FLOBOTS, Lumineers and Nathaniel Rateliff Will Protest at Greenwood Village 7.20.2020

#LIVE MUSIC FOR BLACK LIVES

2020 will be remembered as a time when people from all walks of life engaged in a soul search-searching process and committed to being a part of transformative solutions. We applaud the many public servants who are stepping bravely into a world of higher standards.

Those who are using this time to look for loopholes and insulate against accountability will be an unfortunate footnote, but one we cannot afford to ignore. We call on the Greenwood Village city council to reconsider how they want to be remembered, overturn resolution 40-20 and to take seriously their obligation to represent ALL of their constituents.

The Flobots

To sign the petition click here.

More articles on the event and boycott below.

Westword article Denver Post

DENVER: After the passage by the City of Greenwood Village of Resolution 40-20, an ordinance to shield Greenwood Village Police officers from civil liability for misconduct in response to landmark bipartisan legislation by the Colorado General Assembly to comprehensively reform the relationship between police and the communities they serve, nationally prominent artists with ties to Colorado called on the city to overturn Resolution 40-20 and have pledged not to perform at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater.

Today, artists and fans announced a March and Play-In on Greenwood Village to take place Monday, July 20th.

"We support the Black Lives Matter movement and were so proud to see Colorado lead the nation in implementing police reform last month by passing Senate Bill 217 with a huge bipartisan majority," writes musician Nathaniel Rateliff in a letter to the Mayor and City Council of Greenwood Village, Colorado. "We were appalled last week to learn that the City of Greenwood Village, CO passed a resolution to undermine the applicability of SB20-217 within its community...[t]he new resolution shockingly predetermined all future police abuse as justified to further shield bad officers from enforce- ment mechanisms created within SB20-217. Recently we have discussed plans to play at Fiddler’s Green, we write to you today to publicly announce that we will not play music there until Greenwood Village rescinds its recent resolution permitting police to act without accountability."

Read the full letter from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats to Greenwood Village here.

“Fiddler’s Green is one the largest sales tax generating establishments in Greenwood Village. Artists and fans should not be forced to financially support a City government that has established such racist policies to perform in Colorado or see their favorite artists perform locally. In fact, no one should,” said Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of the Lumineers.

Read the full letter from Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers to Greenwood Village here.

“The passage of Senate Bill 217 in Colorado was a watershed moment for our state in the decades-long struggle for the most basic of civil rights: the right to not be murdered by our own police officers because of the color of our skin,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, one of the prime sponsors of Colorado’s landmark new police accountability law. “Greenwood Village’s terrible decision to short-circuit police accountability means that Black people, and for that matter anyone who comes into contact with their armed municipal security forces, are not safe. As long as Resolution 40-20 is the law in Greenwood Village, it would be dangerously irresponsible to hold, attend, or promote any event at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater located in their city.”

On Monday, July 20, Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Spirit of Grace, Flobots and other recording artists will march with Rep. Leslie Herod, Rep. Meg Froelich, and Sen. Jeff Bridges and people from across Colorado to Greenwood Village City Hall.

WHAT: Wesley Schultz of the Lumineers, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Spirit of Grace, Flobots, and others Play-In & March on Greenwood Village to overturn Resolution 40-20
WHERE: Greenwood Village City Hall, 6060 S Quebec St.
WHEN: Monday, July 20, 2020 7:30PM
HASHTAG: #LiveMusicForBlackLives

FACE MASKS ARE REQUIRED.

https://bit.ly/livemusicforblacklives

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WONDERBOUND CREATES A SHORT DANCE FILM TO Flobots song VOICES OF THE DEAD

We are honored to have our music featured in something both beautiful and powerful. Our friend Garrett Ammon edited, directed, and choreographed this short dance film with the Wonderbound contemporary ballet company to our song “Voices of the Dead”, from our last Album “NOENEMIES”. We love how different artists take our music and interpret it to make something new.

We were bummed when we had to cancel our second run of “DIVISIONS” With Wonderbound this last spring due to Covid-19. There are so many amazing and talented people in the company and their artistic director Garret Ammon and Dawn Fay are very special to us. We hope you enjoy this collaboration and support this incredible group of artists, dancers and performers! Please feel free to share and let us know what you think! Learn more about Wonderbound: https://www.wonderbound.com

Choreography, Direction and Editing by Garrett Ammon

Starring Damien Patterson and Henry Maximilian McCall

Featuring Amanda Bouza, Karina Cardella, William Clayton, Isaac Huerta, Jocelyn Green, Evan Pitts and Morgan Sicklick

Music by Stephen Brackett, James Laurie, Kenny Ortiz, Gabriel Otto, Serafin Sanchez and Adam Stone Performed by Flobots

Filmed by Garrett Ammon, Stephen Blood and Sarah Tallman

Production Assistance by Dawn Fay, Caitlin Goldstein, Eleanor Moriarty, Karalyn Star Pytel and Stephen Stamphl

About Voices of the Dead (From Wonderbound)

On April 14, 2017, Wonderbound and Flobots premiered DIVISIONS featuring music from Flobots’ then forthcoming album, NOENEMIES, and choreography by Artistic Director Garrett Ammon. Wonderbound was in the midst of preparing for the return of DIVISIONS, which was to close the 2019-2020 season, when stay-at-home orders were announced for Colorado. DIVISIONS is an expression of the devastating effects of inequality on communities and individuals, the transformative power of protest, and the remarkable capacity of the human spirit to overcome adversity. It was also a recognition of how much work we still have to do as a nation and as individuals to create a truly equitable, fair and just society.

When the Black Lives Matter movement erupted in the wake of the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, we asked ourselves how Wonderbound could support this movement in the immediate and determined that we would disrupt our regular social media activity from June 1-7 in solidarity with the protests occurring in our community, the nation and around the globe. These posts include images from DIVISIONS as well as quotes of lyrics by Flobots and links to organizations on the front lines of the fight for justice and equality.

We undertook this activity knowing that it is but a small gesture in a very large and growing movement. Ammon asked what Wonderbound could do creatively in response to the moment. He had conversations with the dancers as well as Flobots that ultimately led to this new film. The song Voices of the Dead captures so many of the complex ideas and emotions of the moment we are living in. Much of the choreography is drawn directly from DIVISIONS and then adapted for the camera as well as our current social-distancing reality.

Voices of the Dead was filmed on June 17, 2020.