The rapper Common was initially approached to write a song for the movie “Selma” about that pivotal campaign during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The movie depicts the marches from Selma to Montgomery calling for voting rights, a protest which led to President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Common invited John… Read more »
Category: North America
Samantha Smith
Citizen diplomacy needed be only for the church leaders, academics, and retired diplomats. Sometimes a child with simplicity and clarity can cut through all the jargon and political talk to get to reality. Samantha Smith was one such child. In 1983 the Cold War was in one of its most intense stages with Ronald Reagan… Read more »
Drive-By Truckers
Drive-By Truckers is a band that began in in the U.S. South with fun, rocking music with crude and humorous titles and lyrics. By the mid-2000s, however, their focus began to get into some deep issues, including unpacking this history of racism in the South. As a white band they have been taking on the… Read more »
Katie Jo Suddaby
Katie Jo Suddaby is an American Baptist pastor and artist committed to peace and justice. The art form that she practices, Tibetan Buddhist Sand Art, is a perfect expression of that commitment. It takes hours, days or even weeks to create one sand mandala, placing a few small grains of colored sand at a time… Read more »
Plastic Jesus’ Wall Around Trump Star
Plastic Jesus is the name of a Los Angeles-based street artist. Amid the U.S Presidential campaign of 2016 where Donald Trump pledged to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to halt illegal immigration, Plastic Jesus built his own version of a wall that surrounded Donald Trump’s star on Hollywood’s famous Walk of Fame…. Read more »