Group Rails Against Hate Through Power of Music

David Burger, The Californian

October 11, 2005 Page: b1 Section: Local

For more information about the Bakersfield Cultural Exchange, click here.

If music is the food of love, it can also be the food of hate. To promote the former and combat the latter, the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and a new organization called the Bakersfield Cultural Exchange are sponsoring a night of music this Saturday.

"We'd like to get a racially diverse crowd to make a statement," said Dr. Dominique Apollon, a Cal State Bakersfield professor who is one of the creators of the exchange. "It's a positive way to make that statement."

Apollon and his colleagues in the exchange are encouraging all races to attend this weekend's opening night of the orchestra as a way to rebuke a statement made by Bakersfield avowed white nationalist April Gaede.

Gaede's daughters, Lamb and Lynx, are a musical act called Prussian Blue that was booked -- and then canceled -- by the Kern County Fair last month.

After reading about the group in The Californian, Apollon said, he looked at some writings Gaede had posted on a white supremacist Web site. On the site, Gaede had written that one of the "benefits" white parents can enjoy by attending orchestra concerts are that "you can almost guarantee that the audience will be mostly -- if not all -- white."

Angered, Apollon and other faculty members at CSUB organized the exchange, which launched its Web site Monday. The intent, Apollon said, is to create an emerging network of local residents committed to expanding opportunities for healthy cultural exchange.

The Web site and group, Apollon said, are not affiliated with CSUB, but done as private citizens.

The orchestra event, Apollon said, is the "first of what we hope is many" events the exchange hopes to sponsor.

The exchange also hopes that those who can't attend the event will donate money so that as many as 100 local students will be able to attend both this Saturday's event and the Nov. 12 orchestra performance.

Nancy Marvin, orchestra manager, said she has arranged for the organization to receive discounted tickets to support both efforts.

"We're happy to cooperate," she said.

This Saturday's 8 p.m. performance at the Rabobank Arena, Marvin said, is a night of Russian music, and the Nov. 12 performance will feature music by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Strauss.

Apollon encouraged anyone interested to join the group on its Web site.