Repertoire and Music Listening
WE RISE: A MOVEMENT SONGBOOK
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/songbook/
We Rise: A Movement Songbook draws on a rich history of social movement music, both old and new. From Spirituals to Labor songs, from Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement to the music rising up from our struggles today, this compilation of movement music is meant to give people ways to join. To remember. To affirm. To honor. To rage. To celebrate. To practice new ways of being in relationship with one another and the earth. To envision and create a world that is just and habitable for future generations.
We offer this songbook as a gift to the movement in hopes that the practice of raising our voices together will enable us to honor our pasts, learn from one another, and begin to envision a just society where Everybody and Being has a Right to Live.
music by black composers
https://www.musicbyblackcomposers.org/
Classical music from Africa and the African Diaspora
- Inspiring Black students to begin and continue instrumental training.
- Making the music of Black composers available to everyone.
- Helping to change the face of classical music through greater diversity.
JACK DAPPA BLUES HERITAGE PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
https://jackdappabluesradio.tv/
Jack Dappa Blues Public Media uses broadcast journalism, film, and multimedia production to produce exciting, meaningful, and historically accurate content that explores and highlights African American Traditional Music and the black experience. Our featured broadcast “Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Radio” not only plays African American Traditional music that dates back to early Black Spirituals and pre-war Blues, but we highlight today’s practitioners of the music, as well as tackle the sensitive topics that relate to the African American experience from the past to the present. Engaging and interactive, Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Radio gives their audience the context in which African American traditions, culture, and social environment are shared through the oral documentation of Blues, Black Spirituals and the like, that reflects the African American community and their different classes throughout history.
Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage
by Bessie Lomax Hawes
From Amazon.com: Step It Down weaves together the lyrics, music, and description of traditional Afro-American children's songs as well as Jones's comments on their meaning and "feel." Whether reciting "Tom, Tom, Greedy Gut" or demonstrating the more complex steps of "Ranky Tank" and "Buzzard's Lope," Bessie Jones always viewed the amusements of the young as preparation for adult roles and relationships, and as a teacher, she developed her own philosophy of how a black child is socialized into the larger community.
*"Knock Jim Crow" is included in this collection. The Jim Crow character, while existing in other contexts, was popularized through the Blackface minstrel tradition. DTMR encourages research and discretion in figuring out which songs are appropriate for singing and playing in the elementary classroom and which are for study or other types of teaching.
El Patio de Mi Casa - 42 Traditional Rhymes, Chants, and Folk Songs from Mexico
by Gabriela Montoya-Stier (Author) and Martha Chlipala (Illustrator)
From Amazon.com: This endearing collection of folksongs from Mexico is perfect for any teacher looking to broaden the multicultural dimensions of their elementary or preschool music class with time-tested authentic music.
Each song and rhyme includes teaching suggestions, English translations, game directions, and background information. Songs are categorized as rhymes, chants, singing games, song tales (romances), or lullabies, and there is even a piñata song.
De Colores and Other Latin American Folksongs for Children
by Jose-Luis Orozco
From Amazon.com: Bursting with color and spirit, this collection of Latin-American songs is a tribute to Latino culture. From traditional tunes to rhymes and hand games, De Colores has songs for all occasions and moods. Each song is accompanied by simple musical arrangements, with lyrics in both English and Spanish.
Children's Songs from Afghanistan
by Louise M. Pascale
From ww.afghansongbook.org: The Afghan Children’s Songbook Project strives to revitalize the children’s music of Afghanistan which was almost completely eradicated by the war and oppression that has afflicted Afghanistan for over 30 years. Fifty thousand copies of the songbook, Qu Qu Qu Barg-e-Chinaar: Children’s Songs from Afghanistan and Awasan See Sana have been distributed to pre-schools, elementary schools and orphanages and traveling libraries across Afghanistan. The songbook includes a CD and a cassette tape. It has been used both to introduce children to the vibrant music of Afghanistan and also as a basic literacy text. The songbook is printed with bright colorful illustrations and easy-to-read text, making it fun for children to listen to the CD and read along.
Can be purchased at http://afghansongbook.org/buy-book/
Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children
From Amazon.com: This unique book and audio sampler is a collection of 38 musical memories - songs and singing games - contributed by singers from 23 distinct cultures. This around-the-world collection offers: hand game songs, game chants, circle dances, lullabies, work songs, and songs for listening.
The collection includes:
Selections from Brazil, Cajun, China, England, Eritrea, France, India, Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico, Malaysia, Mozambique, New Mexico, Israel, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kiowa/Comanche, Navajo, Russia, Iran, Ireland, Ecuador, and African-American traditions
Gending Raré: Children’s Songs and Games from Bali
by Brent C. Talbot
From giamusic.com: This delightful collection of children's folksongs and games from Bali is perfect for elementary classrooms exploring cultural traditions from around the world.
Brent C. Talbot travels the globe researching how music is learned and taught in various cultural contexts. He is the coordinator of music education at Gettysburg College and the founding director of Gamelan Gita Semara.
Made Taro is a master teacher, storyteller, and writer of Balinese songs, games, and culture. Taro is the founder of Sanggar Kukuruyuk, a children’s program for storytelling, singing, and playing featured in the videos associated with this book.
Ketut Gede Asnawa is a renowned composer, performer, and scholar of Balinese music. Asnawa serves on the faculty in the School of Music at the University of Illinois in Urbana and created the instrumental arrangements in this book.
