Eletroacústicas - Samuel Araújo e Ben Lamar Gay!

Radio show in Rio de Janeiro featuring Ben Lamar Gay, musician, teacher and activist from the South Side, Chicago, and Samuel Araujo, Brazilian ethnomusicologist, Tinker Visiting Professor at the the Music Department, University of Chicago, where he taught a course on Music and Social Justice, with discussions enriched by the presence of Mr. Lamar Gay among a few other Chicago musicians, educators and activists.

Busking in Bogota

Excellent video on busking in Bogota, Colombia, with English subtitles.

http://vimeo.com/80121601

 Shared on Facebook by a group of students in the course Música e Justiça Social (Music and Social Justice), offered siultaneously to two graduate programs in music at, respectively, the Federal Universoty of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Federal Universty of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO), replicating somehow a homonym course taught at the University of Chicago during its Spring semester.

Conclusions: missed connections (Girls Rock!Chicago), unpublished material (People's Music School and Hip-Hop DetoxX) and the silent disappearance of things

Hello All,

Over this past week and a half  (and really this past  weekend),  I have been contacting various music and community programs that intersect with or create supplement materials for music education in the Chicago Public School system. Many of these programs have an after-school section. Although these programs are not always directly linked to "ethnomusicology" or "music research', they are linked to the concept of "people making music" as described by Jeff Titon.  And of course, they linked to social justice through their mission statements.

For this post, I would like to reflect on the immense limitations of my approach so far and the ways in which this project produced some (at least personal) sense of progress. As I was talking to a fellow friend who grew up in Chicago about what I had started to do, she mentioned how there is a long way to go in terms of opening-discussions and even beginning to understand how to concepts of social justice and music education in Chicago.

So what do I think I have accomplished? What do  I think needs more work? (Should I even frame this from a "I" perspective????)

Limitations!
First, is the issue of scope. There are so many programs for music in Chicago and I only scratched the surface in terms of searching for programs. In addition, I never got the chance to talk with children directly and some of my "experiences" were via phone and email.

Second, is the constraints of web-based research, especially for a procrastinator. There were so many missed connections and incomplete follow-ups. I contacted one group--Girls Rock!Chicago and after a series of mistakes on my part,  I missed them completely. Due to time constraints,  and unpreparedness in telephone interviews there are two programs that I was unable to include by today's date: Hip-hop DetoxX and the People's Music School. Both provided great links to information and lended great connections to the literature but I was just not able to get through everything. Moreover, web-based research is great for the general musings and exploratory work that I aimed form  but does not lend well for completely capturing the essence of a music program's definition of social justice and the processes of the program.

Third  is the limitation of literature. This project did not have a very deep literature based analysis. Instead,  it was largely exploratory--a chance for a non-music major undergrad to get her feet wet in Chicago's music education system. In addition, I found myself struggling to tie in aspects learned in class to these specific music education situations. I really struggled with understanding the simple question of: "What does it mean for applied music research to combine with social justice in music education in Chicago? "

Progress?
I have not written progress with a question mark to imply my doubt of progress but rather to show the way in which progress was achieved--through asking questions at all levels of "research". In this vein, this section of the blog did open my mind to a lot of issues that I had never thought about and has spurred a lot of questions.

First, I am now extremely curious about the intricacies of the CPS music education system(s)which seems to have various programs interacting the system.  The CPS is so large and most of these programs are created to fill some small gap in the music education system. Ones that work directly with the schools seem to be coming in and establishing music programs where there is an absence or supplementing existing in-school programs that have prove to be weak. How are those intricacies set up? And more importantly what is process of grants/funding/scholarships by nonprofit organizations that decide to "fill the gap"?  All of the programs are nonprofit, but many have ties to Chicago/Illinious grants or funding and I would like to know how these connections are established.

In addition, this project has the potential to tackle larger issues: if increasing access, unity, and peace are some of the goals of external music education programs, then what are the social structures that have created this sense of need?  What changes in institutions can be made by the city of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools? What, if any, changes need to be made within music education program such as the ones listed here? What is the role of the parent? Moreover, what is the perspective of the parent whose child is in a music program that requires extra time and resources? How does one bridge gaps between home life (which may or may not encourage music learning) and one's music/school life?

In a way, this project while not providing much immediate tangible change (is immediate tangible change always desired?), it did help provide space for me to theorize about how to approach well-established programs. From an applied music research standpoint, does one simply look at what those programs are doing as process of learning from them? Should you look to always evaluate the program for ways in which they don't achieve their goals? Do you look for ways to achieve change and if so how? It is a structural problem with social institutions working beyond a specific program? Are the invisible things (like music selection and teaching style) that fit or don't fit into concepts of social justice?

