Pete Seeger to Strum for Fractivists in Milford

• Susan Phillips
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Iconic folk singer and activist Pete Seeger plans to play a benefit concert in northeast Pennsylvania this summer to support a new group created by Tennessee Gas Pipeline opponents. Activists have been staging sit-ins and protests to prevent the construction of an expanded natural gas pipeline through Pike County. Milford resident, and anti-pipeline activist, Jolie DeFeis says she founded Air Soil Water to promote renewable energy use as an alternative to fossil fuels.
“We wanted something positive to come from the community effort we put forth during the past year,” said DeFeis in a release announcing the concert. “And we know that education is the key to empowerment and change.”
DeFeis began working against the Tennessee Gas Pipeline upgrade about a year ago. But her efforts have failed to prevent the company from getting federal approval to move forward with the project.
“We need to reframe the conversation and to start doing something good,” DeFeis told StateImpact. “We haven’t offered much else except to say big oil is bad.”
DeFeis says the past year of activism has taught her the importance of education about alternative fuel options.
“[It’s] not being ‘anti’ anymore,” says DeFeis. “You’re reframing the conversation from being anti to pro-something. It’s a bigger idea than trying to squash a pipeline.”
DeFeis says her group plans to develop a sustainable energy curriculum with the Delaware Valley School District. She says both the school board members and the district superintendent are supportive. DeFeis met with Pete Seeger last week, describing the meeting as “wonderful.”
Pete Seeger has been active with civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements for decades. The 93-year-old folk singer created an organization to clean-up the Hudson River in the late 1960’s. He is scheduled to perform as part of Milford’s MusicFest on June 8th.

Editor's Picks