Jase (Monk) Earl and violinist Kaethe Hostetter, longtime friends in musical dialogue, collaborate on a new live set as part of the series of Speak for Change Podcast live events at Indexical. After the set, Earl joins host Thomas Sage Pedersen for an interview on wide-ranging topics connected to his artistic life and history.

Thank you to Jean-Marc & Rebecca Jot for their support and sponsorship of this Speak for Change Podcast live event.

Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and raised between there and the Baltimore/D.C. area, Jase (Monk) Earl would have, at one time, gladly labeled what he does as ‘Hip Hop’. As travel and contemplation has brought him into contact with many different influences and helped deepen his practice in many different directions, at the moment he’s happy to just call himself an artist.

Kaethe Hostetter is an American violinist, composer, and bandleader, who’s been deeply invested in exploring, preserving, and expanding Ethiopian traditional sounds for over 15 years. A founding member of critically-acclaimed Debo Band, Kaethe recorded many albums and toured the world, including a life-changing tour of East Africa in 2009. Soon after, she relocated to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, immersing herself in the country’s deep musical culture. In her eleven years there, she founded a music school, and started a new band, QWANQWA; which brought together some of the most accomplished players in Addis Ababa’s music scene. QWANQWA has recorded 3 albums and made several international tours, although their 2020 U.S. debut tour was postponed until 2022, due to the COVID pandemic. During the COVID lockdown, she relocated to her hometown of Santa Cruz, CA, to quarantine with her family. While there Kaethe released QWANAQA’s third album, and recorded a solo album of Ethiopian-inspired violin compositions, as well as two other albums in collaboration with other artists. As as solo artist she has performed with Fred Frith, Butch Morris, Ava Mendoza, Henry Kaiser, and others

Speak for Change was founded with the mission of creating positive and lasting social change in our local and global communities. From a studio at the Tannery Arts Center in Santa Cruz, Thomas Sage Pedersen has hosted over 100 podcast episodes – and now, Speak for Change and Indexical bring you a series of live events! Each event features an interview and a musical guest, with new and custom sets tailored to the topic of conversation.

Thomas Sage Pedersen’s mission and purpose has shifted throughout the years, but has always revolved around: to explore and implement innovative ways to inspire and create communities that are rooted in health, self-awareness, communication, creativity, accountability, courage and nonviolence. He continues to explore these principles in his personal life as well as in organizations he has created, helped create or are a part of.

Thomas is the CEO and Founder of the award winning music school Everyone’s Music School. He is the founder and main host of the podcast Speak For Change Podcast. He also has his own radio show on KSQD 90.7 fm in Santa Cruz County called the Speak For Change Radio hour. He is a co-Founder and the main facilitator of the Black Kings of Santa Cruz County which is a black men’s group here in Santa Cruz County rooted in brotherhood and connection.

He is a member of the Santa Cruz Equity Collaborative who are popularly known for holding responsibility for the BLM mural here in Santa Cruz. When not working in the community Thomas likes to write, paint and create music. He lives in the Redwoods of Santa Cruz County with his amazing artist wife Lauren Ringelman.