THE TOUR
We The Planet is a series of festivals, college presentations, and community events of consciousness, activism, and music. We The Planet travelled the West Coast from September 11-14, the Midwest and Northeast from September 15-October 4, and Southern California on November 8 and 9 in order to make people participate in a dynamic discussion, hear some great music, meet leading activists in the community, and get everyday solutions we can use live in a world full of solutions to the problems we have.
TRACY CHAPMAN SCHEDULE
Tracy Chapman gave a 20- to 30-minute acoustic performance on those following dates:
– Tuesday Sept 23, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti (near Detroit) @ Pease Auditorium
– Wednesday Sept 24, Northern Illinois University @ CarlSandburg Auditorium
– Thursday Sept 25, University Of St Thomas @ OEC Auditorium
– Saturday, Sept 27, De Paul University, Chicago IL
– Sunday, Sept 28, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
PRESS
- Circle of Life Presents: We The Planet, A Nationwide Tour of Activism, Discussion & Music
DATES BEGIN SEPTEMBER 11 IN BOULDER, COLORADO
Tracy Chapman, Alicia Silverstone, Alice Walker, Woody Harrelson & more sign on.
Series, sponsored by CLIF Bar, addresses everyday solutions to global problems.
Julia Butterfly Hill, Tracy Chapman, Alicia Silverstone, Patch Adams, Alice Walker, Woody Harrelson, Concrete Blonde front-woman Johnette Napolitano, Howard Lyman, Ben Taylor, raw foodist Renee Underkoffer confirmed members of rotating lineup.
Traveling the U.S. in a bus powered solely by vegetable oil and bio diesel fuel, We the Planet will launch September 11 in Boulder, Colorado, and hit college campuses and communities across the U.S. through November 9. The discussion-oriented tour, which also features short acoustic performances, features a rotating lineup of world-renowned activists, celebrities and musicians. The tour builds on the success of the groundbreaking eco-friendly We The Planet launch festival that attracted 10,000 fans in San Francisco last April.
We the Planet is a project of best selling author and activist Julia Butterfly Hill’s Circle ofLife not-for-profit organization, and is produced by activism marketing company The Spitfire Agency . The tour’s mission is to “redefine cool” and most of the events are free to the public. Julia Butterfly comments “We all know we live in a world full of problems, We The Planet will show that we also live in a world full of solutions. Come participate in a dynamic discussion, hear some great music, meet leading activists in your community, and get everyday solutions you can use.”
We The Planet’s on stage discussions will cover global issues in the context of local communities, emphasizing the seemingly small but incredibly influential things each attendee can do to improve the condition of today’s world. The tour is itself an example of such day-to-day decisions, traveling from town to town in a bus powered entirely by vegetable oil & bio diesel. In addition, the food will be vegan/organic, and much of the tour’s promotional material and tickets will be printed on tree-free and recycled paper, courtesy of Living Tree Paper Company (www.livingtreepaper.com).
We The Planet speakers will be joined on stage by two locals per city, and will also feature local organizations who share the goals of Circle of Life. In addition to the college campus performances, We The Planet will also make a number of stops aimed at supporting specific community initiatives and generating visibility and funds for key local issues. Locations for these stops will include sustainability festivals, conventions, political hot spots, and Native American reservations and sacred lands. To apply to host a community stop on the tour, please go to www.wetheplanet.org.
We The Planet will travel the West Coast from September 11-14, the Midwest and Northeast from September 15-October 4, and Southern California on November 8 and 9. For updated information, visit www.wetheplanet.org regularly.
We The Planet is sponsored by CLIF Bar, the first major energy bar to receive organic certification. All 13 flavors are now made from at least 70% organic ingredients. The tour is also supported nationally by Mother Jones Magazine, Rock the Vote, and Bitch Magazine.
In April, 2003, We the Planet hosted a wildly successful day-long concert event in San Francisco, featuring De La Soul, Cake, Alanis Morissette, Flea and many more. Attended by some 10,000 fans, the concert left virtually zero waste and was powered by bio-diesel fuel generators ands solar panels, without using any of the city’s electric power.
About Circle of Life: In 1999, Julia Butterfly Hill founded the Circle of Life (“COL”), while living in a 200 foot tall, 1,000 year old redwood tree named Luna. Julia Butterfly Hills historic tree-sit gave national and international attention to the plight of the old growth redwoods. From those roots, Circle of Life continues to provide a spiritually grounded, enthusiastic voice to a new generation of activism. By leveraging Julia Butterfly Hill’s widely accessible and deeply spiritual message, COL has reached out to millions of individuals, organizations, and political candidates, many of whom would not otherwise be drawn to environmental issues at all. It is Julia’s leadership, spirit and vision, coupled with COL’s networking and action support capacity that has given birth to countless new allies in our movement. For more information please visit www.circleoflife.org.
