FNS_EP05_Master_FINAL === [00:00:00] ​ [00:00:02] Erin Potts: After the San Francisco concert, we knew we wanted to go to New York. We saw New York as the media capital of the world. [00:00:10] Deyden Tethong: And it just felt like, as anything, you're building on something that you've already established. I think for the Tibetan movement and for Tibetans, it was a chance to build on that momentum. [00:00:22] Erin Potts: And then we could go to D.C. [00:00:25] Deyden Tethong: New York was the pinnacle of press and human rights. We had the UN. We have, you know, every major press organization is based there. So, okay, this is where we can really get the world's attention. That was a real opportunity for those of us that have been trying to get a spotlight on Tibet. [00:00:49] Erin Potts: As we were preparing for the New York concert, everything just was hard. Working with a promoter was more challenging. The New York City Police were challenging. Um, the venue that we wanted wasn't available, and so we ended up at Randall's Island. I remember we were meeting with the New York City Police, and the Parks Department, and the promoters, and some of the major vendors, and my job was to present on what the vision of the concert was, the purpose, the intent of it, what we were trying to do. [00:01:32] Erin Potts: And I remember in this presentation explaining to everybody that we weren't serving alcohol, and one of the reasons is that our feeling was people would hear our message better if they weren't drunk, and also we would have less instances of silly violence or altercations at the concert. It would be a more peaceful environment. [00:01:56] Erin Potts: And as I said this, the New York City Police officer that was representing the department stood up and said, [00:02:05] Erin Potts: "I don't know how you do it in San Francisco. You got, like, flowers in your hair and shit, but that ain't gonna happen here." [00:02:20] Erin Potts: I'm Erin Potts. This is Freedom Needs a Soundtrack, the story behind the Tibetan Freedom Concerts and how an unlikely group of people turned music and hope into action. This series is a Rangzen production, produced by Adonde Media. [00:02:38] Erin Potts: Episode Five: No Slowing Down. [00:02:46] Erin Potts: The first time I heard about Deyden was actually we were hiring an education coordinator, and one of our Tibetan employees was like, [00:02:56] Erin Potts: "There's this Canadian Tibetan girl, Deyden, and she comes from a family, and they're all activists, and she was at the first concert, so she saw what we did. Maybe we should see if she is interested in applying for the job." [00:03:11] Deyden Tethong: The job opening at Milarepa, it was my cousin who had told me about it, 'cause otherwise I wouldn't have heard of it in Canada. I always knew that I wanted to do human rights work, not quite sure exactly what the next steps were gonna be towards that. You know, working on Tibet and following in the footsteps of my parents was never dictated, but it was certainly a part of what I wanted to put my time and attention to. [00:03:40] Deyden Tethong: So when I got word that this was a possibility, I applied. I was cautiously optimistic and excited. [00:03:49] Erin Potts: We needed both Western, you know, American kids and Tibetan folks on the staff in every meeting, making decisions about every detail of what we were doing. We couldn't be making these decisions without Tibetans in the room and at the table. [00:04:09] Erin Potts: I actually don't remember anything about her interview with us for that position, but I do remember I called her from a payphone to tell her we wanted to hire her. I have this very vivid memory of that. And then when she showed up and started working, it was like she had always been there. [00:04:29] Deyden Tethong: My job as I came to it, Whatever it was that we were doing, whether it was a concert or whether it was the year-round programming, that people understood why Tibet and why it mattered. [00:04:46] Deyden Tethong: So it'd be everything from priming artists and their support teams and writing the publicity packs for them when there's a concert, to coordinating the speakers that would be on the stage of the concert. This idea that in this place and time where we are being told as young people that violence isn't the answer and there's a more peaceful approach, and there is change that can happen, and we have the epitome of this struggle, and I think that was really easy for young people to get behind. [00:05:24] Erin Potts: She's a badass. I mean, she has dedicated her life, as has every member of her family, to the Tibetan cause. And I think part of the thing that makes Deyden so brilliant is that she has both a really deep connection to her Tibetan side and her Western side, and the work that we were doing at the concerts was bringing those two things together. [00:05:48] Erin Potts: So, you know, Deyden was one of several Tibetans who were on staff during the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. [00:06:03] Deyden Tethong: So, okay... memories of, uh, or stand-out moments for... do you