Thanks to everyone who joined together as a community in KEXP's Gathering Space this morning for a Bed-In for Peace. KEXP DJs John Richards and Riz hosted an inspiring hour of music featuring local artists Wimps, Tomo Nakayama, DoNormaal, Grace Love, and Gabriel Teodros, and Sean Nelson led the audience through a moving, modernized rendition of “Give Peace a Chance”, while representatives from fellow non-profits Planned Parenthood, The Vera Project, ACLU of Washington, TeenTix, Gender Justice League, Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, and Office of Arts and Culture all shared the space and offered information about their important work.
For those not familiar, we were inspired by the original Bed-In held March 20, 1969 by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. As the Vietnam War raged, Yoko and John knew their marriage would be a huge press event. So, they held a two-week-long bed in for peace, one at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and one at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, each of which was intended to be non-violent protests against wars, and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace. The idea is derived from a “sit-in”, in which a group of protesters remains seated in front of an establishment until they are evicted, arrested, or their demands are met. One of the things that they also wanted was to treat these serious issues with humor, as to them a “Bed-In” was humorous. Yoko stated “our opposition, whoever they may be, in all manifest forms, don’t know how to handle humor.”
You can now watch this morning's broadcast, which we streamed live on KEXP's Facebook page:
R-Pal is the DJ alias of Seattle's Rachel Kramer. Active on the local DJ scene since first getting behind the decks in 2013, Rachel currently runs a cassette mixtape series called Technodad alongside KEXP's own DJ Sharlese and is a member of Seattle's TUF, a female/non-binary/trans collective based…
Check out some of the KEXP DJ’s favorite artists from the Pacific Northwest and around the world on-the-go. KEXP’s Music That Matters weekly podcast brings you an exclusive mix of new music from the world’s best independent artists.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono were certainly not the only ones singing for peace, and many have and will join them in the decades to come. As KEXP gathers for a Bed-In for Peace in the Gathering Space, starting at 8:00 AM, here on the blog, we've gathered some of our favorite songs about love and unity.…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unrealeased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mi…
