Singer scheduled to perform in Eugene reportedly detained, released while challenging Gaza blockade

This article has been updated to reflect Blanton’s reported release from prison in Israel.

The singer and activist Carsie Blanton has been released from prison in Israel, five days before her scheduled concert in Eugene on Sunday.

The news of Blanton’s release came from an Instagram post on Tuesday, Oct. 7, showing the remaining detained activists from the United States together in Jordan. 

Blanton was detained days before her scheduled West Coast tour, with Oregon stops this month at Eugene’s WOW Hall, Portland’s Aladdin Theater, and Medford’s Ashland Folk Collective.

She was one of hundreds of activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of sailboats traveling to Gaza to deliver food, water and medicine, an attempt to break Israel’s 18-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats were intercepted by Israeli authorities on Oct. 2, CNN reported. The detained activists also included Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg.

Reuters reported on Monday, Oct. 6, that 171 activists from the flotilla, including Thunberg, have been deported to Greece and Slovakia.

Blanton’s planned Eugene concert was up in the air as people waited for news from Israel. She is scheduled to perform Sunday, Oct. 12, in a benefit concert for the Civil Liberties Defense Center, a Eugene organization that represents arrested activists.

“At this point all we know is that Carsie was on one of the boats that was intercepted by Israel, and she and 200 others were abducted on international waters,” said Lauren Regan, the director of litigation and advocacy for the Civil Liberties Defense Center, in an email statement on Friday, Oct. 3. “No additional info is known at this time, including whether she is going to make it to Oregon in time!”

Following along with the flotilla

Blanton’s last update before being detained was on Oct. 2, from inside a cabin. She says that if the video had been posted, the flotilla had been intercepted. 

“How did I get into this mess?” Blanton said to the camera. “I’m an American citizen, I’m a Jewish person, and I’m a musician, and for all of those reasons, I consider it my duty to try and make a problem for my own government, because my government is enabling a genocide in Gaza.”

Blanton’s Instagram posts included clips of her and other activists singing, including her protest song “Little Flame.” Supporters were watching the flotilla closely, on social media or through a website tracking its progress as the boats sailed toward Gaza, before they were intercepted. 

Blanton is originally from Virginia. She moved to Eugene as a teenager to live with friends in what she called a “punk rock house” in the 2000s, according to previous interviews with Blanton. In Eugene, she started singing harmonies and sang backup in a funk band. Her song “Rich People,” which she calls “a jazzy, jokey song about capitalism,” went viral on TikTok in late 2022, an experience she wrote about in The Nation.    

Blanton, a signee of Artists Against Apartheid, was aboard the Paola I boat, according to the Global Sumud Flotilla’s Instagram. Four Italian activists on the flotilla boats who were detained by Israel were deported on Oct. 3, the BBC reported.

Skyeler Williams, the talent buyer and director of operations at WOW Hall, said in a statement that he’s been closely following updates from the Global Sumud Flotilla. He said his foremost concern was the safe return of Blanton and the other activists.

“We, the Community Center for the Performing Arts at the WOW Hall, are honored to host this important fundraising concert in support of the CLDC, and in recognition of Carsie Blanton both as an artist and as an activist,” he said. “Collaborating on this engagement aligns with our mission to serve and uplift our community, while simultaneously allowing us the opportunity to make a greater impact that extends beyond Eugene at a time when collective action and solidarity are needed more than ever.”