19 Apr 2015
Cultural Report Assignment
1. I attended the 2015 Earth day concert located in the national mall for my cultural report. The date was 18 Apr 2015 and began at 11am. The website for the event is http://www.earthday.org/globalcitizen2015earthday

2. This event was a free concert to support and promote Earth day around the world. There were over 30 activist and celebrities who were there to advocate taking action against the deforestation of the rainforest, climate change, and reducing our carbon footprint. The event, which was located in front of the Washington Monument on the national mall, was a political rally as well as a concert to support change and environmental awareness. The performances ranged from Hip-Hop to R&B to Pop music from artist such as Fall Out Boy, Train, Usher, Common, Mary J. Blige, and No Doubt.

3. My reason for choosing this event was that the topics of discussion on the global environment are extremely important. Unless we reduce our carbon foot print, we may not have a planet to pass down to the next generation. Another reason was for the actually concert venue itself. A ticket to an event which showcases all of these performers would have cost well over $150 dollars. I was able to attend for free and have a picnic under the cherry blossom trees as the musician’s played their ballads.

4. The setting was outside right on the front lawn of the Washington Monument. The weather was actually superb since there was no rain and slight overcast which provided some shade at time. This concert was entirely free and was attended by over 100,000 patrons supporting Earth day activities. It was very easy to find since they have been advertising the concert on Television and radio for the last 2 weeks her in the DMV area. The patrons who were in attendance also seemed to be enjoying themselves as the event went into the late afternoon. Many people just enjoyed being outside after a long and chilling winter.
5. A particular performance that I found especially interesting was the performance between Common and Usher when they performed Common’s Grammy award winning hit “Glory” from the movie Selma. The performance literally gave me chills as people in the audience shed tears from listening to the lyrics. Even though the original song was performed by John Legend and Common, Usher was still able to contribute significantly to the song in his own right.

6. Here is a link to the actual concert venue https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/2015earthday/

7. In relation to course content, I would say that I have a more profound outlook on artist that I generally did not follow before. I may not have known how good some of the performer’s where unless this concert was free. I took the relation of the course material to a finer appreciation of the arts in a humanistic approach. For example, you don’t have to be a fan of hip-hop to appreciate Common’s lyrics from Glory. It was the message behind the lyrics that will inspire you.

8. I felt lucky to live within the district to be able to take apart of events such as this. It is not every day you get to attend a free concert on the national mall and share in that experience with over 100,000 people from all over the world. I also learned about some of the struggles that other countries are facing around the world in regards to climate change, pollution, and open defection. Open defecation is a very serious problem in developing countries and is a growing global concern. There are more people on the planet with cell phones than access to toilets. 9. I learned that despite all of our differences, we are all global citizens. From the farmers in Nebraska, to the farmers in India, we all have a part to play in protecting the environment and ensuring that this planet, the only one we have at the moment, continues to provide us the safety and security that we all enjoy. The human race is capable of coming together regardless of our backgrounds to make significant changes to how we treat the planet and pass it on to the next generation intact.