#StandTogether – Where is the response from artists about the divisive rhetoric?

This is how I feel right now. I don’t want to feel like this but I do.

I want to do something that stands up to the brutish hectoring and divisive narratives that keep pouring out from the campaign. Who is with me on this?

When I was a student we stood up, we supported the Rock against Racism movement, we were not going to stand for the bully boy tactics of the racist gangs – we confronted them and artists stood shoulder to shoulder against the wave of hatred and bigotry of the time.

I look around now for the counter culture, the movements that challenge wave after wave of austerity that have been slowly cooking this melting pot of anger. We need to create a new alternative voice, a new chorus of disapproval and not let the politics of division and hate win the day.

I am angry that this situation has crept up on us. We could see it coming surely? History has shown us that plenty of times.

So, we need to find a new voice, that connects across all cultures and counters the narrative of fear.

I want to connect with people who feel the same, who want to do something, make something, and to stand up and make a difference.

Whatever happens after June 23rd we are going to have a lot of repair work to do – we need to reconnect with our humanity and not allow the divisions to deepen and fracture us.

This can be the point we can get together and make a real difference. Who’s in?

#StandTogether