Today we’d like to introduce you to Kurt Ramos.
Hi Kurt, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In May 2022, the mainstream media reported that for the first time ever, a leak on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling occurred. This bombshell leak revealed that the 9 unelected Supreme Court justices would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case granting legally-protected access to abortions.
While I am not a woman, and while I was raised under the pro-life beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, I realized that the overturning of Roe v. Wade would lead to significant consequences across many societal spheres.
I had just finished my 1st semester of my Rhetoric and Composition Masters program at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and suddenly had much more time on my hands (once more). Stirred by this news report/leak, I decided to head back to UCF anyway, even though I wasn’t enrolled for the Summer 2022 semester, and proceeded to spend a full day or two in a coffee shop, typing away my proposal in a Google Doc.
In June 2022, I reached out to Rachel Kinbar, an activist who has been involved with the Orlando chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (ODSA). Rachel sent me a different document that consisted of a Concert Planning Outline, and referred me to a transgender activist who would help me make sense of my praxis-laden idea.
In July 2022, I created the rocknroefest Instagram account, heading out of Winter Park on a train to NYC. Initially, I just wanted to gauge how many of my newly made acquaintances (that I had befriended in the local Orlando music scene) would be interested in a benefit concert surrounding reproductive rights.
The feedback & responses came quickly — and all were in agreement that a Rock n’ Roe benefit show should occur.
I had previously noticed two local booking accounts kept booking my friends’ bands: Red Eye Booking & Montgomery Drive, the latter of whom keeps winning the Orlando Weekly award for best concert promoter. I emailed both of those booking accounts, and they fortunately responded with similar support. These guys really know their logistics, and made me feel so much less nervous about moving forward with making a benefit concert real. Marshal Rones of Montgomery Drive, in particular, once spent 2 hours with me inside Stardust Coffee, just talking about how he books shows and assembles concert lineups. I was mesmerized — after that afternoon, I knew there was no turning back.
On September 13, 2022 — almost three months since Roe v. Wade was overturned — we hosted the first Rock n’ Roe benefit show at the Henao Contemporary Center. An additional security guard was hired for the night, in order to ensure that nothing terrible happened to the ~250 attendees. They did their job, that’s for sure, as several of the attendees, my friends included, were jubilant.
The Florida Access Network (FAN) were the beneficiaries of the proceeds. I had known one of their activists, Cine Julien, from my time guiding UCF’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter (UCF-YDSA), which I co-founded in the summer of 2020. Back when the Roe v. Wade overruling was just a leak, Cine had reached out to their network, via Discord, to determine what we could do to prepare for the political madness. Thanks to Cine, the FAN had a tremendous presence during the event.
I had also met an anarchist activist at a house party, soon after the leak, who put me in touch with a woman named Ivanna. Ivanna personally reached out to me, on the rocknroefest Instagram account, about putting together a group called Stand With Abortion Now (SWAN) of Central Florida. She asked me if SWAN could table at the benefit, and of course I said yes.
Although I’m not directly involved with SWAN of Central Florida, one of my greatest achievements that I can look back upon with pride was helping SWAN figuratively dip their toes into the healthcare/political waters. Rock n’ Roe ’22 was their very first event doing any sort of mutual aid, activism, or organizing work. As of 2025, SWAN now has almost 13k Instagram followers — and a mind-blowing 276k followers on TikTok!!
For the 2023 & 2024 editions, I once again recruited Marshal Rones of Montgomery Drive for their expertise. For these two latest editions, a friend of mine named Annie, who runs Ghouls and Ghouls Productions, enthusiastically hopped onboard. I am eternally grateful for both of their logistics skills, lineup assembling, social media promotion, and for making sure we didn’t let the first Rock n’ Roe be a one-off thing. There have been times where they had to hold me accountable to my own creation, and drag me forward into the fully realized event; as my grad program progressed, I got more & more overwhelmed by the courseload. Like most grad students, I had to take a step back from having a social life — but in my case, there were some weeks where I truly was physically burnt out alongside the other domains of my body. I couldn’t effectively organize a healthcare-related benefit concert if I couldn’t take care of my own health!
