The 911 Power to the Peaceful Festival is proud to present this amazing collection of Musicians, Speakers and DJ's.

Garth is a royal pain in the arse.

At his parties Wicked, Come Unity, Full Moons, Roots & Back2Back he's been making San Franciscans shake their butts for 16 years. In reality he just tapped into the city's unique energy and helped reignite the flames of conscious hell raising that existed here in generations past.

Those Full Moon parties ushered in an era of Acid House hysteria that ripped through the west coast and spread into the heartland. The Wicked crew are credited widely with having kick started the citys dance scene in the early 90s saving it from being forever regarded as the red headed step child of disco.

From his highly coveted 10 year residency at Come Unity, where he'd have early morning revellers all join hands in ecstatic abandon to Wickeds 13 year odyssey as the Citys rulin sound system; there's more than enough sore feet to show for a bloody good time had by all.

Wicked were shooting for the sky. So scoring a custom designed Turbosound rig and a 1947 Greyhound bus whose previous owners were a gospel choir, they set about spreading their gospel to seekers far and wide.

The same bus provided Garth with the inspiration to start his own label in 98. With over 50 singles under the belt Grayhound has been a constant thorn in the side of easy listening House. His breakout anthem 'Twenty Minutes of Disco Glory' shook things up internationally & he now has 40 singles to his name, many on his own label. He has remixed the likes of The Glimmers, Perry Farrel (Janes Addiction), Yabby You and Tribe Called Quest. He has recorded mix CDs for Om, NRK, Thrive & Grayhound.
With an insatiable appetite for great dance music of all persuasions... Acid Rock, Disco, Dub Reggae, House & Electro, he keeps himself and others awake trying to mix them together on weekends. He travels the world like a madman lugging a crate or two of his favorite vinyl to Japan, Spain, England, France, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Singapore, even Indonesia & Malaysia crashing parties wherever he's needed.

On the home front he throws an intimate monthly shindig called Back2Back in San Francisco with comrade Jeno. Nobody gets hurt.

Palestinian, Brazilian-born, Adnan Sharif immigrated to the USA in 1987 and found a new home in the city of San Francisco. DJ Adnan is one of the rising stars of the San Francisco House music scene with releases on major underground labels.

His musical styles include all genres of House music ranging from Deep to tech, electro to tribal - always making the dancers move their feet. Presently DJ Adnan is the resident DJ and promoter of Forward in San Francisco.

In late 2000 DJ Adnan began his journey into music production. His first project, named "Pacificodelic", was co-produced with Gavin Hardkiss and released on Hawk's "Heatstroke" compilation through Six Degrees Records.

In 2000 DJ Adnan began working in the studio with Tarantic Records founder Amit Shoham. Their first collaboration, "Visualize", was released in May 2001 on Tarantic Records. Their track "Searching" was released in March 2003 on Primal Records' new offshoot label, PR2 Recordings, with remixes by Jay Tripwire.

"Stop War" an original production by DJ Adnan was released on Tarantic Records in May 2003 with a remix by Amit Shoham. In January 2005 Jay Tripwire had remixed "Stop War" and Dj Adnan and Amit Shoham had done another remix. All of the proceeds from both the original record release and the remixes were donated to the "Middle Eastern Children's Alliance".
DJ Adnan's tracks "Ocean Run" and "Libre" were released by Care Recordings in 2003.

In 2004 DJ Adnan had his first release on Survival Sounds, "Our Sound".

DJ Laird grew up near Chicago, immersed in the vibe of the original house music scene during the late '80's, buying records and DJing numerous warehouse and renegade parties. A classically trained pianist of a dozen years and modern day bohemian, Laird moved to San Francisco in 1990 and immediately became involved in the explosion of the West Coast rave scene. Since then he has played in most clubs on the West Coast, and for numerous Warehouse parties/Massives and special events across the United States and throughout Europe. From Burning Man to Xingolati, Coachella to Cirque de Soleil, Laird is renowned for his dirty funky house that gets you grooving and raw psychedelic breakbeat sessions that has you rocking.
 
