The Power of Music

Last weekend I presented at the Ethnography in Education conference at UPenn with my colleague Jocelyn on a documentary video project we've been working on with high school students. Next to our presentation (ha ha), the best session I went to was an after-school hip hop club that included two students and three adult educators from Young Scholars Charter School. They shared music the kids have produced and talked about their motivations and writing process as well as experiences in and out of school. It was a really lively discussion and the students are creating some serious stuff. I bought a CD that's packed with inspiring songs. I got a little inspired myself and hacked together a short video to Lady V's song '1963' about the power of music in the civil rights movement, a struggle that continues today.