The 2022 edition for FAN raised $1,990. I’m confident that, had there not been a show happening at Conduit with several metalcore bands with members I’m friends with, we would’ve hit the $2k mark.
The 2023 edition for SWAN, held at Will’s Pub, raised slightly less — $1,136. But we once again provided ODSA and SWAN with a platform to continue their powerful (and occasionally viral) political work. SWAN was facing some legal trouble involving an abortion clinic in Seminole County, and they needed to raise $200k in order to save it. While our proceeds came after SWAN successfully raised the money needed, I’d like to think that this edition’s proceeds gave them a bit of cushion for any extra legal emergencies.
Last year’s edition, once again for SWAN, took place on November 13th — eight days after Trump was re-elected. What had initially been my procrastinating on the concert planning turned out to be quite good timing. Although it was under President Biden that Roe v. Wade was overruled, everybody knew that abortion access was about to get a lot more limited under an empowered and legitimately re-elected President Trump. A rescheduled concert from the metalcore band Knocked Loose happened the night previous — I think that also had a positive impact in bringing local music lovers and punk rockers back to Will’s Pub for our benefit.
The 3rd edition of the Rock n’ Roe (“Rock n’ Roe 3: for Reproductive Liberty”) raised the most, by far. I’d have to ask Annie / Marshal on the exact number, but I believe we raised around $3k in donations. This was our first year (and so far, only) where we did an optional sliding donation / tier system, for people who wanted to not just purchase tickets online, but donate more if they wanted. I’d like to think that additional donations came in from people who support the cause, but couldn’t make the show.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
(I have answered this in my previous question, but to elaborate):
We have had to reckon with the challenge of working with graphic artists, who have produced amazing flyers, just when it comes to revising and otherwise overlooked significant things like color schemes or mascot figures.
There were also times, particularly in the 2024 edition, where I kind of jumped the gun without consulting the other organizers. I mistakenly (initially) announced the band Stiletto would be the headliner, because I got to interview them for an Orlando Weekly cover story last October. They did wind up performing last that evening, but I know I need to work on being more communicative with the other organizers.
There have also been times where I’ve personally felt like I just didn’t have the bandwidth. I’m not the most extroverted person, at least not initially, in public settings. I also don’t consider myself an expert in social media marketing — at least not yet. I try very hard to only make decisions, across all contexts and work environments, from my heart. If my heart’s not fully in it, or if I can’t clearly see the vision, then I step back and politely decline. I wish I could have a social media manager promote the benefit shows for me. I also would love to help put on other benefits, and not pigeonhole my ‘brand’ as just focused on reproductive rights. At the same time, I’d like to become a lawyer, and lawyers are under attack in the United States for defending civil/human rights.
I’d like to think that the fact that we have raised money to better people’s lives is more “pro-life” than admonishing those seeking an abortion. I’d like to think that it’s more “pro-choice” to work with community-based organizations and nonprofits on making people, whether they know someone who has had an abortion or not, to weigh all the options.
A quote from a planner that was given to me by my elementary school when I was in 4th grade still resonates with me as I/we continue down our gradually smoother road:
“Let us not look back at the past in fear, or look forward being afraid of the future — but around in awareness”.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I do is elevate the collective consciousness of humanity. I believe I was born to heal something bigger than my self. I am actively molding and mastering my reality towards fulfilling this matrix-ascending purpose.
In less florid terms, I am a scholar, a community activist myself, and a man who moves with intention — in everything he does, and everywhere he goes.
In terms of employment, I currently have only been able to find work doing gig economy jobs — not in terms of being a contractor for a company like Uber, but working (or writing about) actual gigs. Whenever they put me on, I work as an usher and merchandiser, at the Kia Center and Camping World Stadium, through Andy Frain Guest Services. I get paid to have fun, help concertgoers and sports enthusiasts with directions, and generate thousands of sales — the profits of which I unfortunately don’t get to see much of. I also get paid to write about fun, local music events and artists when I feel like it.