In 1995 Laird moved to Paris and began a weekly show on the house music radio station FG 98.2. During his yearlong stay he played France's biggest clubs including Queen, the Rex Club, Folies Pigalle, and Le Palace, and the massive "Universe" party in Munich, Germany, headlining festivals and clubs throughout Paris, along the Cote d'Azur, and all over Europe. Laird performs alongside world renowned artists such as Kraftwerk, Roberta Flack, Fat Boy Slim, Lee Coombs, Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Derrick Carter, Adam Freeland, Stacy Pullen, Freq Nasty, Tipper, and Mark Farina, to name a few. Since returning to the United States in 1996 Laird has continued to DJ prolifically and also undertaken music production and setting up his own record label "Golden Gate Recordings". Releases include the title track on OM Records' "United Nations of Future Music Vol. 1", Red Bull's "Ascension" CD, many mix CDs and other tracks listed in the discography below. 

Laird also organizes events and is partners in several of San Francisco's wonderful parties, including "Weapons of ASS Destruction" and "Get YER Freak on!" where one can find the dirtiest funkiest house and breakbeat music. He has come up with the ideas for and managed several of the largest camps at Burning Man, including LUSH and the giant Boombox.

Maneesh the Twister is co-founder of the Dhamaal Artist Collective, which has been championing hybrids of South Asian audio and visual art for over 7 years. Maneesh has quite varied tastes and spins dub reggae, breakbeat, drumnbass, dancehall, bhangra, and anything with BASS. His productions appear on Dhamaal's debut Dhamaal Soundsystem CD which entered the I-tunes top 20 Electronic charts and also on Dhamaal's Transition EP under the moniker Echotwist with production partner Jethro. Also his track "Frankie's Next Move" was recently licensed to XBOX 360 game "Project Gotham" and SONY BMG India's Shamur compilation! Being heavily influenced by dub reggae, he is also a resident of the longest running weekly dub & roots night in the United States, Dub Mission, which is going on 10 years!

Maneesh recently toured India and the UK in support of their CD release in India on HOM Records and rocked over 3000 folks on Baga Beach in Goa on New year's eve! Maneesh has shared the stage with Adrian Sherwood (On-U sound), Badmarsh & Shri, State of Bengal, Thievery Corporation, Smith & Mighty, Karsh Kale, Bobby & Nihal, MIDIval PunditZ, Dum Dum Project, Cheb I Sabbah, Nickodemus, J Boogie, Navdeep, Z-Trip, Solomonic Sound (Rob Paine), Dan the Automator & the legendary Jamaican producer, Scientist.

Darian has a strong history of building organizations, facilitating community development and supporting worthy causes. He serves as Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation, which produces free and low-cost educational programs and online resources design to educate, empower and connect emerging nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs. Darian satisfies his thirst for supporting the arts and at-risk youth by serving on the Boards of Project Ahimsa , a global effort to empower children through music, and Natural World Museum , the first museum dedicated to art that promotes conservation. He also serves on numerous Advisory Boards and is a frequent public speaker.

Darian’s career began when he co-founded and sold global digital advertising agency Beyond Interactive to Grey Global Group (now part of WPP). He was very active educating and mobilizing in the Internet marketing industry and traditional advertising executives during the dot com boom and his many articles, affiliations and speaking engagements led to his being dubbed “Professor Internet” by Adweek Magazine.

While on sabbatical from Beyond, Darian made a conscious decision to dedicate his life to philanthropy and the arts and never looked back. Shortly thereafter, he started Project Pangea and produced interdisciplinary fundraisers around various cultural themes, uniting DJs, musicians, poets, dancers, fashion designers, artists and community members, all while promoting cultural exchange and supporting art and music programs for underprivileged children.

Darian lives in the Mission district of his beloved San Francisco and holds his BA in International Relations from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Go Blue!). He speaks Spanish and Portuguese, is a budding DJ and loves international travel, snowboarding and all kinds of music.

Freelance urban music opinionista, deejay and all around saucygirl, dj eko can be found sleuthing records, plotting her escape out of the country on her next adventure, evangelizing and writing for URB Magazine, debating pop culture and wondering when the next time she'll get to see fireflies or Geisha might be.

She's put down roots in Santa Cruz with two residencies, "Beat Generation" and "Therapy" as well as rocking a decade-running weekly radio show, HipHopEthics101 every Saturday at 10:30pm on KZSC fm (world-wide webcast can be found at www.kzsc.org ). Outside of the radio waves, Eko has laid down sounds coast to coast at events as diverse as Youth Speaks National Poetry Slam finals, fashion shows, concerts and clubs. Her favorite special occasions have allowed Eko to share tables with superstar selectors like
?uestlove, Dj Language, JBoogie & Sake-1.

