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Visual
Music and Customs
These images show enslaved people singing as part of their work and recreational lives.
January 28, 2020
236 Results
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Literature
Creating a Culture: The Music of Enslaved People
When Africans were brought to American shores in chains, they brought pieces of Africa with them and used their traditions, music and culture to help them survive.
January 8, 2019
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Literature
Gloria and Rosa Make Beautiful Music
Two friends who attend different schools in the same community learn that one of their schools has no instruments for their music program, while the other has multiple different kinds. They use their friendship and musical abilities to confront this inequity and try to bring about change.
May 19, 2017
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Music Reconstructed: Adia Victoria and the Landscape of the Blues
Installment 3 When we consider the trauma of white supremacy during the Jim Crow era—what writer Ralph Ellison describes as “the brutal experience”—it’s important to understand the resilience and joy that sustained Black
April 12, 2022
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Music Creates Wonder and Learning
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union..." I heard these words for the first time in a song when I was a kid. I was pouring a glass of orange juice in the kitchen when I heard it. Bugs Bunny had ended. I was waiting for Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids to begin. There was the familiar refrain of Schoolhouse Rock in between those cartoons. "As your body grows bigger, your mind grows flowered, it's great to learn 'cause knowledge is power!" And there it was—the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (or at least a paraphrase of it) in song. I learned it and never forgot it.
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Multimedia
When Loud Music Turned Deadly
This op-doc about the murder of Jordan Davis is compiled from home videos, interviews with Davis’ father and footage of Michael Dunn, the man who murdered Davis. The video includes Davis’ father speaking about his young son, as well as Dunn describing the events leading up to the murder.
August 19, 2016
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Pop Music as Critical Text
Is Beyoncé—or any pop culture icon—someone we should discuss with our students?
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Music Reconstructed: Jason Moran, Jazz and the Harlem Hellfighters
Installment 1 This is a special four-part series where historian Charles L. Hughes introduces us to musicians who are exploring the sounds, songs and stories of the Jim Crow era. In this installment, jazz pianist Jason
February 24, 2022
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Music Reconstructed: Lara Downes’ Classical Perspective on Jim Crow
Installment 4 From concertos to operas, Black composers captured the changes and challenges facing African Americans during Jim Crow. Renowned classical pianist Lara Downes is bringing new appreciation to the works of
April 26, 2022