Adam Gogola, 35, sings and plays guitar for Chicago punk band Blind Adam & the Federal League. He believes that music and social action can and should mix, and during the pandemic he and his bandmates have helped run a series of streaming benefit concerts and launched a mutual-aid program for their unhoused neighbors called the People’s Pizza Party. Donations can be made via Venmo at @peoplespizzaparty.
I reached out to my friend Joe Tessone, who owns Mystery Street recording studio in Lincoln Park, and my friends at the Night Ministry. We set up a livestream series from Mystery Street with a few other local artists. That was really successful; we raised over $1,000.
We’re not an official 501(c)(3). We want people to know that a lot of people who are helping are the same people who are demonized in the media as being socialists or antifa or whatever—and we are antifascist. So it’s about helping people and having fun, but it’s not disconnected from the politics.
We’ve had a lot of people reach out and be like, “How do you guys do this?” When you turn on TV and you’re watching whoever is explaining what horrible things the Trump administration is doing to subvert democracy and continue to kill people with the coronavirus, it can feel like, “Oh my God, what do I do? This is daunting. The police are killing people, and if I go outside, I’m gonna catch this virus.”
