As voters across Philadelphia and the nation digest the results of the 2024 Election, one local organization is doing its part to spread joy, and unite voters through music.
Joy To The Polls is a non-partisan initiative formed to energize communities and mobilize voters by hosting pop-up concerts at polling stations and giving away free playlists curated by well-known musicians, activists, politicians, and actors.
“We’re trying to create a joyful spirit at polling stations around the country,” said founder Nelini Stamp of Philadelphia. “It’s not right that it takes so long to vote and people have to stand in line for hours. We want to make a fun and festive atmosphere for them.”
According to the Joy to the Polls website, the playlists were designed for people to enjoy while waiting in line to vote, filling out their ballots, or simply during election season, and they convey messages of encouragement and togetherness – something the whole country may benefit from right now.
Activists and artists like Kelly Rowland, David Byrne, Maggie Rogers, Mark Ruffalo, former President Barack Obama, Allison Russell, Natalie Portman, and Black Thought contributed their chosen playlists to the series, which can be found on Joy to the Polls website for free.
This year’s pop-up concerts were held in cities like Atlanta, Phoenix, and the City of Brotherly Love, and created a festive environment for everyone to enjoy music and let go of some of the stress of Election Day. On Tuesday night, a pop-up concert featuring Philly native DJ Jazzy Jeff and De La Soul, a hip hop trio that has been laying the funk since 1985, took place at West Philadelphia High School to the surprise of many voters.
“We had no idea there would be a free concert here tonight,” said Rick Savio of Chestnut Street. “After seeing people stand in line and some even arguing over a period of hours, it’s nice for them to do something like this.”
The concerts are meant to raise awareness to the importance of voting, and events have been held since 2020 in battleground states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona.
Music fosters community, calms nerves, and reduces tension, so by bringing live and recorded music to some voters stuck in line waiting to cast their ballots, Joy to the Polls is offering a peaceful universal language at a place that’s usually reserved for division.
In West Philly, the mood was positive and cheerful as about 500 voters huddled around a converted convertible school bus and listened to DJ Jazzy Jeff spit rhymes to his hometown and De La Soul chop beats into the air.
“Music has always brought people together,” said Maseo of De La Soul. “We’re here to entertain, but this election, this year has put brother against brother. But if you look around here everyone is having fun and getting along. Music heals.”
The message of voting rights and civic responsibility was clear throughout the pop-up concert as well as in the song choices on the playlist series. But the concerts are there to, as founder Stamp put it, “physically shake off the negativity surrounding politics by dancing and releasing good vibrations.”
“Everyone can appreciate a funky beat and we have hometown heroes like DJ Jazzy Jeff here, it’s just a great way to decompress after voting,” Stamp said.
After the show, Sigel said, “The youth relate to our music because we came from where they are, so we can talk to them about issues.”
“Hip hop can unite,” added Freeway.
