The talented husband and wife team of singer/songwriter Bill Van Noter and noted journalist Elissa Free will be featured in the Compassion Consortium's Music and Memories Night on Wednesday, April 24th, 7:30 pm Eastern.  Join us for an evening of Bill's music and Elissa's memories of growing up in the burgeoning animal welfare movement with one of its pioneers, Ann Cottrell Free. 

 

While Bill led an illustrious career as an attorney and judge, Elissa was building her own reputation as a journalist with 21 years at CNN. Her mother, too, was a groundbreaking journalist––the first woman in the Washington Bureau of Newsweek, the Chicago Sun, and the New York Herald Tribune. In the late 1950s, Ann wrote stories that mobilzed the public for the successful passage of the Humane Slaughter and Animal Welfare Acts. She was a friend of Rachel Carson's and an early environmentalist, and her admiration of Dr. Albert Schweitzer led to her book, Animals, Nature & Albert Schweitzer.

 

In this lively and fascinating evening, we'll hear amazing stories of Ann Cottrell Free's work for animals in those early days, and what Elissa and Bill have been doing since. We'll intersperse throughout the event select songs from Bill's playlist, such as "We Shall Not Stop," "The Hunted," and "Slaughterhouse Way."

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