Calling All Crows: Building A Musicians’ Movement For Change

We love it when entertainers are inspired to mobilize their peers and fans to get involved in a cause, and work together toward a goal. And one of our favorite examples is Calling All Crows, a nascent musicians' movement. Here's what it's all about, according to the website:

Calling All Crows is dedicated to mobilizing musicians and fans to promote human rights.

Founded by musician Chad Stokes (of the bands State Radio and Dispatch) and his activist partner Sybil Gallagher, Calling All Crows is currently focused on ending violence against women and inspiring public service.

Please take a look around, learn more about the human rights issues we care so passionately about, and be sure to join our Action Network!

“If you feel like you are witnessing a movement, then get up girl and let them know you’re free.”

- Calling All Crows, State Radio

Stokes is truly dedicated to making something big and important happen. He recently explained his vision in the Huffington Post, with an essay called Music, Service, and A Long Overdue Strategy. It's a call for the music industry as a whole to organize its efforts to promote positive action.

Consider a few inspiring examples of our industry's recent involvement in service:

Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band led a beach cleanup in San Diego with the Surfrider Foundation to commemorate the September 11th Day of Remembrance & Service. Phish and the Waterwheel Foundation recently challenged fans to serve 8,000 hours in their communities before their Festival 8 over Halloween Weekend. EFFECT and The Voluntour spent the summer leveraging the President & First Lady's United We Serve campaign; pulling more bands and, in turn, more fans into the world of volunteerism. Our friends Brett Dennen and John Butler have teamed up with CLIF Bar's GreenNotes program and demonstrated what's possible when the private sector puts the power of the corporate dollar behind service to "protect the places we play."

It's a great start, but we still have a long way to go. Together we must do more, be smarter, and speak with one voice as an industry to be recognized as a force for good. Combined, we have the untapped potential of thousands -- or millions -- of live music fans, just waiting to make their community, nation, and world a better place in very specific, hands-on, tangible ways.

And then he explains how his band, State Radio, is leading by example.

Nearly every other day while State Radio is on tour, Calling All Crows, the band's human rights organization, coordinates pre-show service projects with local nonprofits and social service agencies. Members of the band, our crew, and area fans unite to address critical needs in each city. For instance, last week in Lawrence, Kansas, we cleaned out a storage space with the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and next week we'll kickoff the second leg of our fall tour with a beach cleanup at Long Wharf Nature Preserve with Save the Sound in New Haven, Connecticut.

We're building sustainable, local networks of volunteers that can be mobilized through service to address communities' most pressing challenges like hunger, homelessness, and an ever-neglected environment. Calling All Crows' Action Leaders (super fan volunteers in each city) help to identify projects in their area, coordinate with local nonprofit partners, promote the event, recruit other volunteers, and then tell their stories of service through photos, video and blogs. The impact is tangible and the experience contagious for all involved.

That's an incredibly creative way of weaving service and idealism into the work of playing music, and no doubt helps fuel Stokes' creative process in return. So it's a virtuous circle, and we could always use a lot more of those.

If you would like to get involved, sign up here. And while you are it, check out some of State Radio's great music, and browse their videos. This video explores the making and meaning of the song "Calling All Crows."