Draft:Greg Bennick
Musical artist
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Greg Bennick is an American professional speaker, film producer, and musician. He is the co-founder of the nonprofit organization One Hundred for Haiti and is also the vocalist of the bands Trial, Between Earth & Sky, and Bystander.
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Greg Bennick | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1970 or 1971 (age 55–56)[1] Connecticut, United States[2] |
| Education | Cornish College of the Arts |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Member of |
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| Website | http://www.gregbennick.com |
Early life and education
Bennick grew up in Connecticut,[2] having learned to juggle in his youth when he was accidentally placed in the wrong junior high minicourse. He had initially selected coin collecting. Bennick began earning money juggling at 13 years old.[1]
Bennick was first introduced to punk music by a neighbourhood friend, who shared recorded cassettes of the music with him. Through the introduction, Bennick found punk bands he enjoyed and began going to shows. The first show he attended was headlined by Hüsker Dü in 1987.[2]
In 1991, Bennick moved to Seattle to study theatre at Cornish College of the Arts,[3] where he focused on acting, Shakespeare, textual analysis, and physical theatre.[4]
Career
Professional speaking
Bennick has given keynote speeches to various companies, including Microsoft and Boeing.[4]
Bennick is the first international speaking coach for a TEDx event, appearing at TEDxPerth.[5]
In addition to speaking events, Bennick has performed spoken word on tour in multiple countries, including travelling to Russia and Ukraine.[5]
In 2014 he toured the Western USA and the Eastern USA, speaking about how laziness in all of us due to the rise of social media and the easy accessibility of information is dangerous in terms of authority and power and how it can affect our lives.
In 2017 and 2018 he spoke at events in the United States and Europe on the topics of "Changing the World Without Having a Clue" and "Living Radical Lives in Desperate Times".
Films
Bennick co-wrote and produced his first documentary, Flight from Death, with director Patrick Shen. The film explored the topic of death anxiety, something that initially intrigued Bennick through a talk based on the works and writings of cultural anthropologist and social theorist Ernest Becker, given by Sheldon Solomon, chairman of the psychology department at Skidmore College. Solomon was interviewed for the documentary as well. The film was narrated by Gabriel Byrne, and earned recognition at multiple film festivals, including the audience choice for best documentary at the Beverly Hills Film Festival.[1][6]
Bennick co-produced his second documentary, The Philosopher Kings, which sought to display wisdom from custodians who worked at major universities.[7]
Bennick is also a co-producer of La Source, a documentary that follows Josue Lajeunesse, a janitor at Princeton University, working on developing running water resources for the Haitian village of La Source.[8]
Acting
Bennick played the role of John Luka in the 2018 film, 7 Splinters in Time.[9] He appeared in a short film created by the same director (Gabriel Judet-Weinshel) in 1995.[4]
The Legacy Project
Greg, along with his friend Dave Whitson, has led four month-long international study and research trips to explore the roots of human violence. These trips (to Poland in 2007 to study the legacy of the Nazis, and to South Africa in 2008 to study the legacy of apartheid) consisted of a dozen high school students each along with a film crew led by director Patrick Shen documenting the experience of interviewing those affected by, responsible for, and involved with the greatest atrocities known in human history. The official website, thelegacyproject.com, has more information. The third trip, to Chile and Argentina was completed in spring 2014. In 2015, a trip was conducted to Rwanda and Uganda, again with high school students. A 2019 trip will bring ten students to Haiti to explore its legacy of survival and endurance.
World Leaders Project
Prior to the filming of Flight From Death, Bennick approached Sheldon Solomon, seeking to contact world leaders in an effort to have a dialogue about how "death anxiety perpetuated world violence." This effort would become known as the World Leaders Project.[1]
As part of the World Leaders Project, Bennick and Solomon met with the former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo.[7]
Music career
Bennick became involved in the hardcore punk scene in the late 1980s and shortly afterward attended many shows at The Anthrax, a noteworthy venue at that time. He eventually would claim edge.[10] In the mid-1990s, he met Derek Harn and Timm McIntosh with whom he formed the Seattle straight edge hardcore band Trial.[10] They toured the United States four times, Europe multiple times, and released three recordings, including the highly acclaimed Are These Our Lives[11] in 1999. A second European tour took place in the fall of 2011, and a third in 2015. They disbanded in 2000 and reunited in 2005. A DVD about the band entitled "Reunion/Retrospective" was released in 2008 on Panic Records.[12]
Bennick is currently the vocalist for the bands Bystander, and Between Earth & Sky, the latter of whom released their first record in spring 2011 on Refuse Records from Europe, and on cassette from New Order Records from Germany. The record was recorded in Vancouver BC, Canada. Greg also did guest vocals in the song "The Flight of the Locust" from Italy's Hardcore band To Kill's newest album "Antarctica" and the song "Synesthesia" on the LP from Arizona's "Run With the Hunted". Along with a spoken word track entitled "Surgery without Sutures" on the album "Mediums and Messages" by Utah hardcore band Parallax. He has appeared on numerous other recordings as well as a spoken word artist and guest vocalist. The first full length LP from Between Earth & Sky is due out in 2019. Bystander released an EP on Safe Inside Records in 2018.
Philanthropy
One Hundred for Haiti
Bennick is the founder and executive director of One Hundred for Haiti, a nonprofit organization that funds development projects in the country through crowdfunded donations. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Bennick joined some friends to help distribute aid to those affected by the disaster, further inspiring him to create the nonprofit. Money is sent from the nonprofit to trusted individuals living in the country, and is then used to build cisterns, supplying clean water.[3]
Portland Mutual Aid Network
Bennick is a co-founder of the Portland Mutual Aid Network, a nonprofit organization providing support to unsheltered individuals in the Portland-area.[5]
Personal life
Bennick participates in a straight edge lifestyle.[2] His mother is a part-time motivational speaker.[7]
Social activism
Bennick organized against the Teen Dance Ordinance, a controversial Seattle law which severely curtailed the ability of concert and club promoters to hold events for underaged patrons. He would go on to co-author the law’s replacement, the 2002 All-Ages Dance Ordinance, which saw eased restrictions compared to the former law.[13][14]