Following the 2015 mass shooting at “Mother” Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Zoe Mulford wrote an evocative song about the shooting and President Barak Obama spontaneously singing “Amazing Grace” during the memorial service. Joan Baez included it in what is reported to be her final album “Whistle Down the Wind” released in March… Read more »
Category: Music Festival
Mai Khoi
Vietnamese folk singer Mai Khoi was arrested in March 2018 after returning from a tour in Europe (click here for the BBC report on her arrest). She has a pop song about Vietnamese girls and her love for Vietnam, but has turned into a searing critic of repression of freedom of speech. With her new… Read more »
March For Our Lives Music
On March 24, 2018 students across the United States mobilized marches against gun violence and for gun control legislation. The students of Margery Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida had survived a horrible shooting that took the lives of 17 of the classmates and teachers. They turned their sorrow into energetic anger to drive… Read more »
Cranberries’ “Zombie”
I stumbled across The Cranberries on the NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. They played their hit “Zombie” from the ’90s. This Irish band was obviously coming from their own context in a song with strong words about the pain of violence and the deathly numbing of our brains as we silence ourselves: “When the violence causes… Read more »
“Peace Over Violence”
“Peace over Violence” (Towards a peaceful Zimbabwe 2018 National Elections) Article by Lance Muteyo Elections in Zimbabwe have been characterised by massive politically-motivated violence which has left a lot of ‘scars’ in communities. History tells us that politically-motivated violence occurs in every society at some point during its existence. Be it in time of independence… Read more »