Nick Cooper

Cooper was born in New York and grew up in Manhattan.{{cite news| last =Racine| first =Marty| title =Sprawl stretches, keeps priorities in perspective| page =1| newspaper =Houston Chronicle| date =1990-06-21}} 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 in Houston, 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.{{cite news| last =Mitchell| first =Rick| title =The funk is back: New bands rock to the beat of an older generation| page =8| newspaper =Houston Chronicle| date =1991-06-02}}{{cite news| last =Racine| first =Marty| title =CD gives funk Texas identity| page =10| newspaper =Houston Chronicle| date =1991-03-21}}

In 1996, Cooper started Free Radicals.{{cite news| last =Okuhara| first =Greg| title =Musical reaction to Houston's Free Radicals| page =1| publisher =Knight Ridder News| date =2007-07-05}} In 2000, Cooper travelled to Los Angeles to cover the protests against the Democratic National Convention. Coming soon after the 1999 protests against the WTO, many activists were converging there as was the new indymedia network.{{fact|date=March 2024}}

Upon returning to Houston, Cooper began the Houston branch of indymedia with other local activists, and began travelling to work with other indymedias.{{cite news| last =Hours| first =Catherine| title =Anti-Bush Protesters Attack News Media| publisher =Agence France-Presse| date =2004-09-01}} In 2003 and 2005, Cooper traveled to Brazil{{cite news| last =Liss| first =Jennifer| title =Therapy for Revolutionaries| url =http://www.alternet.org/story/41645/| work =Alternet| date =2006-09-15}} to document somatherapy, with a DVD eventually being released in 2006. In 2004 and 2006, Cooper traveled to Chiapas 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.{{cite news| last =Filho| first =Dojival| title =Ativista faz workshop neste sábado em Santo André| url =http://cultura.dgabc.com.br/materia.asp?materia=483238| publisher =Diário do Grande ABC| date =2005-07-23| access-date =2008-03-24| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20060620105535/http://cultura.dgabc.com.br/materia.asp?materia=483238| archive-date =2006-06-20| url-status =dead}}

In 2010, Cooper produced the compilation CD Klezmer Musicians Against the Wall.{{cite news| last =Ghazi| first =Sahar Habib | title =Jewish music for Palestine | url =http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/35-jewish-music-for-palestine-ak-03 | newspaper =Dawn| date =2010-07-12}} In 2022, Cooper co-produced Skye Drynan's debut album, Skye's the Limit.{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=OK! |date=2022-05-23 |title=Skye Yayoi Drynan Releases Debut Single 'Skye’s The Limit' Alongside Surprise Cameo In The Season Two Finale of Netflix’s 'Bling Empire' |url=https://okmagazine.com/p/skye-yayoi-debut-single-skyes-the-limit/ |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=OK Magazine |language=en-US}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news| last =Kapitan| first =Craig| title =Snook isn't the center of the world for Free Radicals| url =http://www.theeagle.com/spotlight/Snook-isn-t-the-center-of-the-world-for-Free-Radicals| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080407075148/http://www.theeagle.com/spotlight/Snook-isn-t-the-center-of-the-world-for-Free-Radicals| url-status =dead| archive-date =2008-04-07| publisher =The Eagle, Bryan-College Station, TX| date =2008-04-02}}

• [http://www.nickcooper.com/ Nick Cooper's site ]
• [http://www.freerads.com/ Free Radicals ]
• [https://swap.stanford.edu/20090418083608/http://houston.indymedia.org/ Houston Indymedia]
• [http://www.somadocumentary.com Soma Documentary]
• [http://www.nickcooper.com/antipowerworkshop.htm Nazis vs. Zapatistas; Struggle and Co-optation workshop]
• [http://www.ngolohouston.org Grupo de N'golo Houston (capoeira angola)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170925052110/http://fnbhouston.org/ Food Not Bombs Houston]

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Category:1968 births

Category:Living people

Category:American funk drummers

Category:American male drummers

Category:Record producers from New York (state)

Category:Record producers from Texas

Category:Rice University alumni

Category:20th-century American drummers

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:Drummers from New York (state)

Category:Drummers from Texas