Singing in Protest

Nina Simone

As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world.

As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world.

SINGING IN PROTEST

• How can music be a political and social weapon to fight inequalities?
• How can music be a political weapon to defend the rights of people?
• How can protest songs denounce political problems in the world?
• How can a song be committed ?
• How do singers important things through protest songs as political weapons?
• How can artists make people conscious of what happens through their songs?
• How can singers send a message or denounce problems through songs?

THESIS QUESTIONS

• To what extend have protest songs represented a weapon to convey tolerance and denounce trauma for a long time?
• To what extend do protest songs convey a political message to people in society?
• How do protest songs convey ideas around the world by raising awareness on a political level?
• To what extend can protest songs be political weapons to change minds and increase tolerance through the years?
• How can music be a weapon to defends rights through the centuries?
• How do singers try to denounce and create reactions through protest songs?

THESIS QUESTIONS

Timeline

The Punk Movement

Freedom Songs

Anticipation

What is Punk?

Music that resonates

O'Brother

Index

Watch the video and react

O'Brother, Where Art Thou?

02

Focus on lyrics and rhythm

James Carter & the Prisoners

Po' Lazarus

Work songs are a music made with the rhythm of the hammer and prisoners sing these to give themselves courage. The lyrics' stress corresponds to when the rocks are hit. It follows the iamb pattern (unstressed _ stressed syllables) to make it very rhythmic.

In groups of 4, give your own definition of a "work song"

Work Songs

Name singers or music styles that changed history or were involved in social movements

Music That Changed History

03

Read the text.Answer the following questions and justify by quoting the text.

1. Why was music important for the Civil Rights movement ?
2. When did the Civil Rights Movement take place ?
3. What were the origins of the songs during the CRM ?
4. What was the purpose of the lyrics / songs during the CRM ?
5. What historical event did M.L.K Junior stand up to ?
6. What is "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" referred to ?
7. What was the most important music group during the CRM ?

INFO

1. Introduce the document (origin, date, title, author)
2. Explain the context of the event (who organized, who was invited, what was the celebration).

Focus on Civil Rights Songs

General Comprehension

Why do you think it is important to remember and do you think songs are the best way to remember. Argue.

The [freedom] songs could now be useful as sites for remembering civil rights events, successes and key figures

Give a definition of "freedom song" and the context it has developed in.

Freedom Songs, an activist genre

04

Read the text and answer the questions. Justify by quoting the text.

LINK

Remembering Freedom Songs : Repurposing an Activist Genre

1. What were activists encouraged to do with freedom songs ?
2. To what end ?

1. When did the activits feel the need for freedom songs fade away ?
2. What were freedom songs replaced with ?
3. Why did the genre's value fade away?
4. Explain what "rhetorical depreciation" is

1. When did the first freedom songs appear ?
2. What were the purposes of freedom songs ?
3. What were freedom songs in response to ?

more info

more info

more info

Line 26 to 42

Line 15 to 25

Line 1 to 14

Oral comprehension

What is Punk?

05

The social and cultural context

FROM LINE 25 TO 31

The musical style

FROM LINE 12 TO 24

The origins of the movement

FROM LINE 1 TO 11

In 3 groups, each study:

The Punk movement

Slave work songs

-> 1833

Choose one Protest Song.Introduce the song and the singer, explain its meaning and the social context it was created in. Explain why it belongs to the Protest Song genre.

Timeline

Great job!