About The Spitfire Agency: The Spitfire Agency is a full service production, promotion & marketing agency dedicated to progressive ideas, non profits, responsible businesses, and other activist related ventures. In addition to We The Planet, The Spitfire Agency is behind the Indigo Girls Honor The Earth tour, Woody Harrelson’s Simple Organic Living Tour, and the flagship Spitfire Tour. For more information please visit www.spitfireagency.com.
For more information contact Paula Witt (pwitt@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media – 718.522.7171
- We The Planet Goes On A Road Trip – IGN Music, August 06, 2003
A Nationwide Tour of Activism, Discussion & Music.
The organizers of the wildly successful We the Planet Festival, which was held in San Francisco this past April and attracted more than 10,000 people, are taking the spirit of the event on the road!
Tracy Chapman, Alicia Silverstone, Alice Walker, Woody Harrelson & more have signed on to participate in a nationwide tour of activism, discussion & music. The series of concerts are being sponsored by CLIF Bar and will address everyday solutions to global problems.
To date Julia Butterfly Hill, Tracy Chapman, Alicia Silverstone, Patch Adams,Alice Walker, Woody Harrelson, Concrete Blonde front-woman Johnette Napolitano,
singer/songwriter Michelle Shocked, Howard Lyman, Ben Taylor, raw foodist Renee Underkoffer have all confirmed their participation in what will become a rotating lineup.
These performers and activists are set to travel the U.S. in a bus powered solely by vegetable oil and bio
diesel fuel.
The We the Planet will launch on September 11 in Boulder, Colorado, and hit college campuses and communities across the U.S. through November 9.
The discussion-oriented tour, which also features short acoustic performances, features a rotating lineup of world-renowned activists, celebrities and musicians, building upon the success of the groundbreaking eco-friendly We The Planet launch festival that took over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in April.
We The Planet’s on stage discussions will cover global issues in the context of local communities, emphasizing the seemingly small but incredibly influential things each attendee can do to improve the condition of today’s world. The tour is itself an example of such day-to-day decisions, traveling from town to town in a bus powered entirely by vegetable oil & bio diesel. In addition, the food will be vegan/organic, and much of the tour’s promotional material and tickets will be printed on tree-free and recycled paper, courtesy of Living Tree Paper Company (www.livingtreepaper.com).
We The Planet speakers will be joined on stage by two locals per city, and will also feature local organizations who share the goals of Circle of Life. In addition to the college campus performances, We The Planet will also make a number of stops aimed at supporting specific community initiatives and generating visibility and funds for key local issues. Locations for these stops will include sustainability festivals, conventions, political hot spots, and Native American reservations and sacred lands. To apply to host a community stop on the tour, please go to www.wetheplanet.org.
We The Planet will travel the West Coast from September 11-14, the Midwest and Northeast from September 15-October 4, and Southern California on November 8 and 9. For updated information, visit wetheplanet.org.
- We the Planet Tour launches – By Wendy Kale, Colorado Daily, September 11, 2003
If you’re going to host an environmentally conscious tour, it makes sense to start it in Boulder. Boulder’s gone green this week, and we’re not talking cash flow. Last Sunday KBCO radio premiered Neil Young’s new activist-friendly, environmental music film “Greendale” at the Boulder Theatre, and Friday the We the Planet tour starts its fall road trip right here on the CU campus.
The brainchild of treesitter/author Julia Butterfly Hill, the tour is a spin-off of the activist’s Circle of Life organization. Fusing together some of the best-known, pro-environmental actors and musicians in the country, this cadre will be rolling into town in a bio-fueled bus to raise funds and visibility for key environmental and local issues.
The Boulder event will take place at CU, and Hill will be joined by outspoken actor/activist Woody Harrelson and Concrete Blonde frontwoman Johnette Napolitano. Other stops on the We The Planet tour will be featuring musicians Tracy Chapman, Michael Franti of Spearhead, actress Alicia Silverstone, and political activist Winona La Duke. The tour’s April 20 festival show in San Francisco featured Alanis Morissette, Cake, Bonnie Raitt, De La Soul, and Concrete Blonde.
Boulder’s all-day event will start out with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Bartkus Oil (3501 Pearl St), the region’s first biodiesel station, and then proceed to the CU campus. A Biodiesel Rally will be held at the UMC Fountain at noon and speakers will include Harrelson, Hill, and Boulder Mayor Will Toor.
