Glee for Refugees: Meet the One Voice Chorus
For a group of refugee teenage girls settled in Decatur, Georgia, learning the ropes of the English language is no easy feat. They hail from far-flung homelands including Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Ethiopia, Iraq, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. But the girls at the Global Village School have found a solution to the language barrier: music is their common tongue.
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Starting a New Tradition: Georgia Students Hold School’s First-Ever Integrated Prom
- Liz Dwyer wrote in Education, Race and Georgia
A group of high school seniors at Wilcox County High School in rural south Georgia made history this past weekend by bucking their community’s longstanding tradition of racially segregated proms—yes, one prom for white teens and one for black teens. Indeed, thanks to the inspiring students behind the Integrated Prom movement, for the first time ever, black and white students in the community dressed up and danced the night away together.
How does a community get around having a prom that’s open to everyone without violating any civil rights laws? Easy. You just don’t let the school sponsor it. After the courts integrated the schools in the area, proms became private, invite-only events. White parents began raising funds for an all-white senior prom, leaving black families with no choice but to follow suit and host proms for their children.
Yes, this still goes on on 2013, and not just in this town, either. And yes, some white Wilcox students still attended the all-white only prom. But as you can see from the video above, what happens when students say they’ve had enough and take action is truly inspiring.
Check out the gorgeous cover on our new GOOD 100 issue. That’s Malakeh Jazmati on our cover, a Syrian chef and television host who now holds cooking classes at Refugio, a communal living space for refugees in Berlin. She wants to be the first woman on German television wearing a hijab. Read our dinnertime conversation with Jazmati, and other activists, about what they’re doing to make Germany a more welcoming place for incoming refugees.
Tease Out: Being Mean Won’t Solve Childhood Obesity
Shocking ads in Georgia address the serious problem of childhood obesity. But some think the ads could actually back fire.
With statements like “It’s hard being a little girl if you’re not.” “Big bones didn’t make me this way. Big meals did.” and “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.” researchers feel that the guilt and shaming tactics could make the problem worse.
Free Platform Aims to Put Musicians in Control of Their Own Destiny
Plenty of startups are trying to figure out how to make music’s digital revolution pay off for recording artists by stripping out middlemen and turning musicians into entrepreneurs. At CASH Music, a nonprofit platform to help recording artists survive, musicians come first.
Beck’s New DIY Album Ignites Social Media Collaboration
- Doris Yee posted a LEARN in Music, Crowdsourcing and Collaboration
Released on Dec. 11, Beck’s newest album is not a recorded compilation of tracks, but rather a book of sheet music for 20 songs he has composed over the past nine years. After releasing the sheet music, Beck put out an open call for people to record their interpretations of the songs — essentially crowdsourcing his own album via social media platforms.
Remembering Nina Simone as a Siren and Powerful Civil Rights Activist
- Yasha Wallin wrote in Politics, Music and Creativity
…using music as a soap box wasn’t an easy choice, as she once wrote, “Nightclubs were dirty, making records was dirty, popular music was dirty and to mix all that with politics seemed senseless and demeaning. And until songs like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ just burst out of me, I had musical problems as well. How can you take the memory of a man like [Civil Rights activist] Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three and a half minutes and a simple tune? That was the musical side of it I shied away from; I didn’t like ‘protest music’ because a lot of it was so simple and unimaginative it stripped the dignity away from the people it was trying to celebrate. But the Alabama church bombing and the murder of Medgar Evers stopped that argument and with ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ I realized there was no turning back.”
As part of this month’s 30-Day Challenge, we’re asking you to work with us to make the perfect “sleep music” playlist. Many people find they’re able to fall asleep more easily with the help of 30 minutes to an hour’s worth of soft music before bedtime. What are the soothing sounds that help you relax?
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