Did you see Miley Cyrus’ acceptance speech at the MTV Music Awards? She used the awards show platform to support an issue she cares about–homeless youth. In response, the NY Times ran this mini-series on celebrity activism, published in their “Room For Debate” section.

At RPM, we don’t think that there is any “room for debate” when it comes to whether or not artists should speak up. Instead of questioning their right to do so, or telling them to just “shut up and sing” as the media so often does, we think it’s more important (and productive) to talk about effective strategies for when a musician or comedian does take a stand.

Which, as you might have guessed, is one of the reasons we get up every morning.

To this end, in the coming weeks we’ll be re-releasing our DIY handbook for artists engaged in social change, called Strategies that Move. Along with it, a new website, our 10th Artist Lab (neé Artist Activist Retreat, and this time in Kentucky to look at the role artists can play in climate change and energy transition), and a massive artist-led voter registration and Get Out The Vote effort.

We’ll continue to send you behind-the-scenes “postcards” about all of these efforts as well as what artists are doing to support the issues they care about

P.S. If you weren’t familiar with Miley’s other activism, check out her song for Occupy and support for gay marriage.