David Lester
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David Lester is the guitar player in the Vancouver, Canada based band Mecca Normal, as well as a painter, graphic designer and publisher at Get to the Point Press. Mecca Normal's lyrics are written and performed by Jean Smith, who explores themes of social injustice, feminism and anti-authoritarianism.[1]
Lester met Mecca Normal bandmate Smith in 1981 while the two were working together at a Vancouver newspaper. As a result of their collaboration, Mecca Normal is considered a forerunner and an inspiration to the 1990s politically-charged riot grrrl and D-I-Y movements.
In August 1993, Lester started Get to the Point Press to publish Smith's first novel I Can Hear Me Fine. He subsequently published chapbooks of graphic design and poetry by community activists including Keys to Kingdoms by Bud Osborn which, in 1999, won the City of Vancouver Award. In 2002, Get to the Point published Smith's chapbook The Family Swan and Other Songs.
In 2005, Arbeiter Ring published Lester's book The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism -- a compendium of creatively juxtaposed statistics that illuminate issues of poverty. Royalties from the book go to The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture. The book went to a second, revised printing in 2007.
Since 2002, Lester and Smith have been co-presenting an art exhibit, lecture and performance event called How Art & Music Can Change the World in classrooms, art galleries, rock venues, youth centres and at Vancouver's International Peace Forum in 2005.
Mecca Normal's albums have been released on K Records, Matador, Kill Rock Stars and the band's own Smarten Up! Records -- created in 1986 to release their first LP.[2]
As of June 2008, Lester is nearing completion of his 300 page graphic novel called The Listener and Mecca Normal is preparing to record and release their fourteenth CD in twenty-five years.
