Marcelo Pérez ’19 MM Presents “No Means No” at SFJAZZ

 Earlier this month, jazz drummer and recent graduate Marcelo Pérez ’19 MM presented “No Means No”: an awareness-building and transformative concert addressing sexual assault against women, as part of SFJAZZ's Artists On The Rise series.

Marcelo Perez plays a drum kit

From Berkeleyside's Andrew Gilbert:

Like a lot of young men Marcelo Pérez hadn’t thought very much about the hazards of walking around in a female body until several close friends were sexually assaulted.

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Featuring five original compositions and several Pérez arrangements of human rights anthems like “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” (based on Nina Simone’s bracing recording), his show No Means No is designed as to raise both consciousness about sexual assault and funds for the organization San Francisco Women Against Rape.

“The whole concert is telling a story about my transformation from a typical young man into a more hyperaware feminist man dedicated to ending rape,” Pérez says.

Mira Williams, Will Kubas, Darynn Dean, and Marcelo Pérez grin and sit on the steps of the Student Life and Performance Center.
Pérez [far right] and Dean [second from right], pictured with fellow Initiative for Social Change leaders Mira Williams [far left] and Will Kubas [second from left].

The concert included fellow NEC alum Darynn Dean ’19, with whom Pérez has collaborated both musically and as an activist:

“We first connected on social justice work,” Pérez says. “She was the president of the Initiative for Social Change and I was the vice president, trying to make NEC more inclusive.”

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