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Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, is a 21-member association of economies from the Asia-Pacific region…
Makana serenades APEC leaders with pro-Occupy protest song
By Mary Vorsino
POSTED: 12:05 p.m. HST, Nov 13, 2011Slack-key celebrity Makana used his performance at an APEC dinner last night at the Hale Koa Hotel as an opportunity to get his pro-Occupy Wall Street movement views out to President Barack Obama and other world leaders.
Makana wore an “Occupy with Aloha” t-shirt under his black blazer and sang his newest song, “We are the Many,” an anthem of sorts for Occupy protestors….
Video from the gig:
Makana: So I just came from playing the world leaders dinner at APEC, uh, here in Honolulu for the Obamas and, I guess, nineteen or twenty other world leaders. So I showed up and did my gig and I started to look around and I thought about this song I just wrote called “We are the many”.
[Makana’s T-shirt says…
occupy with aloha]And it was an incredible experience to sing the words, those words, to that room of people.
[ye come here gather ’round the stage,
The time has come for us to voice our rage]And I didn’t belt it out, I started out very subtly and subliminally. And I was like, ye come here gather ’round the stage, the time has come for us to voice our rage. Did he just say what I think he said? And then I realized that, wow, I didn’t get in trouble, so I played it again and I made it like a different version of it, ended up playing it for about forty-five minutes.
To be able to sing that there was an epic feeling. It felt right. My uncle always told me, play what’s in your heart and play to the audience, you know, play what you feel is right for them. That’s what I did.
And I found it odd that I was afraid to do it at first. I found that disturbing. That’s kind of why I did it. I didn’t like the idea of being afraid to sing a song that I created. I never in my life been afraid to sing anything. If that’s what we’ve come to in the world where we’re afraid to say certain things in the company of certain people, I think that’s a dangerous place to be.
And so, for me to move out of that space I had to sing the song. And that’s what I did.
And, they probably paid him for the gig. Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento…