As the summer concert season rapidly approaches, our music outreach shifts into high gear. In addition to many festivals (like Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Summer Camp, and Gathering of the Vibes), Oxfam volunteers connect with thousands of fellow music fans at concerts by artists who support our work. This summer, a diverse group of artists have invited our volunteers to join them at select shows.

So make sure you look for Oxfam, and learn more about our efforts to right the wrongs of poverty and injustice, at these summer dates by the following great bands:

1. Fitz & The Tantrums

Known for their incredibly fun live shows, Fitz & The Tantrums plan to spend most of the rest of 2013 on the road, and Oxfam will be at many of their tour dates too.

Fitz & the Tantrums. Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

2. The National

Touring behind their new album, Trouble Will Find Me (out May 20), The National recently released a video for “Demons” from that album:

3. DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow has been an Oxfam supporter since his trip with Oxfam to Kenya in 2007 (see more about the trip in the video below). His current tour features his “All Basses Covered” DJ set.

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Did you have your photo taken by an Oxfam volunteer at a Coldplay concert this summer? Were you drawn into a compelling conversation with someone dressed as a tomato, taco, or giant banana? If so, you might just make a cameo appearance in an exclusive Coldplay tour video. The brand-new video, released today, features special tour footage shared by Coldplay as a way to say thank you to all of the fans who supported Oxfam on their recent world tour:

Here in the US, you may have caught the multiple-Grammy-winning Oxfam ambassadors as they trekked across the country on this summer’s “Mylo Xyloto” tour. Coldplay invited Oxfam America volunteers to join them at every date as a way to spread the word about Oxfam’s GROW Campaign for food justice.

Nearly 600 volunteers joined Coldplay at 28 concerts from coast to coast. Some even took the plunge and dressed up in food costumes, which served as a great conversation starter and helped draw attention to the cause. Thanks to the volunteers’ efforts, 13,000 new US supporters took Oxfam’s GROW pledge this summer. They’ll now be part of the Oxfam community, and will have the opportunity to take action against hunger and tell companies and governments to make our food system fairer for everyone. And that’s an accomplishment well worth celebrating—taco suit not required.

Oxfam America’s Music Outreach team joined music fans from all over the world at the recent Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. In our fifth consecutive year at Bonnaroo, this year’s team featured Oxfam staff members and volunteers from New York, Wyoming, Indiana, New Jersey, and Vermont. We were there to talk with attendees about Oxfam’s GROW campaign for food justice and to raise awareness about the food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa. Oxfam’s team of 10 had literally thousands of conversations over the four days, and over 3,000 people signed a pledge to join our efforts.

As one of the yearly highlights of Oxfam’s festival outreach season, Bonnaroo has also become a place for music artists who support Oxfam’s work to do so in front of tens of thousands of fans. Oxfam-supporting artists like Radiohead, Flogging Molly, Fitz & The Tantrums, Aziz Ansari, and tUnE-yArDs all happened to be in the festival lineup, which allowed us to talk about the intersection of music and social justice in truly tangible ways.

A personal highlight for me was being invited to introduce a special screening of the incredible documentary The Island President in Bonnaroo’s Cinema Tent.  The award-winning movie is about the efforts of former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed to tackle climate change before it literally causes oceans to swallow his country’s land whole, and the introduction gave me a chance to talk about Oxfam’s ongoing climate justice work.

Here are a few photographic memories of Oxfam’s Bonnaroo adventures this year:

Aziz Ansari

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Aziz Ansari (from NBC's Parks and Recreation) shows his support for Oxfam and the GROW campaign just before taking the stage at the Bonnaroo comedy tent. Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

2. Make it hands-on. We host a lot of [informational] tables about Oxfam at farmers’ markets and music festivals. At one festival, we wanted to offer people something more than a petition to sign. So we invited them to use food items, like seeds or beans, to decorate postcards with what they thought a world without hunger would look like, or to write or draw a message to share with their legislators. We ended up with about 60 hand-decorated cards. When we brought the cards to our next meeting with representatives, they paid attention. Signatures are great, but a handwritten note or picture feels more personal.

