Introducing Mobilize the Poets

INTRODUCING MOBILIZE THE POETS

We are a cross-discipline group of musicians, theatre artists, and historians dedicated to building connection between everyday people across time. Learning about the struggles people faced and the courage they showed while living through extraordinary times is awe inspiring and transformative. When we truly feel a connection with them, it strengthens our compassion and empowers us in the present.

To honor those lives of the past, we produce rock and roll history shows that share their stories through words, music, and images. It’s an immersive experience that speaks to the brain, the heart, and the soul, because no person’s story is complete without all those things.

THE GREATEST WAR

In 2018 Jason Fassl, Sarah Marty and I teamed up with John Wedge and Sean Michael Dargan to produce the first ever (to our knowledge) rock and roll history show. The Greatest War: World War One, Wisconsin, and Why It Still Matters premiered to a sold out crowd at the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, WI on November 11, 2018. The response to the performance was extraordinary–so much so that we revamped this “one time only” show again in 2019 at Wisconsin Union Theatre on the UW-Madison Campus.

LOSS: PERSONAL AND GLOBAL

On March 7, 2020 I was at my father Bill Fitzsimmons’ side when he passed away. It was an indescribable gift to bear witness to his leaving from this world, and it was his final gift to me.

A month prior, he had decided to end treatment for a long time liver ailment and entered hospice care at home. Over teh years, he had lost so many ghings: the ability to eat what he want, to travel, and to spend time with his family and grandchildren.

So he took control of the only thing he could: his death. He wanted to be at home, surrounded by family, which is exactly what he got.

Days later the global pandemic hit Wisconsin and my and my family’s loss got absorbed into the tragedy of the world. Like many, the quarantine and isolation that followed caused me to reflect on my life and how I wanted to spend the rest of my short time on this planet.

MY HISTORY

I’ve worked in music my whole life. I started a band in junior high (Jason Fassl was the lighting engineer), took every music class and participated in every musical activity I could in high school, majored in music in college, worked as a freelance bassist in the late 90s and early 2000s, toured nationally first with Little Blue Crunchy Things and then with The Kissers, settled down and became the Education Director at Madison Music Foundry.

I’ve played thousands of shows across the country and yet have never received the type of response we got from The Greatest War. Old men were in tears, young people were delighted, having no idea that learning history could be so cool. There was joy, exasperation, love, grief, and awe.

For me there was no going back. This transformative experience became my raison d’etre as an artist. I for the first time shifted my self identity from that of musician to writer and composer.

To connect deeply with the audience requires going deep with the creation process. I immerse myself in the material. RI read dozens of books, ponder the lives of those I learn about, look and feel deep within for alignment when the lyrics and music begin to flow. I hold myself, the people I’m learning about, and the process of creating with respect and dignity. And I do so with the faith that if I hold true during the process, that the final product will contain all that I put into it.