The “green day” will culminate at the UMC Ballroom Friday night, where Hill and Harrelson will speak and Napolitano will perform a short acoustic set.
A veteran of the spring We The Planet tour, Napolitano is used to living off the grid and supporting the environment. Napolitano recently moved herself and the reunited Concrete Blonde band to the desert outside of Joshua Park National Monument.
“We’re living in a real desert now,” said Napolitano. “For the last ten years I had every intention of taking myself off ‘the grid’ and moving to the desert. I specifically bought land that had Joshua trees on it, so no one would be able to cut them down. There’s one moth that needs the flower of the Joshua tree to be able to procreate and survive – and that’s a perfect example of co-evolution on the planet. That’s just amazing to me and I marvel it at.”
When Napolitano isn’t living her scaled-down lifestyle, she is busy working with her band. Originally known as Dream 6, the band originated out of L.A.’s post-punk era of the late ’80s. In a time when groups like X, the Go-Go’s, and Wall of Voodoo were emerging, Concrete Blonde became known for its brooding, bittersweet songs and Napolitano’s emotive vocals.
The group hit its stride when the single “Joey” became the number nineteen single in the country in 1990. However, the group decided to take a hiatus in the mid-’90s. The band re-grouped a few years back and released the CD “Group Therapy.”
Earlier this year, the group released the CD “Live In Brazil,” a CD that captures the Blonde’s love affair with playing South America, and Napolitano and the band are in the process of recording a new project.
“Living in the desert has definitely freed us up as a band,” admitted Napolitano. “It’s relaxed out here, and got us into playing more psychedelic, Pink Floyd-style music. It’s given our music this Carlos Castenada quality. Living in the desert dissolves your boundaries.”
In addition, Napolitano and Nine Inch Nails bassist/guitarist/keyboardist Danny Lohner just recorded a tune for the new movie “Underworld” that will hit theaters September 19.
However, Napolitano is putting everything on hold to perform on the We the Planet tour. The musician is adamant about her environmental beliefs.
“People who don’t care about the environment or animals are missing a gene in my opinion. It’s just common sense to understand your place in the universe. We’re losing the battle for the environment every day, and the fact that some people can sit back while global warming is taking place is very surreal,” said Napolitano.
Frustrated with what she was seeing, Napolitano decided to take positive action and join the band of environmentalists on the tour.
“We’re visiting a lot of college campuses and it’s important to expose the kids to this. But I’ve really been the student on this tour, as I’m learning more about this issue. I believe that when we get to the point that there’s a balance in nature, that we will all improve the quality of our lives. If I even get one person in Boulder to get involved – that’s the point,” said Napolitano.
In the meantime, Napolitano hopes to do more tours with We the Planet, finish the new Concrete Blonde record, and study her beloved flamenco dancing in the desert. The singer says that the Spanish dance mode is a truly an “off the grid” form of entertainment.
“It’s time to get out there and do some positive things, and not get played against each other. This tour is positive because it gives people the chance to organize and focus in a positive direction. This shit has to happen now, before we get into another election,” said Napolitano.
- Tracy Chapman will be part of ‘We the Planet’ program here Sept. 25 – By: Bulletin News @ University of St. Thomas, Minnesota USA, Friday, September 12, 2003
We the Planet, described as “a nationwide tour of activism, discussion and music,” will make a stop at the University of St. Thomas later this month as part of its fall tour of U.S. campuses and communities.
The discussion-oriented program, which examines “everyday solutions to global problems,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center. Doors to the auditorium will open at 7 p.m.
Tracy Chapman
As it travels throughout the country, the program features a rotating lineup of activists, celebrities and musicians. During its stop at St. Thomas, the program will feature a 20- to 30-minute acoustic performance by Tracy Chapman. Speakers that evening will include Julia Butterfly Hill, the Circle of Life founder who lived for two years in a 1,000-year-old redwood tree named Luna, and Howard Lyman, a fourth-generation Montana cattle rancher who became a vegetarian and food-safety activist.
The program is sponsored by St. Thomas’ University Lectures Committee. It will be free and open to the general public, but only after members of the St. Thomas community have had the first opportunity to receive tickets.
Julia Butterfly Hill
The free tickets will be available to St. Thomas students, staff and faculty from Sept. 18 to 23. They can be picked up at the Box Office located on the first floor of Murray-Herrick Campus Center. You can pick up two tickets per person.
If any tickets remain available after Sept. 23, they can be picked up by the public (or members of the St. Thomas community) at the Box Office on Sept. 24 and 25.
