“Activist musician”

Reading Ed Sheeran’s speech when he opened his Philadelphia concert gave me a bit of a pause, that immediately followed by, “huh. Anywayyyy…” This part, particularly: I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet. There has always been that voice: “But I just want to make music/play music/draw/create!” Hell yea, we just want to make music! Draw! Crochet! Why should we care about “politics” and whatever is going on at the other side of the world, whether someone gets bombed to smithereens or not? The “problem”, though, is the fact that even our ability and opportunity to create art is political. The reason why you could get a shiny brand-new guitar in your hands, or those nice wool yarns you can get at your nearby craft stores, those are all a result of political actions and decisions. I mean, hey, a…