Originally posted at Elephant Journal.

Get Ready To Be Inspired.

Why do so many people look for heroes outside themselves and outside their communities? March On! reminds us that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. March On! features the stories of individuals and families that made the conscious decision to take time off work and other “householder” responsibilities to dedicate their time, energy and resources to march for equality at the National Equality March on October 11, 2009.

Not only do their stories inspire, they serve as important reminders that we are all connected in a seamless yet diverse tapestry. Our lives and and our stories are connected as are our burdens and sorrows. The courage, bravery and the spirit of the activist resides in us all. This film and the lives it showcases serve as a wake-up call and a beacon of light for all people interested in equality, from the still unpassed Equal Rights Amendment for women to repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell etc. Our voices matter and the collective is powerful!

March On! Their Stories Are the Reasons We March premieres in Los Angeles on Friday, November 12, 2010 at 7:30PM at the Renberg Theater. If you’re in LA, join us. If not, spread the word and look out for future screenings.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igDVtlFh59Y&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Photo courtesy of March On! Their Stories Are the Reason We March film.

The Associated Press reports:

With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.

First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other singers who had roots in the folk music boom.

An Odetta record on the turntable, listeners could close their eyes and imagine themselves hearing the sounds of spirituals and blues as they rang out from a weathered back porch or around a long-vanished campfire a century before.

“What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer,” Time magazine wrote in 1960.

“She is a keening Irishwoman in `Foggy Dew,’ a chain-gang convict in `Take This Hammer,’ a deserted lover in `Lass from the Low Country,'” Time wrote.

Odetta called on her fellow blacks to “take pride in the history of the American Negro” and was active in the civil rights movement. When she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, “Odetta’s great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill,” The New York Times wrote.

She was nominated for a 1963 Grammy awards for best folk recording for “Odetta Sings Folk Songs.” Two more Grammy nominations came in recent years, for her 1999 “Blues Everywhere I Go” and her 2005 album “Gonna Let It Shine.”