Reverend Billy's EARTHALUJAH Set for Joe's Pub, 11/24-12/22

This November and December Joe's Pub at The Public presents five performances of Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir in Earthalujah, directed by Savitri D with music director Nehemiah Luckett and featuring a 35-member choir and music from the 5-piece Not Buying It Band. All performances are on Sunday at 2:30 PM. Tickets are on sale now http://bit.ly/1a3J40a.

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir have achieved social change and garnered acclaim with their unique combination of activism and artistry. Their work brings together political satire and driving gospel music, among other elements, effecting both euphoria and soul-searching in audiences. Having recently sought to raise awareness about lending institutions' role in economic collapse, the Reverend and his Choir have now turned their attention to a more insidious problem: banks' instrumental role in financing the resource-extraction responsible for climate change. In a consciousness-raising effort not only about banks, but also within banks, for the employees of them, the group is giving weekly services in branches throughout New York City.

In the last four years, Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir have performed in banks including UBS, Deutsche Bank, PNC Bank, CitiGroup, Bank of America, HSBC and Chase. They began their "Extinction Resurrection" campaign in 2013, staging interventions in major banks to highlight the loans and investments given to extractive energy operations fueling climate disruption. These brief actions featured performances as extinct species, including Costa Rica's golden toad, widely considered the first animal made extinct by climate change. Their actions at HSBC branches in London and Liverpool were profiled by The Guardian and Time Out London, which wrote, "The best cabaret performance entertains but it also reminds us of what's possible when all the people in a room decide to collaborate [...] Rev Billy Talen's work [...] encourages us to expand that awareness to cover the whole world." Following a September 15th performance at a "Private Client" Chase bank on 56th and 6th Ave in Manhattan, Reverend Billy and Music Director Nehemiah Luckett were arrested for "trespassing" and "conspiracy to riot." "Toad invasions" will continue through the fall, as the troupe concentrates on the issue of our financial institutions bankrolling extinction and the loss of bio-diversity.

Reverend Billy has won an OBIE Award, the Alpert Award, The Dramalogue Award and The Historic Districts Council's Preservation Award (for leading demonstrations to save Manhattan's Poe House), and has been jailed more than 50 times. He was a central figure of Occupy Wall Street and toured 25 OWS tent communities from Zurich to Oakland, CA with the Stop Shopping Choir. He has run for New York City mayor on the Green Party ticket. Reverend Billy has released three CDs, three documentary films, published two books, and produced eight 28-minute television shows as part of the The Last Televangelist on cable and community access TV stations across the country. The Reverend is a frequent guest of news media, having appeared on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, Nightline, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, Glenn Beck, Hannity & Colmes, Democracy Now, NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Marketplace," Geraldo Rivera, CNN, The Tavis Smiley Show, The BBC World Service, BBC 1 and numerous other local and regional affiliates and International print outlets.

About the Stop Shopping Choir: The Stop Shopping Choir is an all-ages, 35-member singing group, under the direction of Savitri D, with musical director Nehemiah Luckett and lead singer Laura Newman. The choir represents a diverse array of economic, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds and has members from every continent except Antarctica, which they're working on. Among them are scientists, teachers, artists, therapists, welders, cyclists, builders, developers, hairdressers, dog walkers, actors, truck drivers, tech geeks, scholars and executives. The Choir has toured in Europe, Africa, South America and throughout North America. They are the subject of Morgan Spurlock's second feature film, What Would Jesus Buy?

About The Church of Stop Shopping: The Church of Stop Shopping is a New York City based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands. They are wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and earth loving urban activists who have worked with communities on four continents defending land, life and imagination from reckless development and the extractive imperatives of global capital. They employ multiple tactics and creative strategies, including cash register exorcisms, retail interventions, cell phone operas combined with grass roots organizing and media activism. They are entertainers and artists, performing regularly throughout the US and Europe. Over the years, Reverend Billy has canonized Joan Baez, Kurt Vonnegut, Daniel Elsberg, Justin VivIan Bond, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Tim DeChristopher, Bertha Lewis, the Yes Men, Dr. Benjamin Barber and Jennifer Miller the Bearded Lady into "Fabulous Sainthood" in the Church of Stop Shopping.

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