #NikeCoverUpChallege encourages people to cover up their Nike logos just as the corporation has been covering up its mistreatment of workers.
Tax Bill to Spur Georgia’s Music Industry
A bill designed to spur Georgia’s music industry through tax incentives was passed by the Georgia General Assembly at the end of March and is waiting for Governor Nathan Deal to sign off on it. The Georgia Music Investment Act (House Bill 155) could potentially create thousands of new jobs in both recording and film scoring.
Among specific incentives that would begin in 2018: if a touring band holds rehearsals and begins their tours in Georgia, and spend more than $500,000 there; recording projects in Georgia that spend a minimum of $100,000 in one year; and movie and video games recorded in Georgia, spending $250,000 per year would each be eligible for a 15% to 20% tax credit.
“The industry growth stimulated by the proposed tax incentives would create jobs not only for musicians, but for numerous workers and supporting businesses in Atlanta,” says Christina Ottaviano, secretary of Local 148-462 (Atlanta, GA). “In the interest of perpetuating Atlanta’s prominence in the entertainment industry and encouraging artistic and economic development, the Atlanta Federation of Musicians urges the adoption of HB 155.”