Come and Join Santa Barbara Music & Arts Conservatory, Direct Relief, The United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara, Intensive Heart Ventures with Artists for Human Rights as we present the International Music Festival: CELEBRATE FREEDOM EVENT ACT 1, celebrating the true meaning of freedom through music, art, dance, speech and film, performed by creative activists including local and international musicians, actors, artists and inspirational speakers. A wide variety from authentic Caribbean Reggae, Centro-African Drum & Dance Troupe, to Classical presented by featured Young Soloists of the Santa Barbara Music & Arts Conservatory and the Westmont College Orchestra & Band. The Keynote speaker is the renowned Piper Dellums, a powerful and inspirational woman, writer, filmmaker, speaker, intercessor and survivor! Keynote speaker for Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday celebration, Dellums’ family was represented in the Disney Movie, “The Color of Friendship.” There will be a Special Presentation of the HUMAN RIGHTS MOVIE by Artists for Human Rights founded by Anne Archer!

Resident of Santa Barbara since 1966, Joseph Natale, the grandson of very poor Italian American immigrants, volunteered through San Marcos High School, 43 years ago to go into Central America to help eradicate Polio and Smallpox and provide basic community development. As a 16 year old boy, his eyes were opened to the truth of poverty and daft violation of human rights in our world. Immediately after graduating with a Master of Science in Business, using the funds from his successful Management Consulting business his wife and he Founded Heart Ventures. 30 years later they are working together with Direct Relief, The United Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Music & Arts Conservatory, Artists for Human Rights, collaborating with many more local and global organizations. Together, they empower and equip people with potential who are victims and potential victims of exploitation and oppression. Many years ago Heart Ventures sent out a team to build an orphanage for hundreds of children rescued from Human Trafficking. In the 80’s people did not believe them. In fact while speaking in churches and schools about their work, Natale was pulled off the stage and told he could not speak of such pornographic exaggerations! Today, it is a well-known statistic that there are over 26 million people who are victims of modern day slavery. What many people do not know is that Right here in the United States, Between 244,000 and 325,000 youth are considered at risk for sexual exploitation, and an estimated 199,000 incidents of sexual exploitation of minors occur each year in the United States.

“All I know is this… when I wake up in the morning, I expect to be free. I expect to have a full stomach, be treated for illness, have a roof over my head, an opportunity to have my children and grand children receive a solid education. I want to know I can be gainfully employed, choose any type of recreation and be free to travel throughout my home country and the world,” says Natale.

“At this Event, we will Celebrate Freedom with the people of Santa Barbara!We will be sharing the keys to our success in combating human rights violations and leading people to freedom and independence! We will show the incredible success in the collaboration of several organizations based locally and do work locally and globally. We will introduce the power and effectiveness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, founded by the United Nations in 1948! But most importantly we are going to share with the audience each and everyone can be involved in changing our world to a better place, a free world where all can enjoy what we so take for granted.”

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