SOUNDS OF FREEDOM

Come to a book signing with author, musician and activist John Malkin. SOUNDS OF FREEDOM is a compilation of interviews with sixteen musicians speaking about social change and spiritual growth and is published by non-profit Parallax Press. The featured artists include Ani DiFranco, Laurie Anderson, the Indigo Girls, Philip Glass, Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Franti, Utah Phillips, John Trudell, Tom Morello, Holly Near, Boots Riley, Michelle Shocked, Darryl Cherney, Steve Reich and Goapele.

BOOTS RILEY will be a special guest at the book talk. Boots and The Coup are releasing a new album in April titled Pick a Bigger Weapon. Boots' father worked with the NAACP, CORE, and the Black Panthers; Boots became a social change activist at a young age as a member of the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective and Young Comrades, and channeled his social activism into music in the early 1990s.

In SOUNDS OF FREEDOM, Boots says, "When people say that they are spiritual, I think that they mean that they are in touch with the universe. And that is what I want to be. That is why I want to be involved with things and involved with the world. By being involved in the world I am more alive."

SOUNDS OF FREEDOM includes an introduction by Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and comes with an audio CD that has one song from each of the featured artists. All of the interviews were originally broadcast on John’s weekly radio program on Free Radio Santa Cruz, a commercial-free, collectively-run station that has been operating without a license from the U.S. government for eleven years. “The Great Leap Forward” can be heard every Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 pm on Free Radio Santa Cruz. FRSC broadcasts 24 hours a day at 101.1 FM and globally at http://www.freakradio.org.

“This book Rocks!” - Common Ground magazine

“In this wise and thoughtful book, John Malkin asks the right questions and illuminates the often hidden meanings and intentions that motivate the popular and radical icons represented in Sounds of Freedom. If you love music and want to change the world, this book is for you.”
- Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx