Article Title: Lorna Wainwright - Girl next door now studio manager

Excerpt: Lorna Wainwright has been playing an important role in the reggae music industry for many years, but most of her work has been behind the scenes. She's now the manager of the Tuff Gong recording studio on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston, but it took several years of hard work to get there.

Excerpt: Wainwright has been a staple in the Tuff Gong family. She had been Rita Marley's secretary and road manager, as well as road manager for the I-Threes. In 1992, she took on the post of studio manager at Tuff Gong and has been there ever since. She is also project manager for some of the Marley family charities and is a consultant for the Bob Marley Trust.

Excerpt: She now dedicates much of her time to working with pregnant teenagers through the Rita Marley Foundation. Many of these teenagers are victims of incest and rape. She has three children and two grandchildren.

Article Title: Michael Franti - Power To The Peaceful

Excerpt: Franti has been ignored by mainstream radio to some degree, but his music, in true “lamp on a bushel basket” style flows torrentially through the spirit brand music scene. Franti’s message of peace, justice and truth telling has struck a chord. Franti has walked barefoot for years to highlight the inequity between first and third world countries, and puts on free concerts to support his activism.

Excerpt: MF: I believe that it takes more than governance to solve the problems of the world. It takes people in the private sector, it takes people in the non-profit world. It takes action, you know? My music is (meant) to inspire consciousness that can turn into action. We support a number of non-profit groups. Everything from prisons, prison awareness, prison activism, to environmental groups, like Rock the Earth, and to our own private peaceful organization, which is non-profit, that works in the US and other countries, helping to bring music, art, and culture to people rather than violence and gangs. I feel right now is the time, especially in this country, when we’ve been through a very dark period. In order for us to move beyond that, it’s going to take the action of individuals and people coming together to form organizations and so on. I think efforts like yours and creating databases, and creating ways for people to link up with one another is really important.

Article Title: TuneCore: 34 Songs Free

Excerpt: Tunecore offers a sampler music album on iTunes. Download 34 songs free!

Article Title: Michael Franti Likes the Tough Crowds

Excerpt: An audio discussion with Michael on NPR

Excerpt: Michael Franti Likes the Tough Crowds - Over the last several years, singer/songwriter Michael Franti has performed in Gaza and Baghdad, and this weekend he will be playing a set at California's notorious San Quentin State Prison. Franti joins Farai Chideya to explain the satisfactions and difficulties of playing music against the backdrop of war and prison walls.

Article Title: Franti, Raising The Alarm

Excerpt: "I'm the underground Rupert Murdoch!" Franti says with a hearty laugh from his San Francisco studio, where he's preparing his next album and the launch of a Spearhead tour that lands at the 9:30 club Friday night.

Excerpt: After watching coverage of the current war in Iraq on television -- Franti is a critic of the medium, not a Luddite -- the musician did what few other critics have: He grabbed his acoustic guitar and, with a ragtag crew of eight and three digital video cameras, headed to Baghdad for a firsthand look at the human cost of war. He also made a side trip to Israel, visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip to examine the long-term costs of war and occupation.

Excerpt: "It was really a catharsis for me," he admits, "because when I came back, I was so filled with deep, deep sadness and intense anger and rage, and I was trying to find a way to communicate that to other people without them turning their heads away. As I watched all the footage, it became a way for me to purge all that and put it into my songs."

Article Title: Michael Franti Lyrics used in Scholarship Essay Contest

Excerpt: Contestants may enter the 2007 PSR/Sacramento Scholarship Essay Contest by submitting an original essay of 500 words or less describing their thoughts on the following lyrics by recording artist Michael Franti: "We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can/'t bomb it into peace."