"Music frees the spirit and enlists the soul," incarcerated civil rights activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, speaking from his prison cell via audiotape, told the 3,400 people gathered in Berkeley Friday night for the Not in Our Name peace benefit concert. His message encapsulated the spirit of the evening, which saw Ani DiFranco, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Ozomatli, Saul Williams and Chuck D come together to aid the Not in Our Name Project as well as the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.

Chuck D and his newest vehicle, the Fine Arts Militia, opened the show with tight set of post-modern funk. The former Public Enemy frontman, like his backing soldiers, walked on stage wearing a slim, black suit, tie and skullcap. D and the Militia stayed away from cliched rhetoric and set a tone for the evening that was at once urgent, inviting and remarkably fun. With musical director and co-conspirator Brian Hardgroove taking the band on a journey through the funk lexicon -- a little James Brown here, a little Sly Stone there -- Chuck D paced the stage with a microphone and a book of writings, from which he sampled liberally, like a preacher. "Shot a gun in a club/Dreams of being a thug," D spouted during "Rebel vs. Thug," one of the pieces his band nailed. "Real thugs do real things/They don't rap, neither do they sing/End up in Sing Sing/Places like Ossining."

Ozomatli then picked up on and stoked the energy in the room with their blend of hip-hop, jazz, funk and Latin rhythms. Fans of the band and recent converts were dancing in the aisles, ushers trying to coax the celebrants back into seats. Even though their set lasted only thirty minutes, Ozomatli's exuberance was infectious, and the lobby following the performance was filled with smiling, happy activists.

Even so, the evening's sober purpose was never far from people's minds. As the next performer, the spoken-word artist Saul Williams, said: "I'm in Berkeley. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir." His impassioned missives hit home with the audience, rapt as he spewed couplets like "The greatest Americans have not been born yet/They are waiting patiently for the past to die."

Ani DiFranco, on her way to Australia and New Zealand for a tour, arrived on stage without a band and only her acoustic guitar slung over her shoulder. Over the years, DiFranco's songwriting has grown enormously, and her often simplistic lyrics of the past have given way to insightful, emotional writing. Aside from the stark metaphor of "hawks circling above the strip mall" in a new song she debuted, the most compelling performance of the entire evening came when DiFranco laid down her guitar, paid homage to Chuck D, and launched into a moving performance of her poem, "Self-Evident."

"Take away our Playstations and we are a third world nation," she breathlessly demanded. "It don't take a weatherman to look around and see the weather/Jeb said he'd deliver Florida, folks, and boy did he ever." The nearly eight-minute indictment of imperialism and honorific for the victims of 9/11 brought the crowd to their feet, cheering.

By the time Michael Franti and Spearhead were introduced, the audience was emotionally spent, but reignited for the local hip-hop activist and prognosticator. Franti infuses so much emotion and energy into his performances that even when his lyrics verge on cliche -- "What I be is what I be" -- there is no way not to believe what he says. With a soulful groove behind him on "Power to the Peaceful," Franti pogo-ed around the stage, inciting the crowd to do the same. "We may find the solution to hunger and disease," he sang in his fractured baritone, "but we can't find the end to peace."

The concert, produced flawlessly by social action organizers Sage Productions, ended at one minute after midnight, with every artist arriving on stage to send supporters off into the night. As people filed out of the auditorium, an almost reverential silence descended, even as Franti's words rang on: "Someone asked me recently how one person can make a difference. I don't know, but I do know that one person can join together with others. That will make a difference."

ANDREW STRICKMAN
(February 3, 2003)