Living Rent-Free in my Head; Music & Tenant Organizing with Ben Potrykus

The Poor Prole’s Almanac

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4.9 • 781 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

In this episode, we're joined by musician and organizer Ben Potrykus to talk about building community and how music and politics interplay. Ben's a veteran in the greater Boston music scene, and spent years touring the country with a number of different bands, including the Receiving end of Sirens, Christians & Lions, Get Loose!, Sharp Teeth, Baixa, Girlfriends, Bent Shapes, Fake ID, and more. Imposed Magazine describes Ben's place in the music scene succinctly, stating that "Over the years, he’s torpedoed two major label deals, temporarily fractured his relationship with his brother, and sabotaged a rock doc, all results of his idealism, impulsiveness, and neurosis about selling out. His devotion has made him one of the most revered songwriters in Boston, though it was never his intention to become anything, really." (read the article here, if you are curious) We chat about where he stands on these issues today, and further, how these relationships in and around music have informed the way in which he engages with his other work around tenant organizing. If you're not familiar with tenant organizing, we discuss the benefits of this type of organizing over unionizing workplaces, and the increased presence it will likely have in a world which increasingly isolates due to work from home and more. We also discuss various resources for tenant organizing, which are included below: https://atun-rsia.org/ https://powrpvd.org/ https://bostontenantsunion.org/ And of course follow @Christiansandlions on Instagram & check out their music at www.christiansandlions.com Intro music: Christians & Lions- "The Changeling" Transition music: Christians & Lions- "Firebelly Salamander" Outro music: Christians & LIons- "Bird's Milk" To support this podcast, join our patreon for early episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/

Transcript

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0:00.0	And from then on no classroom was going to cage my resentment.
0:07.0	I could cast my aspersions, my shoulder burdens with hold judgment.
0:15.0	I saw messiahs, pariahs, greed slayers and scabs, but I couldn't come home till I'd learned how to grab.
0:28.6	And so I grasped at the promised land, it's too often promised by men who would would seek and then steal, then hold office,
0:42.3	and that nothing was ever gonna get very far until we smothered the old guard and put no one in charge.
0:58.7	Welcome back to the Port Pearl's Almanac. This is Andy, and you're probably wondering what
1:03.7	happened to our intro music. This is a special episode for me. Not only because I got to catch up
1:09.6	with someone who I had crossed paths with
1:11.3	when I was much younger, we got to talk about how their music influenced my politics. So today's
1:17.9	episode is with Ben Patricus. He's the voice behind Christians and Lions, whose song you just
1:23.6	heard in the intro, and we'll hear more of after I'm done talking. Ben's had a wild and wide career in music from fronting the receiving end of sirens, the
1:33.0	Lido Venice, sharp teeth, get loose, and many more.
1:37.1	We chat about the role music has as a tool for revolutionary thought and what it means
1:41.8	to make music that is meant to inspire change, as opposed to simply
1:45.8	virtue signaling and commodifying radical politics. Further, we dive into how two decades of
1:51.8	performing to diverse crowds has helped inform Ben's other work around tenant unionizing.
1:57.3	While labor unionizing is well known and gets a lot of attention in left circles,
2:01.9	tenant organizing gets significantly less, despite the fact that in some ways its impacts are felt
2:07.5	more long term as tenants live by definition in community versus unions, which can span
2:13.5	regions or even entire countries. Ben provides a lot of resources for folks interested in learning
2:18.7	more about tenant organizing, and those links are included in the show notes. And of course, if you're
2:24.1	enjoying the music for the episode, go check out Christians and Lions on Band Camp and Instagram.
	...

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