July 31, 2020
This weekend is chock-full of virtual music events that we encourage you to watch! Saturday, August 1, at 5pm CST, the Downtown Business Association Baton Rouge will be hosting its first virtual “Downtown Sounds” concert with the John Gray Quartet. Watch on the Live After 5 Facebook page this Saturday and every Saturday in August.
Sunday, August 2, at 2pm CST tune in for the Jus’ Blues awards ceremony, honoring many Blues legends and newcomers. Check out our ad in the program on page 3. Smokefree Music Cities is a sponsor of both of these events as part of our effort to expand our reach to communicate the need to close gaps in smokefree protections at the local and state level in states like Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi.
Our “Stay Safe at Home” online music series continues with a number of artists from Nashville, Tennessee, New Orleans, LA, and Richmond, VA. Videos premier every Tuesday at Noon PST/3pm EST and Friday at 3pm PST/6pm EST. Our next artists are Smooth Hound Smith (8/4) and Michaela Anne (8/7). Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted of shows. September 2020 marks the 15-year-anniversary of Smokefree Austin, so we will feature artists from Austin to share what it was like to go from smoke-filled venues to smokefree air, and how business and tourism continues to thrive in their smokefree music city.
We also hosted our first Throwback Thursday (#TBT) performance which featured Lake Charles-based two-time Grammy nominee, Sean Ardoin. Bars, music venues, and casinos in Lake Charles are not yet smokefree, but locals like Sean and many others are hoping to change that very soon. You can help by signing the petition!
These musician supporters help us to not only entertain everyone as they continue to practice good public health and spend time at home instead of going out to hear live music; these new messengers are also helping increase public awareness that not every worker has a safe, healthy, smokefree workplace and that these gaps in protections as to poor health outcomes.
Whether it’s our Stay Safe at Home online music series or these music industry events, our goal is to illustrate the ongoing gaps in smokefree protections. These musicians, regardless of their differences in age, gender, race, where they live, or the type of music they play, all have one thing in common -they support smokefree environments to protect their health (and the audience’s) and so they can give their very best performance. Watch the videos or check out their testimonials online.
Smokefree Music Cities, a project of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, has a number of upcoming videos and events for your entertainment and to promote the benefits of smokefree music venues. For more information about our work, visit @smokefree.