Moreover, I now wonder about the process of maintenance. How do programs--whether music, education or research-- maintain and evaluate their programs? What obstacles get in the way? I am reminded of a few programs that I found that were no longer running. Although I sent them the stock emails (with all the verbs turned to past tense), I was unable to do follow-ups on their past conceptions of justice and/or why the program is no-longer running. Thus, I am extremely interested in the quiet disappearance of things--especially the disappearance of external music education programs in situations like these.

Conclusions, conclusions, conclusions
So as one can see, there is much much more research and dialogue to be done in order to illuminate true connections between music education and social justice---not just more research but in ways to combine it with theory and  connections to academic literature while "in the field".

And there is always the golden question of engagement: How to better engage music educators and creators of supplemental/alternative music programs?

Best,
Caressa Franklin

Part 2: The Hyde Park Neighborhood Children's Choir as seen through various "applied lenses"

So what does my experience with the Hyde Park Neighborhood Children's Choir have to do with social justice in music education, applied music research and/or social justice in general?

(First, I would encourage anyone following my thread of posts to look at the second part of a two part post by Michael titled "Painting the Town  Sort of Red". In sections of the 2part post, he is evaluating the CCC as whole and their presentation of social justice within the framework of this particular musical performance. He asks some hard questions and deals with some of the understanding and evaluating processes that I have begun to outline here).

(In addition, this post has not reached it's full potential. For the purpose of our class presentation, I will post it and dicuss it as is.  But if we make this blog more public, I will need to edit this post to put in proper in-text citations, add a final evaluation and complete some thoughts.)

Background

It occured to me as I was looking briefly into the Hyde Park Neighborhood Children's Choir:  although my primary goal is to hear back from program leaders and other workers about definitions of social justice, I needed to have a sort of academic approach within which one can talk about their definitions. Most music educators and music program developers are/were academics and thus have read series upon series of literature on various aspects of music, music education, social work, psychology (and in some cases) ethnomusicology and popular music studies just to name a few. Thus, my question shifted from "what is social justice from the view of this program director" to "what are the social justice and education dialogues among music educators here in Chicago and abroad?". I then asked "in what ways are these dialogues connected to the work here in our course about music, social justice and applied music approaches?".

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Lenses as theoretical work
I decided to use the term "lens" when I was first observing the Hyde Park Neighborhood Children's Choir and their work. This particular group of children were learning various (perhaps limited) styles of music and were in a way putting on a "global lens" through which they could understand both themselves and the world (see Michael's post for a discussion on meaning and how the students recreate their own sense of meaning within the songs). So I thought, why not try this experience for myself?

At the risk of imposing etic views of social justice, I think there are at least three “lenses” through which an outsider (such as me) can approach a well-established and long-standing program like the the ones I have been discussing. By lens, I do not refer to a sunglass lenses (i.e. shading or discoloring one's perception) but rather the term refers to simply to a tool for focusing on a specific point or field of vision. And because my contribution to this project is largely exploratory,  I do not want to use "lens" to strictly imply a set-in stone evaluation system, although that can be the case. For now, they are categories and guidelines that help make links to academic literature and that can be come the springboard for deeper evaluations and further discussions with programs, parents and students.

Thus, without further ado, the three focuses/lens/aspects:

1. The first is the most obvious lens and was at first my only focus: looking into a program's conception of social justice and how it shapes the program. Better put: how are explicit and implicit ideals of social justice developed and (re) enforced in the creation and continuation of a program?

2. The second lens to look at a program is from a standpoint of the musical make-up. What music is being taught to the children, how, why, and when? How does or does not the process of music selection promote their teachings of social justice?

3. The third lens deals with the music educational set up of the classroom. In what ways is knowledge created and transferred? How accessible is the information (i.e. music theory, song history, song choices)? What sorts of knowledge transference methods work best in the situation while still promoting ideals of social justice?

But where did I get the "framework" for these "lenses"?
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Optical/Lens frameworks as connections to literature and perspectives from our class.

1. The first frame, of looking at the conceptions of social justice endeavors, comes with an overall need to understand not just a definition of social justice but to the underlying roots of a such a definition.  These roots are important because as the program develops, the roots support the foundation upon which social hierarchies are either reinforced, destructed or re-negotiated. There are several ways to find the "roots" of something but I will stick with the common analogy of a tree, where the program is the tree itself. Thus tangible activities of the program are its branches and the children are it's fruit.  Thus, let's treat an online, paper-written or, verbally expressed statement of social justice as the trunk or the base. The roots (which can comes in many stages and different lengths) are then something underneath that--beyond the statement and beyond the tangible postulations of a program.

