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Anti-Pipeline Musicians Livestream To Raise Funds, Awareness

Randi B. Hagi

The SUN SiNG Collective is a group of musicians and artists from across Virginia producing original work to protest the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines. They, along with their parent organization, ARTivism Virginia, are now broadcasting livestream concerts twice a month. WMRA’s Randi B. Hagi reports.

Credit Screenshot from a recent concert
Rachel Eddy is a fiddler from West Virginia now living in Alexandria.

[Music by Holy River]

The SUN SiNG Collective’s first big project, back in 2018, was to outfit the “Sun Bus,” a van with a lift and four-wheel drive, big mud tires, and solar panels on top that power a 5,000 watt concert-level sound system. Since then they’ve held concerts, with and without the bus, to raise money and awareness for various environmental justice activists. And the quarantine hasn’t stopped them. Joshua Vana is ARTivism Virginia’s co-director, based in Albemarle County.

JOSHUA VANA: With these concerts, we were looking for a way to support that work, mainly to defeat the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines, by helping amplify call to action, and to lift up our communities with hopeful music and spoken word … So there’s, a lot of the music carries an environmental justice thread.

Credit Screenshot from a recent concert
BJ Lark performs "Eyes on the Prize"

Rachel Eddy, a fiddler from West Virginia who now resides in Alexandria, performed on the most recent livestreamed event.

[Music by Rachel Eddy]

The collective released their fourth hour-long concert last week, and plan to produce at least two more, scheduled for June 4th and 18th at 7 p.m. They broadcast live via Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo. On alternating Thursdays, they’re also running the Street Sing Workshop series over Zoom. In one recent workshop, an artist and activist taught viewers how to make flags.

VANA: The goal is to gather folks new and old from the work in our region or outside of it to hone new and existing skills, bringing art to our activism in the streets for the next time that we can convene.

To watch previous concerts, or to register for a free workshop, visit ARTivism Virginia on Facebook.

[“Eyes on the Prize” performed by BJ Lark]

Randi B. Hagi first joined the WMRA team in 2019 as a freelance reporter. Her writing and photography have been featured in The Harrisonburg Citizen, where she previously served as the assistant editor; as well as The Mennonite; Mennonite World Review; and Eastern Mennonite University's Crossroads magazine.