Nick Cooper (born May 27, 1968) is an American drummer, record producer and composer best known for his work with

Free Radicals In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired valence electron. With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemically reactive. Many radicals spont ...

. Nick is also an activist with

food not bombs Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, sharing free vegan and vegetarian food with others. The group believes that corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance ...

, and an editor for Houston Peace News. He is also a documentary filmmaker (on the topic of

somatherapy Roberto Freire (São Paulo, b. January 18, 1927; São Paulo, d. May 23, 2008) was a medical psychiatrist and Brazilian writer, who created somatherapy (Portuguese: somaterapia), also referred to as SOMA, an anarchist therapy based on the then ra ...

), a workshop facilitator, a student of

capoeira angola Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th centu ...

, and a visual artist.

Biography

Cooper was born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He played in bands in high-school and began political activism at that time with the anti-Apartheid movement. He was an English major at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, where he joined the band Sprawl. Sprawl toured the U.S. many times, and released four CDs, breaking up in 1994. Cooper also worked with Rastaman Work Ethic productions in Houston, and produced a compilation CD, ''Texas Funk'' (1990), that included Sprawl and other bands. In 1996, Cooper started Free Radicals. In 2000, Cooper travelled to Los Angeles to cover the protests against the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...

. Coming soon after the 1999 protests against the

WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

, many activists were converging there as was the new

indymedia The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seatt ...

network. Upon returning to

, Cooper began the

branch of

with other local activists, and began travelling to work with other indymedias. In 2003 and 2005, Cooper traveled to Brazil to document

, with a DVD eventually being released in 2006. In 2004 and 2006, Cooper traveled to

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

to study the Zapatista movement and used the information he learned as the basis for a workshop entitled "Nazis vs. Zapatistas, Struggle and Co-optation" which he has facilitated in the United States and Latin America. In 2010, Cooper produced the compilation CD ''Klezmer Musicians Against the Wall.'' In 2022, Cooper co-produced Skye Drynan's debut album, ''Skye's the Limit''.

References

External links

Nick Cooper's site Free Radicals Houston IndymediaSoma DocumentaryGrupo de N'golo Houston (capoeira angola)Food Not Bombs Houston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Nick 1968 births Living people American funk drummers American male drummers Record producers from New York (state) Record producers from Texas Rice University alumni 20th-century American drummers 20th-century American male musicians