The Opening Doors Project Presents: Singer-Songwriter Pamela Means for “The Power of the Protest Song
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On the Friday of Martin Luther King Weekend, The Opening Doors Project is thrilled to present veteran Massachusetts singer-songwriter Pamela Means for a version of her program “The Power of the Protest Song.” Her performance will be followed by an interview and community conversation hosted by Alastair Moock.
The show is FREE to the public (donations welcome).
Pamela Means is an out(spoken), biracial, independent artist whose “kamikaze” guitar style and punchy provocative songs have worn a hole in two of her acoustic guitars. Armed with the razor wit of a stand-up comic, an engaging presence, and elegant poetry, Pamela’s “stark, defiant songs” (The New York Times) set both the status quo and stage afire. Ani DiFranco says, “You groove so deep, I can’t get out. And I wouldn’t want to.”
Means’ commitment to interrogating social ills was fostered by her unique childhood. “As the adopted daughter of a white mother and black father, I learned about dismantling systems of oppression from the inside out.” Pamela received her first guitar at the age of fourteen, just after her mother died of cancer, and it soon became Pamela’s primary vehicle for expression. It would also serve as a passport out of a life that consisted of poverty, foster homes, and the inner city life of hyper-segregated Milwaukee WI.
Pamela relocated to Boston, busked in the city subway, founded her own record label, and began touring. She has since performed on three continents and across America, gaining fans and rave reviews wherever she goes. She has shared the stage with Pete Seeger, Neil Young, Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Gil Scott-Heron, Adrian Belew, Violent Femmes, Holly Near, and many more. With truth as ammunition, she brings the fight for social justice and human dignity to the forefront of a new generation.
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Host Alastair Moock is a Boston Music Awards-nominated singer-songwriter and a Grammy nominee for Best Children’s Album. In 2020, he co-founded Family Music Forward, a racial justice collective working in the family music space. That same year, he declined a second Grammy nomination –– along with two other nominated acts –– due to historical under-representation in the field. Moock is also a co-founder of the Melrose Racial Justice Community Coalition.
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More info HERE.