Singer Matt Jaffe performs ‘Dark Ages’ at the MVCAN-Do Revue. Photo: Martha Ture.
We celebrated one year of resistance with friends and neighbors at the MVCAN-Do Revue, our first anniversary celebration for MVCAN, our progressive political action group in Marin. To energize our community and lift our spirits, we presented an evening of music, dance and storytelling at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, on Saturday, November 11th, 2017.
I produced and hosted this community celebration with a world class team of MVCAN volunteers, to honor community members who took political action this year. We featured talented local performers, including rock singer Matt Jaffe, poet Natalie Frederick, hip hop dancers from RoCo Dance, music director Reed Fromer with the Shady Ladies and the Can-Do Singers — along with special presentations by MVCAN team leaders.
Watch their performances in the full event video below, shot by by David Donnenfield, Ed Ellsworth and George Eade — and edited by yours truly.
In collaboration with filmmaker Gary Yost, I also created special video montages to tell the story of how MVCAN came together the day after the election, to resist the attacks against democracy by the Trump regime and right-wing extremists.
Their Year in Review video below showed many of the actions we took together: we marched for democracy, we defended civil and women’s rights, we phone banked to flip elections, we protected the environment, we helped reverse Trumpcare, we created political art, and much more. Watch other videos of this event in our MVCAN Vimeo album.
Special thanks to the photographers who took pictures of our event (Martha Ture, George Osner, Suz Lipman, Tim Pozar and Jean Bolte). You can view more pictures of our anniversary in our photo album on Flickr and on Facebook.
To produce this event, we assembled a special events team, which I spearheaded along with Danny Altman, June Cooperman, Mary Cosgrove, Suz Lipman, Carol Korenbrot, Marilyn Price and others. If you have any questions or comments for the team, please email us at events-lead@mvcan.org .
Thanks as well to the 60 cast and crew members who generously volunteered their time to host this event, and to all the donors who contributed generously to support our cause. And kudos to all community members who took political action this year! In dark times like these, community action is more important than ever: it’s that choice to act together that defines us — and gives us hope that we can build a better world.
If you would like to participate in MVCAN , sign up here — and/or donate to support our cause.
Join your neighbors to keep democracy alive!
Event producer and host Fabrice Florin kicks off the MVCAN-Do-Revue. Photo: Martha Ture.
Young poet Natalie Frederick performs her poem about her political awakening. Photo: Martha Ture.
Activist and MVCAN leader Suz Lipman thanks our action teams. Photo: George Osner.
Dancers from RoCo’s Hip Hop group bring funk and groove to our event. Photo: Martha Ture.
Marin County Supervisor Kate Sears speaks about community action. Photo: Martha Ture.
Activists raise their fists for democracy at our MVCAN community celebration. Photo: Martha Ture.
MVCAN leaders Danny Altman and Bill Jansen list Top 10 things we did this year. Photo: Martha Ture.
The Shady Ladies sing their hearts out for democracy, led by Reed Fromer. Photo: Martha Ture.
Reed Fromer leads a sing-along with the Shady Ladies and Can-Do Singers. Photo: George Osner.
Activists, cast and crew gather for a final curtain call. Photo: George Osner.
MVCAN leaders June Cooperman and Bernard Catalinotto as Liberty and Trump. Photo: Suz Lipman.
Carol Korenbrot and MVCAN volunteers greet our generous donors. Photo: Suz Lipman.
Meet our event team: Suz Lipman, Marilyn Price, Fabrice Florin, Mary Cosgrove and June Cooperman (from left to right). Missing in action: Danny Altman and Carol Korenbrot. Photo: Ed Ellsworth.
View more pictures of our anniversary in our photo album on Flickr and on Facebook. Watch videos of this event in our Vimeo album.