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Ipas sponsors holiday concert


December 16, 2004
The Mobile City Band
Triangle favorites Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band (above) and Pawnshop Ruby will be playing a benefit for Ipas on 18 December at the Carrboro ArtsCenter.

Ipas will sponsor a benefit concert and dance party this Saturday, December 18th, featuring Chapel Hill bands Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band and Pawnshop Ruby. The benefit, which will be open to the public, will be held at the Carrboro ArtsCenter and will begin at 8 pm.

The Rock for Reproductive Rights will provide an opportunity for Ipas’s local community to show support for women’s reproductive health and rights at home and around the world. For more than 30 years, Ipas has worked to increase women’s ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights and to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries.

“Every minute, 40 women around the world undergo unsafe abortion, and 200 die each day,” said Ipas President and CEO Elizabeth Maguire. “Many Americans are not familiar with those horrifying statistics, but, in our experience, when they do know, they want to do something to help. Standing up for reproductive health and rights is increasingly important, and we wanted to give our community a way to do that.”

Individual sponsors and local businesses have already shown tremendous support for the event. Donated door prizes include gift certificates for local restaurants and shops, including The Lantern restaurant and the clothing boutique Modern Times, camping equipment from outdoor outfitter Townsend Bertram, and yoga classes and trial memberships at local gyms and studios.

Both of the evening’s featured acts have dedicated fans in the local area. A rock and roll, rhythm and blues band named after a Morrisville trailer park, Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band was one of the premier bands in the Durham-Chapel Hill area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Fans reveled in their energetic dance music and Lise's magnificent voice. Their 1981 album, Shut Up and Dance, showcased their high-energy style. The band reunited to produce Song For Us All, a 25th anniversary album, in 2003. The Independent Weekly called the album “a wide-open, 17-tune collection that blends R&B, rock, and acoustic music as deftly as it alternates originals and covers.”

Representing a new generation of musicians, Pawnshop Ruby will open the show with exuberance and style. Originally hailing from the mountains of Tennessee, lead singer Mary Johnson is a rare talent. Says the Water, Mary’s first recording, was made possible when she won first place in a songwriter’s showdown at the Bird’s Eye View in Knoxville. Pawnshop Ruby was formed when Mary moved to Carrboro and met drummer Kate DeMayo, bassist Dave Haugen, and lead guitarist Joe Romeo of the renowned local band Fake Swedish. This unique foursome plays roots-inflected rock, carried by soft and rich tones over steady, driving rhythms.

Tickets for the benefit concert are $10, and $8 for ArtsCenter members. The concert will be held from 8 until 11 pm. The ArtsCenter is located at 300-G East Main Street in Carrboro. Tickets can be ordered at (919) 929-2787.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258