Freedom First: A Jazz Benefit Concert for Keith LaMar - EVANSTON

Freedom First began as a concert series in the summer of 2020 on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan shortly after the murder of George Floyd, and at a time the country was shut down due to Covid. The aim of these beautiful shows has been to raise public awareness of yet another grave injustice being done in our names, and to seek support for the Campaign for Justice for Keith LaMar while we still can...

Keith LaMar is a WRONGFULLY-CONVICTED Black man who faces state-sanctioned murder in just under a year for crimes he can prove he did not commit—his execution date has been set for November 16, 2023.

Keith is still breathing. Let's not wait for him to become a hashtag.

We are bringing this incredible jazz concert BACK to Northwestern University, only bigger and better! Some of the most provocative and gifted contemporary artists will join us, this time to play music from the first ever album in history created and recorded by someone on death row, aptly titled FREEDOM FIRST. Keith, an avid jazz lover, lends his soulful and heart-wrenching spoken-word poetry to some of his favorite tunes and several original pieces written for/with him. After a year of sold-out and standing-room only shows, both in Europe and in the United States, and for this final stop of the 2023 Midwest Tour, Keith will be joining us by telephone from Ohio's Supermax Prison where he has spent the past three decades in solitary confinement on death row. In spite of these unimaginably difficult years of torture, he continues to shine a bright light into the world, teaching, motivating, and loving people with great intention. We hope that you will join us in our support as we strive to get Justice for Keith LaMar.

While at Northwestern, a film crew under the direction of Hugo Berkeley--whose prior work has won the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003 and the Peabody Award in 2019--will be on campus to collect footage for an upcoming documentary film about Keith LaMar and his supporters' fight for his LIFE!

Read about Freedom First and Northwestern University's involvement in this project at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/arts/music/keith-lamar-death-row-freedom-first.html

Sponsored By:

• Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP)
• Undergraduate Prison Education Partnership (UPEP)
• Multicultural Student Affairs (MSU)

Co-sponsors Include:

• Northwestern's American Studies Program
• Northwestern's Anthropology Department
• Northwestern's Asian American Studies Program
• Northwestern's Asian Languages and Cultures Department
• Northwestern's History Department
• Northwestern's School of Education and Social Policy
• Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
• Illinois Humanities

Learn more about Keith's story at: www.keithlamar.org

#loveistheonlyfreedom #justiceforkeithlamar