Insightful interviews with hip hop superstars, like Aloe Blacc and Waajeed of Platinum Pied Pipers are published on a regular basis and can be found online at www.thegiantpeach.com. Eko is really excited to spin some conscious beats for the people.

Rabbi Lerner, author of the forthcoming "The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Relligious Right" (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006) is not only rabbi of Beyt Tikkun but is also the editor of TIKKUN magazine: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society. TIKKUN is one of the most respected intellectual/cultural magazines in the Jewish world, but also one of the most controversial because of its stand in favor of the rights of Palestinians, on the one hand, which locates him in the minds of many as the leader and most prominent spokesperson in the U.S. of Jewish supporters of the Israeli peace movement, and on the other hand, because of his stand critiquing the anti-religious and anti-spiritual biases of the secular Left, insisting that they need to address the spiritual hunger of Americans as equally important to their material needs (he calls this a hunger for "meaning" and says that for many Americans the desire to transcend the individualism and selfishness of the competitive marketplace and connect their lives to higher meaning is as important as any interest in money or things, and that one reason why people who might on purely economic grounds be supporting the liberal and progressive social change movements actually end up supporting the Right is that the Left doesn't have a "politics of meaning"). He is the co-author with Cornel West of a book entitled "Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin," and several other books.

Jeremy M. Glick is a phd candidate in African diaspora literature and political and aesthetic theory at Rutgers University. He has taught in the New Jersey prison system and worked extensively with youth in his home for 10 years of New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has taught in such diverse institutions as UC-Santa Cruz, NYU's Africana Studies Dept, UMDNJ Medical School, and Rutgers Newark and New Brunswick English Depts. He is the recepient of the Robeson-Bambatta-Baraka Self-Determination Award from The Caribbean Tent Festival of New Brunswick, NJ for a decade of service and struggle for the African commmunity and the Kinsella Prize for an essay on Frantz Fanon, Violence, and Sculpture. Mr. Glick's writing has appeared in Black Voice/Carta Latina, The Rutgers Daily Targum, The Rutgers Review, The Village Voice, The Home News and Tribune, Post-Road Literary Journal, BET.Com, Blu, Stress, AWOL magazines et al. He has appeared on such broadcasts as The O'Reilly factor, Democracy Now, The Tavis Smiley Show, Asia-Pacific Forum, and The Al Franken Show et al. He is a co-editor of the first post-9/11, anti-war anthology Another World is Possible: Conversations in a Time of Terror. He sits on the editorial board of the newspaper Unity and Struggle with his friend and comrade Amiri Baraka. He has worked with and advised such groups as Not In Our Name, Sept 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, United For Peace and Justice, Santa Cruz's radical education project E-Squared, The Third World and Native Indigenuous Newspaper, 100 Black of Rutgers University. He has worked closely in the struggle to set free Black radical political prisoners and various local community initiatives and grassroots electoral campaigns. Jeremy resides and thrives now in Brooklyn.

Recently, Jeremy co-wrote and produced the ground-breaking concert documentary on legendary political hip hop group Dead Prez for Starz in Black Cable Network—Dead Prez Its Bigger than Hip Hop with his partna Kamel Bell. He contributes segments on hip hop for a weekly television show for Starz cable and has featured such artists as Tekitha, Silk-E, Creature & Queen Godis.

Bill O’Reilly recently declared on MSNBC that he constitutes his greatest enemy and most offensive interview in his entire career of journalism.

Robi Damelin lost her son David on military duty four years ago. Nadwa Sarandah lost her sister Naila, killed in the streets of Jerusalem, six years ago. They are both members of the Parents Circle Families Forum, an organization of over 500 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, who have all lost close relatives to the violence in the Middle East. Robi Damelin lives in Tel Aviv. Her son, David, 28 years old, was studying for his Masters Degree in the Philosophy of Education and part of the peace movement, when he was killed by a sniper. After David's death , Robi decided to close her successful PR firm and devote her entire time and energy to the Parents Circle and its activities promoting dialogue, tolerance and reconciliation. Nadwa is a manager of a large cement factory and a mother of two, living in Shuafat in East Jerusalem. Her sister, Naâ'ila, was a professional public health consultant, who devoted her life to embetteiring the health and life of the Paestinian society. After her sister's death, Nadwa refused to speak of her sister and her tragedy, to friends and family alike. Joining the Parents Circle brought her to value both the benefit of sharing her pain and the importance of conveying the messages of dialogue and reconciliation to people on both sides of the conflict and across the world. Robi and Nadwa, propelled by their grief and hope, are ceaselessly devoted towards building peace among people in the region. They persuade by powerful example. The Parents Circle is one of a handful of Israeli and Palestinain organizations still functioning despite the ravages of the ceaseless conflict. We promote reconciliation as an alternative to fear, hatred and revenge that plague our region, through various imaginative projects and programs that communicate, educate and inspire more moderate approaches to peace-building. We have chosen to channel our grief into the pursuit of reconciliation and understanding. The members of the Parents Circle demonstrate that even though we have paid the highest price in this conflict, we can acknowledge the other's pain and humanity rather than seek revenge for our losses.

