Joey La Neve DeFrancesco

Joey La Neve DeFrancesco is a Rhode Island based musician, organizer, and historian. He performs as the drag dance act La Neve, and has been the long time songwriter and guitarist with punk band Downtown Boys. DeFrancesco has also long worked as a labor organizer, most recently co-founding the organization Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) which, among other efforts, has led a worldwide effort to demand better pay from streaming companies. DeFrancesco’s writings on music, labor, history, and Rhode Island have appeared in Jacobin, Newport History, In These Times, Art Forum, Uprise RI, Providence Journal, and elsewhere.