Based on my short research, in most cases with music programs that provide "free" community services such as music instruction and/or music materials, contain the general idea of brining something to the youth. (In the tree analogy, this is their "trunk"). For some purely after-school organizations its the idea of brining outside music opportunities is the face of waning music education in the Chicago Public Schools. For other's that work both in and outside of the school system, it is the idea of reviving and supplementing music education programs.   For other's it is the idea of providing new perspectives on hip-hop music, blackness and the streets. For other's still it the creation of a global citizen. For other's it is the creation of Latino space through program designed for  every aspect of the family.  For all them,  their social justice concept(s) go beyond teaching music and head towards larger social issues and needs  (or should I say teaching music has the power to go beyond one concept of social justice?)  Regardless, there is a perceived need or gap, whether long-term or temporarily, that the program directors are attempting to fill.

Thus, for discussing many programs here in Chicago, it is important understanding how and under what processes that "need" is defined. The process of defining of that need is the first part of understanding the roots. I will now like to borrow from some work from a different socio-cultural context. In their article titled "Sound Praxis, Poverty and Social Participation: Perspectives from a Collaborative Study in Rio de Janeiro" Samuel Araujo and Vincenzo Cambria discuss the the difficulties of "finding a universally acceptable definition of poverty" and the ways in which poverty is often linked to concepts of sound praxis--so much so that both terms are "strongly and reciprocally implicated, stressing their conceptual links to violence inscribed in day-to-day experiences" (Araujo and Cambria 2013, 24). In discussing symbolic violence in the favelas, they point out that due to a series of shifts in Brazilian socio-cultural and economic make-up, "the favelas have always been considered homogeneously as 'places of absence". (Araujo and Cambira 2013, 29) and this perceived since of "lack" leads to efforts aimed at brining the something to the favelas (Araujo and Cambria 2013, 29). Thus, cultural practices such as dance, theater, circus and music among other, were mobilized as powerful "expedients" (Yduice 2003) to fill these and gaps and, ultimately, to achieve social change" (Araujo and Cambira, 2013, 30).  In addition, there became strong associations with "lack" and violence" with music created and used in the favelas. The article them moved on to discuss symbolic violence in music-orientated NGOs and many social programs in general, highlighting how the children in the programs are "not seen as holders of rich and diversified experiences, but as tabula rasa" (ibid).

While while they are leading into a discussion of their collaborative "Musicultura" research project with CEASM and their focus is on the  daily violence of as seen and experienced in Rio de Janeiro, I think the theoretical framework can be "applied" (joke), to theoretical discussions of external music programs here in Chicago.  Thus, the question becomes, if a program defines social justice is terms of providing a service to children  and filling in a need what sort attitudes, perspectives, and potential forms of symbolic violence are created? What about the opposite? (Must such a dichotomy exist?) But, as already shown in the abovementioned article,  the questions are so much deeper than that. Just as it is not enough to understand the favaleas and poverty are associated with lack without first understanding the social cultural, economic and political phenomenon behind it, it is not enough to understand the "roots" of an organization's individual definitions of social justice without looking for larger phenomenon's that caused these programs to have such a perspective.

Thus, my whole point here, is that while definitions of social justice are often multi-faceted so are the roots of those definitions. In order to dialogue with or evaluate a program,  one must begin the process of root detanglement. Without this, any dialogue or evaluation of a program is limited and will not provide any clear solutions or definitions.

Thus, the first lens actually one is one of global and local positioning as a first basis.

2. My second lens stems from literature in ethnomusicology and music education.  I choose to ask and focus on those series of question because although many disagree with what social justice means and how it relates to music education and ethnomusicology, I would say that what is taught and how it is taught is extremely important in the crossroads between the three.


Deborah Bradley and Kyra Gaunt touch on their own definitions of social justice in relation to music education. In her 2007 article "The Sounds of Silence: Talking Race in Music Education” Deborah Bradley  how race (and the social constructions that create race) is never directly discussed among music teachers nor applied when teaching in a multi-racial and multi-ethnic classrooms. Instead, teachers will discuss race-realted things, like  about how marching bands (generally in the mid-West a sign of white band practices) are favored in schools. This uncomfortability with direct race-talk leads to social hierarchies being recreated and the needs to students ignored, as music educators are not best learning how to best address students.  Discussing the same issues from a different front, Kyra Gaunt is concerned with not just what is taught but how it is taught. In her 2002 article “Two O’Clock Vibe”, she disucsses the way in which she, as a black female instructer and ethonomusicologist teaches “Black Popular Music”. To her, the only way to teach this music is through doing. Not just doing, such as learning how to sing R’n’B or even DJ/turntablism—but a complete and full embodiment of the practice. Thus, once a week, the students recreated a dance party scene with a live DJ and space to dance. Through the dance party the learn the ways in which community is created within in black families and one of the primary ways in which they experience the hip hop life. For Gaunt the way to best learn music is to embody that music form. Combining Bradley and Gaunt together, one is forced to ask what sort of silent or implicit forms of social hierarchies and symbolic violence exist when teaching a particular form of music. Thus it becomes not just what you teach but when. how and you teach it.