The We the Planet tour has its roots in a We the Planet concert and program that attracted a crowd of 10,000 last April in San Francisco. The event left no waste and was powered by bio-diesel-fuel generators.
Howard Lyman
During its fall tour, the We the Planet speakers and musicians are traveling in a bus powered by vegetable oil and bio diesel fuel. Organizers of the tour have asked St. Thomas to come up with 150 gallons of used cooking oil to dump into the bus’ fuel tank when it comes to St. Paul.
“We all know we live in a world full of problems,” said Butterfly Hill, an organizer of the tour. “We the planet will show that we also live in a world full of solutions. Come participate in a dynamic discussion, hear some great music, meet leading activists and get everyday solutions you can use.”
More information is available at http://www.wetheplanet.org/
- Julia Butterfly Hill and friends promote eco-consciousness at CU – By Matt Sebastian, The Daily Camera, September 12, 2003 ING Music, August 06, 2003
WHAT • “We the Planet”
WHEN • 7 p.m. today
WHERE • Glenn Miller Ballroom in the University of Colorado’s University Memorial Center
TICKETS • Free for students, $10 for the public
CALL • (303) 492-6388 or visit www.wetheplanet.org
ETC. • Appearances scheduled by activist Julia Butterfly Hill, actor Woody Harrelson and singer Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde.
Julia Butterfly Hill sincerely believes people can be taught to preserve the Earth — and the famed activist says she witnessed just such a transformation this spring at a massive gathering in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The organizers of that event — the debut “We the Planet” festival, featuring performances by Alanis Morrissette and Bonnie Raitt — were told by city officials that they’d need to provide one Dumpster per 1,000 people. Turns out that would be overkill.
“We had 10,000 people, which meant that we should have filled up 10 Dumpsters of trash,” Hill says. “But at the end of that day, I looked out on the field — literally five minutes after everyone left — and almost fell over because it was greener than when we’d gotten there. When it was all done, we collected less than one quarter of one Dumpster of trash — for 10,000 people.”
That San Francisco event, on April 20, was so successful Hill decided to take her message of eco-conciousness on the road, a tour that comes to Boulder today for several events, including the opening of the Rocky Mountains’ first biodiesel station. Two of the stars of that first festival, actor Woody Harrelson and Concrete Blonde singer Johnette Napolitano, will join Hill in the tour’s vegetable oil-fueled bus.
“Julia’s energy is so inspiring,” says Napolitano, who’s slated to perform a 30-minute acoustic set at tonight’s event at the University of Colorado’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. “I would have gone for whatever she wanted me to do. I’m fortunate, actually, to be at a point in my life where I can afford to take a couple weeks off and go around and scream and yell.
“But even more than that, I’m doing this because I want my education, too — and I know I’m going to get it.”
The “We the Planet” tour is the brainchild of Hill, who made a name for herself in the late 1990s while spending two years living in the limbs of a California redwood named “Luna,” a successful effort to save the tree from clear-cutters’ saws. The tour, presented by Hill’s Circle of Live activist group, is designed to spread her message to a broader audience, she says.
“We’re trying to reach the kind of audience that traditionally turns to the mainstream media for information,” Hill says. “They’re not really getting the real facts about what’s going on, many times even in their local communities. I majored in business in college, and what I realized we need is a new marketing strategy, because marketing, in our world today, is a form of communication — that’s how people communicate with each other, through marketing and branding.
“By using icons of our mainstream celebrity culture, we can draw in a lot of people who wouldn’t traditionally come to an event where we’re going to talk about problems and solutions and how everyone can get active in our world.”
One of Hill’s main goals is to highlight biodiesel energy, which is why she, Harrelson and Napolitano are traveling cross country in a bus fueled by vegetable oil. Biodiesel is a cleaner-burning fuel source derived from renewable source such as vegetable oil. Proponents say biodiesel lowers emissions and other pollutants, and is less toxic than table salt.
Hill and her cohorts will appear alongside Boulder Mayor Will Toor at 10 a.m. today for the grand opening of Bartkus Oil, 3501 Pearl St., the region’s first biodiesel station. Following that event, the group moves to CU’s Dalton Trumbo Fountain for a noon rally in support of biodiesel energy.
“Anyone who has a diesel car can run off biodiesel,” Hill says. “It’s not an out-there, ‘hopefully someday,’ hippie alternative. If you’ve got a diesel car, you can run vegetable oil through it.”
At tonight’s event, Hill also plans to honor a pair of Coloradans for their work supporting social and environmental causes: Quianna Ray, a poet and spoken word performer who teaches third, fourth and fifth graders at Denver’s Curtis Park Community Center, and Charris Ford, a biodiesel activist who helped launch the nation’s first 100-percent biodiesel bus in Telluride.
