Commission Picks Peas, Roots

It's official-the Roots and the Black Eyed Peas are coming to Harvard. The Undergraduate Council-affiliated Concert Commission has "scraped together" the $50,000 required for the concert at Sanders Theatre on Feb. 12, and tickets are currently on sale at the Harvard Box Office.

As part of the commission's original budget, an "anonymous private donor" pledged to make up for any shortfalls in the commission's funds-up to $10,000 -until a last-minute influx of donations from recording industry executives, totaling $15,000, made the move unnecessary.

Informed sources say the anonymous donor was commission co-founder Natalie Hershlag '03.

"The anonymous donor just wanted to make sure that the program went on," says Gila D. Jones '02. "[She] thought that this would be a really great thing for Harvard. It was a last resort."

Members of the commission say that even though current council Vice-President Sujean S. Lee '03 and former President Fentrice D. Driskell '01 are listed as a co-founders of the commission, the group's pivotal members are Hershlag and Sarah E. Lewis '01.

Current council President Paul A. Gusmorino '02 and Vice-President Sujean S. Lee '03 campaigned on a ticket which advertised they would bring the Roots to campus.

Lewis says she and Hershlag first thought of starting a commission to bring bands to Harvard after the two of them attended a concert featuring the Roots.

"I was friends with members of the Roots, and my friend knew people in the Black Eyed Peas, so we thought we could get them to come at a reduced price," Lewis says.

Getting support from the council was their next step.

Lewis says she and Hershlag spoke with Driskell to see if the council would sign on to their idea. At that point, both Driskell and Lee joined in the project and helped create the commission.

Soon after, the council voted 28 to 3 to allow the commission to act in the name of the council.

According to Gusmorino, a proposed set of amendments to the council's by-laws should soon bring the commission permanently under the council's control.

For now, he says the council is handling publicity for the concert.

Connections

Lewis says she met Roots band members Ahmir Thompson and Black

Thought through a mutual friend while a high school student in New York.

She says she and Thompson, the band's drummer, have kept in touch throughout her time at Harvard.

"When the Roots came to Boston, it was always so much fun," Lewis says.

"Going to their concerts felt like a little taste of home."

Lewis says Thompson is an "incredible" writer, and says that performing at Harvard will be a great experience for him, too.

"Although he doesn't talk about it much, he is serious about coming here to pursue a Ph.D.," she says.

Financing

The commission will spend $50,000 on the February concert, of which $30,000 will go to pay the bands.

"We got both bands for a total of $30,000," Lewis says. "Getting both for that price would normally be unheard of."

The remaining $20,000, according to Lewis, will pay for expenses like sound, lighting and transportation.

The commission found funding in a myriad of different places.

The council gave $5,000, and after some hesitation, the administration agreed to match that figure on Jan. 18.

"The administration wouldn't give us approval to hold the concert until we could show that we could pull it off financially," Lewis says.

Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth '71, who handles student activities, says his main concern was ensuring the commission would not lose money on the concert.

"I asked them to show me a budget in which expenses and projected revenues balanced," Illingworth says. "I also asked them to show me evidence that the contributions they expected were more than projections and had actually been received."

Once he had these assurances, Illingworth says he was happy to support the commission with a $5,000 stipend.

With $20,000 projected in ticket sales, the commission received $5,000 from a series of law school organizations, as the Black Law School Students Association, the Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law,

HLCentral.com, the Recording Artists Project and the Saturday School all contributed.

The $15,000 from donors within the music industry made up the difference.

Second-year law student Aaron D. Rosenberg, co-director of the Recording Artists Project, headed the commission's legal committee, which oversaw all contracts related to the concert.

Though fundraising for next month's concert proved difficult for the commission, its member say they plan to continue bringing bands to Harvard on a regular basis.

"This year, we had to raise all the money from scratch," Lee says. "From now on, fundraising will be a continual effort."

Lee said she hopes that this inaugural year of the commission will signal the creation of a tradition.

"We want bands here on a regular basis," she says. "We want to improve the social life."

--Staff writer Alexander B. Ginsberg can be reached at ginsberg@fas.harvard.edu.