Music is Medicine
Donation protected
We have an opportunity to bring live music into a large ICE IMMIGRATION DETENTION FACILITY. We are asking for seed money to help us
1) cover the expenses involved in making our first trip to the facility to which we have been invited to perform,
2) help us to continue this project by establishing our own non -profit organization or finding an existing non profit which will act as an umbrella organization for our future fundraising to help us visit as many of these facilities as possible.
For the last few years we have watched with growing despair and helpless anger the plight of refugees to our country - detention, family separations and confinement for people whose only motives for coming to the USA are desperate poverty, fear of local violence, and the simple desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.
We personally can do nothing to change the political firestorm raging over this issue. We can, with your help, provide some comfort, love and a sense of welcoming to some of the people caught up in this awful situation.
My name is Ward Abronski. For over 30 years I led a local San Francisco band (www.polkacide.com)which started as a kind of ironic performance/ dance band at a local punk club, but which soon branched out to perform at all sorts of venues first local bars and clubs, gradually playing events such as large Oktoberfests, countless weddings and private parties, etc. During that time we also did just about every benefit for every local cause we could support. We played in locked psychiatric wards, large public nursing homes, supported causes such as Needle Exchange programs here in the Bay Area, raised money for local schools, music education, AIDS programs, worked with the very wonderful Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in their efforts to raise money and awareness in support of LGBTQ issues, done benefits in support of sex workers, played for events collecting food for local food banks and toys for kids. We have a long and verifiable record of support for publicly minded zaniness.
I have been in contact with the person in charge of Detainee Programming and Volunteer Coordination at the Mesa Verde ICE Immigration Detention Facility in Bakersfield CA. She’s informed me that they have hoped for sometime to bring live music into their facility but have been experiencing difficulty in finding folks to play who were available to go through the screening and orientation procedures necessary before a performance can be scheduled. Well, they’ve found some musicians who will, if only we can cover our expenses.
Polkacide is too big, too large and too much in need of serious sound reinforcement to perform in these places. This can not be a Polkacide project. My pitch to the Director was for a few, mostly acoustic players - probably myself on vocals and sax, our accordion player, and a back line of a small drum kit and tuba and or bass. We will be bringing stripped down versions of Polkacide material. We are in the process of filling out forms for the security clearances now. Because of the distances involved - Bakersfield is about a 4 or 5 hour drive from the SF Bay Area - and the uncertainties involving the facility’s ability to schedule our orientation and show, we are sending in clearance applications for myself and our accordion player and six other musicians to cover the two back line positions. It is quite possible that those who end up doing the performances will need to make two separate trips to Bakersfield or possibly one trip which includes an overnight stay.
The funding goal we’ve set is more than will be necessary to bankroll our first trip. What’s left over after that will be used to develop nonprofit funding for our larger goal of either making multiple trips to various sites around the country or possibly a tour of as many facilities as possible. We hope to attract the attention of some existing non profit who may be able to act as an umbrella organization for our efforts or, if absolutely necessary set up our own non profit and pay for legal fees, filing fees, accountant consultation, etc.
Humans need music and art as much as we need food shelter and the comfort of our communities. Musicians can create a space in which time seems suspended, the current moment seems to be the only moment, and a time and space where at the very least we can find momentary distractions from our current problems. At the other end of that spectrum is the possibility of spiritual uplift and community reenforcement.
We've all seen the images associated with this current humanitarian crisis, we’ve heard the heartbreaking sound bites of children crying after having been separated from their families. What these people have been through to get here, what they are going through in hopes of staying here... it all seems so enormously awful and overwhelming.We are musicians. Frankly, we stink at practical matters like filling out forms and dealing with large governmental and corporate entities. We are not political actors. But this opening is something we can do to bring some kindness and possibly brief flashes of joy to people who desperately need it.
We’ve got this as far as performances go. We’ve got the opportunity, determination and skills necessary to make this happen . We have everything we need to make this happen except the funds to do it. Please help us by sending whatever you can afford, by spreading the word about our project to anyone you know.
Music is medicine and this is an emergency. Let’s get this Polka train on the road, friends. We can’t do this without you. Without the funds, this is just a lot of hope and talk. Help us put our music to some desperately needed use.
I have been asked by GoFund Me to add the following information.
1) My name is Ward Abronski. I’m from San Francisco, where I’ve been a musician and
band leader over35 years.
2) My relationship to the beneficiaries of this fund raising effort....I wish to bring a group of musicians into the ICE Immigration Processing Facility Mesa Verde in Bakersfield California to play shows for the detainees incarcerated there.
3) How the funds will be spent. So far, we’ve paid out for travel expenses to and fromBakersfield once already for orientation, will have similar expenses when we travel down in February to do the shows. I have offered to pay the musicians for eight hours at San Francisco minimum wage for the day of orientation and the day of the shows. Between today January 3 and our show date of February 1, I expect to incur expenses for rehearsal studio rentals, and miscellaneous project related expenses, for example we may have to rent a generator in Bakersfield if our scheduled shows there are out in an exercise yard within the facility.
4) I have and plan to continue disbursing funds so that none of my musicians will have to go into their own pockets to do this. Any funds left over will be used for operating expenses involved in finding sponsorship for a much larger version of this project.
