June 24, 2006 – Virgin Islands Project Safe Neighborhoods announces an extension to the deadline for entries to the Speak Your Peace music contest. The organization is also offering additional opportunities for contestants to be recorded at remote locations.
Speak Your Peace entry is open to young people from 10 to 22 years old and require 60 seconds of recorded music and words that speak out against gun violence.
"We have received such a steady and growing response as the word has gotten out about Speak Your Peace, we thought it best to give the kids a little more time," said Lou Lambert, chairman of the Media Outreach Committee.
The committee decided it was important to give contestants and potential contestants additional time to prepare their entries and to allow the greatest number of young people to participate. The deadline is now July 14.
Eighteen winners – seven each from St. Thomas and St. Croix and four from St. John – will find their music professionally recorded at the Island SoundWorks recording studio on St. Thomas and published on a full-length CD to be distributed throughout the territory.
In addition, each winner will be featured in both radio and television commercials to air as public service announcements throughout the year.
Island SoundWorks will once again make its team of professionals available at three locations from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 8.
"We realized a lot of the young people didn't have the means to record their own music, so we are setting up to help them," said Derrick Moore of Island SoundWorks.
On St. Thomas, the crew will be at Tutu Park Mall. On St. Croix, Moore will be available to record entries at Urban Threadz at Sunny Isle Shopping Center. And on St. John, recording will take place at the gazebo in the Franklin Powell Park across from the ferry dock.
But Moore and his partner, Dan McGuinness, have gone one step further. They will make their studio on St. Thomas available for recording right up until the deadline. Contestants should call the studio at 715-7711 to make an appointment.
"We are totally committed to this project," Moore said. "We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get their entries recorded."
Lambert said he has received several entries via the Web site at www.speakyourpeacevi.com.
"They've come in on MP3s and with the lyrics," he said.
Entries can also be dropped off with an official entry form, available online or at the drop off locations, which include: on St. Thomas at Modern Music at Havensight and Nisky Center; at Urban Threadz at Buccaneer Mall; at JAMZ 105 in Sub Base; at V.I. Housing Authority Weed and Seed offices at Estate Bovoni and the Tutu Hi-Rise Community; and at For Your Entertainment at Tutu Park Mall; on St. Croix at Urban Threadz, Sunny Isle; at Isle 95 at JKC Communications in Gallows Bay; and on St. John at John's Folly Learning Institute, at Bellevue Village Community Center; and at Connections, both Cruz Bay and Coral Bay.
Judges will include local disc jockeys and musicians. Judging will be completed and winners notified by July 21.
Entrires must include one of the following anti-gun violence messages: "Gun Crime Means Hard Time," "Put Down the Guns," "Federal Time for Gun Crime," "Put Your Hands up, Put the Guns Down," or similar phrases.
Any entry containing foul language or violence will be immediately disqualified.
The recording and filming will take place at the end of July at Island SoundWorks. Transportation will be provided for the winners to the recording studio.
The first 1,000 entrants will receive a T-shirt sponsored by BillyD's Special Tees.
All winners will be featured at premiers of "Speak Your Peace" to held on all three islands
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in America by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing these programs with additional tools necessary to be successful.
For more information on the contest, call 626-7013.
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