3. Connect your community to the world. In Des Moines, the Oxfam Action Corps combines legislative efforts with hands-on projects that make a difference in our city. Once a month, we volunteer at community gardens or help out at a local food pantry. Talking to [our fellow volunteers] helps make people  aware of Oxfam and the international angle to the issues. It’s also a great way to bring in new volunteers who are looking for ways to give back.

4. Reach out over a meal. Food brings people together in ways that you wouldn’t expect. It was an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet that first inspired me to work with Oxfam; I’ve been part of five Hunger Banquets, and each one is different. We co-organize these events with other groups, like the ONE Campaign or students at a local university, who can bring in additional people and ideas. We also co-hosted a potluck dinner with Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet ambassadors in Iowa, and we’re planning another potluck in the spring. There are always good discussions during the meal, and afterward a lot of people come up to us wanting to get involved in our efforts.

If you want to get involved, apply here to join the Oxfam Action Corps in Des Moines and 14 other US cities.

Oxfam America CHANGE Leader Paul Gallegos recently traveled around the eastern US with the Reverb Campus Consciousness Tour, which aims to “inspire and activate students in an electric atmosphere while leaving a positive impact on each community the tour visits.”  This particular tour featured international sensation Janelle Monae and indie-popsters fun. Check out some of Paul’s highlights and his comments below:

Photo: Bob Ferguson/Oxfam America

At Cornell University, above, our second stop on the tour, about 200 people signed our petition asking Congress not to cut life-saving aid.

Photo: Josh Glasheen/Reverb

Our table was never short on information to give to inquisitive students, like these two new Oxfam supporters at the University of Maine.

Photo: Pretty Polly Productions

Janelle Monae took time out of her hectic post-show schedule to meet with a couple of Oxfam volunteers during our tour stop at Dickinson College.

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About 250 high school students participated in an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet in Iowa last fall. Photo: Sarah Peck/Oxfam America

Take a look at our event calendar right now, and you’ll notice Oxfam events coming up at schools and universities around the country. Many respond to the current drought and famine in East Africa, whether by raising funds or raising awareness about the underlying issues. “[At] a huge school like Arizona State University, it’s very common to see students who have no knowledge of the global food crisis,” said Neekta Hamidi, a junior and Oxfam CHANGE Leader. “Usually, the only students who attend events are already aware of the problems.”

Hamidi and the ASU Oxfam Club plan to spread the word with an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet—an event that’s been the heart of Oxfam’s fall campaign against hunger for nearly four decades. Guests at a Hunger Banquet are randomly assigned to one of three different income levels; each group eats a corresponding meal, from lavish to sparse. Participants can also take on the roles of different people from around world and share their experiences with others.

Because of its interactive nature, “the Hunger Banquet appeals to students with all types of interests, majors, and backgrounds … anyone who just wants to learn something new,” said Hamidi. “And it’s easy to promote via Facebook or Twitter.” She noted that last fall’s event drew even more students than they expected, and that this year they hope to surpass those numbers.

So why does an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet inspire people to take action? Tsesa Monaghan, an Oxfam CHANGE Leader from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, said the answer lies in challenging preconceptions about hunger.

 “Our minds are wired to think on individual levels, not statistics of billions or millions or even hundreds. So while you can know the numbers, they’re pretty abstract,” said Monaghan. “But when you’re in a room and see your friends and peers sitting on the floor, representing those in poverty, it makes the matter so much more personal.” 

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Oxfam supporters at a flash-mob march for social justice at Bonnaroo. Photo: Oxfam America

For the fourth consecutive year, Oxfam America hosted a booth at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Held in Manchester, Tennessee last weekend, and widely regarded as one of the world’s premier (and greenest) music festivals, Bonnaroo draws approximately 80,000 people from around the world. This year it featured performances by more than 175 artists.

Bolstered by Oxfam-supporting artists on the festival’s bill like Arcade Fire, Explosions In The Sky, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ben Sollee, Mavis Staples, Nicole Atkins, The Decemberists, Deer Tick and Amos Lee, our team of 10 music outreach reps generated support for Oxfam’s new GROW campaign to fix a broken food system.

Iconic gospel singer Mavis Staples. Photo: Bob Ferguson / Oxfam America

We even created a fully-set-for-dinner “Table For Nine Billion” in Planet Roo, the area set aside on the concert grounds for non-profits, to allow people to visualize how we can sustainably feed a growing population—complete with menus that served up Oxfam’s five-point plan to respond to the emerging food crisis. By the time the sun set on the last evening of the festival, more than 3,600 people had signed on as Oxfam supporters.

