David Rovics in Limerick

limerick | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Friday February 16, 2007 17:41 by Margaret

David Rovics is playing at the University of Limerick on February 26th.

David Rovics plays the only Limerick gig of his Irish tour in the University of Limerick on February 26th. The event is organised by the UL Environment Society and is open to the public.

Details:
Jean Monnet Lecture Theatre
University of Limerick
Monday February 26th, 8pm
Admission is Free

This article is due to appear in An Focal, the UL student newspaper, advertising the gig.

Peace Poet Of Our Time Comes To UL
In trying to pay attention to what’s going on in the world and in striving to make it a better place, most of us concentrate our efforts on one or two causes. David Rovics, through his music, tackles more social justice issues in a single album or gig than most of us are even aware of. Described as “the peace poet and troubador for our time” by Cindy Sheehan and as “a guy George W. Bush would probably like to clamp in chains at Guantanamo Bay” (Andy Kershaw, BBC Radio 3), David Rovics is a man who has caught the attention of many worldwide.

Born in the 60s in New York, he spent many years performing other people’s songs in the cafes and subways of Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and even London occasionally. On witnessing the violent death of a young friend Rovics’ life changed instantly and he says it opened his eyed “to the kinds of things the majority-world goes through so predictably”, that he suddenly more clearly understood the looks of grief and pain he had seen on the faces of so many of the Central American refugees that lived around him in San Francisco.

So he began to write songs about the issues he saw that created suffering in the world, from a local to global level. Since the mid 90s his songs have taken him around the world many times in a quest to build solidarity and from that, action on the many social issues that motivate him. Among the issues he raises are the death of communities in America as highways and shopping malls replace town centres, the suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation, the global dependence on a dwindling oil supply and the bombing of innocent civilians and torture of prisoners that has become the acceptable face of the “war on terror”. Throw in some songs extolling the virtues of community gardens in inner cities, mentions of people like Hugo Chavez, Paul Wolfowitz and Rachel Corrie, and places such as New Orleans, Falluja, Basra and Jenin and you start to get a sense of the breadth of issues he addresses. His songs have a strong narrative, personalising global issues and seeking to convince the audience that in coming together in solidarity much can be done to improve the fate of the world.

If this all sounds very serious, well it is, but you can be guaranteed that a David Rovics gig is educational, inspirational, laugh-out-loud funny at times and always entertaining.

Rovics comes to UL following anti-war gigs in Dublin and Cork and a Close Guantanamo event in Belfast. The Environmental Society is hosting his visit to UL with a gig on Monday February 26t in the Jean Monnet at 8pm.

Check out www.davidrovics.com for more information and http://www.soundclick.com/davidrovics, where all of Rovics’ 14 albums are available to download for free.