Music

The Ebb And Flow Of Social Movements

July 9, 2014 David Rovics, www.songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com Educate! Arts, Mass Movement, Music, Occupy

I'm at the annual conference of the northwest branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation as I write. I've done a few songs so far, and have been very well-received. It's an easy audience for leftwing sentiment combined with acoustic music. These are mostly people a bit older than I, who came of age during the times of the movements against the war in Vietnam, and for civil rights. These movements had lasting effects not only on the politics of those in attendance, but on their taste in music. Also, they're members of an organization that has a culture of its own, to some extent, which has somewhat insulated it from the ebb and flow of social movements (though it has also undoubtedly drawn so much from those movements, too). Groups like FOR in places like western Washington feel slightly insulated from how things are in what you might call Middle America. A nice little bastion of sanity amid what often feels like the alienated drones in the “real world.” But what of the times when those drones come to life, and beyond the walls of the artificially-produced fortresses of progressivism, the regular people get motivated to think outside the box? Movements large and small can happen, and have broad and lasting ripple effects. Like the 60's -- the repercussions of which we'll still be feeling for many decades I'm sure.

NSA vs USA

June 11, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.org Create! Creative Resistance, Music, NSA, Protest

This article is from our associated project, CreativeResistance.org Lyrics: Verse #1 (thought crimes, oppression by rotation) The NSA breaks the law every day it doesn’t matter who you are or what you say they monitor your phone calls and emails anyway Corrupt Congress and courts paving the way There’s a lesson you’ll learn someday… …watch what you say. They spy on your mind, record your calls for posterity Commit daily executive crimes with impunity. They’re the authorities, here to keep us safe… Until the boot ends up on your face. NSA CHORUS It’s the NSA versus the Constitution We the people are the ones our government is abusing

FBI Files On Pete Seeger To Be Released Online

May 30, 2014 Jason Leopold, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Arts, FBI, Music, Pete Seeger, Surveillance

Thousands of investigative files that the FBI maintained for more than half a century on folk singer Pete Seeger are set to be released to the public online, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has told Al Jazeera. When Seeger died in January at the age of 94, dozens of journalists, researchers and curious members of the public sought his files from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI has been informing requesters that it turned over all of Seeger’s files to the NARA before his death. NARA spokeswoman Miriam Kleinman said in an interview that the archive would now seek to publish the files once it completes processing them. They are thought to total about 2,500 pages and need to be screened for information that is exempt from disclosure, as well as names and details that might be redacted to protect the identities of informants or confidential sources. “As soon as possible, NARA will post this file online,” Kleinman said. “We are waiting for review to be complete.” The NARA initially decided to release the files only to researchers on request, for a hefty administrative fee of at least $2,000. But Kleinman said public interest in the files prompted a switch in policy.

Five-Day Seeger Fest: Concert And Memorial For Pete Seeger

May 7, 2014 Creative Resistance, www.creativeresistance.org Educate! Creative Resistance, Music

Amanda Palmer, Anti-Flag, Toni Blackman, Tom Chapin, Steve Earle, Holly Near, Rebel Diaz, Paul Winter Consort, Peter Yarrow and others will headline a five-day Pete Seeger Tribute, Thursday, July 17th to Monday, July 21st. Pete Seeger was more than a singer and an activist, he was, and continues to be, an inspiration. From bringing songs like Guantanamera and Wimoweh to the United States to turning the traditional song I Will Overcome to We Shall Overcome and teaching it to Dr. King, Pete Seeger has truly changed the world. Seeger passed away on January 27, 2014, a short six months after the loss of his wife of seventy years, Toshi. In death, much as in life, the humble and yet larger-than-life Seeger couple continues to inspire. Their influence can be found in all genres of music, and their spirits continues to motivate community awareness and activism for social and environmental change. One of the many people whose lives the Seegers’ touched immensely was their grandson, Kitama Cahill-Jackson, who grew up in the log cabin that his grandparents literally built.

This one time I played Pete Seeger’s banjo…

April 21, 2014 Evan Greer & Anne Feeney, www.labornotes.com Create! Activism, Labor, LGBTQ, Music, Pete Seeger, Unions

The first time I met Pete Seeger was at a People’s Music Network summer gathering about 10 years ago. I was a bright-eyed radical teenager who had just stolen all of my dad’s Phil Ochs CDs and was ready for revolution, but I was new to the folk scene and was probably the youngest person at the gathering by about 30 years. In terms of looks, I didn’t know Pete Seeger from Frank Sinatra.

Pete Seeger: The Man Who Brought Politics to Music

January 28, 2014 Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com Educate! Arts, Music, Pete Seeger

Summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, Seeger refused to wriggle out of trouble by taking the Fifth and made himself an "unfriendly" witness. While awaiting trial for contempt of Congress, and likely imprisonment, he threw himself into the civil rights movement. It was Seeger who introduced Martin Luther King to We Shall Overcome and advised civil rights activist to form their own group, the Freedom Singers. "Songs have accompanied every liberation movement in history," he wrote. "These songs will reaffirm your faith in the future of mankind." As a songwriter, Seeger was never mainstream again, not least because his protest songs were snubbed by broadcasters. With 60s anti-war songs such as Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Bring Them Home, he was largely preaching to the choir. But he retained his power to popularise other people's songs. At a New York hootenanny in 1946, he was the first to make Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land feel like a new American classic and 23 years later he led half a million anti-war protesters in a chorus of John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance, which, he said, "united the crowd as no speech or song had been able to all afternoon". In 1974, he was the first to record Estadio Chile, the last song Victor Jara wrote before his murder by General Pinochet's thugs. Throughout his 94 years, Seeger's principles never wavered, his optimism never faltered.

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