While Gaunt and Bradley deal with formal forms of music education, their theories can be applied to many music programs set up here in Chicago. Regardless of the focus of the programs, each of them must make decisions on selection and method of distributing that selection. But many do so for various reasons and not every music selection choice is directly linked to promoting or diminishing the programs sense of social justice.

Thus my second lens is one that views manifestations of social justice as intrinsically tied to how music classroom are constructed. While teach of the approaches above definitely do not fit every program, they provide some ways in which one could begin to look at how to address or promote some issues of social justice.

3. My third lens hails mostly from discussions of education in general. I first based my questions off of literature of Paulo Freire in which he discusses the concept of "banking education". I then based by questions off of Deborah Wong in which she re-examing transference of knowledge--breaking down the field, the classroom, the teacher and much more. (More to come on this topic).

Thus my third lens is one that asks for discussions on social justice from a the teach-student relationship and the creation of knowledge. This lens allows for us to look for social justice in places that are not readily discussed when it comes to established music programs

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Application of lenses on Hyde Park Children's Choir
Unfortunately, I have run out of time to really apply my lenses to the Hyde Park Children's Choir. However, because my section of the blog is purely exploratory, it is fine that I did not get to finish here--it leaves more room for members more actively involved in programs like the CCC to decide if and when my "lens" can be applied. Perhaps some of this writing stretches the theory too thin and misapplies concepts in ways that are not useable for external and supplemental music programs here in Chicago.

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Bibliography

Allsup, Randall Everett and Eric Schien

2012 “Social Justice and Music Education.” Music Educators Journal 98:47-51.

Araujo, Samuel and Vincenzo Cambria2013 “Sound Praxis, Poverty and Social Participation; Perspectives from a

Collaborative Study in Rio de Janeiro.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 45:28-42.

Bradley, Deborah

2007 “The Sounds of Silence: Talking Race in Music Education” Action, Criticism,

and Theory forMusic Education 6/4: 132-162.

Gaunt, Kyra D.

2002 “The Two O’Clock Vibe”: Embodying the Jam of Musical Blackness In and

Out of Its Everyday Context.” The Musical Quarterly 86 (3): 372-397.

Freire, Paulo

2008 Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th ed. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. New York:

Continuum.

Pettan, Svanibor

2010 “Music in War, Music for Peace: Experiences in Applied Ethnomusicology. In

John O’Connell and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (eds.). Music and Conflict,

Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press; p. 177-192.

Sweers, Britta

2010 “Music against Fascism; Applied Ethnomusicology in Rostock, Germany.” In

John O’Connell and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco (eds.). Music and Conflict.

Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press; p. 193-213.

Wong, Deborah.
 “Ethnomusicology and Critical Pedagogy as Cultural Work: Reflections on Teaching and Fieldwork” College Music Symposium. 38 (1998): p. 80–100.

Sound map project conclusions/thoughts

by Cathryn Jijon

Music & social justice sound map (screenshot)

The idea

The idea for the sound map project came from a class discussion. During the discussion, Professor Araujo showed us the Belfast sound map, which can be found here: http://www.belfastsoundmap.org/

I thought that making a sound map of Chicago would be a great way to get to know the city better and engage with its various communities.

Initially, with the idea of social justice in mind, my plan had been to compare the sounds of neighborhoods moving South to North, and, at the suggestion of others in this course, East to West, and perhaps finding a way to relate the project to issues of transportation and social mobility. However, realizing that the scope of this project would perhaps be both too big and too unfocused, I narrowed my goal to exploring, specifically, the soundscapes of neighborhoods in different phases of gentrification.

As such, I decided to explore the various soundscapes in Little Village, Pilsen, the West Loop, and Wicker Park. I wanted to create minute-long recordings of public sounds in order to get an idea of what the soundscapes of each neighborhood were like, and compare and contrast. After venturing to the West Loop, I became more interested in how different kinds of music permeate the soundscapes of each neighborhood, how the various sounds compete with one another, and how these sounds relate to the gentrification (or lack thereof) in each neighborhood.

Perez, West Loop

Some thoughts

Each of the neighborhoods I recorded in were very different from one another. For instance, Little Village is a proudly Mexican neighborhood, virtually untouched by gentrification. Pilsen, formerly a Mexican neighborhood but still known to Chicagoans as the place to go to get traditional Mexican fare, is actually fairly gentrified, with many artists having moved into the area and changing the community dynamics. The West Loop is very gentrified, having become very family-friendly; a few establishments remain, however, that are not upscale (though, as my friend laments, restaurants like Perez face the threat of closure as a result of spiking rent prices). Wicker Park, formerly home to various minority groups and aspiring artists, has become extremely gentrified, with many upscale restaurants and retail stores.

