S(T)RIKE
The General Strike, 5 months of T, & ways to support Minnesotans on the ground
Upcoming shows I’m excited about:
Wed. 1/28 → St. Paul, MN | Turf Club opening solo for Big Richard: Tix here!
I’ve been a fan of Big Richard since I saw a video of them cheekily dressed as dead presidents while performing at the Kennedy Center. This show is gonna be fun, ferocious, and cathartic as fuck. Whistles + mutual aid at the merch table!
Sat. 1/31 → Minneapolis, MN | Aster Cafe full band show for The Great Northern Fest: Tix here!
My first full band show of the year is gonna be a ripping set with Willow Waters on upright bass and Zack Warpinsky on pedal steel. Willow you might know from her own incredible, lush music she performs under her name, and Zack is the sweet angel who designed the MOOD pedals for Chase Bliss. They’re both real pros and we’re gonna be unveiling stuff from my new album I can’t talk about quite yet! Whistles + mutual aid at the merch table!
Sun. 2/5 → St. Paul, MN | House show hosting for Ross Thorn & Josie Langhorne 🤐 Duluth-based banjo hero Ross Thorn is coming to town, and he wants to play a show with local angel Josie Langhorne in my very living room! I’m gonna make soup, we’ll have a HEPA air purifier to minimize COVID risks, and we’re all gonna get cozy and feel something. If you want more details/are interested in attending, email me at creekbedcarter@gmail.com. Whistles + mutual aid at the merch table!
Fri. 2/20 → Minneapolis, MN | New union songs for the Cedar Commissions: Tix here!
Thrilled to say that for the last 6 months, I’ve been writing new union and labor songs as part of a grant given to me by the Cedar Cultural Center. Next month, I debut those songs with a full band for ONE NIGHT ONLY! This is an extremely special showcase where myself and my fellow grant recipients will debut music we’ve kept under wraps until now. If you’re in town, this is not to be missed!
Support mutual aid in Minnesota:
In case you’re feeling hopeless and have a few extra bucks to send somebody’s way, here are a few giving opportunities that could use your support as ICE continues to occupy Minnesota:
Pow Wow Grounds: An Indigenous-owned coffee shop in the heart of the American Indian Corridor in South Minneapolis, Pow Wow Grounds has been mobilizing to get Indigenous folks and the SMPLS community what they need, even as ICE terrorizes and sabotages their business. Venmo or PayPal them at @powwowgrounds.
Two local families in need: Two families who have been unable to leave their homes need rent, grocery, and pediatric medical care assistance, so local band/friends Space Monkey Mafia are taking Venmo donations with a goal of $4,000. They’re 1/4 of the way there right now, let’s get em across the finish line! Venmo @Dante-Leyva and use generic descriptions. Dante will send proof of distribution upon request.
The Zion Community Center: The Zion Community Commons is a St. Paul hub facilitating space for food justice, street medical care, and community events for all our neighbors. They’ve been taking donations and creating grocery care packages for immigrant and affected families who haven’t been able to leave their homes due to ICE’s ongoing occupation of our cities. Doesn’t hurt that they love a little folk-punk show every now and then, too! Venmo @Chef-Collective-1123 or CashApp $ChefCollective1123.
On January 23, in the face of -40° windchill, the Twin Cities will engage in our first general strike in 100 years.
Hundreds of local businesses are closing down. The coffee shops. The bars. The venues. The clothing stores. The grocery co-ops. The place where I got my hair cut today. The bookstores. The restaurants. The schools are closing. The labor delegations are ready to ride — including the Minneapolis Regional Labor Foundation, AFL-CIO, the Saint Paul Regional Labor Foundation, the West Area Labor Council, the North East Area Labor Council, and the East Central Labor Council. The unions are publicly standing with us: the teachers’ union, the communications and media labor union, the healthcare union, the hotel workers’ union, the transportation union. My own neighbors are canvassing, going business to business to ask if workers know about Earned Safe and Sick Time, a law in Minnesota that says every worker is entitled to taking a day off without explaining why to their boss. When businesses speak out about the strike and receive death threats, we all communicate in the group chats and go to those businesses to spend money, hole up, make sure no one is left alone.
It’s on everyone’s lips: ICE out. General Strike NOW.
Even though my car has broken down for the second time in two weeks, I am making plans to take the light rail to the rally. I am borrowing gloves and gaiters and long johns from friends. By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be one of the people on a bullhorn tomorrow with my fellow TCUP organizers leading the crowd in singing songs and chants, in English and Spanish, as we march the long mile to downtown in the cold. At -40°, it only takes minutes for frostbite to set in, and usually coating our skin in vaseline would be enough to help. But with ICE gleefully spraying teargas into the faces of even the most passive of legal observers, we can’t chance a substance that makes chemicals stick. I’m gonna scope out the pharmacy tonight for some moleskin to cover my nose and my cheeks, and dig out some trash bags to cover my feet.
Across the river, friends of mine will be protesting at Whipple, where ICE has set up their detention center. Across town, more marches will happen with more singers and more gloved fists raised high in the air. In Saint Paul, my favorite library is hosting a free coffee session in the afternoon to warm up and connect with neighbors. In Minneapolis, volunteers at Seward Cafe are feeding everyone soup for free. In every corner of Minnesota, in 150+ towns and counting, in 80+ cities across the country, we are all doing something, small or big, quiet or bold, personal or public, to follow in the footsteps of the workers who came before us; to say:
No. We will not be treated this way. And you cannot make us take it.
A hell of a way to enter into my fifth month on HRT.
Note: Due to the sensitive and personal nature of what I’d like to write about today, I’m putting the rest of this essay behind a paywall. For $5 a month, you can help me make a living wage doing this work AND read the kind of shit that haunts Greg Bovino’s nightmares!
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