Adelita Serena, Woodland resident and organizer for Mothers Out Front, with her son and California families at a Climate last year.
For fifty years, Earth Day has been celebrated with large, public gatherings worldwide. Weekly climate strikes have been held every Friday in downtown Davis since Sept. 20. This year, climate activists in Davis, Yolo, Solano, and Sacramento counties instead joined voices in song and political action from their homes. And the youth-inspired Davis group will continue to raise their voices in song every Friday until the shelter-in-place rules are lifted.
Community members are invited to join in from the comfort of their home or at a safe distance from others outside. A collection of over thirty Earth Day songs selected by an intergenerational group of climate activists is available as a video playlist here, a KDRT radio show, and as a booklet on the Climate Strike Davis website (www.climatestrikedavis.com).
Home-made videos brought together family members across generations, parents and kids, aspiring singer-songwriters, and international allies, along with established local Davis musical talent and were broadcast on Davis Media Access. The tunes are catchy and fun to sign-a-long to. The public is invited to keep singing, and follow up their songs with phone calls and letters to the government, asking them to act to protect frontline communities and young people from the climate crisis.
One such call to action comes from Adelita Serena, a Woodland-based organizer with Mothers Out Front: “As a mother I want to empower myself and others to advocate for the future our children deserve, a future that is sustainable for all. It is harder to deny the science that the same communities who are impacted by the oil industry, who bear the health impacts of air pollution, are the ones that are at-risk from the most severe impacts of coronavirus.”
Raul Sierra, age 11, sings out from his home in north Davis. Raul has been striking for climate since May 2019.
Organizers point out that many lessons can be drawn from the political response to COVID-19 for tackling the looming climate crisis. Sunrise Davis hub and the Climate Reality Corps are hosting Sunday meetings from 2-3 pm via Zoom to help explore these connections and support locals with political action.
“The irony of this time,” adds UC Davis student Hannah de la Calle with Sunrise Movement Davis, a youth-led movement advocating for a Green New Deal, “is that while we shelter in our homes, this experience of fighting to keep humanity safe from the Coronavirus has unified us more than ever. Through lifting our voices in unison we can express this interconnectedness.”
“Now more than ever it’s important for us to connect our community in joy, solidarity and care while taking action to protect our planet and our global family,” said Faith Attaguile with Extinction Rebellion Sacramento.
Project partner, the Davis Independent Music Initiative (DIMI), with help from a City of Davis Arts & Cultural Affairs grant and the Sierra Club Yolano Group, is sponsoring local musicians who have lost work in the crisis to record Earth Day songs using the #earthdaysingout hashtag on social media. Those who would like to apply for funds can do so here. New songs will be released by DIMI through May 9th, in conjunction with Mother’s Day and Whole Earth Festival.
Musicians (and anyone who loves to sing) are invited to make a short video to share on YouTube, either from the songbook or their own earth song, and share with a call for action and the hashtags #earthdaysingoutdavis, #earthdaysingout, and #earthday2020. Songs will be released from now through May 9th.
This celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day is organized by Climate Strike Davis, Sunrise Movement Davis, Davis Media Access + KDRT, Extinction Rebellion Sacramento, Cool Davis, Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice, Davis Independent Music Initiative, Mothers Out Front, and the Climate Reality Project Corps at UC Davis. Musician funding is supported, in part, by a grant from the City of Davis Arts & Cultural Affairs program and the Sierra Club Yolano Group.
Learn more and take action at: www.climatestrikedavis.com.