While uniqueness of sound is a somewhat arbitrary term, I found that—perhaps unsurprisingly—the sounds of Little Village were the most unique of the four. This is certainly due, in part, to the fact that its residents speak mostly Spanish, but also to the fact that they hold on very strongly to their Latino (mostly Mexican) roots. The residents’ tight grasp on their heritage remains a strong impact on the soundscape, between the language spoken on the street to the music blasting from the stores and passing cars.

Wicker Park also has a dynamic soundscape, with cars always speeding by and stores and restaurants also playing music loudly. However, the sounds of Wicker Park seemed less grounded in the history of the neighborhood—as I noted in a previous post, little, if anything, indicated the history of the minority groups (Polish, Latino) that had resided in the neighborhood. However, the artistic history of the neighborhood is well maintained through various artistic spaces and the neighborhood’s ‘hipster’ reputation. In terms of soundscapes, evidence of the neighborhood’s artistic history can be found in the sounds of the band practice leaking onto the street or the various music venues (there were, unfortunately, no shows going on while I was there).

Old school Wicker Park hispters

While I did not speak with people in West Loop or Wicker Park about the class’s project, I did speak with people in Little Village and Pilsen about the relationship between music and social justice. I was really surprised by the lack of interest in social justice expressed by the two women in Little Village, since one generally thinks of minority and lower income communities as being more concerned with issues of injustice and inequality than higher income communities. When talking with the two girls in Pilsen, I was really interested to learn about the new venue opening, as I agree with them that a new performance space could really have a big impact on the sounds of a community and all spur on the change already happening within the neighborhood.

If I were to do this project again, I think I would narrow my scope even further. I would have liked to engage more with the community and the people, perhaps focusing in exclusively on Pilsen since it seems that this is the community most rapidly changing as a result of gentrification. I would really like to talk with more community members, both those who had lived in the area for a long time and those who recently moved in. I think it would be interesting to get personal accounts of the observed changes—especially with regard to sound—and also see if there were a way to work with community members to preserve the musical/cultural history of the neighborhood through performance. I would also be interested in conducting interviews to determine what the reaction was to the opening of Thalia (the new venue). As Angela Impey implies in her piece “Culture, Conservation, and Community Reconstruction,” culture is just as important as natural resources to a community, and it would be interesting to see how the soundscape has changed and is changing with the changing culture of the neighborhood.

Also, here is a link to the sound map I made, but I’m not sure if it is working (Blogger REALLY doesn't support the embedded version of the map, I tried for quite a while), so please refer to the photo above and the Sound Cloud links on my previous posts, if you feel like checking out what I recorded! http://mapmaker.donkeymagic.co.uk/edit/70490/26490/

Email Correspondence with Rock for Kids and the Chicago School of Blues

Hello All,

As you all know, I spent the past two weeks contacting in school and extracurricular  music education programs in Chicago (ranging for choirs, bands, orchestras, hip-hop productions, rock music, blues, and African drumming. Although my initial goal was to find free music programs, most of them are various degrees of free or have scholarships/discounts for lower income students. My original goal was to understand their conceptions of social justice and how they bring it about. My focus(es) have changed a bit (see upcoming post about applied lenses) but nevertheless my goal remains the same.

The following two programs were only able to contact me through email because of the time constraints caused by my procrastination and/or their own personal schedules.  I have included the portions of the emails that  were pertinent and that I received permission to use in this blog. At the end, I will discuss the concepts of social justice presented in both and conclude with some final leaving questions.

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The Stock Email
When I first contacted all of the programs that I could reach (about 2/3 on list provided in my first post), I sent them all the same general introduction, a set of three questions, a more personalized section discussing their program and my mention of wanting to learn more. The three questions were there just in case they were unable to meet with me or do an over the phone interview. They could then look over the questions and write a short response to me. Below is the most basic email that I used and then tweaked for each program.

 I realized after I sent all of the emails out that my introduction to our class was incomplete. I stated us as "Music and Social Justice" but not "Music and Social Justice: Emerging Approaches in Applied Music Research".  I think this made a difference in their perception of what we are doing and I wish I had been more thorough in crafting  the email.

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Chicago School  of Blues
(correspondent is Ms. Bonnie McKeown,)

Taken from main-website on 6/3/14

The Answers to my Questions

1.     In what ways do you see your program connected to social justice?

        (How do you define social justice?)

BLUES is a community music originated by African-Americans in response to

harsh working conditions and racial discrimination in the South.  Check

out Jimmy Reed's song "Big Bossman"  or Floyd Jones "Hard Times" on

YouTube. Blues is a simple but powerful music for ordinary people to

express their feelings, whether personal or social.  In a repressive

environment, such expressions represent freedom. Blues had the same

origins as Negro Spirituals. Like the spiritual song "Swing Low Sweet

Chariot" about escaping from slavery, Blues is a code for things that

sometimes can't be spoken aloud.  This music helped the Black community

survive and stay together until the civil rights movement and better times

came along. Now we are having hard times again, and New Jim Crow (read the

book by Michelle Alexander). So blues is more relevant than ever.

