The Plugged In Teen Band Program

presents a benefit concert for "Keep A Child Alive," an organization dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world. (www.keepachildalive.org)

Featuring the 17 Plugged In teen bands as Well As
Chad Stokes of State Radio and Dispatch.

Sunday, January 14th, 2007 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM

General Admission Tickets:

$16.50 for students

$21.50 for adults

(prices include $1.50 restoration fee)

Plugged In is a non-profit teen rock band program in the Boston area that teaches kids how to be in rock bands and also, more importantly, about the importance of giving back to the community.  Twice a year, we have benefit concerts and the students vote to choose the charitable organization for which the concert will raise money.  Plugged In is about bringing young people together through music, teaching them the importance of using their music to make positive change in the world, and helping them gain self-confidence. Our goal with Plugged In is to have the charitable aspect of the program be so meaningful for our students that they will continue using their music to help others throughout their lives. Our website is www.pluggedinband.org. 

For this concert, our students chose to raise money for Keep A Child Alive, a charity dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment to children and their families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the developing world (www.keepachildalive.org). Plugged In students will also be participating in a 1-day workshop at which they will hear a presentation from a representative of Keep A Child Alive and view “Living With Slim,” a documentary film in which seven African children, ranging in age from 6 to 17 years old, talk about what it’s like to be HIV positive. In the second half of the day, students will participate in a song-writing workshop and together write a song about this important subject. The students will have the opportunity to record the song, perform it at the January 14th concert, and sell CDs at the concert to help raise more money for Keep A Child Alive. We are also in contact with Project: Think Different (PTD), an organization in Boston that uses music, film and video to empower people to think differently about their ability to change the world. PTD recently produced (2) 5-minute documentaries on two teenagers in Boston who are living with HIV. The documentaries aired on MTV. We have asked if the filmmakers and subjects of film would be interested in attending workshop, as well.

Our January 2006 concert raised $3,000 for the Elias Fund (www.eliasfund.org), started by the band, Dispatch, to provide hope and opportunity through education to the next generation of Zimbabwean youth. The funds from that concert were used to pay for four years of college tuition for a young Zimbabwean student. The concert featured the Plugged In students, as well as Chad Urmston from the band, Dispatch, and Zimbabwean music legend, Thomas Mapfumo. The day after the concert, on Martin Luther King day, Plugged In hosted a get together for all the students, along with Chad and Thomas. The students had a chance to hear about how Thomas Mapfumo used music to elicit social change in his country, as well as learn about the history of Zimbabwe, the current situation, and ideas for bringing about change. We made some wonderful contacts in Zimbabwe while producing the concert. Through these contacts, we connected with Bongo Love, a young band from Zimbabwe, that had just won the Music Crossroads Southern Africa competition. They stayed with us for two weeks this past October on their way to the ACP festival in the Dominican Republic and performed with our students, as well as at various venues in the Boston area. It was a great opportunity for our students and for Bongo Love to learn about different cultures. For many of our students, the experience of meeting the band members of Bongo Love was a life changing experience.

Past Plugged In concerts have raised money for Amnesty International, Seeds of Peace, a camp where Arab and Jewish teenagers come together and learn conflict resolution skills and learn to develop trust and empathy for one another, I Love Music Foundation, started by Walter McCarty of the Boston Celtics to promote music opportunities, resources and education for Boston youth, the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, and Music For Relief, an organization started by Linkin Park in partnership with Unicef and Habitat for Humanity, working to provide aid for those affected by the Tsunami tragedy in South Asia.

For more information on Plugged In and the upcoming January 14th concert, please contact Sandra at 781-956-4281 or srizkallah@comcast.net.

ABOUT CHAD STOKES

Two years ago, Chad Stokes set out to create a band with a unique sound and inspiring message. Chad Stokes, Chuck Fay, and Brian Sayers have ingrained the ideals of progressive politics with their infectious blend of rock, punk, and reggae beats.

Stokes has long remained true to his artistic ideals and political leanings. Raised in a free-spirited household with values grounded in equality and individuality, Stokes, lead singer and guitarist of State Radio, is a natural activist eager to spread his message through music. While growing up as part of a large musical family on a farm in the small town of Sherborn, MA, Stokes realized his goals stretched beyond local borders. After taking time off after high school to live in Zimbabwe, Stokes enrolled at Middlebury College in Vermont and along with two friends, formed his first band, Dispatch.  Over eight years Dispatch became a phenomenon in the world of independent music and grassroots marketing and went on to sell over 400,000 copies of their independently released albums.