want me to just launch into it? Okay. [00:06:13] Deyden Tethong: I remember hitting the concert grounds. It was on Randall's Island, which was, uh, you know, really different and pretty, you know, unique space in New York. [00:06:24] Erin Potts: New York was hard. New York was a slog. Ticket sales were really slow. [00:06:29] Erin Potts: I mean, New York City, where there's a million amazing events a night happening, it's hard for people to hear about our event. And so it was like New York City didn't care what the hell we were trying to do, how good intentioned we were, who we had on the bill. It didn't give a shit about this. That's not to say that the kids that came to the concert didn't give a shit, like, clearly they did, but it just means that, like, there was nothing easy about that concert. [00:07:00] Deyden Tethong: And Headline-wise, I mean, the artists who had been invited, those were next level. [00:07:07] Rebecca Rankin, MuchMusic: We're at the second annual Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York City. Right there is the booth, merchandise, food area... [00:07:13] Erin Potts: the New York City concert lineup was pretty stellar. We had Lee Scratch Perry, Alanis Morissette. [00:07:20] Alanis Morissette: It's my role, our role on this earth to just help it whenever you can. [00:07:24] Erin Potts: Radiohead played. [00:07:25] Thom Yorke, Radiohead: Musicians and artists are the few people left who can actually voice an opinion that's not involved in vested interest elsewhere. [00:07:32] Björk: With hand on my heart, it's just the way all this is done. It's just done for so much the right reason, with so much integrity and passion... [00:07:40] Erin Potts: Björk played the New York concert, as well as the San Francisco concert. [00:07:43] Erin Potts: She also did a bunch of press for us. [00:07:45] Björk: And I've got so much faith in music that it's like, say, I could be arrested for it. I think music, like, can save any situation. [00:07:52] Erin Potts: I mean, again, some of the biggest artists of that moment were all on our lineup. [00:07:57] John Norris, MTV News: In the meantime, Abbie, you were out here in the crowd, uh, a lot of the day. [00:08:01] John Norris, MTV News: Mm-hmm. What, what were the highlights for you? [00:08:02] Abbie Kearse, MTV News: Well, I'll tell you that hip hop definitely ruled. We had A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One... [00:08:08] KRS-One (onstage): We need to send a crazy message Yeah over to China one time. All the people in the house who would like to see democracy in Tibet, make some noise! [00:08:22] Unnamed reporter, Much Music: We're with KRS-One. Most of the kids out there, are they coming down because it's a cool concert, or are they getting, getting it? [00:08:27] Unnamed reporter, Much Music: Do you think that it's successful on that level? [00:08:29] KRS-One: I think it's both. I think, uh, what drew them out here was all the acts. But when they got here, I think the responsible acts on this bill told them why they were here. [00:08:41] Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys (onstage): Let's not forget that the reason that this concert is going on is to help the people of Tibet get their freedom. [00:08:48] Adam Yauch, Beastie Boys (onstage): So after this is over, if everybody could make an effort to do whatever they can to make sure that that happens, that would be well appreciated. [00:08:57] Deyden Tethong: So every concert, the motto was you weren't going to leave without learning something with your eyes or your ears. [00:09:05] Kurt Loder, MTV News: So as you might expect, there's a lot of Tibetan culture on view here. [00:09:08] Kurt Loder, MTV News: And a number of political activists are on hand too, laying out the atrocious history of China's ongoing occupation of Tibet. [00:09:13] Deyden Tethong: We have what we called information towers, and they were present at all the concerts, and they were front of house with the crowds on the other side of the stage. And you would have, you know, vibrant Tibetan flag and images of political prisoners up on these towers with their faces and their sentence that they had been given. [00:09:36] Deyden Tethong: There was so much suffering that was happening inside Tibet, as with many issues around the world. How do you connect this with somebody who is maybe just encountering it for the first time? So featuring these everyday people in extraordinary times who are paying the ultimate price for speaking their mind, that was something that we could share with Western youth and people that were caring about the concert. [00:10:03] Unnamed audience member: I didn't know anything. I'm gonna be- I was really naïve coming in here. I didn't know a thing. But now they've really just opened me up, like, 'cause I think if anyone knew what was going on, there's just no way they wouldn't do something about it. [00:10:14] John Norris, MTV News: Uh, one band in particular I think a lot of people were interested in seeing: U2 took a little detour from their PopMart world tour, making a stop... [00:10:20] Erin Potts: Tickets