 2.  What are your processes of encouraging students to further engage

 with music and their environment(s)? What challenges do you face? What

 benefits or progress do you see?

Schools are seriously lacking in teaching  of music at all. They also lack

instruction in self-awareness, self expression, and cooperating with

others. So Chicago School of Blues does not teach instruments, it teaches

self expression in front of a group; instruments can come later.  Each

student is asked to write down their feelings about some event in their

lives, happy, funny, sad. Then they hear the standard three-line format of

12 bar blues. For example:

"My dog ate my homework, please have mercy on me;

My dog ate my homework, please have mercy on me;

Teacher's gonna kill me, think I'll go and climb a tree."

Then students each  get a chance to stand up and perform their verse; we

help them sing it and make sure the group sings along or gives them

positive reinforcement. We repeat the same 12-bar musical pattern with

everybody singing their verse. Later, whenever they hear the blues

pattern, or need to get some feelings off their chest,the students are

likely to remember what they heard, sang and learned.

3.     What is the process of participating as a student? (What is the

        process of enrollment?)

Our group is hired by schools and afterschool programs to give workshops

and concerts. The best age tends to be 7 through 11, but we've done it

with adults, young children, and teenagers as well. Whenever possible, we

bring along a band of real, professional Chicago blues musicians to back

up the class as they write and perform their blues verses.  The musicians

play a song or two to end the workshop.

Hope this helps.

(The links in the email text are provided by me to help those unfamiliar with the songs are text to better understand what is meant.)

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Rock for Kids
(correspondent is Mrs. Robin Koelsch)

Short Email-not much to report on here

Due to some time constraints, I was unable to get a specific definition of social justice. In the meanwhile, here is a little more information on Rock for Kids, as taken directly from their website on 6/2/14.

Photo taken from Rock for Kids Electronic Press Kit 

Rock For Kids provides music education to underserved children in Chicago, sparking creativity and passion, teaching critical thinking, supporting academic achievement and enriching young lives.

Rock For Kids music classes:

•    Bring quality music education into low income neighborhoods.

•    Help students strengthen social skills and build self-esteem.

•    Provide an alternative to gangs and drugs.

•    Provide the cognitive benefits of active music education.

Rock For Kids provides music education for elementary school students at underserved Chicago Public Schools. Rock For Kids brings the classes into the neighborhoods where kids need them most to negate the risk and cost of transportation. Rock For Kids contracts professional music teachers and provides a choral based music education curriculum, based on the nine national standards of music education. In addition, Rock For Kids provides adjunct programming and workshops in Songwriting/Production, Blues and an audition-based Performance Choir.

Rock For Kids unique curriculum has measurable goals in the areas of: music theory and history knowledge, vocal technique, music analysis, public performance and creative and artistic development. Rock For Kids music classes help students develop not only musical skills but reap the benefits of music education, which has been proven to bolster academic performance and cognitive development.

Provided Links
 Since I could not visit them in person, my correspondent was able to give me an mp3 and a link to the Rock for Kids YouTube.

As taken from the email:

I've attached an mp3 of one of the songs written and recorded by our students at Nicholson Elementary in Englewood through our Songwriting and Production class.  I think it speaks volumes about what our students view as social justice in Chicago.

I think that her link to the YouTube channel and the inclusion of a student piece helps us to understand what sort of ideas of social justice the students themselves hold. This view is just as, if not more, important as the view of those in charge of programs like Rock for Kids. 

I am pretty technologically challenged but here is a link to the song:

https://sites.google.com/site/musicsocialjusticemedia/mp3

NOTE: I have received permission to attach the mp3 here for personal use only (the student created the song and his own lyrics for an assignment but he uses backtrack of a popular music track). Thus it is not to be shared beyond here and if this site was to become public, I might have to take the link down.

The song is titled "Chi Raq Remix" in which the student took the "Chiraq" song from the popular rap song by Nikki Minaj. The term Chi-Raq in her track was inspired by and proliferated the use of local slang among Chicago youth. To many, the track and term is not only offensive to the citizens of Chicago and also mocks the social/religious/political state of a country that we (the U.S) have contributed to. In his remix, the student uses exerpts of the original song as a platform to talks about his own view of "Chiraq". Thus, he is working to reframe the misconceptions of Chicago. In doing so, without erasing the reality of such violence, the student also works to discuss the parts of Chicago (South Side included) that get erased by such a term. Throughout the song,  he splices in pieces of news reports and discuss how the gun violence is primarily young black men involved in drugs (either selling or doing). Thus to this student, social justice means looking beyond the initial term "Chiraq" and looking at institutional causes brought about a situation where such a term can be used so flippantly. 

