Aretha Franklin: The soul of soul music

Hello, fantastic people! Since I am sure you have been listening to music these days, here is a list of links concerning the recently deceased Aretha Franklin, who sang soul music in her own unique way. She was inspired by gospel music (church music), which we talked about in our coursebook. This is an intriguing read about how a voice can empower suppressed people and spellbind the following generations. 

What is soul music? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music

Think: One of her most popular songs https://youtu.be/Vet6AHmq3_s

I say a little prayer/ lyrics: https://youtu.be/JyLpE93lzLY

Respect / lyrics: https://youtu.be/SAI_Nv3qWto

A compilation of her greatest hits: https://youtu.be/Bmfm3JvlZIc

Article about her life on the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/17/drenched-in-glory-how-aretha-gave-voice-to-embattled-black-women-and-transformed-a-nation

(Use www.dictionary.com to search the meaning of unknown words in the article above.)


Extract from the article:

...the reason we mourn her death so deeply, is that she taught us so much about the preciousness of our emotions, our inner worlds and desires. She dared to voice and make public the nuanced, emotionally heterogeneous interiority of black womanhood, becoming a conduit for articulating the beauty and sensuousness, the rage and the despair, the sadness as well as the joy of black life transduced through African American female musicianship. She turned the “vocal run” itself into a thousand miles of freedom. The intelligence of her melisma, a kind of singing in which notes upon notes are strung together into one syllable, lifted that musical gesture out of the black church and planted it firmly in the mainstream, transforming the style of popular singing. When it is used most effectively, the melisma exudes sheer visceral power and can ignite existential catharsis. It suggests limitless emotional revelation and spiritual reckoning. Franklin took it to new heights.

Tolerance, black history and world hunger

FACTS ABOUT WORLD HUNGER
 1 963 million people across the world are hungry.
  2 Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes.
3 Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. 
4 Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the 5 social safety nets we enjoy.

HOW DO WE LEARN PREJUDICE?

Many studies have shown that from the age of 3,children pick up terms of racial prejudice without really understanding their significance.

HOW DO WE PERPETUATE BIAS?

Bias is perpetuated by conformity with in-group attitudes and socializaion by the culture at large.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT UNCONSCIOUS STEREOTYPES?

Think about families and schools:supporting environment,open mindedness,new ideas beyond ''inherent'' roles and identities.

BLACK HISTORY

Black history month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora.It is celebrated anually in the US  and Canada in February and the United Kingdom in October.

BLACK HISTORY FACTS

When the tradition of Black History Month had started in the US,many mainstream  academia had barely begun to explore black history.

Before Great Britain made it  illegal for the Colonists to be involved in the slave trade,between 600,000 and 650,000 Africans were forcibly brought to America.

Tolerance and Black History

What is Tolerance?

Tolerance is a term used in cultural, social and religious background.The term “toleration” countenance or suffer generally refers to the conditional acceptance of or non-interference with beliefs, actions or practices that one considers to be wrong but still “tolerable”, such that they should not be prohibited or constrained.

Black History

Black History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history.It is celebrated in Canada and in United Kingdom, too.The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History , an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other people of African descent.

Facts 

Before Great Britain made it illegal for the colonists to be involved in the slave trade, between 600,000 and 650,000 Africans were forcibly brought to America. They were transported across the Atlantic and sold into forced labor for the rest of their lives, leaving family and home behind. 

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month

http://www.slideshare.net/cm24/tolerance-and-black-history2-3223636