Evan Greer | |
|---|---|
 Greer performing in 2017 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, writer, activist |
Evan Greer (born May 18, 1985) is an American activist, writer, and musician from Boston, Massachusetts. [1] They are the deputy director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future. [2] [3] [4] [5] Greer identifies as nonbinary. [6]
Greer is the deputy director of Fight for the Future, [7] having previously served as the organization's campaign director. [8] [9] They have written on a range of topics including Internet freedom, LGBT issues, surveillance, big tech, and human rights for outlets including The Washington Post , Wired, NBC News, Time, and The Guardian . [10] [11]
While in high school, Greer helped organize a protest against the Iraq War in 2003. [12] [13] They attended Swarthmore College, but dropped out to pursue music full time. [14] In 2014 Greer helped organize the Internet Slowdown Day, an online protest in favor of net neutrality. [15] [16] In 2017, Fast Company called Greer "the woman leading the fight for net neutrality." [17]
Through their work with Fight for the Future, Greer befriended Chelsea Manning and helped organize campaigns demanding Manning's release from prison. [18] [19] Upon Manning's release in 2017, Greer organized a benefit album to raise funds for her living expenses, with artists including Against Me!, Thurston Moore, Graham Nash, and Amanda Palmer. [20] [21]
In 2019, Greer penned an op-ed in BuzzFeed News with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello about a campaign that prompted major music festivals like SXSW, Coachella, and Bonnaroo to say they will not use facial recognition surveillance at their events. [22] [23] Greer regards surveillance capitalism as "fundamentally incompatible with basic human rights and democracy." [24] [25] [26]
In 2009, Greer released the album Never Surrender. [27] [28] In 2016 they recorded a cover of the Anne Feeney song "You Will Answer" with the band Anti-Flag for a benefit album after Feeney was diagnosed with cancer. [29] Greer and Feeney were longtime friends and touring partners. [30] [31] In 2019, Greer released the album She/Her/They/Them, which Billboard described as an "at-times folky, sometimes punk rock album". [32] Vice characterized the album as "an eclectic mix of folk punk". [33]
In 2021, they released the album Spotify is Surveillance. According to Greer, the album was "very much a product of the coronavirus quarantines", [34] and called it "an open letter to transphobes." [35] Greer noted in an interview with Fast Company that the album was also intended to raise awareness of the control of corporations such as Spotify over popular culture. [36] The album features audio samples from Chelsea Manning and Ursula K. Le Guin. [37] A review of the singles "Back Row" and "The Tyranny of Either/Or", noted that the songs "further show off her capacity for anthemic energy". [38] Rolling Stone magazine described the latter as "a pop-punk anthem that could fit in with Green Day's nineties hits." [39] A Pitchfork review of the album gave it a score of 6.7 out of 10. [40]
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