I’m very happy to be a part of this important event, to support my friend Sarah Shourd’s work to free her fiancee Shane, and their friend Josh from prison in Tehran. Headlining will be guitar god Tom Morello, the Nightwatchman also from Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/Streetseeper Social Club. Slightly less famous, but no less brilliant will be performances from Jolie Holland, Jason Webley, Ryan Harvey, Lia Rose and Ananda Esteva. I’ll co-emcee with Sarah and throwdown a brief poem for the occasion. There may be an extra special surprise guest, who I won’t name. (Hint: Named after a certain garment of clothing that will one day walk all over you.)
Recently, I’ve had some good dialogue with people about the importance of freeing the Hikers. They point out that with so many people in prison for jacked-up reasons, it seems strange to put so much energy into these three. My answer is that Sarah, Shane and Josh are exactly the people who fight for other’s freedom, and we need them here with us doing that. They are also simply our friends and community members. I, for one, do not want to attend a 10, 20, or 30 year vigil for their freedom. I want them out now. It’s not about white privlege. It’s about having your friend’s back in a time of need.
The capacity at Bottom of the Hill is 350 and it looks like nearly 150 tickets have already been sold! We really want everyone who wants to be there to get in, I encourage you to buy tickets now as it will sell out soon: http://www.stubmatic.com/bottomofthehill/event/6442
They Sing These Songs in Prison: A Benefit to Support Freed Hiker Sarah Shourd’s work in the campaign to Free Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal from Prison in Iran
Jolie Holland/Tom Morello/Jason Webley/Ryan Harvey/Lia Rose MCed by poet James Tracy and freed prisoner Sarah Shourd Poetry from Ananda Esteva
Bottom of the Hill 1233 17th Street San Francisco, CA 94107 February 10th, Thursday, $12-18