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My Postulations based on the above "findings"


Brief remarks and tentative comparison
Because I was not able to visit these programs on my own, I am only comparing concepts of social justice as defined on the webpages of these programs and their email correspondence. In addition, I am weary of "comparisons" because I think that every program in Chicago has their own unique way with dealing with issues they see presented before them and a simple comparison could impose hierarchal values. That being said, there is always room for discussing common grounds (especially on a theoretical level).

These two programs have a lot in common with each other (and with many of the in-schoool/after-school music programs in Chicago. At the most basic level, they discuss social justice as a concept of filling a need for music education. But this need is not their primary concern-- beyond filling a need for music education, these programs are also deeply committed to the process of developing critical and self-aware youth in the face of social and economic hardships that have structural implications.  To them music is away to address conflict and forms of violence enacted by and against groups of people in Chicago.

Questions, Questions, Questions
 As I was  doing a brief overview on these programs, I was immediately reminded of Timothy Rice's piece on music in times of conflict. In discussing applied music research and ties to conflict situations, it become apparent that I cannot avoid asking a commonly used question: To what end can music be used for social betterment? While this is not always the best framed question, it does ask questions of who uses music in times of conflict and to what end. And, naturally the answers to these questions are intrinsically tied to specific definitions of conflict and entirely dependent on soci-cultural context. In his list of conflict situations, Rice discusses poverty and other urban issues as conflict.The definition lines up with perceptions of symbolic violence and social constructions that are painted onto urban environments, which Rice discusses in reference to applied music research done in Brazil with favelas (Rice 2014, 9)  Once again,  the same question appeared to me in new form: in terms of urban areas and poverty, to what end does music become part of and/or work to destabilize symbolic violence? But even then, this question was not completely filled  Although I am not doing applied music research persay, I found myself looking at these two programs and asking: to what end and by whom is music used in social conflicts in Chicago? Because in their definitions lies something deeper. While the programs are attempting to use music in a positive direction, there is a sense of music being able to be used negatively (as with some's perception of the original "Chi Raq" rap.)

Conclusion

Thus, using these two programs and their face-value definitions of social justice, I found myself asking larger questions about the general role of music here in Chicago and how music manifests in various opposing "bad" and "good" sides of conflict and can be used as a tool for freedom and oppression. 

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Semi- Bibliography

 "Chi Raq Remix", Mp3 File. Rock for Kids. 

 (I don't have all of the material to cite this, but it was provided by the Rock for Kids and was created by a student in their production class. While the student has ownership of the lyrics he created, the background is not his but is being  used under the Fair Use Agreement for educational purposes in his classroom and ours).

Rice, Timothy Rice

2014 “Ethnomusicology in Times of Trouble”. Unpublished article currently under peer-review process. 

Best,

Caressa Franklin

Painting the Town Somewhat Red, Part 2

In this post, I will discuss aspects of social justice within the Paint The Town Red performance itself:  I will examine the choice of songs, the roles of the different branches of the choir, and the organizational structure of CCC to see how social justice ideas succeed and fail within the CCC framework.  This post is in conversation with Caressa's informative post about the Hyde Park neighborhood choir.  It is interesting to look at Mollie Stone's comments on social justice from Caressa's interview in relation to the questions I ask from observing the May 22nd performance at Millennium Park. 

May 22, 2014, Millennium Park, Chicago, Il

At the beginning of the performance, Judy Hanson spoke about certain social themes that are part of the CCC’s mission: bringing together people through the feeling of singing together, that diversity can be expressed through music, and that children can “change the world” through music.  Hanson introduced the director of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Events (DCASE), Michelle Boone, who spoke about the accomplishments of the CCC, such as the VOC's upcoming trip to South Africa, its reach to 3,500 singers, and its dedication to the “cause of social justice.”  She then told everyone that she wanted to take an “un-selfie” with her iPhone, asking all to scream “Paint The Town Red” as she snapped a photo of the large group of people attending.

For most songs, all choirs, about 3,500 singers, participated in some way in the performance: singing the main melody with the VOC, which performed on the Pritzker stage, or supplying background harmonies, usually with some sort of choreography.  The first two songs were “People Get Ready” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” both anthems from the Civil Rights Movement.  Both songs had intricate harmonies and accompanying background parts, with members of the Honors Choir, singers chosen from the neighborhood choirs for their exceptional abilities, joining the VOC on stage.  After these two songs, Hanson explained that this year the CCC was celebrating 50 years since the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  She then announced that the next songs to be performed were part of this celebration: “We Shall Overcome,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and the Dick Holler 1968 song “Abraham, Martin, and John.”  Before continuing with the program, Hanson wanted all to remember the violence that accompanied the Civil Rights movement, principally the 1963 church bombings at the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  From memory she named the four victims, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair, and told us that the VOC would sing the Joan Baez song “Birmingham Sunday.” 