Reached in Toronto, where he’s promoting biodiesel fuels, Ford — an “eco-rapper” who also dubs himself “the Granola Ayatollah of Canola” — praised Hill’s tour for shrewdly using businesses principles to promote environmental consciousness.
“We’re at a point where we need to make this cultural shift, we need to make environmentalism fun and sexy and exciting,” Ford says. “We need to use the tools of PR and advertising to make the environment hip — or things won’t look good for our children and children’s children, who’ll be left with a world without natural resources.”
Napolitano, who admits she’s no eco-activist, says she looks forward to the coming together of people for a single, and simple, cause.
“We really need to save our future,” she says. “I don’t think that can be argued by anyone.”
Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com
- We the Planet tour is coming – By Laurel Marselle, Northern Star Online, Sept 16, 2003
Ecofriendly activists to discuss global issues
Traveling in a bus powered solely by vegetable oil instead of gasoline, the We the Planet tour will come to NIU at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium.
The tour features best-selling author and activist Julia Butterfly Hill, musician Tracy Chapman, agribusiness activist Howard Lyman, the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice and the DeKalb Chapter of Peace and Justice.
“I think we’ll get an excellent turnout, especially with Tracy Chapman coming,” said Jennifer Suerth, president of the Campus Activities Board.
According to a press release, this tour builds on the success of the groundbreaking eco-friendly We the Planet launch festival that attracted 10,000 fans in San Francisco last April. That festival featured performances from De La Soul, Cake, Alanis Morissette, Flea and many more.
“We’re very excited about this event,” said CAB adviser Lesley R. Clements. “It’ll go away from our realm of fun; hopefully, it’ll broaden the student’s horizons and they can learn something.”
We the Planet is a project of Hill’s Circle of Life organization, and it is produced by The Spitfire Agency, the press release stated. The on-stage discussions will cover global issues in the context of local communities, emphasizing the small but influential things each attendee can do to improve the condition of today’s world.
This event is being sponsored by the CAB’s Speakers, Concerts, Special Events and Unity in Diversity committees, and it is Student Association-allocated, free of charge and open to all.
For more information about this event, please call the CAB office at 753-1580, or visit www.niu.edu/cab.
- Consciousness Is Cool, Just Ask Julia Butterfly Hill – By Julia Scott, AlterNet, September 19, 2003
September 7 – It’s Sunday night, and Julia Butterfly Hill’s eyes look a little bloodshot.
That’s because she and everyone at Circle of Life, the environmental organization she founded four years ago just before ending her infamous two-year tree-sit in Northern California, have been working around the clock for months to get the first-ever We The Planet tour (www.wetheplanet.org) on the road.
A unique collage of celebrities, musicians and activists in on-stage discussion, the tour will travel by vegetable oil and bio diesel-powered bus to a dozen locations across the Midwest and Southern California over the next two months.
The bus leaves in the morning en route to its first stop on September 11 in Boulder, Colorado. Instead of catching a few hours of sleep, however, Hill is moderating a panel discussion on activism in San Francisco, where she is joined by musician/peace proponent Michael Franti, human rights activist Van Jones and anti-war campaigner Gloria La Riva. The crowd is local, but the issues touched on – sustainability, incarceration, pro-peace work – are global. Part of the audience came for an acoustic performance by Franti, or to see Hill, an international celebrity.
Whatever their reasons, Hill is counting on using the same recipe to draw in university crowds and communities throughout the tour, which she conceived of a year ago while flying around the country for speaking engagements. Free admission, a casual setting and a cocktail of celebrities and activists (Tracy Chapman, Woody Harrelson, Patch Adams and Alice Walker are all part of the rotating lineup), are intended to reach out to a wide group of people.
“There’s a whole other audience out there who are actually people who care, but they’re not being reached out to in a way that they understand,” says Hill. “Part of the reason is because a lot of people now communicate through marketing and branding. It’s an actual language. So when we come in with our grassroots activism, it’s as if you’re trying to speak a foreign language. I know that grassroots activism is where the power is at, and yet we’ve gotten very good at articulating to a very specific audience.”
Hill has substituted a brand of her own creation: Consciousness is Cool.
“The whole purpose behind We The Planet is that everything that is good for our bodies, our communities, our world and our planet is called ‘the alternative,'” she points out.
