DJ Cassidy and Emmanuel Jal rock 'Witness' Gala
Posted: Oct 29, 2012 by OJ Williams
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This month, human rights organization Witness celebrated 20 years of collaborative activism with musicians, celebrities and human rights supporters at its 8th Annual Focus for Change Benefit held at the Roseland Ballroom. Hosted by award winning actor Alan Cumming, the evening kicked off with a journey – taking guests back in time 20 years to look at how the organization and its partners have used video in human rights campaigns over the years. “I am proud to support WITNESS,” said Alan Cumming. “Having worked in film for over 25 years, it’s inspiring to see examples of how video has been used successfully in the struggle to protect human rights.”
Music legend and Witness co-founder Peter Gabriel, in between stops on his Back to Front tour, performed. “WITNESS became a vision for me after the Human Rights Now! Tour back in 1988. I traveled with Amnesty International and met brave human rights defenders who suffered grave abuses. I documented their testimonies with my own handheld video camera in the hopes that their stories would not be buried or forgotten,” said Peter Gabriel. “20 years later, WITNESS is now as important as ever, helping people use video to tell their stories and giving them access to strategies and tools to create meaningful change.”
Other musicians who performed to show support for the WITNESS-led Video for Change era were Canadian singer-songwriter and Grammy nominee Feist, DJ Cassidy and South Sudanese musician and former war child turned peace soldier, Emmanuel Jal.
We spoke with Feist on the red carpet and she said that one of her favorite rappers is Nas, but she an even bigger fan of his father jazz musician Olu Dara.
Posted In: Parties, witness, peter gabriel, dj cassidy, emmanuel jal, feist
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