Honoring MLK Day & Black History Month in the Music Program
Here’s how Mx. Bright is tapping into the collective conscious that arises around Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month in the music program at Cedarwood.
Some of these songs and activities are ones that the students have been working on since September; others will be engaged especially during this next month.
Grades 6-8
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Our Black National Anthem is a hymn written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) in 1900 and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954), for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1905.
Some children have asked if singing this song is appropriation, but the answer I get back is “Why not sing a song that is inclusive for everyone!”
Sonata #4 by Chevalier de Saint-George
6th - 8th graders have been working on orchestral compositions by Black composers.
Feeling the Pulse by Juwon Ogungbe
Mississippi Suite by Florence Price
A listening exercise for the students.
Grade 8
1619 Project
Students listened to Episode 3: The Birth of American Music and discussed as a class.
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
A feature documentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, Rumble tells the story of a missing essential chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Recommended for family viewing (at parental discretion)!
The class has also studied:
Portland bi-racial “jazz” musician Esperanza Spalding
The Miles Yacht Project: Memphis Jookin & Liquid Days for physical interpretation of music
Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam (genius, righteous anger, mental illness)
Diana Bright has found solace in music her entire life. Born in Portland, Oregon, she feels fortunate to have a family that loves the arts and music. She has taught and played violin in many genres, danced ballet, jazz, modern, tribal bellydance and flamenco, performed in musical theater, worked in interior design, performed in a pop band, managed a recording studio, opened a vocal academy, and is now the Music Director at Cedarwood.
Diana is fueled by her love for teaching music to children and promoting their health for their future. Music, like love, is a universal language that will carry our children through the most difficult of times and she is grateful to help them be more than a passive witness of its power.