But Dispatch was only part of the story. During that time, Stokes went on to create the documentary, How’s Your News?, with novelist Arthur Bradford. The film, financed by South Park’s creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, chronicles disabled individuals conducting man-on-the-street interviews in an original and often humorous way.  How’s Your News? went on to play at major international film festivals and was later distributed by HBO/Cinemax.  Most recently, the HYN team has finished a soon-to-be-released DVD on the 2004 presidential campaign , where the undaunted reporters traveled to the Democratic and Republican conventions to conduct wonderfully candid interviews with:  Sen. Hilary Clinton, Sen. John McCain, Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich, Peter Jennings, Larry King, Michael Moore, Ben Affleck, Andre 3000, and many, many more.

After Dispatch’s amicable split in 2003, Stokes enlisted Philadelphia native Chuck Fay, previously of the Philadelphia hip-hop collective Princes of Babylon.  In search of a drummer, Stokes and Fay discovered Brian Sayers, a shining star in Boston’s fledging underground reggae scene, to fill out the band's lineup. 

With the final piece in place, and in marked contrast with the vindictive tropes of political rock of the past, State Radio seeks not to condemn those responsible for society’s wrongdoings, but rather to focus on the positive and potential of the future.  And with standout tracks catchy enough to compel listeners on their own, the band’s musical mission is well within reach.  “We write what we feel,” Stokes says, “and often, I won’t deal with songs that are too self-serving. I don’t think my stance is any more important than the next guy’s, but I do feel that, with State Radio, we have an opportunity to create some awareness and get some change in this country. We need it in a big way.”  

In each and every town State Radio has played to date, their socially conscientious message has been well received.  In the fall of 2004 alone, the band played more than 35 concerts in various swing states leading up to the November 2nd election.  Although the popularity of the music is what brought out most fans, listeners left the venues imbued with the importance of registering to vote and showing up at the polls. 

On the road during the 2004 election time, Stokes became familiar with the story of a conscientious objector, Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia of the Florida National Guard, who was imprisoned for refusing to return to Iraq.  Stokes immediately sought to support the soldier’s right to not fight in an unjust and unnecessary war—a war with no end in sight that continues to take countless lives.  The product of his support is the powerful song, Camilo, named after its inspirational subject.

Even though Mejia was released from prison on February 15, 2005, State Radio will release the song on the band’s upcoming album, Us Against the Crown, to bring the issue of conscientious objection to light.   The songs on the album are stories that deal with subject matter from the rights of the elderly and the disabled, Mr. Larkin and Right Me Up, to the struggles of the lower class, Riddle in Londontown, The Waitress and Rushian.

Since its inception, State Radio has played hundreds of concerts across the country with various acts such as Ozomatli, The Wailers, Donavon Frankenreiter, Matisyahu, G. Love & Special Sauce, OAR, John Butler Trio, Xavier Rudd, Slightly Stoopid and many others.  Their dedication to touring is paying dividends with acclaim from a national fanbase, and with the release of their upcoming album, State Radio is primed to take their act to the next level.  The path now lies ahead of the band, but rest assured that State Radio will blaze their own trail to the future of socially conscious music.

About Leigh Blake, Founder of KCA

For more than 30 years, Leigh Blake has been an advocate, harbinger and creator of the arts – from music and film, to fashion and the visual arts.

As a child growing up in England, Leigh’s first glimpse of the Beatles changed her life forever. “I remember a day when I was about 11 and playing on the floor with my dolls and I saw the Beatles on TV,” says Blake. “I took one look at Paul McCartney, put those dolls down and never played with them again. My focus became to meet them and be involved in that world. Plus, music was the way for a working class cockney like me to be a somebody in the England I grew up in. Of course I did meet them and there began my rock and roll life.”

In her 20’s, Blake befriended the Talking Heads on one of their tours of the U.K. As a fan and friend, Blake helped market the band in England, and eventually in 1976, moved to America to continue to stump for the band and to satiate a fascination with Warhol, the Kennedys and the great American moviemakers of the 70’s.

In 1986, her film career started in earnest as a producer on a short film on the legendary highway Route 66, directed by cinematographer Ed Lachman, and made for Lindsay Law’s PBS series “Imagining America.” The film was very well reviewed and Leigh returned to England flush with experience to head up the music video division at the legendary Palace Pictures, working with Nik Powell, Stephen Woolley and Joanne Sellar. Many of the video directors Leigh discovered there have gone on to make feature films including Mark Pellington, among others. Many years later and back in America, Leigh would go on to co-develop Larry Clark’s controversial first feature “Kids” with Gus van Sant.