Although neither of these jobs pay bills nor make lifechanging amounts of money, I am supremely grateful that I have jobs that I enjoy. Even though I went to UCF to get a Bachelor’s in English (with a concentration in technical writing), and even though I got a Master’s degree in a subject that can apply, generally speaking, in almost any other profession, and even though I don’t have a more conventional, higher-paying job in these fields, I am very proud of myself for applying my degrees in very creative, mutually beneficial ways.
I am quite proud of being a (co-)founder — or, in a way, a nonprofit angel investor — of several powerful organizations doing consistently great work in the Orlando community. This type of coalition building has helped me realize that with enough concentration and earnest effort exerted, I could really make at least a modest living doing the deeds that have been exalted by the religious figures — and frequently broken by the political figures.
What sets me apart from others is that in my thoughts, in my words, and in what I have done, I dare to dream big. I have been told, by several people that I figuratively look up to, that I am exceptionally articulate (at least when it comes to writing essays), light up the room with my presence, and am one of the most improved/impactful men these other people have met. When people hear me speak, I am occasionally told that my voice is so calming that it helps them look at the bigger picture of their lives. I guess I’ve been “auramaxxing” all my life, as the kids say these days! It’s a bit strange typing these validating comments from others out for an interview, but my mostly grounded approach towards dreaming big has set in motion a butterfly effect that isn’t ceasing to fly anytime soon.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The biggest thing I’ve come to realize in my work (if you can call it that) involves the omniscient or ominous rise of general artificial intelligence. My own ability to get a more conventional job in my field has come under existential threat by the prevalence and popularity of these aggregated hallucination models. But in a way, I operate just like them, by reaching out to those who at least seem to know what they’re doing with their livelihoods and then making manifest my own model of solutions to the search inquiry.
We are living in The Exponential Age — there is no doubt about that. But I don’t want to leave the less fortunate behind to fend for themselves in a society that’s trending towards Elysium (the movie) than the Elysium of Greek mythology, or the festivals put on throughout the sixties. I’d like to think that my chosen industry, fields, and other specific passions of mine — blockchain and quantum technology, (angel) investing, philosophy, and biohacking — are all coalescing under a new metaphysics.
I hope and pray that my passion pursuits — mutual aid, coalition building, nonprofit-centered project management, and putting on benefit concerts — are becoming AI-proof. If they aren’t, then I hope and pray that these activities, under these very important interpersonal contexts, are becoming AI-resilient through my work.
President Obama once said in an interview that AI cannot write nor perform a Bob Dylan song, and accurately reflect his tone, etc. Nina Simone once said that an artist should be able to reflect or convey the times they live in, and change the perception of the listener. And Plato once declared that the State changes in tandem with the music.
Music is the universal language, the ultimate vessel, and the most immediately profound medium upon one’s senses, at least in my opinion. It is the higher power that even atheists and cynics can unanimously agree touches on something bigger than ourselves. And while I am not the best musician, or perhaps not the most conventionally creative (is that an oxymoron?), I’d like to see myself as not only expressing, but empowering, my listeners/clients in these challenging times.
There is, to plug the title of a benefit concert I helped put together with the FAN (and that we just held on May 31st) for Neighborhood Fridge, unity in movement.
Pricing:
- I would LOVE to get paid for this kind of work, I really do!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://restructuringrefor.wixsite.com/kurtramos
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rocknroefest
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-ramos-10a863202/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdgiFmNSCmzlDpc62VAkAVA
- Other: https://substack.com/@mightandwrite?utm_source=user-menu
Image Credits
Annie (@ghoulsandghouls on Instagram)
Cheyenne Runner
Florida Access Network
Ant Nicolisi (@redeyebookingny on Instagram)
Brian (@playfuss on Instagram)
