One Monday event will have a bit of celebrity counterprogramming — the Concert for America, not as protest but as fundraiser for wildfire relief which will be held simultaneously in New York and Los Angeles and livestreamed to the world. Participants include Jon Cryer, Lisa Joyner, Conan O’Brien, Julie Bowen, Adam Scott, Wayne Brady and Rosie Perez. In addition to performances and comedy, it will also highlight organizations dedicated to protecting human rights.
Producers Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley Jackson started the event in 2017, also held on Inauguration Day, to raise money for organizations and non-profits they thought would need help over the next four years. “It’s not only to give people a call to action, but also to give them hope, inspiration and to feel connected,” Jackson said.
They didn’t have trouble recruiting entertainers to participate, Jackson said. The only ones who declined did so because they were working. “I don’t see it as a counter effort,” Rudetsky said. “I see it as a way to get rid of the annoying rhetoric and the hate that’s based on nothing. It’s about unity.”