The Newswire : The Memnosyne Institute, and Gua Africa for the Sudanese refugees →

When Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier turned international hip-hop star and peace activist through his founding of Gua Africa, a London based non-profit which provides educational programs for those affected by war and displacement in East Africa offering education to refugees who have survived war and genocide learned about the urgent need to assist Sudanese refugees to flee to South Sudan and Kenya, he immediately began working to connect with others around the globe to help him. Emmanuel Jal, Mary Ann and Joshua had originally committed to intending to bring the first African location of The Memnosyne Institute’s “School Out of A Box” prototype, (the first is in the Yucatan) providing a space for students to pursue online high school and college education via online education, to be located next to where he had built a library for recovering child soldiers.

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Musix : MELANIE WIEGMANN & CARL CARLTON + THE GREAT BAND →

Two people have really sought and found each other. On "Glory Of Love", the musical global player Carl Carlton and singer Melanie Wiegmann do business together both privately and professionally. And their new interpretations of classics by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground sparkle with wit, harmony and passion. How this dream pairing came about, the two tell in the musix interview.

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Dan's Papers : Joan Baez Shares Wisdom at HamptonsFilm SummerDocs Closer (by Bill McCuddy) →

Folk icon and activist Joan Baez is ready for her close-up. At a Hamptons Film Festival’s SummerDocs screening in East Hampton Sunday night, August 13, she was joined by fellow music legend Laurie Anderson and director Karen O’Conner for a packed A-list screening and conversation about Joan Baez I Am A Noise (co-directed by Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle).

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Kait 8 : Rosanne Cash to host Sunken Lands Songwriting Circle →

The Sunken Lands Songwriting Circle will be held in Riceland Hall at the Fowler Center, located at 201 Olympic Drive on Saturday, Aug. 12. This event will be hosted by Rosanne Cash, along with performers Rodney Crowell and Sarah Jarosz. “My father’s music began in the sunken lands in the Arkansas Delta and the gumbo soil stayed with him his entire life. I am excited to return to Arkansas to honor and continue his legacy,” said Cash. “I am especially excited to be joined by Rodney and Sarah, along with John Leventhal. They are masterful songwriters, and I look forward to an unforgettable evening.”

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Deadline : Sarajevo Opening Night: Bono Makes Surprise Appearance As U2 Doc ‘Kiss The Future’ Opens Fest (by Zac Ntim) →

Bono made a surprise appearance at the Sarajevo Film Festival this evening, where he accompanied the crew behind the U2-inspired Bosnian war documentary Kiss The Future, which opened the festival. Bono was joined by his U2 band member The Edge on the red carpet at Bosnia’s National Theatre alongside CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, who also features in the doc, during which she recounts her time as a young reporter covering the Bosnian conflict.

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Harper's Bazaar : 32 Rare Photos of Jane Birkin Through the Years Remembering the inimitable singer and actress (by Brittany Natale) →

Describing Jane Birkin an icon is a given. The British-born actress and singer appeared in countless films, wrote several albums worth of songs, acted on stage, and threw herself in political and social activism. Birkin passed away earlier this year at the age of 76, but she will forever be an inspiration.

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Music in Africa : BIMAs 2023: Angélique Kidjo, Letta Mbulu and PJ Powers to receive Lifetime Achievement awards Ano Shumba's picture (by Ano Shumba) →

African musicians and social activists Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Letta Mbulu (South Africa) and PJ Powers (South Africa) will be honoured with Lifetime Achievement awards at the 2023 Basadi in Music Awards (BIMAs). "I am very honoured to be receiving a Basadi in Music Award from South Africa,” Kidjo, a five-time Grammy Award winner, said. “South Africa has a special place in my heart since I first heard about Miriam Makeba when I was young. She was a role model and then a mentor. It is important to celebrate women in music so that many young singers can be inspired to pursue their dream.”

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American Songwriter : Glen Hansard Announces New Solo Album ‘All That Was East Is West of Me Now’ (by Lorie Liebig) →

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard will share his first new music in four years this fall. His fifth studio album, All That Was East Is West of Me Now, is set for release on October 20 via ANTI Records. The nine-track project was born from five intimate, unpublicized concerts that the Grammy-nominated artist played in his local pub in November 2022. “I told no one. We set up in the corner and played to the locals, some of whom were only half listening,” Hansard says in a statement.

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Smercornish : Joan Baez in Ukraine: A New Voice of Hope July 31, 2023 (by Irwin Redlener) →

UCAP board member Joan Baez & UCAP co-founder Karen Redlener in Warsaw at a program supporting refugee children from war-torn Ukraine [...] "Joan Baez meets dozens of children, mostly 5 to 15 years of age, in the sunshine of a beautiful summer’s day. They sing to her, and Joan sings to the kids. They are dancing and laughing – and finally surround Joan, enveloping her with hugs. An extraordinary moment." Karen Redlener said.

