Laura Dawn is an American political activist, filmmaker and singer-songwriter. She has been the cultural director for MoveOn.org from 2003 to 2011 and was named the organization's national creative director in 2007. [1] In 2019 she helped to found progressive news aggregator Front Page Live, where she is Chief Creative Officer. [2]
In 2001, Laura Dawn released her first album Believer [3] on Extasy International, an offshoot of Japanese label Extasy Records. The label folded while she was working on her second album, which was never completed. [4] She was the featured vocalist on Moby's platinum selling album Hotel , and she toured the world with him for nine months in 2005. [5] Her current music project, "The Little Death", is a collaboration of original songs co-written and performed with Moby, musician/composer Daron Murphy and drummer/composer Aaron A. Brooks. [6] The music is inspired by vintage blues, film noir and 1960s psychedelic rock. [7]
Laura Dawn was the founding Creative and Cultural Director for MoveOn.org, overseeing all National Media Strategies, artist and cultural work, and producing all of MoveOn's media from 2004 to 2012. Laura created and directed an in-house creative agency and production company for all MoveOn Media.
In 2004, Dawn co-conceived and co-created the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest, co-organized the online contest and national media campaign, and produced Bush in 30 Seconds LIVE. [8] She has created national campaigns and organized artists, musicians, and filmmakers extensively for MoveOn and all MoveOn PAC projects, such as the Bake Sale for Democracy, the Fahrenheit 9/11 Campaign, the Virtual Garage Sale, the 50 Million Women Count media campaign, the MoveOn CD with Barsuk Records, the Kerry Kit, the Vote for Change Tour and, most notably, the 10 Weeks: Don't Get Mad, Get Even! ad campaign and live event. [9]
Dawn has since spearheaded MoveOn's creative collaborations between the entertainment and political worlds, working with artists such as Oliver Stone, John Cusack, Doug Liman, Shepard Fairey, and, most recently, collaborating with actors Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm, and Heather Graham in support of the Public Health Insurance Option. She also co-produced (along with Shepard Fairey, OBEY Giant, and EMGPR) the Manifest Hope project, a series of galleries that united established visual artists with grassroots artists in support of the Obama presidential campaign. [10]
Awarded the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award of 2004 for the 2004 Staff of MoveOn.org, [11] Dawn has three political ads in the Museum of the Moving Image,[ citation needed ] and again broke new ground in 2010 by writing and producing the first wholly interactive GOTV video starring Olivia Wilde. [12]
In 2006, Dawn compiled and edited the book It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, the story of MoveOn.org Civic Action's Hurricane Housing program, featuring a foreword by Barack Obama. Using the innovative online organizing techniques that MoveOn.org is famous for, MoveOn Civic Action members housed over 30,000 evacuees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. [13] [14]
In 2008, Dawn produced the documentary feature film The End of America , the film version of Naomi Wolf's book of the same title. [15] In 2009, she was featured in the documentary MoveOn: The Movie, a film that charted the growth and influence of MoveOn.org from 1998 to 2008. [16] In 2010, Dawn made her acting debut in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps as the co-worker of the character Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan. Winnie was based in part on Dawn's work as an activist and Mulligan shadowed her for a few months prior to filming. [17]
Dawn began her work as a director of PSAs, political ads, and short documentaries while at MoveOn and continued into her work with ART NOT WAR. Laura Dawn won 11 Pollies, winning the coveted "Best in Show" Pollie Award for 2012 Ad of the Year for her expose on child trafficking, "Backpage.com’. Over the past 20 years, Laura has been producer, director and creative director for over 700 media pieces, produced two documentary features, and directed/produced a short documentary, "Dangerous Curves" on the first transgender sprint car driver, selected in 2016 as an official selection of the DOC NYC film festival.
Dawn founded Art Not War, a Brooklyn-based creative agency and production studio that specializes in creating cultural campaigns for social justice and progressive issues, [18] where she is CEO and Chief Creative. [1]
She has extensive experience in digital strategy, with over 2 billion views of her direct content, producing over one billion dollars of earned media and billions of impressions for social justice campaigns. Named one of the nation's Top 100 Creatives by Origin Magazine, and featured in the book "200 Women Who Will Change The Way You See The World", Laura was a Creative Consultant for Fenton Communications in the 2018 election year, and is on the Advisory Boards of not-for-profit organizations including Campaign to Unload, The Climate Mobilization, The Hometown Project, Swayable, Adopt A Kitchen, and was the founding Acting Director of the Climate Emergency Fund, where she is on the Advisory Board. She is the Founder of the Ethical Engine, a task force that seeks to nudge the public towards more progressive positions by targeted narrowcasting at scale, powered by personalized and emotionally aligned creative.
In June 2019, she helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, where she was Chief Creative Officer, together with Joe Romm, its Editor-in-Chief, Carl Cameron, Sunny Hundal, Helen Stickler and others. [2]
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It lies on the Gulf Coast in southern Mississippi, bordering the city of Gulfport to its west. The adjacent cities are both designated as seats of Harrison County. The population of Biloxi was 49,449 at the 2020 census, making it the state's 4th most populous city. It is a principal city of the Gulfport–Biloxi metropolitan area, home to 416,259 residents in 2020. The area's first European settlers were French colonists.
