New Music Compilation Supports the Palestinian Call to Boycott Israel
Amid global demands for ceasefire, musicians organize for the long-term fight for Palestinian rights
Contact: media@amplifypalestine.org
Album to be launched on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms November 3, including music from Tamar-kali, Morley, and Red Baraat
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2023 – Over a dozen leading musicians are set to release a new album, Rise Up: BDS Mixtape Volume 2, to amplify the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel to respect Palestinian rights. Due out on all platforms November 3, the compilation comes amid a wave of artists expressing solidarity with Palestinians and a global outcry demanding an end to Israel’s attack on Gaza, which has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
Allison Brown, from the album’s collectively run label Amplify Palestine, stated, “Artists have always played an important role in freedom struggles. That so many musicians have come together to create the BDS Mixtape series reflects how today, the movement to free Palestine is becoming a meeting place for those who dream of a world where everyone is free.”
With musicians hailing from Hawai’i to New York to Palestine, Rise Up showcases musical styles from across the globe, with tracks that blend genres and make connections across cultures, such as Azraq’s oud interpretation of a blues classic, Taína Asili’s fusion of Afro-Latin and rock, and Free Radicals’ multilingual rap featuring lyricists from Houston, Cape Town, and Gaza.
The mixtape’s release comes as Israel’s far-right government wages an intense military campaign, described as potentially genocide or genocide by experts, targeting 2.2 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip. A UN expert had already said in 2018 that Gaza had become unliveable due to Israel’s siege that began in 2007.
Many artists and writers, including Tilda Swinton, Kara Walker, Sandra Oh, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, have called for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, and Writers Against the War on Gaza urges endorsement of the Palestinian call for the cultural boycott of Israel. Multiple artists who spoke out for Palestinian rights have reported attempts to punish or intimidate them into silence, with Artforum’s retaliatory firing of editor in chief David Velasco and 92NY’s cancellation of a talk by Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen prompting staff resignations at both institutions and widespread criticism from artists and writers.
Amplify Palestine’s BDS Mixtape series takes inspiration from the 1985 Sun City album from artists boycotting apartheid South Africa. Rise Up’s liner notes nod to the music world’s history of solidarity with Palestine, citing Sam Smith, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Buddy Guy, Big Thief, and BadBadNotGood as some of the most recent musicians to respect the Palestinian call to boycott Israeli cultural institutions and other institutions complicit in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies and practices.
Proceeds from album sales and streaming will support cultural initiatives in Palestine through Adalah-NY’s Amplify Palestine campaign.
The BDS Mixtape series was initiated by Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel and BDS Houston and is collaboratively produced by a team of musicians, cultural workers, educators, and grassroots organizers under the label Amplify Palestine. The label’s first release, People of Eternity: BDS Mixtape Volume 1, was covered in FADER, Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, Mixmag SoundCloud, and Bandcamp Daily: Essential Releases. Rise Up: BDS Mixtape Volume 2 contributors Free Radicals will celebrate the album’s release at their November 17 concert at Avant Garden in Houston.
Available for interviews: Sonny Singh (co-producer and contributor), Taína Asili (contributor), and Elias Rischmawi (cover art and design). Contact: media@amplifypalestine.org
Album preview (tracks, liner notes, full credits) available here
Press packet with cover art, artist photos, and artist quotes available here