Photo: Clara Herrero / Oxfam America

All of it set the stage for the rest of our concert outreach season this summer, where you’ll find Oxfam volunteers at shows by Fitz & The Tantrums, Flogging Molly, Maroon 5, Dave Matthews Band, Ben Sollee, Guster, Ra Ra Riot, and with our music ambassador DJ Shadow on the IDentity Festival Tour.

Photo: Clara Herrero / Oxfam America

If you weren’t able to attend Bonnaroo this year but would like to feel part of it all, we can help in a few ways:

• Watch this space soon for video of Ben Sollee’s performance at the Oxfam booth at Bonnaroo.
• Join thousands of music fans and pledge to take action for a future where no one goes hungry.
• Volunteer at a concert with Oxfam this summer. Apply here to be notified of concert volunteering opportunities in your city.

Whenever I meet someone who volunteers for Oxfam, I ask about their motivation. What inspires you to spend your free time tackling issues like climate change or world hunger—issues that can seem distant and insurmountable?

The answers rarely have to do with the issues per se. Instead, they’re about people.

Volunteers talk about how they feel when they hear about the injustices facing poor people worldwide. They tell me about the sense of community they experience when they join with others who share their passion for fighting those injustices. Most of all, they talk about the power of connecting with someone else—a legislator, a fellow student, a neighbor—and getting them to feel that passion too.

“One person is powerful,” said Grace Castro, a college senior from Miami, FL. “If one person is doing something, that’s going to inspire someone else to do something. Never underestimate your efforts.”

It’s the same belief that drives national movements like the MLK Day of Service last week, when hundreds of thousands of Americans spent a holiday Monday performing volunteer work in their communities.

So, in that same spirit, I wanted to share a short video interview (above) with Castro and her fellow University of Miami Oxfam Club member Lissette Miller. I met Castro and Miller in October, when they organized a panel on campus featuring the visiting Haitian farmer and community leader Jacqueline Morette. Both had been involved with Oxfam before: Castro as an Oxfam America CHANGE Leader, and Miller in the Oxfam Action Corps. They told me a little about what their club does, why they volunteer, and why they believe everyone’s efforts matter.

So watch, listen, and maybe feel inspired to do something of your own.

I’ve long believed that concert volunteering—in which you set up a table at a show, talk to music fans, and give them an opportunity to take action—is one of the coolest ways to get involved with Oxfam America’s work. And last Friday, I had a chance to see it happen in person at the Mansfield, MA, date of Lilith Fair.

Because of Oxfam’s efforts to empower women worldwide (and because Lilith artists like Tegan and Sara, Missy Higgins, and Cat Power are Oxfam supporters) the women’s music festival has been very supportive of our work. They provided free tickets for a giveaway to our Twitter followers, allowed us backstage access to musicians, and invited us to reach out to fans at select Lilith shows. When our group showed up at the Boston-area venue, I was impressed by the prominent location of the Oxfam tent: right on the main walkway, and close enough to the second stage that the guitar chords from early-afternoon sound-check seemed to shimmer in the air as we set up our gear.

Even more impressive were our Oxfam America volunteers, some of whom I captured on film in the short video above. In just a few hours, they gathered over 600 signatures for a petition calling on President Obama to set a strategy to fight global poverty, particularly as it relates to women.

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Senior organizer Brian Rawson just returned from training 24 new Oxfam Action Corps volunteer organizers. Here’s his update on the latest from Oxfam’s nationwide volunteer initiative.

“Should we run?” 

I didn’t even need to ask.  We were short on time, and transferring to another DC metro train that was about to depart. Megan took off, running in heels, and continued to accelerate, gunning to catch the subway just 50 yards ahead of us.

From my vantage point, keeping up alongside her, it appeared to be a scene from an action movie:  she faintly lit, sprinting, and stylishly dressed against the futuristic blur of the metro tunnel and its crowd.  But it wasn’t a ticking bomb in Megan’s sights, nor a top secret briefcase: The object of her pursuit was the Dianne Feinstein weekly constituent breakfast.

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