![]() ![]() Prayer flags and Tibetan artwork and the words “Tibetan freedom” and the Tibetan flag. I remember walking into the Polo Field with my family and seeing everything on this massive scale. Tethong : I was slightly in disbelief that this was even happening. Postcard-writing tables, petitions, information pamphlets. Thonden : There were all these opportunities on the concert grounds to learn about Tibet and to take action. This right here was an issue that, 100 percent, we all concurred on.Īli Shaheed Muhammad, A Tribe Called Quest member: It resonated, being a Black man in America and knowing the oppression that still to this day exists. Wyclef Jean, Fugees: There was no hesitation, because we were clear about the cause. I can only assume it was Yauch who put it there. That piece of paper went through the history of the persecution of the Tibetan monks and requested the Foo Fighters’ participation in the concert for them. I was sitting in my room when a piece of paper slid through the crack of my hotel room door. ![]() The Foo Fighters were touring Southeast Asia with Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys. William Goldsmith, former Foo Fighters drummer: I was in Jakarta, Indonesia. Pearl Jam just had a concert in the park, so there was precedent. Four months before the concert, we were like, we’re going to do it, and we’re going to do it in San Francisco. ![]() Everybody was telling us it was impossible. Potts: I was young as shit, didn’t know what the fuck I was doing, and had this amazing opportunity. Yauch and Potts reached out to friends in the music scene who they thought might be interested in helping, and filmmakers to document the concert. Each of us exile kids, we have this freedom struggle embedded in us. Techung, Milarepa education coordinator, Chaksam-pa co-founder, performer: The ’90s were the golden age of the Tibetan issue. Lhadon Tethong, Tibet Action Institute co-founder, attendee: To have our peers suddenly learning about our people’s struggle for freedom was a huge moment for a whole generation of Tibetans. We’re few in numbers, but we have a large voice. But Yauch was just so unabashedly himself and enthusiastically interested in what he was interested in.Ĭhimi Thonden, Tibetan activist, speaker: Every Tibetan could qualify as an activist, because it’s a responsibility we feel when you have a culture at peril and you don’t have a country to call your own. In the early ’90s, it wasn’t necessarily cool to be spiritual. Spike Jonze, filmmaker, Free Tibet cameraman: I didn’t really know anyone that knew anything about Buddhism. Adam had to do real research, talking with people and reading books. Money Mark, Beastie Boys multi-instrumentalist: It wasn’t the true internet age, it was just the beginning. “I know who you are and I don’t want to talk to you.” To his credit, he didn’t shy away. But Yauch and Potts always wanted to organize a concert of their own.Įrin Potts : When I met Yauch, I was as rude as I have ever been to anybody in my life. When the Beastie Boys headlined the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, bandmates Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz signed on to donating $1 from the sale of each ticket to Milarepa, while Potts trekked along with eight Tibetan monks and an information tent. In 1994, the same year as Ill Communication’s release, the Beasties’ Adam “MCA” Yauch and activist Erin Potts co-founded the Milarepa Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the cause of Tibetan independence. Where previous records were often preoccupied with partying and flexing their skills as MCs, their fourth album, 1994’s Ill Communication, also contained references to the plight and spiritual practices of Tibetans, reflecting the group’s growing interest in a people whose mountainous territory has been controlled by China since the 1950s. Their concerns were growing in scope, too. By the mid-1990s, the Beastie Boys had grown from New York City hip-hop scamps into alternative icons. ![]()
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