The Roots Picnic Virtual Festival Team Up With Michelle Obama

Are you ready for a fun collaboration? Michelle Obama co-hosted the 13th Roots Picnic online, bringing it to be the proverbial picnic this year.

Photo Credit: Roots Picnic

The annual Roots Picnic was unfortunately cancelled by the COVID-19. So, the former US First Lady Michelle Obama and her organization When We All Vote partnered with the band The Roots to transform the event into an online concert.

The virtual festival took place on 27 June in the US with artists performed over YouTube live stream. The show featured a mix of musical performances by SZA, H.E.R., Kirk Franklin, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Musiq Soulchild, and The Roots themselves. Also, a number of celebrity appearances and speeches presented in the event by Michelle Obama herself, Tom Hanks, Janelle Monáe, Kerry Washington and more.

 

Get ready to vote

This event is to encourage fans to vote and calling upon the potential half-million eligible US voters to register with the aim to make a real impact at the polls this year. Throughout the virtual Roots Picnic, volunteers of When We All Vote will try to reach 500,000 eligible voters over the web and a mobile organizing platform Outvote. The goal is for people to come off with educational speeches while enjoying exclusive performances. It is a way to gain a better understanding of the voting system and the importance of how US citizens can use their voices to make a change.

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The first step in making lasting change is understanding the best, most effective routes to achieve it. As Americans, we have the power to vote in—or vote out—the people who make decisions about how our streets are policed and how the criminal justice system operates. The policies put in place aren’t the result of random events, they are a reflection of the people we vote into office. So make sure you take the time to figure out who best represents you and your vision for the future. Then make sure your friends, family, and everyone in your neighborhood is figuring that out for themselves, too.⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ You can register to vote right now by just clicking the link in my bio. I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure you and everyone you know is registered. Because #WhenWeAllVote, we can transform our communities for the better.

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“Our goal is to aggressively impact change and we’re going to have some fun while doing so. This year, we are incredibly proud to partner with Mrs. Obama’s When We All Vote to ensure our audience has the resources they need to register and vote in November’s election,” said Shawn Gee, The Roots manager in a statement.

Following the unjust murder of George Floyd, the time for US citizen to vote is nigh. However, voting in the US is not compulsory. With the Presidential Election is coming up on November 2020, celebrities have come forward to pressure the importance of casting a vote to elect members of Parliament who will right the wrongs against racial injustice.

“The partnership comes from a shared ethos of wanting to reach the most underrepresented community of people when it comes to voting, black people between the ages of 21-35. Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote and The Roots have a common goal, to educate and inspire communities to use their voices and vote to make a difference”, the event organizer said in the statement.

In case you missed it, the Roots Picnic is now available through The Root’s YouTube channel.

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