1) cover the expenses involved in making our first trip to the facility to which we have been invited to perform,
2) help us to continue this project by establishing our own non -profit organization or finding an existing non profit which will act as an umbrella organization for our future fundraising to help us visit as many of these facilities as possible.
For the last few years we have watched with growing despair and helpless anger the plight of refugees to our country - detention, family separations and confinement for people whose only motives for coming to the USA are desperate poverty, fear of local violence, and the simple desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.
We personally can do nothing to change the political firestorm raging over this issue. We can, with your help, provide some comfort, love and a sense of welcoming to some of the people caught up in this awful situation.
My name is Ward Abronski. For over 30 years I led a local San Francisco band (www.polkacide.com)which started as a kind of ironic performance/ dance band at a local punk club, but which soon branched out to perform at all sorts of venues first local bars and clubs, gradually playing events such as large Oktoberfests, countless weddings and private parties, etc. During that time we also did just about every benefit for every local cause we could support. We played in locked psychiatric wards, large public nursing homes, supported causes such as Needle Exchange programs here in the Bay Area, raised money for local schools, music education, AIDS programs, worked with the very wonderful Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in their efforts to raise money and awareness in support of LGBTQ issues, done benefits in support of sex workers, played for events collecting food for local food banks and toys for kids. We have a long and verifiable record of support for publicly minded zaniness.
I have been in contact with the person in charge of Detainee Programming and Volunteer Coordination at the Mesa Verde ICE Immigration Detention Facility in Bakersfield CA. She’s informed me that they have hoped for sometime to bring live music into their facility but have been experiencing difficulty in finding folks to play who were available to go through the screening and orientation procedures necessary before a performance can be scheduled. Well, they’ve found some musicians who will, if only we can cover our expenses.
Polkacide is too big, too large and too much in need of serious sound reinforcement to perform in these places. This can not be a Polkacide project. My pitch to the Director was for a few, mostly acoustic players - probably myself on vocals and sax, our accordion player, and a back line of a small drum kit and tuba and or bass. We will be bringing stripped down versions of Polkacide material. We are in the process of filling out forms for the security clearances now. Because of the distances involved - Bakersfield is about a 4 or 5 hour drive from the SF Bay Area - and the uncertainties involving the facility’s ability to schedule our orientation and show, we are sending in clearance applications for myself and our accordion player and six other musicians to cover the two back line positions. It is quite possible that those who end up doing the performances will need to make two separate trips to Bakersfield or possibly one trip which includes an overnight stay.
The funding goal we’ve set is more than will be necessary to bankroll our first trip. What’s left over after that will be used to develop nonprofit funding for our larger goal of either making multiple trips to various sites around the country or possibly a tour of as many facilities as possible. We hope to attract the attention of some existing non profit who may be able to act as an umbrella organization for our efforts or, if absolutely necessary set up our own non profit and pay for legal fees, filing fees, accountant consultation, etc.
Humans need music and art as much as we need food shelter and the comfort of our communities. Musicians can create a space in which time seems suspended, the current moment seems to be the only moment, and a time and space where at the very least we can find momentary distractions from our current problems. At the other end of that spectrum is the possibility of spiritual uplift and community reenforcement.
We've all seen the images associated with this current humanitarian crisis, we’ve heard the heartbreaking sound bites of children crying after having been separated from their families. What these people have been through to get here, what they are going through in hopes of staying here... it all seems so enormously awful and overwhelming.We are musicians. Frankly, we stink at practical matters like filling out forms and dealing with large governmental and corporate entities. We are not political actors. But this opening is something we can do to bring some kindness and possibly brief flashes of joy to people who desperately need it.
We’ve got this as far as performances go. We’ve got the opportunity, determination and skills necessary to make this happen . We have everything we need to make this happen except the funds to do it. Please help us by sending whatever you can afford, by spreading the word about our project to anyone you know.
Music is medicine and this is an emergency. Let’s get this Polka train on the road, friends. We can’t do this without you. Without the funds, this is just a lot of hope and talk. Help us put our music to some desperately needed use.
I have been asked by GoFund Me to add the following information.
1) My name is Ward Abronski. I’m from San Francisco, where I’ve been a musician and
band leader over35 years.
2) My relationship to the beneficiaries of this fund raising effort....I wish to bring a group of musicians into the ICE Immigration Processing Facility Mesa Verde in Bakersfield California to play shows for the detainees incarcerated there.
3) How the funds will be spent. So far, we’ve paid out for travel expenses to and fromBakersfield once already for orientation, will have similar expenses when we travel down in February to do the shows. I have offered to pay the musicians for eight hours at San Francisco minimum wage for the day of orientation and the day of the shows. Between today January 3 and our show date of February 1, I expect to incur expenses for rehearsal studio rentals, and miscellaneous project related expenses, for example we may have to rent a generator in Bakersfield if our scheduled shows there are out in an exercise yard within the facility.
4) I have and plan to continue disbursing funds so that none of my musicians will have to go into their own pockets to do this. Any funds left over will be used for operating expenses involved in finding sponsorship for a much larger version of this project.
Organizer
Ward Abronski
Organizer
San Francisco, CA