While her creative career was thriving, a surging epidemic was starting to gravely affect Leigh’s peers in the arts. The epidemic was AIDS and Leigh would not sit by. She turned her creative prowess to making a difference and co-founded the Red Hot Organization, the seminal music industry initiative that raised funds for HIV/AIDS research and education by bringing together top artists such as David Byrne, Madonna, U2, k.d. lang, Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Jonathan Demme, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and many others to collaborate on music and television productions. Leigh produced the first Red Hot projects “Red Hot + Blue” and “Red Hot + Dance” from Palace Pictures in London. “Red Hot + Blue” was a triumph as the first AIDS benefit produced through the music industry. It was seen in more than 60 countries, raised over $6 million and was nominated for an Emmy. “Red Hot + Dance” was an award-winning critical and commercial success as well, and both projects woke up the world. In fact, to this day, fans come up to Leigh to say “Red Hot + Blue’ saved my life.”

In 1991 Leigh became more involved with Africa both personally and professionally. She married music video and commercials director Earle Sebastian, a native South African from Durban. Her experience with the Red Hot organization and her travels in Africa, led Leigh to create, and serve as Executive Director of, Artists Against AIDS Worldwide (AAAW), an organization dedicated to the eradication of AIDS in Africa. In 2000, for AAAW’s first project, Leigh conceived a campaign that featured a star-studded remake of Marvin Gaye’s classic song “What's Going On” at its cornerstone. Urged on by her Co-Executive Producer and dear friend Bono, more than 40 artists including Destiny's Child, Fred Durst, Nona Gaye, Alicia Keys, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly, Nelly Furtado, Nas, Diddy, ?uestlove, Britney Spears, Staind, Wyclef Jean, Eve, Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera signed on for the remake of the song, as well as participate in a “making of” documentary of the project made in conjunction with Executive Producers Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks and their company, Playtone. AAAW and “What’s Goin On” were hugely influential in bringing global awareness to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the timing of the song’s release had an ancillary benefit as a comfort to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, as the powerful, emotional lyrics resonated with victim’s loved ones the world over.

“Although I had been an active member of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain, I thought after the abolition of apartheid that South Africa would be free of its ills. But along came AIDS to that country and indeed the whole continent, and I realized how much more work was still to be done. South Africa was the epicenter of the epidemic in Africa and seeing the pain of the people struggling to cope with the ravages of AIDS spurred me on,” remarks Blake.

In 2001, with money she garnered from her work with Red Hot + Blue, Leigh began the building of a clinic in Kenya, which, under the guidance of Dr. Shaffiq Essajee at New York University Medical Centre, is a model for many Leigh wants to build all over Africa.

One day in the clinic a woman named Anne brought her child Brine, for medical care. He was extremely sick and clearly was not going to survive. Anne refused to leave the clinic until she received the “drugs that you have in America for your children.” This was a eureka moment for Leigh and the day that she would recognize her calling. Leigh told Anne to go home, that she would pay for the drugs, knowing that if it happened to her son, she would have done the same. The idea for her next initiative, Keep A Child Alive, was born at that moment but it took a while to get it realized.

In 2003 Leigh officially founded Keep A Child Alive, (KCA) which provides vitally needed anti retroviral medicine to children and families with AIDS in the developing world. (www.keepachildalive.org) She created Keep A Child Alive as the Ipod of charity, reinventing and modernizing the old fashioned model of charitable organizations to create a new movement to save lives in emergency mode. “I learned from my time at Red Hot that you have to stay true to your style,” says Blake. “As Red Hot got bigger, it got diluted and didn’t have the edge that it once had. That is why Keep A Child Alive remains a modern version of the charitable response to AIDS and will always feel in your face, irreverent and ever changing.”

Since its inception KCA has worked with the amazing nine-time Grammy winner, Alicia Keys, who is a co creator of the organization. KCA also counts Iman as a Global Ambassador for the organization. Iman is spearheading a new awareness campaign “I Am African” which will be unveiled in Fall 2006 and includes David Bowie, Sting, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler, Lucy Liu, Richard Gere and many others as participants.

To date, Keep A Child Alive has helped more than 3,000 adults and children obtain life saving HIV/AIDS medication or regular, ongoing HIV care and testing. Keep A Child Alive also provides pediatric expertise and nutritional grants to affected areas. KCA is also in the process of building an Orphanage and a major continuum of care clinic in South Africa, having scaled up many others in Africa.

“My short term goal for the organization is to provide treatment to as many people with AIDS as possible and to build more support for what we do. But long term, I hope that there will cease to be a need for our services, because the promises of universal access to AIDS treatment will be met by the G8, the United Nations, and others. Until such time, we will continue our work with vigor, passion and compassion 24/7,” says Blake.

Leigh Blake currently resides in New York City with her seven year old son. She considers humanitarian service the best Prozac in the world!

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