Songs and Art of Protest Materials Directions • pens and pencils • For as long as they have known how to make art, people have used it to • journals unite and inspire each other in their attempts to improve their lives and • Song lyrics to change their communities, to make them fairer and more responsive • Access to Internet and to their rights and needs. Art brings people together, moves them device for viewing online emotionally, offers arguments against injustice, oppression, and war, and examples helps them remember to focus their energy on an issue worthy of it. • You may choose an activity from the SONGS section or the ART section. Choose one or do them all. Activity Songs • You can find collections of protest songs online, such as: o https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/x-lists/best-protest-songs/ o http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Song-Lyrics-Categories.phtml o https://lyricstranslate.com/en/collection/songs-about-social-issues o https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/01/25/were-new-age-protest-music • You can also find a short collection of protest songs attached to this lesson, links on CLF's website at https://www.civicleadershipfoundation.org/remote-learning-links, and background and historical information on all these songs at www.wikipedia.org. • Choose a protest song that captures your attention and that seems to speak to you and for you. Then choose one of the activities below, or both. Present a Song • How do songs convey their messages? Why is the song you chose meaningful to you? It may: o inspire or motivate you to be better in some way, o comment on an issue or problem that you care about, or o help you imagine and live, at least in your imagination, in a different, better world: the way the world should or could be. • Prepare a short report for your classmates and teacher, and/or friends and family, that a) introduces them to your song b) explains why they should listen to it carefully and c) helps them understand what they are listening to so they can learn from the song. You can submit a recording of an oral report or submit a written document. • Fill in your answers in the Present a Song worksheet to complete your report. Remote Learning Online Resource © 2020 Civic Leadership Foundation Songs and Art of Protest Continued Write a Song • Select a relevant current issue in your community and write a song about it. • One way to write song lyrics is to set them to a familiar melody. Of course, you may want to write your own melody. • If possible, record a performance of your song. Otherwise, submit the lyrics. If you’ve used an existing melody, please identify it. Art • In addition to musical protests, we come across protest messages in many different visual art forms: o Paintings, posters, and murals (Picasso’s “Guernica,” Diego Rivera’s murals, Banksy’s works). o Graffiti in the form of words: “Eat the rich”; “Kill your television”; “Vote for Nobody: Nobody keeps promises, Nobody cares, Nobody tells the truth,” and so on. o Images or verbal messages on walls or clothing: peace symbol; politically charged quotations, such as “I can’t breathe”; parodies of corporate slogans, such as “We don’t care. We don't have to. We’re Exxon”; the word “war” in the center of a circle with a red diagonal line crossing the circle. • Look at images online. Search for “protest art images” or get more specific by adding “paintings,” “murals,” “graffiti,” “t-shirts,” or whatever medium you are interested in. You can also watch videos of performance art and news footage of protest marches and rallies. • Here are some examples that are short and easy to find (go to https://www.civicleadershipfoundation. org/remote-learning-links for resources and examples): o Murals: Search “mural in Chicago images” or "murals as protest art” or a version of this. o Graffiti: Search for “graffiti protest art Chicago” to see images, including murals. o Street Theater: Visit CLF’s resource page for a video which shows a young woman singing in a train station about people killed by the police. See the Appendix for the lyrics. o Performance Art: Search for "On The Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide" by Dread Scott. The 2-minute video shows the artist, Dread Scott, walking forward into a torrent of water from a fire hose with his hands and arms out to represent the innocent victims of police shootings. o Videos of Protests: Search for videos such as ones that capture the 1968 Chicago convention police riot, or more recent demonstrations of various kinds (the Women’s March demonstrations, anti- abortion and pro-choice demonstrations, and so on). You may also look at documentaries about the Mothers of Playa de Mayo in Argentina who for 35 years demonstrated and protested against the murders of their sons, daughters, husbands, and fathers by the military dictatorship by dancing alone as if with their missing partners. Remote Learning Online Resource © 2020 Civic Leadership Foundation Songs and Art of Protest Continued Create Art • Use the following steps to create protest art about an issue you are familiar with and feel strongly about. Step 1: Think about community issues with which you are familiar. • For example, a community issue may be access, or lack of it, to health care facilities and equipment. Such facilities, which may be adequate in normal times, can become overwhelmed during a crisis, and will lack enough beds, doctors and nurses, protective gowns and masks, and other supplies to treat patients effectively. Step 2: For each issue, think about how you would like to see the issue resolved. • Using the same example, we might want to resolve this issue by using social media to ask everyone to donate extra gloves or masks they may have in their homes. We might ask people to volunteer to look in on people who are disabled, elderly, or ill. We might ask people to send stories of hope and courage to someone who can collect these and publish them online. Step 3: Think about what is preventing this resolution. • What is keeping the problem from being solved? Some reasons might include: o People may not be aware of the problem. o People may want to help but not know how. o People may be acting on inaccurate or outdated information. Step 4: Finally, think of a short, catchy protest message, or an image, that protests the lack of resolution for one issue. • Our protest messages might include one or more of the following (and you will surely produce more clever messages than these): o HELP!--each other! o Health Care is a Civil Right! o Your story makes everyone healthier! • Now transfer the message or image to an artifact, such as a t-shirt, a poster, or a flyer. You can also record a performance piece. • Show your work to people in the neighborhood, friends, family members, teachers, or complete strangers, and ask them what they think, both about the issue and about the protest message or image. • Submit a short report to your teacher on the results of your exhibition, using the following prompts: • What did people think about your protest these useful suggestions? art? Why? • Do you have ideas on whether and how to • Did anyone criticize your work or offer change your work? suggestions? What were they? Were Remote Learning Online Resource © 2020 Civic Leadership Foundation Songs and Art of Protest Continued Reflect • In your journal, answer the following questions: • What is the role of art, such as visual art, • Where do the values of compassion, dancing, drama, or storytelling, in your life wisdom, resilience, courage, or humility and the lives of your family and friends? show up in your songs or in other art that • Why is art important to so many people, is important to you? even though it doesn’t make them better- looking or put money in their pockets? Remote Learning Online Resource © 2020 Civic Leadership Foundation Present a Song Worksheet 1. Song Title 2. Artist’s Name 3. What is the theme of the song? Use this site for a list of possible themes: https://literarydevices.net/a- huge-list-of-common-themes/ 4. What is the song about? What issue does it address? Think about what you know about this issue. 5. What are the images in the song? Are they images of hope or despair? Are they pleasant or unpleasant images? Are they images of suffering and injustice or of happy times and no worries? 6. What is the tone or mood of the song? Is the singer angry, sad, happy, hopeful, determined, in despair, frustrated, or some combination of these and other emotional expressions? How does the singer’s mood contribute to the song’s effects on listeners? 7. What is the music like? Is it fast or slow? Repetitive or wandering all over the place? Catchy or difficult to catch? How does it help convey the message of the song? What emotions does it appeal to? 8. What kinds of actions does your song inspire people to take? Think about the possible consequences of specific songs for people who want to address a certain issue. For example, do rap songs inspire people to behave badly or to work for change in their communities? Does country music make people want to move out of the city to a farm? Does Latin music make you want to learn Spanish? What about protest songs? Do they make you want to protest? 9.