Next, Hanson introduced Mollie Stone, the Director of World Music for the CCC.  Stone explained that the CCC was also celebrating 20 years of the fall of apartheid.  With the passing of Nelson Mandela last year, Stone selected two songs for all the choirs to perform together: “Shosholoza,” a popular Ndebele folk song, sung during the apartheid struggle, and the 1987 Johnny Clegg song, “Asimbonanga,” which called for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.  The choirs sang harmonies and performed choreography with the VOC, which wore scarves of kente cloth and featured four male soloists from the VOC. (see Stone's comments on Caressa's post about why the CCC teaches foreign songs).

The next part of the program was a medley from the Broadway production of The Lion King. Before the performance, Hanson told the story of Lebo M, the South African composer recommended for the film by composer Hans Zimmer, who composed the “African songs” in The Lion King.  Lebo M’s choral arrangements with choreography were performed by the VOC.  These songs were selected because of Lebo M’s South African heritage and today’s celebration of Nelson Mandela.  

To close the show, Hanson announced that they had a surprise guest vocalist, Allison Semmes, who is in Chicago performing the part of Diana Ross in Motown The Musical, running at the Oriental Theater.  Hanson emphasized to the 3,500 singers in attendance that Semmes is an alumnus of the CCC system and a great example of the success one can achieve with “dedication and hard work.”  Semmes sang “Home” from the movie The Wiz, and then joined the VOC for a Motown medley.  The VOC performed very intricate choreography and harmonies, closing with “Dancing in the Streets,” which was accompanied by the 3,500 singers in attendance with backgrounds, harmonies, and choreography, an overwhelming sound and sight.  Here is a short video I put together of the event:

It is here that I would like to make some observations of this performance. Musically, the CCC is impressive in what it accomplishes; throughout the city, singers at schools, neighborhood choir centers, and the Chicago Cultural Center learn a uniform repertory of popular songs, gospel songs, protest songs, and songs from foreign countries in many different languages. The CCC also provides travel and performance opportunities for its singers, such as performances with the CSO and Lyric Opera. The fact that children from any economic level and from any part of the city can participate is certainly a type of social justice. 

But if the CCC’s mission is to enact social justice, what are the injustices the organization is trying to remedy?  Scholar Lise Vaugeois argues that we need to look to the causes and manifestations of injustice.  She states, “Addressing injustice means engaging with the political, locating ourselves historically and coming to terms with our implicatedness in injustice.”  More importantly, “Without such critiques we risk getting caught up in discourses of charity—discourses that too often result in ‘feel good’ projects that valorize the giver while maintaining the inferior position of the receiver.”1 Certainly, the CCC allows for more participation in choral performance.  They teach a broad repertoire and offer free music theory workshops.  As we’ve seen, the singers learn the music of the Civil Rights Movement, the apartheid struggle, and about the Birmingham bombings. These, though, are past injustices.  What about the injustices that occur now in the daily lives of these children? What about the 1,864 victims of gun violence (6/day) and 415 homicides in Chicago? 2 How does the CCC's mission engage with these issues?

In Caressa’s post we learn from Mollie Stone that the choir directors individually confront the injustices of today with individual singers from their choirs. They discuss social issues such as gang violence, poverty, and HIV/AIDS in rehearsals. An example that Stone presents shows how one of their songs took on new significance after a drive-by shooting of the friend of one of the singers. As Vaugeois writes, “Music is a reflection of social values and a means of constructing social meaning.”  From Stone we learn that from the connection of the choir’s repertoire to the individual singer’s life experience meanings emerge from the music that at the personal, social, and political level are deeply significant. 3 

What about other issues such as segregated neighborhoods, immigration, crumbling school buildings, or a school system of a few good ones for some, a lot of bad ones for everyone else? What about race and class?  Looking at the board of directors one sees CEOs of investment firms, executives from major banks, representatives of major law firms, and the CFO of University of Chicago. Does the board question their "implicatedness" in the social problems of Chicago or do they see the CCC as attacking social problems by filling the gaps of lack: lack of order, lack of resources, lack or arts, etc., much like NGOs in Rio de Janeiro?4  Should there be more community members from neighborhoods around the city on the board?  Following Vaugeois, I think it is necessary that people ask how some “have come to be in a position of ‘superiority’ relative to those defined as being ‘in need’” or the discourse risks becoming one of charity, not of social justice. Is the CCC a "feel good" project that maintains positions of giver and receiver or does it enact social change?

Michael Allemana

1 Vaugeois, L. (2007) “Social Justice and Music Education: Claiming the Space of Music Education as a Site of Postcolonial Contestation” Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 6/4: 163-200.

2http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/01/01/police-chicago-reports-415-murders-in-2013-lowest-since-1965/
3 Vaugeois, L. (2007)
4Araujo, Samuel and Vincenzo Cambria 2013 “Sound Praxis, Poverty and Social Participation; Perspectives from a Collaborative Study in Rio de Janeiro.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 45:28-42.