would have sold a bit better if we could have announced U2. [00:10:24] Erin Potts: You know, they had sold out several shows at Giants Stadium, and they were contractually bound to not be announced. So we couldn't say to anybody before the concert that U2 was playing at it. They were a surprise guest. [00:10:37] Larry Mullin Jr., U2: We're happy to be here. We're very happy to have done it, and, you know, it's- [00:10:41] Deyden Tethong: I remember when U2 was on site, and they were getting ready to do some press. [00:10:49] Bono, U2: That's the thing that's very important for people to understand is coming to the shows doesn't sort the problem out. [00:10:56] Bono, U2: You know, it just helps, you know, to bring attention to the problem. Right. But it doesn't fix the problem. That, you need some follow-through, and, you know, people can join Amnesty International, or people can, you know, see, you know, whatever issue they wanna take up in the wider scene of human rights, uh, you know. [00:11:13] Deyden Tethong: It really felt like, wow, this is big, and it was heartening. They were there for Tibet, and I'm Tibetan, and having this caliber of attention and support was one of the highlights. [00:11:28] Bono, U2 (onstage): To be one, to be united is a great thing, but to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater. Thank you, uh, Adam, for having us here today. [00:11:41] Erin Potts: Ten years earlier, I had said to my mom, "Someday I'm gonna put on a concert for Tibet, and U2's gonna play at it." [00:11:48] Erin Potts: And here was the realization of that moment, that dream, that flippant thing I said as a teenager ended up coming true. I saw so little of any of the concert performances, honestly, because I was so busy. [00:12:05] Erin Potts: So I didn't get to see U2 play, 'cause I was putting out some fire or some, you know, dealing with some problem somewhere else. And Yauch actually was very upset with himself that he didn't make me stop all the things I was doing, drag me to U2's tent backstage, and introduce me to Bono, because he knew that U2 playing at the Amnesty concerts was the entry point for all of my work. [00:12:35] Erin Potts: But at some point, I will tell Bono my story. [00:12:43] Unnamed news anchor, MTV News Weekend: ...last weekend at a huge benefit concert as part of the long-running campaign for independence for Tibet. China has forcibly occupied Tibet since 1950, and this concert, which was organized by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, was designed to raise public awareness... [00:12:57] Erin Potts: The New York concert was definitely not triumphant. [00:13:00] Erin Potts: It almost broke us. I mean, I lost 10 pounds just from stress from that concert. [00:13:07] Deyden Tethong: You know, doing a concert is a really risky business and you're either going to lose money or you might make a little bit of money. And that also brought back the focus to the purpose of these shows. It's not the fundraising, but the message. [00:13:23] Deyden Tethong: And so you sort of have to be prepared to possibly lose it all as you try to bring your message out. [00:13:32] Erin Potts: It wasn't as big as we wanted. It wasn't as easy as we wanted. We didn't raise as much money or awareness as we wanted, but it worked. And it was a stepping stone to the bigger thing we wanted to do in Washington, D.C. [00:13:50] Serena Altschul, MTV News: Hi, I'm Serena Altschul with an MTV News Brief. Another 2,000 tickets for each day of next month's Tibetan Freedom Concerts will go on sale Tuesday at 1:30 PM Eastern Time at the tibet98.com website... [00:14:01] Erin Potts: The third Tibetan Freedom Concert took place at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on June 13th and 14th, 1998. [00:14:09] Deyden Tethong: At this point, there was a lot of lessons learned and a lot of, uh, organizational knowledge. We had a reputation within musicians and the industry, and just really having these high integrity events that were not just bringing attention to Tibet, but also these ideas of freedom, nonviolence, and that there is an option and a path to conflict resolution that doesn't mean war or death. [00:14:41] Erin Potts: You know, we had a plan for how we were going to engage concertgoers and how we were going to train some of them and some folks from the movement in nonviolent action. Our work deepened, in a sense, by going to D.C. We had a ton of congresspeople and congressional staffers and celebrities who wanted to come to this concert. [00:15:05] Erin Potts: I mean, it, it was becoming this cultural moment and a political moment, too. [00:15:10] Deyden Tethong: You know, it's the capital of the United States, and it was a chance to bring this to the backyard of the politicians and movers and sh- and shakers that are making decisions that were really compromising Tibet and its opportunity for freedom in exchange for business. [00:15:29] Erin Potts: I remember as we were doing production in the days before the concert, we were setting up the stages and, you know, the monastery tent and stringing the prayer flags everywhere