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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning Pennsylvania journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. New evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence and a confession from Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer Faulkner) points to his innocence! Mumia had no criminal record.

For the last 23 years, Abu-Jamal has been locked up 23 hours a day, denied contact visits with his family, had his confidential legal mail illegally opened by prison authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing his first of three books while in prison, Live From Death Row.

His case is currently on appeal before the Federal District Court in Philadelphia. Mumia's fight for a new trial has won the support of tens of thousands around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, The European Parliament, Alice Walker, Paul Newman, Maya Angelou, Sister Helen Prejean, Danny Glover, Rage Against The Machine, the Detroit and San Francisco City Councils, Amnesty International, and many others. Mumia Abu-Jamal's fate rests with all those people who believe in every person's right to justice and a fair trial.

"I remain innocent. A court cannot make an innocent man guilty. Any ruling founded on injustice is not justice. The righteous fight for life, liberty, and for justice can only continue." Mumia Abu-Jamal , Oct. 31, 1998

Dennis Kucinich's courageous and visionary presidential campaign excited a new generation of Americans to involvement in the 2004 Democratic Primary elections. His speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention will long be remembered as a clarion call to purpose in the Democratic Party.

Kucinich's Presidential candidacy was a continuation of his challenge to the war in Iraq. He led 125 Democratic Members of Congress in opposition to the war. His "Prayer for America" speech in Los Angeles in February of 2002 inspired tens of thousands of emails, many urging him to run for President. He insisted early on there was no proof of any "weapons of mass destruction". He toured the country, warning America about the dangers of attacking a nation which did not attack us. Today he is seen as the prophet who predicted hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, countless lives lost, America's credibility in the world severely undermined. He insists that the United States must withdraw from Iraq.

Kucinich is a dynamic, visionary leader who combines a powerful activism with a spiritual sense of interconnectedness. His holistic worldview carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers rights, and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war archaic. His is a powerful, ethical voice for nuclear disarmament, preservation of the ABM treaty, banning weapons in outer space, and a halt to the development of a 'Star Wars' - type missile defense technology.

Dennis Kucinich is the 2003 recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award.

Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps www.thegroundtruth.net

Sean Huze (originally from Baton Rouge, LA) was a working actor in Los Angeles until 9/11. The following day, Mr. Huze walked into the Marine Corps recruiter's office in Hollywood, CA and enlisted into the USMC. Serving as an infantryman with 2nd LAR, he saw action from Nasirya to Tikrit. The unit pushed the furthest north of any Marine Corps unit during the invasion. Mr. Huze received an honorable discharge in 2005, related to an injury he sustained in Nasirya. He was awarded a Certificate of Commendation citing his "courage and self-sacrifice throughout sustained combat operations" while in Iraq. He has also been awarded the Combat Action Ribbon, Meritorious Promotion for Corporal, The Presidential Unit Citation, The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, The National Defense Service Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

Mr. Huze is the author of the critically acclaimed plays Sandstorm: Stories From the Front, which had two successful runs in L.A. as well as in Washington, D.C.; and Weasel, which made its debut at the Kennedy Center's Page 2 Stage Festival. He recently completed his third play, The Dragon Slayer, which addresses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and is slated for a film adaptation.

In addition to being an author, poet, essayist, lecturer, educator, publisher, performer, musician, mate, brother, friend, and father, Mario Hardy aka Big Moon, is the former coordinator of, and founder of, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors' Third World Outreach Program and the former publisher of AWOL! Magazine. Mario is also a supporter of the MOVE Organization, and member of the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The Third World Outreach program was founded by Mario in 1997, and counters military recruitment efforts nationally in communities of color, as well as examines the historical relationships between the U.S. armed forces and Third World people domestically and abroad.

