Seattle activist-musician, Tae Phoenix, releases new song and video to inspire voter turnout

SEATTLE - Oct. 30, 2018 - PRLog -- Seattle activist-musician Tae Phoenix is releasing a new song, "We Shall Not Be Moved" with an accompanying video today to drive voter turnout. "My goal is to inspire people to vote in solidarity with their loved ones and the broader human community. I believe that our society benefits most when people include "voter" as part of their identity," she said.

Phoenix has partnered with The New Data Project to promote Vote With Me, (https://votewithme.us/r/wsnbm) a free app for iOS and Android that helps users identify the people in their lives who need the most encouragement to vote; whether that's because they haven't voted in the recent past or because they are eligible to vote in a battleground race where their vote could make the most difference.

Phoenix's version of "We Shall Not Be Moved" is an adaption of the famed African American spiritual and civil rights song. She wrote it after participating in a 1000-person counter-protest to a right-wing rally in Seattle in 2017. "In response to threatened police action, several hundred of us sat down in the street and began singing "We Shall Not Be Moved." I was handed a microphone and asked to lead the singing. Singing together transformed my fear into a feeling of profound fellowship and trust," she said.

Phoenix said she hopes that this version of the song will bring that same sense of fellowship to a broader audience and remind them of what we are fighting for. "The song speaks to who we are as Americans. We are putting our foot down. We are not going backwards. We shall not be moved."

The goal is for the video to go viral and drive downloads of the Vote With Me app. "Inviting a friend to be a voter with you is up to 20 times more likely to get them to the polls than a stranger knocking on your door," said Mikey Dickerson, executive director of The New Data Project, the nonprofit behind the Vote With Me app. "We are excited that Tae has decided to use her music to help bring awareness to our app."

Phoenix is also using the video to draw attention to resources available to voters from the national, nonpartisan Election Protection (https://866ourvote.org/) coalition which is working to combat voter suppression and ensure equal access to the democratic process.

"We Shall Not Be Moved" was produced by Maurice Jones Jr. and features Josephine Howell & Friends, a Seattle-based gospel ensemble. The song was recorded at Red Door Studios and Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, WA. The video was co-directed by Lara Lavi and Wayne Rutledge.

Learn more about the song and see the video: https://taephoenix.com/WSNBM/

(https://taephoenix.com/WSNBM/)

ABOUT TAE PHOENIX

https://taephoenix.com/WSNBM/

Tae Phoenix is a Seattle-based activist-musician. She has performed at the Village Theatre, The Paramount, Safeco Field, and Key Arena. She has played the SXSW music festival, toured internationally in Europe, and performed at the St. Lucia Jazz Festival. Tae participated in the recent protests against Brett Kavanaugh in Washington, DC. She was arrested (along with hundreds of other activists from around the country) for singing "Somebody's Hurting My Sisters" outside of Senator Joni Ernst's (R-IA) office, in front of the Supreme Court, and in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building. She is active within a wide range of organizations including Indivisible, Poor People's Campaign, Seattle Families Belong Together Coalition, and Women's March.

ABOUT VOTE WITH ME

http://www.votewithme.us (http://www.votewithme.us/r/wsnbm)

VoteWithMe was created by The New Data Project, a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization. The executive director is Mikey Dickerson, the former Administrator of the U.S. Digital Service under President Obama, who led the team to repair healthcare.gov and was an early leader of Google's Site Reliability Engineering team.