Rise Up! Action Band travels all the way from Seattle, WA. The band is one of the few Pacific Northwest political street bands. They formed in January 2016. Rise Up! Action Band brings emotion, empowerment, validation, and solidarity for spoken and unspoken voices. They do this by gathering together to play music and create artistic spectacle at political events. Rise Up! Action Band performs songs with overt political messages. They love performing and bringing energy to any crowd!

Our band’s mission statement reads:
“We, Rise Up! Action Band, bring emotion, empowerment, validation, and solidarity for spoken and unspoken voices. We do this by gathering together to play music and create artistic spectacle at political events.” We formed in January 2016 in the wake of political change. Since then we have performed in more than 30 different protests, rallies, benefit fundraisers, and other political events.

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Rise Up! Action Band formed to help bring music to the political movements and actions happening in the Pacific Northwest. We have found that our music brings solidarity, energy, and a rally-cry to any event. Our band looks forward to sharing what we have learned as well as explore and grow from other political and street bands present at the festival. We are one of the main protest bands in Western Washington. The songs we select convey political messages. We think we can show the east coast that the west coast is also fighting and making noise for what we think is right. We contribute a huge amount of energy to any performance situation and we love playing music together.

Within our one year life we have:
Marched and performed at the Womxen’s March of Seattle.
Marched and performed at in the Martin Luther King Parade of Seattle.
Performed at two budget hearing meetings (on rent control and stopping sweeps of homeless encampments) for Kshama Sawant, a local socialist progressive politician.
Performed at Seattle’s Science March.
Marched and performed for Net Neutrality defense in Seattle.
Performed at two fundraisers for Seattle 350, a climate change action group.
Performed to defended DACA and Dreamers in a march.
Helped gather a crowd to get signatures on a state initiative that would require Washington police officers to learn de-escalation techniques.
These are just a few examples of the many activities we have participated in!

Rise Up! Action Band strives to support an open and accessible environment. We have an open membership policy. Our band includes people of different genders, identities, races, abilities, and musical skill levels. We invite audiences to join us at protests and rallies! We can continue to improve on the diversity of our band and are working on how to incorporate more diversity through things like rehearsal locations, where we perform, and more.

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