musician press conference today at Noon - at City Hall

April 17, 2007

‘Take it to the Bridge‘ continue their protest today at City Hall in NYC:

Come and support us Tuesday, April 17, at 12 noon at our
Press Conference on the steps of City Hall!

Most of you have read at www.takeittothebridge.com about what
happened at the Tonic Eviction Musical Protest this last Saturday. It
was a day of amazing performances by great musicans; over 200 people
came by to listen, join in, and to keep Tonic open for as long as
possible.

When the police came and asked the crowd to vacate the premises,
musicians Marc Ribot and Rebecca Moore were arrested because they did
not stop playing music and leave. They were booked, released a few
hours later, and have a court date in May. Rebecca’s statement about
why she took part in this protest and was arrested is on the website.

Let’s not let the protest over the closing of this important new
music venue and Marc and Rebecca’s arrests be in vain!

Let it be a call to action to say that new experimental music does
not have to disappear from New York City, let alone the Lower East
Side, where so much legendary avant garde jazz/Indy/New Music was born!

Let it be a wake-up call to say that small music and cultural spaces
can no longer pay these outrageous rents and that important music and
culture is being forced out of NYC!

We need YOU to come to our press conference at City Hall, so that
city government sees how many people need and support all kinds of
non-mainstream music. All of you: experimental musicians of all
kinds, with your instruments if possible – – fans of all kinds of non-
mainstream music; presenters; curators and people who appreciate
music and art of all kinds and want it to remain in NYC: we need all
of you to come down.

City Councilman Alan J. Gerson of District 1 is supporting this press
conference and will stand in support of our group; and will challenge
other members of the City Council to come to the table on the issue
of public interventions to save artistic creation in NYC.

But our political strength rests with YOU: the more people who come
down to City Hall to stand with us, the more effective we are at
making the City hear our stand. So please come done and help us make
this a strong gathering.

At the end of this story, you can find a leaflet for the press conference to post wherever you can; our press release for the press conference is the story below.

WE MUST STAND UP AND SAY: NEW AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC VENUES MUST BE
KEPT IN MANHATTAN, AND IN ALL OF NEW YORK CITY… AND CITY HALL MUST
INTERVENE AND HELP OR MORE VALUABLE CULTURE WILL BE LOST.