Invisible Children benefit loses purpose
By Emily Hoover | ehoover@flagler.edu
Drift Magazine’s Invisible Children benefit concert missed the point.
Held at Café Eleven on Nov. 14, the Invisible Children benefit concert focused on partying and listening to live music, but lacked support for displaced Ugandan children.
Drift sponsored the event in conjunction with Los Angeles-based record label Indigo Planet Records and the St. Johns Cultural Council. They didn’t show any film and presented barely any literature about the Invisible Children organization.
“I love music,” Kevin Carter, a 2000 Flagler College alumnus and representative for Drift and The St. Augustine Record, said. “I’m thankful that I work for the Drift and the Record because I love raising awareness for kids—both locally and globally.”
Carter promoted bands he loves, and, other than proceeds from the $8 cover charge, he gave no voice to the displaced Ugandan children.
As the event flyer said the event was both a compilation CD release party and a benefit, the bash outweighed the cause. However, passion for music rescued the event from purposelessness.
Californian artist Alaina Alexander, a performer at the concert and former American Idol contestant, describes her music as alternative pop. Alexander says her American Idol experience is a reason she got involved in the benefit concert.
“I try to remind myself [of American Idol] everyday, because it brought music back into my life,” Alexander said. “Doing a benefit was a chance to get involved. Doing what you love plus a good cause is easy.”
Traditional ska and reggae band, The Duppies, whose members have been playing together for six years in Gainesville, felt honored to join the benefit.
Lisa Ricci, saxophone player for The Duppies, said the Invisible Children display at the Harvest of Hope Festival in March immediately caught her attention. The booth profiled the roots of children warriors in Uganda.
Amy Hendrickson & the Prime Directive, of St. Augustine, and Lettuce Olive, of Gainesville, also performed at the event.
As bigger charity events assemble in Los Angeles for the Invisible Children organization, established in 2003, popular bands Fall Out Boy and Paramore lead the charge. In fact, Fall Out Boy visited the war-torn Uganda and participated in displacement exercises, including sleeping on the streets of urban areas, aiming to mirror the country’s strife.
Though Drift meant well in its attempt to assist the Invisible Children organization, for a successful benefit, next time it should focus more on education and less on intoxication.
Ant said:
“I think it may be the Gargoyle who misses the point.”
Actually it should read, “…the Gargoyle that missed…” since you are introducing the essential clause of the sentence, which references a group and not a person…
But regarding the event, I think Emily has some good points. You are correct that it need not be a somber event, and the purpose may have been to raise money rather than awareness per se. However, I do believe the event lost focus. It centered on the gathering rather than the reason for the gathering, and so I see Emily’s criticism as valid.
Also, how is “teetering” on the edge of homelessness in one of the world’s most affluent nations while attending a private college anything at all like sleeping on the streets of Uganda as a child soldier who was forced to murder his family? There is no comparison to be found here.
Could it possibly be that, rather than your eight dollar cover charge, the child soldiers in Uganda would prefer your understanding? Perhaps an event raising awareness is far more called for than one raising money that deals little with the issue itself. Throwing money at the issue, as your comment suggests, reflects our fundamentally American view. We want the problem to go away so we can enjoy our beer, our music, or our TV. We don’t want to understand the problem, or sympathize, we just want it to fade from view.
But the people in Uganda don’t need our money – they need our understanding.
I believe the article was valid in its points. I visited the show and the bands were on the subject but it would have been nice to know what my money was going towards. A brochure, short documentary, something….but that’s what the benefit lacked. Ant, on the other hand, has no argument at all. He failed to miss the concept of the show. Yes it was nice to have music and brew, but a bit of education about the invisible children would have made the benefit complete. Next time dude, argue a subject you know more about.
^^^
Get a life, dude.
I think it may be the Gargoyle who misses the point.
A fundraiser’s purpose is to get people who don’t care about a cause to donate money to the cause. A benefit concert gets people who don’t have much interest in the plight of Uganda to show up and give $8 a head–and possibly proceeds from beer money, although I don’t really know because Emily Hoover didn’t mention it in the piece–directly to an organization that will donate it to the cause.
Either way, the bottom line here is that you’re getting money from people who care more about going to see a show than donating to Africa. Preaching to people who don’t care is only going to turn them off and make them leave and go spend their money someplace that won’t preach to them.
Personally, if I was looking to be preached at while being shaken down for money, I’d go to church. Which explains my church-going habits.
Money, as much as we may not like to admit it, is important. So, if you’re trying to get money from people who don’t care, getting them drunk and in a happy place is more effective than a candlelight vigil and drum circle and documentary screening.
It’s a fundraiser. Not, necessarily, an awareness seminar. So have fun. The money the event raised is more beneficial than sleeping on the streets in Uganda to prove a point. Fall Out Boy has enough of the sixteen-year-olds of America’s money that they can spend a couple hundred bucks on flying to Africa to spend a night on the street.
As opposed to just taking that money and donating it directly, or something. Sure, it makes Fall Out Boy feel better about themselves, but it doesn’t really help the Ugandans.
I don’t need to experience homelessness to know it sucks. I’ve had to decide between eating this week and paying the rent. I’ve teetered on homelessness and I don’t need the point belabored to me. Trust me, I, and most of the poor townies who showed up to the event, understand.
From a purely cost-effective standpoint, I’d wager that a concert with a bunch of drunk people raised more money than a film and a collection plate.
But, hey, go ahead and slam an event that does some good while entertaining people. I’ll make sure to show up at the next silent rally in the plaza and be bored off my ass to repay my karmic debt.
I was there at cafe 11 for this event. It was extremely fun, enjoyable, and for a good cause but I am going to have agree with this article. To be honest when I left Cafe 11 I felt that I had not been properly informed about what we were all really doing there. It seems that they used the Invisible Children as an excuse to get drunk.
Dave,
I’m sorry that you feel that “the review missed a lot of details” about you’re bigger project. My aim was not to bash you, for I really enjoyed talking to you. My aim, like yours and The Drift’s and the bands who performed, was to raise awareness for Invisible Children. While you describe your project as “bigger,” none of the interviews that I conducted–and I conducted a lot–included this information. No one mentioned anything to me about the actual Insivible Children benefit or organization. You mentioned Fall Out Boy’s efforts and Paramore’s efforts, but none of your own efforts.
Neither did Kevin Carter, although he’s a sweet heart.
I don’t mean to shame the event, because I had a great time and my goal is the same as yours. I wish to spark awareness in St. Augustine about children warriors in Uganda. I hope that similar benefits will center on this. I hope that similar benefits will feature more literature and/or education, so people in my area will actually be informed enough to eagerly join the cause.