Paul David Wellstone was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A member of the Democratic Party (DFL), Wellstone was a leader of the populist and progressive wings of the party.
MoveOn is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest and most impactful grassroots progressive campaigning communities in the United States, with a membership of millions. MoveOn did not endorse a candidate during the 2020 presidential primary campaign; it then endorsed and actively supported Joe Biden in the general election. Rahna Epting has been Executive Director of MoveOn Civic Action and MoveOn Political Action since 2019.
Bounce music is a style of New Orleans hip hop music that is said to have originated as early as the late 1980s in the city's housing projects. Popular bounce artists have included DJ Jubilee, Partners-N-Crime, Magnolia Shorty and Big Freedia.
Karla Cheatham Mosley is an American actress and singer. She starred on the Emmy-nominated children's show Hi-5; she has starred in numerous plays and also had minor roles in several other TV shows and films. She regularly appeared as Christina Moore Boudreau in the soap opera Guiding Light and as Maya Avant in The Bold and the Beautiful.
Helen Stickler is an American designer and filmmaker, who wrote, directed and produced Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator (2003) and Andre the Giant Has a Posse (1995). In 2019, she helped to found a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, where she serves as Art Director.
Campaign for America's Future (CAF) is an American nonprofit progressive political advocacy organization. Founded in 1996, the organization bills itself as "the strategy center for the progressive movement."
Helen Wingard Hill was an American artist, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and social activist. When her final film, The Florestine Collection, was released in 2011, curators and critics praised her work and legacy, describing her, for example, as "one of the most well-regarded experimental animators of her generation".
Believer is a 2001 album by Laura Dawn. It was released by the now-defunct Extasy International Records, an offshoot of the Extasy Records label created by X Japan drummer Yoshiki, and distributed by Warner Bros. It features a hidden track, "Jump Into the Fire", originally by Harry Nilsson.
Amir Bar-Lev is noted for his work in directing documentary films. His debut, Fighter (2000) (director), was named one of the top documentaries of the year by Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and The Village Voice. Fighter won six international festival awards and was called “brilliant,” by The New Yorker, “enthralling” by the New York Times, and “one of the best documentaries of this year or any other” by Rolling Stone.
Debra Chasnoff was an American documentary filmmaker and activist whose films address progressive social justice issues. Her production company GroundSpark produces and distributes films, educational resources and campaigns on issues ranging from environmental concerns to affordable housing to preventing prejudice.
Karen Dawn is an American animal rights and welfare advocate and writer.
Laura Poitras is an American director and producer of documentary films.
Melanie Ann Hebert is an American journalist. She formerly anchored the weekday morning news at the city's NBC affiliate WDSU and anchoring weekday mornings at the CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans. Hebert has also appeared in several films and TV shows as a news reporter.
Annabel Park is a Korean American documentary filmmaker, political activist and community volunteer.
Aaron A. Brooks, also known as, Aaron Kinsley-Brooks is an American rock musician, drummer, producer and composer. He co-founded The Little Death with Moby, Laura Dawn and Daron Murphy. He is a founding member of the American alternative rock band, The Mars Bonfire. Aaron also plays or has played drums for the electronic pop band Leisure Cruise; Grammy nominated electro-pop chanteuse Angela McCluskey ; Grammy award-winning producer/songwriter Mark Hudson; Emmy award-winning actress and singer Jackie Cruz; Grammy award-winning artist Moby; Singer/songwriter and progressive political activist Laura Dawn; Grammy award-winning bassist/songwriter and rock musician Duff McKagen of Guns N' Roses; Circle of Soul; Erin Evermore; Grammy award-winning pianist and songwriter A.J. Croce; Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey; Writer, radio host, progressive political comic and guitarist/singer Jamie Kilstein and his band The Agenda.
Eugene "Gus" Newport was an American politician who was the mayor of Berkeley, California, from 1979 to 1986. He later worked to help the Gulfport, Mississippi, community rebuild in the wake of damage from Hurricane Katrina. He was the second African American mayor of Berkeley.
The New Organizing Institute (NOI) was a progressive grassroots organization located in Washington, D.C., until it dissolved in 2015. Founded in 2005 by Judith Freeman and Zack Exley, the non-profit organization was responsible for training many of the Democratic Party's digital organizers. NOI provided data, digital, and other trainings to progressive campaigners and organizers. The Washington Post called NOI "the left's think tank for campaign know-how."
Barbara Davidson is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award winning photojournalist. She is currently a Guggenheim Fellow, 2019-2020, and is travelling the country in her car, with her two dogs, making 8x10 portraits of gun-shot survivors using an 8x10 film camera.
Laura K. Kissel is an American educator and documentary filmmaker based in Columbia, South Carolina. Kissel's work explores contemporary social and political landscapes, the representation of history and the use of orphan films.
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