It’s still only Tuesday? Okay, multiple Recharges. It’s gonna take a lot of boosts to get through this. Let’s stretch a triple:
More than material. When 18-year-old Hafsa Islam saw her family’s Bangladeshi Indian restaurant burned to the ground during protests in Minneapolis, she shared the news on Facebook and posted her father’s thoughts: “Let my building burn…Life is more valuable than anything else. We can rebuild a building, but we cannot give this man [George Floyd] back to his family.” Her posts were met with an outpouring of support so vast and news coverage so wide that solidarity turned into nationwide pledges to rebuild her restaurant.
Music of a moment. Saving lives is the country’s first order of business. But saving music is a collective project of its own, and encouraging news is in: The famed Bop Street Records announced that it would be forced to close by the pandemic, and 500,000 recordings flushed, but in the final hours, the Internet Archive came through to purchase the entire collection, sight unseen. The archive—a nonprofit library of free books, movies, music, and more—has collected more than 4.5 million audio recordings.
Unlocked. A small bail fund has raised a staggering $20 million in four days of donations to help protesters in Minnesota. A popular DJ, Marea Stamper, known as the Black Madonna, said that any followers who donate to bail funds and send her donation receipts would get added to her shows’ guest lists when touring resumes. “Everyone around the world is ready for justice,” Tonja Honsey, the fund’s executive director, said. “They’re ready for real change, and they’re supporting that.”
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