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Interview Jane Birkin - Toast to Freedom →

Throwback on the interviews we did with the #ToastToFreedom artists for Amnesty International..
Here is #JaneBirkin :
"People have far more power if only they know it. I have always believed that if millions of people sent letters that chockablock the front doors of some ministers, some presidents, and just by the sheer weight of the letters, of the appeals, then they would have to look."

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This year's "Blues-Louis" award at the Lahnstein Blues Festival goes to: CARL CARLTON →

As part of the festival, the renowned Lahnstein Blues Prize, the “Blues-Louis”, which has been awarded since 1997, will this year be awarded to guitarist, singer and composer Carl Carlton. "For decades he has been the most popular German blues guitarist, both nationally and internationally," the organizers explain.

The laudatory speech will be given by the author, moderator and music journalist Volker Rebell.

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Melanie Wiegmann & Carl Carlton - Glory of Love Tour 2023 →

Word is out, tickets are out: Melanie Wiegmann & Carl Carlton - Glory of Love Tour 2023.
13 cities across Germany, from November to December 2023. Don’t miss your spot.

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Deadline : Jane Birkin Dominates Front Pages As France Mourns Death Of British Actress & Singer; President Declares Her A French Icon (by Melanie Goodfellow) →

Jane Birkin graced the front pages of most French newspapers on Monday as France mourned the death of the late British actress and singer who enjoyed icon status in the country that she had called home since the late 1960s. “Our tears can’t change anything,” proclaimed Le Parisien newspaper, which first broke the news of Birkin’s death at the age of 76 on Sunday. Libération ran with the simple headline “Without Jane”, while regional newspaper Le Maine Libre referred to the late actress as “The Eternal English Bride of France”.

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Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76 →

Rest in peace, Jane Birkin. We were so honoured to have you part of Amnesty’s Toast to Freedom.

“France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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New York Times : Jane Birkin, Singer, Actress and Fashion Inspiration, Dies at 76 (by Constant Méheut and Alex Traub) →

Ms. Birkin released “Oh! Pardon tu dormais…,” her first album of her own songs written in English, in 2021. “The results are an emotional tour de force from an artist who has never gotten her musical due outside of France,” the music writer Ben Cardew wrote in a review for Pitchfork. Ms. Birkin also continued to act, including in films by Agnès Varda and plays by Patrice Chéreau. She was also popular in France as an activist for women’s and L.G.B.T.Q. rights as well as for her British accent when speaking French, which the French found endearing. “The most Parisian of the English has left us,” the mayor of Paris wrote.

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Lithub : More Than Just A Pretty Face: On the Multifaceted Marianne Faithfull (by Elizabeth Winder) →

Marianne planned to be known, but a pop princess career was the last thing on her mind. She’d be an artist of some kind—she’d go to Cambridge, or the Royal Academy of Music to continue classical singing. She idolized the young Vanessa Redgrave, who once came to talk to Marianne’s theater group. Perhaps Marianne would also play Rosalind, or Imogen in Cymbeline, or even sing Tosca in Covent Garden. Awake long in the night in her convent room, she bent over her workbook, filling page after page of potential stage names, pen names, fantasy names. In time she would realize her real name was her own.

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CNN / Folk legend Joan Baez helps Ukrainian children displaced by war →

Singer and activist Joan Baez tells CNN's John Vause about her work with the Ukraine Children's Action Project, which helps kids who have been affected by the war.

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Musix : Melanie Wiegmann & Carl Carlton veröffentlichen gemeinsames Album "Glory Of Love" am 01.09.2023 →

The recordings of the altogether 15 songs were made in the course of the last three years, when the music world more or less came to a standstill, in Berlin, Ireland and Malta and are stylistically most likely to be placed in the genre term "Americana". [...] With "Glory Of Love" a warm-hearted musical diary has been created, which convinces with its idiosyncratic song selection, unpretentious arrangements and natural charm. Perhaps the most beautiful surprise: Here not only two souls have found each other, but also two wonderfully harmonizing voices.

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Far Out Magazine : Bono to raise funds for Ukraine with limited-edition merch (by Joe Taysom) →

U2 frontman Bono has created a range of limited-edition merchandise to raise money for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Earlier this year, the singer created an illustration of President Zelenskyy which he painted on a backdrop of yellow and blue, celebrating Ukraine’s flag. It also features the following quote from Zelenskyy: “The choice is between freedom and fear.” The image and quote are now available to purchase across a set of five items with funds going to UNITED24, who will use the money to buy ambulances.

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Rolling Stone : Christine and the Queens on Expanding His Voice and Making Art Accessible to Everyone (by Kory Grow) →

When Christine and the Queens, the progressive French pop artist who also goes by “Chris,” decided he wanted Madonna to voice the narrator on his ambitious, new three-act pop opera, Paranoïa, Angels, True Love, he had to think fast. Now with the magnum opus finally coming out — the end of his “quest” (a word he uses frequently) — Chris tells Rolling Stone he’s just now learning what Paranoïa, Angels, True Love means to him. He also explains how presenting a large-scale dramatic work has informed his vision of the future.

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