Leading by example, the tour emphasizes accessible, positive everyday solutions – printing promotional materials on recycled paper and serving vegan/organic food. The We The Planet concert kickoff in April 2003 was the largest event in San Francisco’s history to use recycling and composting: it cut down the waste stream by 70% and served food on biodegradable dishware (which vendors used solar power to cook). 10,000 people enjoyed music from a bio diesel-powered stage and visited over 50 non-profit stations. Pre-production carbon emissions were offset with wind energy, which was put back into the power grid later on.
The Lollapalooza music festival was quick to follow suit this year, powering its second stage with bio diesel, creating fuel cell and solar power technology demonstrations, and featuring dozens of progressive non-profits at its shows.
Sustainability is only part of the focus of We The Planet. Stops in racially segregated cities such as Chicago and Detroit are intended to highlight many of the social justice issues that affect communities of color.
“I’m going to all these areas to try to do what the mainstream media doesn’t do, which is to shine a spotlight into these communities and say, “This is your backyard,” says Hill. Circle of Life received its fair share of incredulity in the course of proposing to bring the tour, with its celebrity luster, to less wealthy neighborhoods.
Van Jones, National Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and an advocate for the reform of the U.S. criminal justice system, will take part in the tour.
“I feel like we don’t have enough bridge-building people in the movement,” he observes. “We have a lot of bricks but very little mortar, and I feel like Julia is willing to be the mortar that holds together a lot of the causes.”
In this case, many of the groups coming together in the course of the tour may never even have heard of each other or the causes they represent. According to Jones, that’s a special opportunity.
“The whole progressive movement is on a journey to itself, and we are coming to a realization under the new global reality that we need each other. The walls that divide us … can be bridged by intention, and Julia has the intention to bridge those divides,” he says.
We The Planet also includes several daytime events like the one in Rapid City, South Dakota, where Hill and environmentalist/indigenous rights activist Winona LaDuke have offered to help the local Lakota people try to prevent a shooting range from being constructed on their sacred grounds. “There’s going to be a rally and a team of us going out to the actual site; also in the area is one of the top ten most endangered national forests. There’s going to be a benefit screening of a film as well, so the community is leveraging us in three or four different ways,” explains Hill.
Over-committed celebrities and musicians, along with bus routing considerations, have made for a shorter tour than was envisioned. Funding sources will have to be diversified if We The Planet is to sustain itself in the long run: Hill paid for most of it out of her own pocket this time around.
“The biggest reason I was willing to give everything I have for this tour is because I wanted to take the beauty, the power, the importance of grassroots activism and be able to articulate it in a language so that it could be heard,” says Hill, smiling.
“Then people get it; then they go to the grassroots groups’ tables and say, ‘How can I help?'”
Julia Scott is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco.
- Circle of Life will sponsor concert – By Georquetta M. Clemons, Eastern Echo, Monday, September 22, 2003
Tracy Chapman will perform at Pease Auditorium
We The Planet is a two-month-long tour to raise environmental awareness.
As Julia “Butterfly” Hill ascended atop a 1000-year-old redwood tree in December of 1997, she wasn’t merely climbing a tree.
She began a movement that successfully imposed upon the anticipated destruction of the Headwaters Forest, home to Northern California’s most ancient and scarce redwoods.
Hill was the “queen pin” among hundreds of activists exercising civil disobedience as a means of protest against The Pacific Lumber Company, which was hired to log the forest.
Despite fear, grueling winters and harassment, Hill vowed to live on a platform installed into the tree named Luna until they (Pacific Lumber) agreed to spare Luna along with the remaining portion of the endangered forest. 738 days later, they did.
Hill’s foot didn’t touch the ground until after a deal was proposed that ultimately spared the sacred forest.
Afterward, Hill founded the Circle of Life Foundation, a group focused on raising critical awareness of global issues, presenting and discussing solutions to improve the condition of our world today and simply redefining the meaning of “cool.”
“Why is everything good for us considered the alternative?” Hill said. “More than ever, people are realizing that consciousness is cool.”
The commencement of Circle of Life will be celebrated with a daylong festival dubbed “We The Planet.”
An event powered solely by bio-diesel fuel generators and solar panels, We The Planet was held this past April in San Francisco and featured popular acts such as De La Soul, Alanis Morissette and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In response to the concert’s overwhelming success, We The Planet has now launched into a two-month-long nation-wide tour that has presented a plethora of well-known celebrities such as Alicia Silverstone, Alice Walker and Woody Harrelson, to name a few.
Courtesy of a special invitation from Campus Life, WTP will spread their eco-friendly vibes at Eastern Michigan’s campus at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Pease Auditorium. The event is free, but tickets are required.
This event will feature discussions from Hill herself, agribusiness activist Howard Lyman, local environmental activists and a brief acoustic set by Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, who is most recognized for her 1988 hit single “Fast Car.”
