{"id":187229,"date":"2025-09-17T09:13:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/09\/17\/americana-artists-urge-compassion-not-vengeance-after-charlie-kirk-shooting\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T09:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:13:50","slug":"americana-artists-urge-compassion-not-vengeance-after-charlie-kirk-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/09\/17\/americana-artists-urge-compassion-not-vengeance-after-charlie-kirk-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Americana Artists Urge Compassion, Not Vengeance, After Charlie Kirk\u00a0Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tAttendees of the Americana Music Conference who might have expected a heated debate during a fitting conversation on political activism instead encountered an impressive calm on Sept.\u00a011, as a decidedly progressive panel called for a respectful response to the assassination of a controversial conservative personality.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerica was dazed, confused and angry following the Sept.\u00a010 shooting of Charlie Kirk, with people on both sides of the political aisle engaging in familiar verbal attacks online.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n
\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jason<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tJason Aldean, Kane Brown and Other Artists Speak Out on Charlie Kirk Killing & Colorado School\u00a0Shooting\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

<\/time><\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Beyonc\u00e9\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tSuspect Arrested in Theft of Beyonc\u00e9’s Unreleased Music\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

<\/time><\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Above<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tCoachella Lineup in September? Why the Festival Is Going on Sale So Early in 2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

<\/time><\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBut Americana artists Allison Russell<\/a>\u00a0and Margo Price<\/a>\u00a0avoided outrage, as Russell expressed empathy for Kirk and other members of the conservative movement responsible for taking rights away from women and immigrants.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe news was devastating,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThe reaction I found, in some ways, even more devastating. When we lose our moral compass \u2014 out of anger, out of vengeance, out of grief \u2014 we become that which we repudiate. We become it. So when people say things like, \u2018He deserved it,\u2019 that\u2019s not it. We can forgive\u2026 We cannot operate from a place of vengeance, of violence, of shame and blame. It just doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Americana Music Association announced the panel \u201cArt\u00a0& Activism\u201d weeks before the convention\u2019s start. Even if Kirk had not been shot, the discussion would still have been appropriate. It was moderated by Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones<\/strong>, D-District 52, who gained national attention as a member of the so-called Tennessee Three, legislators who were punished by the Republican majority for their animated demonstrations in favor of gun regulation following a shooting at Nashville\u2019s Covenant School in 2023. Lawmakers declined to enact any meaningful reform at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tJones has modeled his efforts as an activist and reformer on the work of Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King\u00a0Jr.\u00a0and John Lewis, who was among the demonstrators at Nashville lunch counters when sit-ins broke out across the South in 1960.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
Subscribe to\u00a0Billboard Country Update<\/a>, the industry\u2019s must-have source for news, charts, analysis and features.\u00a0Sign up for free delivery<\/a>\u00a0every week.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tThe city now boasts the National Museum of African-American Music, located on the same block where Lewis boarded a bus for Alabama in 1961 to join the Freedom Rides, employing nonviolent strategies in a key milestone of the movement. While much of mainstream country\u2019s audience, and many of its artists \u2014 most of them based in Nashville \u2014 are squarely conservative, a good portion of the industry\u2019s executives are determined to expand the genre\u2019s reach among minority populations, including Blacks, Hispanics and the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBeing in this country music space has been so challenging for me,\u201d Price said. \u201cPeople tell me that I can\u2019t say things or to tone it down. [But] I think that we are at such a crucial time in the loss of our democracy. You\u2019ve got to be able to sing truth to power. Let\u2019s dream of a better world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell, an openly gay Black artist adopted by a white supremacist family in Montreal, recalled a visit with extended relatives in Edmonton, Alberta, when she heard Tracy Chapman\u2019s a\u00a0cappella \u201cBehind the Wall,\u201d a song about domestic abuse featured on the same album as breakthrough hit \u201cFast Car.\u201d It was the first time that Russell realized she could change the trajectory of her life, and it informed her passion for songs that make a difference in the world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnytime you\u2019re singing a message, it\u2019s kind of like that \u2018spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,\u2019\u00a0\u201d she said, referencing a song from Mary Poppins. \u201cIt opens people up to receive, maybe, news that they would not otherwise take into their system.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"Billboard
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRussell referenced Bloody Sunday \u2014 a moment in 1965 when Lewis and others were beaten by state troopers while peacefully marching for civil rights in Selma, Ala. \u2014 and mentioned meeting an activist from that era who talked about extending forgiveness to his oppressors. Russell said that same spirit is required while progressive forces fight against the erosion of rights that\u2019s taken place in America over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have to learn to forgive the unforgivable in order to liberate ourselves from these endless cycles of harm and violence,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJoan Baez, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Woody Guthrie and folk singer Odetta\u00a0\u2014 artists who opposed the Vietnam War, racism and fascists in previous eras \u2014 were among those mentioned as inspirations for Price and Russell. Their support of blue-collar communities set an example that the \u201cArt\u00a0& Activism\u201d panel encouraged today\u2019s musicmakers to follow.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese are very difficult times,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe saying that \u2018democracy dies in darkness\u2019 \u2014 I say that creativity dies in isolation, and fascism thrives in both. We are connected for a reason, and I know that we shall overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attendees of the Americana Music Conference who might have expected a heated debate during a fitting conversation on political activism instead encountered an impressive calm on Sept.\u00a011, as a decidedly progressive panel called for a respectful response to the assassination of a controversial conservative personality. America was dazed, confused and angry following the Sept.\u00a010 shooting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}