and getting everything ready, the Secret Service was going through RFK Stadium to make sure that there were no bombs and no dangers lurking for particularly, I think, for the congresspeople that were gonna be in attendance. [00:15:54] Erin Potts: We had never imagined that this was gonna be part of our production schedule. Like, bomb-sniffing dogs and stuff like that. Um- Yeah, it was wild. [00:16:08] Serena Altschul, MTV News: Over 110,000 tickets have already been sold to the shows at Washington D.C.'s RFK Stadium. Performers will include the Beastie Boys, Beck, Wyclef Jean, Blues Traveler, Tracy Chapman, Patty Smith... [00:16:18] Erin Potts: Big artists, you know? Like, Pearl Jam and R.E.M... [00:16:22] Serena Altschul, MTV News: ...Radiohead, The Verve, and The Wallflowers. [00:16:25] Erin Potts: And the artists said yes so quickly. [00:16:28] Serena Altschul, MTV News: Tickets will cost $29.50 each. That is the news for now. More news at 10 of the hour every hour right here on MTV. [00:16:36] Erin Potts: We sold 122,000 tickets in 27 minutes. It just happened so easily that time, you know? So quickly. [00:16:48] Erin Potts: I mean, this was the plan, man. This was like, the original idea was to go to D.C., the idea that Adam and I came up with all those years ago while we were eating momos. It was what our team had been working for for years, to take this message to the most powerful people in the world. So everything about D.C. was just like the dream was coming true. [00:17:19] Erin Potts: And then... [00:17:20] John M. Fahey Jr, President of the National Geographic Society: Mr. President, we wish you well on your forthcoming historic visit to China next week. It is my pleasure now to introduce the President of the United States. [00:17:32] President Bill Clinton: Thank you very much. Thank you. As all of you know, I will go to China in two weeks time. It will be the first state visit by an American president this decade. [00:17:43] Erin Potts: The first state visit of a U.S. president in over a decade, and he's leaving two weeks after our concert! [00:17:52] Erin Potts: And it's like it lands in our lap, this opportunity to really put pressure on in a very public and very political moment. [00:18:03] Erin Potts: So this gap of no U.S. president going to China had happened immediately after the Tiananmen Square massacre. [00:18:10] Erin Potts: And the U.S. policy had been, you know, "We are not engaging in China until human rights improves." [00:18:19] President Bill Clinton: I'm going because I think it's the right thing to do for our country. Today, I want to talk with you about our relationship with China, and how it fits into our broader concerns for the world of the 21st century, and our concerns in particular for developments in Asia. [00:18:38] Erin Potts: So we all got together, and we were like, "Wait, this is a great opportunity. We need to really do something else." [00:18:45] Erin Potts: Like, the concerts were this cultural powerhouse, but we felt like we're in D.C., we need to take it to the political powerhouse, and that is the U.S. Congress. So we worked with our colleagues in the movement, uh, different organizations, and organized a rally on the steps of the U.S. Congress the day after the concerts. [00:19:06] Deyden Tethong: For us to be able to build from what we are trying to share at the concerts to then immediately the next day say, "Okay, and now meet us at the lawn for this rally," was a very strategic and intentional thing. [00:19:22] Erin Potts: A lot of the strategy of the Tibet movement at that point was putting pressure on the U.S. government to tie trade status with China to human rights. [00:19:33] Erin Potts: Meaning, they don't get our trade dollars until they start respecting human rights. [00:19:41] Erin Potts: So our plan was to have congresspeople, both Democrat and Republicans, musicians, Tibetans, activists, all saying to President Clinton, [00:19:53] Erin Potts: "You have to tie trade to human rights improvements, and you have to demand unconditional negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to end the occupation of Tibet." [00:20:16] Erin Potts: Freedom Needs a Soundtrack is a Rangzen production, produced by Adonde Media and distributed in partnership with KALW Public Media in San Francisco. This series was written and produced by Andrés Caballero. Project management and archival production were led by Mariano Pagella. Fact-checking by Ana Lucía Murillo. [00:20:37] Erin Potts: Sound design and mastering by Martín Cruz. Martina Castro was the editor and one of the executive producers. The original theme song is by Money Mark. For Rangzen, the series executive producers were Deyden Tethong and myself, Erin Potts. A very special thanks to all who were part of the concerts and to those who helped make this series possible. [00:20:59] Erin Potts: You can hear the rest of the episodes for free on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This series features voices and audio that we gathered from archival sources. Find links and more information about the concerts at freedomneedsasoundtrack.com.