Laura Dawn is an American political activist and singer/songwriter. She has been the Cultural Director for MoveOn.org since March 2004 and was named the organization's National Creative Director in 2007.

Musical work[link]

In 2001, Laura Dawn released her first album Believer^[1] on Extasy International, an offshoot of Japanese label Extasy Records created by X Japan drummer Yoshiki. According to Laura Dawn's MySpace profile,^[2] the label folded while she was working on her second album, which was never completed. She was the featured vocalist on Moby's platinum selling album Hotel, and she toured the world with him for nine months in 2005.^[3] Her current music project, "The Little Death",^[4] is a collaboration of original songs co-written and performed with Moby and musician/composer Daron Murphy. The music is inspired by vintage blues, film noir and 1960s psychedelic rock.^[5]

MoveOn[link]

Laura Dawn produces all of MoveOn's media and serves as Creative Director of MoveOn National Media Strategies. She directs an in-house creative agency and production company for all MoveOn Media.

In 2004, Laura co-conceived and co-created the Bush in 30 Seconds Ad Contest, co-organized the online contest and national media campaign, and produced Bush in 30 Seconds LIVE.^[6] She has created national campaigns and organized artists, musicians, and filmmakers extensively for MoveOn and all MoveOn PAC projects, such as the Bake Sale for Democracy, the Fahrenheit 9/11 Campaign, the Virtual Garage Sale, the "50 Million Women Count" media campaign, the MoveOn CD with Barsuk Records, the Kerry Kit, the Vote for Change Tour, and, most notably, the 10 Weeks: Don't Get Mad, Get Even! Ad Campaign and live event.^[7]

Laura has since spearheaded MoveOn's creative collaborations between the entertainment and political worlds, working with artists such as Oliver Stone, John Cusack, Doug Liman, Shepard Fairey, and, most recently, collaborating with actors Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm, and Heather Graham in support of the Public Health Insurance Option. She also co-produced (along with Shepard Fairey, OBEY Giant, and EMGPR) the Manifest Hope project, a series of galleries that united established visual artists with grassroots artists in support of the Obama presidential campaign.^[8]

Awarded the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award of 2004 for the 2004 Staff of MoveOn.org,^[9] Laura has 3 political ads in the Museum of the Moving Image,^{[citation needed]} and again broke new ground this year by writing and producing the first wholly interactive GOTV video starring Olivia Wilde.^[10]

Hurricane Katrina[link]

In 2005, Laura compiled and edited the book It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, the story of MoveOn.org Civic Action's Hurricane Housing program, featuring a foreword by Barack Obama. Using the innovative online organizing techniques that MoveOn.org is famous for, MoveOn Civic Action members housed over 30,000 evacuees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.^[11]

Film[link]

In 2008, Laura produced the documentary feature film "The End of America", the film version of Naomi Wolf's best-selling book of the same title.^[12] In 2009, Laura was featured in the documentary "MoveOn: The Movie", a film that charted the growth and influence of MoveOn.org from 1998 to 2008. ^[13] In 2010, Laura made her acting debut in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" as the co-worker of the character "Winnie", played by Carey Mulligan. "Winnie" was based in part on Laura's work as an activist and Mulligan shadowed Laura for a few months prior to filming.^[14]

Bibliography[link]

• Dawn, Laura. ed. It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina ISBN 1-932771-86-7

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• "A simple, poetic indictment" Salon.com
• "MoveOn Works the Hollywood Spotlight to Amplify Its Voice" Common Dreams

This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (January 2011) Click [show] on right for more details. No reason has been cited for the Wikify tag on this article.You can insert a reason using the |reason= parameter, like this: {{Wikify|reason=Your reason here}} Please replace HTML markup with wiki markup where appropriate. Add wikilinks. Where appropriate, make links to other articles by putting "[[" and "]]" on either side of relevant words (see WP:LINK for more information) and check that your links work as expected. Please do not link terms that most readers are familiar with, such as common occupations, well-known geographical terms, and everyday items. Format the lead. Create or improve the lead paragraph. Arrange section headers as described at Wikipedia:Guide to layout. Add an infobox if it is appropriate for the article. Clean up / format the references and footnotes, using citation templates when appropriate. Remove this tag.

Daron Murphy is a film composer and musician, based in Brooklyn, NY.

He composed musical scores for the feature length documentary films, The End of America and MoveOn: The Movie. In 2007 he scored the short film, Raving, directed by Julia Stiles and starring Zooey Deschanel.

Murphy is also well known for his work as a guitarist and songwriter with the bluesy retro-soul rock group, The Little Death, whose members feature wife Laura Dawn and electronic music icon Moby. He toured Europe with Moby, as his guitar player, in 2005.^[1][2]

From 1992 until 1995, Murphy was the primary songwriter, singer, and guitarist (along with bass player Jonny Farrow and late drummer Chris Brown), for indie rock band Philco Bendyx.

In 1998, Murphy formed The Sixes, a short lived 60s garage-style dance/rock ensemble. In 2000, Murphy co-founded Rene Risque and the Art Lovers,^[3] with primary songwriter and vocalist Andy Boose—a cabaret/rock/disco project in which each member of the band assumed the identity of a sleazy eurotrash decadent. Murphy's assumed name in the group was Dolce Fino.

Around the same time, Murphy was wed to singer and political activist Laura Dawn.^[3]

References[link]

1. ^ "Caught in the Act: Daron Murphy and Moby". Modernguitars.com. 2005-08-09. http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/001016.html. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
2. ^ Moss, Corey (2005-04-05). "Moby Ends Hotel Promo Tour With Poolside Epiphany - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News". Mtv.com. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1499625/20050405/moby.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Daron Murphy". FabFilter. http://www.fabfilter.com/artists/daronmurphy.php. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 

This article about a singer-songwriter from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a United States guitarist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e