In 2000, Mario founded AWOL! Magazine Revolutionary Artists Workshop. Through the use of Hip-Hop music, art, dance, and culture, AWOL! Magazine and its accompanying CD promote resistance to militarism and injustice to youth of color. AWOL! currently enjoys circulation of over 20,000 units domestically and internationally, and has featured such artists as the Marleys, dead prez, The Coup, Chuck D & Public Enemy, C Rayz Walz, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Talib Kweli, Suheir Hamad, Joi, and Immortal Technique among others. In addition, AWOL! remains true to the underground, continuing to pave the way for countless unsigned, underground artists through the magazine, CD, & live productions.

www.satsantokh.com

A former manager of the Grateful Dead, and an activist since the late 50's, is the founder of the War Resisters League West, Meeting of the Ways, Rainforest Products, and Creating Our Future. He is the Northern California director of Kundalini Yoga teacher training. His ongoing focus is: the critical relationship between inner peace and world peace, spiritual practice in the evolution of human consciousness, the importance of understanding what it is to be strategic, and the effective utilization of emerging tools for the application of consciousness to the human dilemma.

www.iraqvetsforprogress.org

Tim Goodrich grew up in Buffalo, NY and was deployed to the Middle East several times during his enlistment. During these deployments, Goodrich participated in Operation Southern Watch (enforcement of southern no-fly zone over Iraq) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). Upon return from Operation Enduring Freedom, his unit took part in Operation Noble Eagle, or homeland defense operations.

On Goodrich's final deployment, he took part in and witnessed the bombing of Iraq prior to the ground invasion, while at the same time, President Bush was still declaring that diplomacy would be used. Following his return to the United States, Goodrich completed his enlistment and was honorably discharged.

Wanting to see the war from a different perspective, Goodrich returned to the Middle East, where he traveled to Baghdad as a civilian. He is the only known person to have had involvement with the war and to have returned. Shortly thereafter, Goodrich co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War. Since then, he has become increasingly involved in politics and worked on a congressional campaign in California.

Youth Speaks empowers the next generation of leaders, self-defined artists, and visionary activists through written and oral literacies. We challenge youth to find, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of social change.

Founded in 1996, Youth Speaks is the leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country. Presenters of local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, and more, Youth Speaks also offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs during the school day and the after-school hours, and conducts numerous publications and youth development programs. All told, Youth Speaks works with 45,000 teens per year in the Bay Area alone, and has created partner programs in 36 cities across the United States.

Destiny has been serving youth since 1988. We began outreach programming with Project Destiny De-escalation Skills Training in local elementary schools for at-risk youth. This initial program grew from a youth martial arts program at Hand to Hand Community Arts Center in North Oakland, founded by Professor Coleen Gragin This school based program soon transformed into the non-profit organization Destiny Arts Center. The first Executive Director was Kate Hobbs. The founding Martial Arts Director was Anthony Daniels. Sarah Crowell was the founding Dance and Performing Arts Director. Along with these three, many dedicated volunteers helping to shape Destiny into the groundbreaking youth empowerment center it is today. The project soon grew into a full-fledged program for youth of all ages and backgrounds. As youth excelled and graduated from our programs, they began assisting and teaching, giving birth to our youth leadership program. Youth leaders mentor peers and younger youth, assist or lead classes, organize events, perform at conferences and community events and offer workshops on conflict resolution to youth and adults in the community.

The integration of dance and theater into our violence prevention curriculum was first introduced in the Project Destiny after-school programs as a way of combining the strict discipline of the Martial Arts with the high energy and creativity of dance. The combination aims to develop a strong sense of self & discover power in self-expression. It proved successful and launched a separate dance and theater program at the Center. These programs grew and eventually blossomed into our full-fledged Destiny Arts Center Youth Performance Company. In 1996, we welcomed the three to six-year-olds into the program to learn movement and safety through the Teddy Bear Club.

Today, Destiny Arts Center runs year-round programs serving over 200 young people in youth leadership, dance, Performance Theater and martial arts at our Center and over one hundred more in our Outreach Programs at schools and housing projects. In 1999-2000, approximately 6,000 people attended performances by the DAC Performance Company or workshops led by youth leaders.


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