John Trudell

By Paul Stanford, Hemp News Director

KINK Proudly Presents the Hempstead World Music Festival 2011. Other sponsors include Humboldt Hemp Ale, Bend Radio Group, Comfort Suites, Full Court Press, THFC Clinics, Stew Dodge Sound, Oregon Constant Gardener and River's Edge Cafe & Catering.

This summer's show with Toots and the Maytals, Dubtonic Kru, Nikii Davis, Rhythm Culture, Kool Johnny Kool and John Trudell & Bad Dog will directly benefit the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 and Hempstalk 2011.

Tour dates include: Eugene on Saturday, July 2nd at the Lane Co. Fairground; Redmond/Bend on Sunday, July 3rd at the Deschutes Co. Fairground; Portland on Monday, the 4th of July at the Washington Park Rose Garden Amphitheater.

Hempstead and Happy Hempy Productions are organizing these benefits on behalf of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012, an Oregon initiative petition campaign to restore hemp, and for the Portland Hempstalk Festival, an annual free festival at Portland's Kelley Point Park on the second weekend of September.

The proceeds will be shared 50/50 between OCTA2012 and Hempstalk.

For more information, please contact http://www.hempsteadworldmusicfestival.com/

"I think that if the political and social movement groups and organizations that operate in this country today had the same kind of energetic commitment that the medical marijuana people have, many things could change in this country." John Trudell

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News Staff

In early December, Artist-Activist John Trudell spoke at the 2009 Oregon NORML Medical Cannabis Awards Dinner in Portland, Oregon. In the last few years, Trudell has spoken at several Hemp and Cannabis events around the Portland Area, and has quickly become an inspirational voice for the legalization and advancement of the Cannabis plant.

Trudell's words to the Cannabis Awards audience centered around the ideas of non-cooperation, creative intelligence, and the power of energy, clarity and coherency in today's global reality. He expressed thoughtful insight on the topics of sustainability, grass roots organization and the Cannabis plant as earth medicine.

"We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it. There can be no trade-off." John Trudell

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News Staff

The following video slideshow is a compilation of animated photographs taken at the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation's Medicinal Gardens in October 2009. The slideshow is accompanied by the soft cadence of the song "Grassfire" by John Trudell and his band Bad Dog.