Traveling on a unique bus powered strictly by vegetable oil and bio-diesel fuel, WTP has made immense efforts to remain organic. They have arranged for all promotional materials to be printed on recycled paper and for all event food to be either organic or vegan.
Student opinions regarding the anticipated outcome of WTP has illuminated both sides of the spectrum.
“The majority of the people on campus probably don’t recognize most of the people on the tour, and most people only respond to mainstream celebrities or party themes. Since this is an environmental issue, it will draw less attention,” said Jonathan Desir of Redford.
“I think that anything that can raise awareness is positive,” said Rachel Ungarter of Canton, who is co-coordinator of the student-based organization GREEN (Gathering Resources to Educate about our Environment and Nature). “This is definitely something that has an opportunity to raise a lot of awareness.”
- We The Planet – By Laurel Marselle – Northern Star Online, September 25, 2003
Activists plead for students to respect Earth
Ask not what your planet can do for you, but what you can do for your planet.
Tracy Chapman and the “We the Planet” tour landed last night at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium for an evening of discussion about how to make a difference in the world.
Activist Julia Butterfly Hill appeared before the audience to dispel myths of activism.
“‘We the Planet’ deals with the idea that we need to reconnect with each other and reconnect with our planet, which we couldn’t live without,” she said. “This is our world and we need to take it personally. We need to act.”
Hill’s message later would be echoed by other speakers at the event.
Hill introduced Howard Lyman, agribusiness activist; Derrick Smith, counselor for NIU’s Center for Black Studies; Lisa Mayse-Lillig, of the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice; and Tracy Chapman, singer and Grammy winner.
Lyman, a fourth-generation farmer, talked about his experiences getting sued after appearing on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” to talk about mad cow disease.
“After telling her about what they feed those cows, she said that she would never eat a hamburger again,” Lyman said. “We got sued $180 million each and we had to fight in court for six years in order to defend our right to tell the truth,” Lyman said.
Lyman fervently stressed the right to express opinions.
“If there’s nothing else that you leave with tonight, it’s that one person can make a difference,” he said. “You should live your life as you know it should be lived.”
Smith talked about his teachings about racism, politics and the environment.
“I stress to my students that they should go to places out of their safe zone in order to get involved with the community.”
But the crowd stuck around for Chapman, who ended the tour’s stop in DeKalb by using examples of how creativity can dispel labels and stereotypes and can be used to create a particular message.
“There are many people who can use their talents to stress a particular message,” she said. “It’s a miracle that something can be created from nothing.”
Chapman then performed a 20-minute acoustic set.
Afterward, students said they reacted to both the singing and the “We the Planet” message.
“I stayed for the singing, Tracy Chapman was awesome,” said junior deaf education major Jill Witkov.
- Musicians and speakers join together – By Dante Sacomani, Iowa State Daily, September 26, 2003
‘We the Planet’ travels the nation to promote working together and confronting issues
Fixing the planet’s problems as a world community is the focus for a group of activists, writers and musicians who will bring the discussion to Iowa State Sunday evening.
“We the Planet” is a solution-based tour currently traveling the nation promoting coming together as a community and confronting issues relevant to society.
“We want to let people know what is going on in their backyards,” said Sarah Haynes, president of Spitfire agency, the group putting on the tour.
The idea for the tour came from activist and best-selling author Julia Butterfly Hill, who gained notoriety by inhabiting a 200-foot redwood tree for two years to prevent it from being cut down by loggers.
Hill said the tour includes a combination of discussion and music about issues plaguing the environment, no matter how inconsequential they seem.
“People are really hungry for a message, other than what they see on TV,” Hill said.
Hill said the mission for the tour is to “redefine cool.” It features a lineup of world-famous musicians and activists including Tracy Chapman, Howard Lyman and Ames-based activist Patti McKee. Each of the speakers will emphasize the importance of local activism.
Also supporting Hill on the Iowa leg of the tour will be Howard Lyman. Lyman is a fourth-generation Montana farmer who gave up modern farming techniques in favor of using organic methods.
Hill and Lyman will be joined by Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman, who will play a short acoustic set after the discussion.
Along with nationally known speakers, Omar Tesdell, senior in journalism and mass communication, will be speaking on Sunday. Tesdell, who co-founded Time for Peace, an organization committed to education and action through non-violence, will discuss local social activism.
“I think at Iowa State, we’ve got a pretty good level of involvement. People don’t realize how much is in their control,” said Tesdell, who is a columnist for the Daily. “It doesn’t have to be a certain issue — we can all effect change, regardless of the cause.”