From Bangkok and Beyond: Thai Children's Songs, Games and Customs
by Pornprapit Phoasavad and Patricia Sheehan Campbell
From Amazon.com:
Bangkok and Beyond: Thai Children's Songs, Games and Customs is a book-and-audio CD set that offers a lively introduction to the musical and cultural memories of Pornprapit "Ros" Phoasavadi. Ros grew up in Bangkok in a household filled with music. The selections in this set are drawn from her favorite childhood experiences, and include easy to learn game, birthday and festival songs and exciting instrumental pieces for guided listening. All feature Ros' personal reminiscences.
Earthsongs
http://earthsongschoralmusic.com/
Publisher of multicultural choral music, with many pieces composed and arranged by culture bearers. Offers a series of books of translations and annotations of choral repertoire as well as cds and spoken pronunciation guides for many of their pieces.
BLACK STRINGBAND MUSIC: RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
by Jake Blount
This is an expanded edition of the Google Doc I created in February 2021, as a resource for students and workshop attendees. Many requested an expanded edition of the document with a more accessible font size. As the original document was intended to be an introductory list, I wanted to keep it short so that it wouldn't be overwhelming. On this page, I will include more sources and use a larger, hopefully more legible font size. If the font is still too small, click the "View" button on your browser toolbar and select "Zoom In" to enlarge the text.
Feel free to share this far and wide. My only requests are that you 1) use a link to share rather than copying and pasting where possible, and 2) include proper attribution. Should you use or repeat this information, remember to #CiteWomen. I do not necessarily endorse all the content of each work included here. Read these works with a critical mind, and with awareness that implicit bias affects us all. Continue to seek out more information; though I will update this list with additional entries as I come across them, there's a lot I don't know. If you feel that there's something I should add, please use the contact form on my website to offer additional suggestions.
Remember that one of the best ways to build an inclusive scene is to offer tangible support to Black artists and community members. The contemporary Black artists listed herein all have music for sale.
I offer this as a free resource. If you wish to compensate me for this work, I accept PayPal and Venmo (@jakeblount); or, buy a copy of Spider Tales.
Books
Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education
by Vicki R. Lind & Constance McKoy
"Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education presents teaching methods that are responsive to how different culturally specific knowledge bases impact learning. It is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Designed to be a supplementary resource for teachers of undergraduate and graduate music education courses, the book provides examples in the context of music education, with theories presented in Section I and a review of teaching applications in Section II. Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education is an effort to answer the question: How can I teach music to my students in a way that is culturally responsive?"
Culturally responsive teaching and the brain
by Zaretta Hammond
"In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain compatible culturally responsive instruction."
Music Education For Social Change: constructing an activist music education
by Juliet Hess
"Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education develops an activist music education rooted in principles of social justice and anti-oppression. Based on the interviews of 20 activist-musicians across the United States and Canada, the book explores the common themes, perceptions, and philosophies among them, positioning these activist-musicians as catalysts for change in music education while raising the question: amidst racism and violence targeted at people who embody difference, how can music education contribute to changing the social climate?
Music has long played a role in activism and resistance. By drawing upon this rich tradition, educators can position activist music education as part of a long-term response to events, as a crucial initiative to respond to ongoing oppression, and as an opportunity for youth to develop collective, expressive, and critical thinking skills."
Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War
by Dena J. Epstein
"From the tunes sung by stolen children of Africa to the spirited worksongs and "shouts" of freedmen, in Sinful Tunes and Spirituals Dena J. Epstein traces the course of early Black folk music in all its guises."
Stamped from the Beginning:The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi
"Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.
Contrary to popular conceptions, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited."
Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools
by Glenn E. Singleton
"Why Examine and Address Race? Race matters—in society and in our schools. It is critical for educators to address racial issues in order to uncover personal and institutional biases that prevent all students, and especially students of color, from reaching their fullest potential. COURAGEOUS CONVERSATION™ serves as the essential strategy for school systems and other educational organizations to address racial disparities through safe, authentic, and effective cross-racial dialogue."
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
by Paulo Freire
"Over a lifetime of work with revolutionary organizers and educators, radical educator Paulo Freire created an approach to emancipatory education and a lens through which to understand systems of oppression in order to transform them. He flipped mainstream pedagogy on its head by insisting that true knowledge and expertise already exist within people. They need no “deposits” of information (what Freire calls “banking education”), nor do they need leftist propaganda to convince them of their problems. What is required to transform the world is dialogue, critical questioning, love for humanity, and praxis, the synthesis of critical reflection and action.
In short, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is education as a practice of freedom, which Freire contrasts with education as a practice of domination .""
Teaching to Transgress
by bell hooks
"bell hooks--writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual--writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal. "
Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
by Lisa Delpit
"In an analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award–winning author Lisa Delpit develops ideas about ways teachers can be better “cultural transmitters” in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions breed ineffective education."
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
by Bettina Love
"To dismantle the educational survival complex and to achieve educational freedom—not merely reform—teachers, parents, and community leaders must approach education with the imagination, determination, boldness, and urgency of an abolitionist. Following in the tradition of activists like Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Fannie Lou Hamer, We Want to Do More Than Survive introduces an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice."
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
by Beverly Daniel Tatum
"Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides."
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...And the Rest of Y'all Too
by Christopher Emdin
"Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too is the much-needed antidote to traditional top-down pedagogy and promises to radically reframe the landscape of urban education for the better. Putting forth his theory of Reality Pedagogy, Emdin provides practical tools to unleash the brilliance and eagerness of youth and educators alike—both of whom have been typecast and stymied by outdated modes of thinking about urban education."