Hill said she does not want the tour to be labeled an environmental tour, because they will focus on other issues as well.
Two topics in store for Sunday’s event are the large quantities of herbicides and pesticides being used on America’s produce.
“Healthy, organic food is the right of all people,” Hill said.
Hill said they decided the tour was relative now because of events taking place in our world.
“We are dropping bombs on Iraq under the guise of stopping terrorism when it’s about controlling resources,” she said. “The soldiers are as much the victims as the people of Iraq.”
To prove their point, Hill and her guests are touring the country in a bus fueled by vegetable oil. In addition to eliminating pollution, Hill feels it is supporting farmers instead of the government.
Hill said the need for the tour also stemmed from the fact that it is an election year.
“We need to get rid of people who put corporate interest over public trust,” Hill said.
The message of the tour is to get people involved in their world by doing anything possible to make it better.
“Each one of us makes a difference in this world,” Hill said. “We’re being sold a lie, creating a culture of people whose life is about what we can buy.”
- Praise for the planet – By Inside Iowa State, September 26, 2003
The mission is simple: To redefine “cool.” We The Planet (WTP), a national tour dedicated to sustainability, will cultivate that message with Iowa Staters when the tour appears at Stephens Auditorium at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28.
Musician Tracy Chapman, activist and author Julia Butterfly Hill and sustainable agriculture activist Howard Lyman will lead a discussion on the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet, the nation and its communities. Following the discussion, Chapman will perform a short acoustic set.
The stage discussions will cover global issues directly related to local communities and emphasize how attendees can improve the world. As an example, the tour group is traveling across the United States in a bus powered entirely by vegetable oil and bio diesel.
Hill is WTP’s founder, but perhaps best known for spending more than two years in a California redwood tree in the late 1990s to protest the destruction of the state’s redwoods. Since then, she has written books, lectured at universities and lobbied Congress on a variety of environmental issues.
Joining Hill and Chapman will be Lyman, a fourth-generation Montana farmer. He also is founder of Voice for a Viable Future, a nonprofit educational organization promoting organic family farming, biodiversity, vegetarianism, environmentally friendly practices and enlightened trade.
- We the planet – By Joel Stonington, Utne.com, October 2003 Issue
Julia Butterfly Hill tours the country with a high-powered group of activist and a message — Consciousness is cool
Led by Julia Butterfly Hill, a group of activists and musicians are travelling the country in a bus fueled by vegetable oil, discussing wide-ranging issues such as peace, human rights, and the joys of being vegan.
The We the Planet Tour is the brainchild of Hill and her Circle of Life Foundation, which she founded after climbing down from a northern California redwood tree she had protected for more than two years. The tour started in San Francisco, where 10,000 people attended a kick-off festival featuring art installations, talks by celebrities, and performances by Joan Baez, De La Soul, Bonnie Raitt, the Coup, Tracy Chapman, and others. Soon after, the tour’s biodiesel bus chugged out of San Francisco on its way to stops in a dozen cities across the country as various musicians, activists, and celebrities joined in for a few stops or more.
The bus recently stopped at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a packed house of 500 students and locals greeted Hill, Tracy Chapman, Howard Lyman, and two local activists — 18-year-old gay organizer Vicki Pearce and Native American rights advocate Leah Tushay — for a panel discussion and community conversation.
Once everyone onstage had spoken briefly about their own activism, Hill invited the audience to join the conversation. Students and local activists lined up at the microphones to discuss issues ranging from the military to biodiesel to re-usable menstrual pads. The unstructured format — with the audience playing an essential part — proved to be a major asset to the event. “It’s been amazing to see how different each night is,” Hill said later, “because we really are bringing forward a space for the community to step into.”
The tour shows that so-called “progressive” issues are interconnected and essentially related, Hill said, “It’s not — you have the tree-huggers over here and the anti-prison people over there and the animal rights people over here — but rather a realization that we really are a part of one movement.” As much as possible, the tour seeks to bring different facets of issues together by modeling solutions. For example, the tour bus serves as a discussion point for agricultural, environmental, and economic topics related to the consumption of fossil fuels by showing that every vehicle on the road could run on vegetable oil.
The tour, however, is not just about the issues, as Hill said, “If we can’t have fun while saving the world then something just isn’t right.”
Plus, nothing could be better to bring people together than Tracy Chapman singing “Revolution.” After the discussion, Chapman took to the stage for a solo set of startling passion and beauty. Underscoring the tour’s message that “consciousness is cool,” the musician looked out at the sea of faces and said, “It can sometimes be depressing to talk about the state of the world, but it’s really good to be here with you all talking about solutions.”
