Chicago, IL – It was a chilly Saturday in March. It was late morning, yet many were headed to the movie theater. Not to see the typical movie, but a live stream by the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) of Beethoven’s Fidelio. The Met has been live streaming some of their productions since December 30, 2006. What motivated them to live stream? Perhaps to reach new audiences? More revenues?

Except for a very few scattered areas, the working class in the United States rarely if ever listens to opera. It could rightfully be said that this an understatement of epic proportions. There are many reasons: the cost for a live performance ticket is extraordinarily, world class opera companies only exist in a few U.S. cities, other forms of quality entertainment have grabbed workers’ attention, and the list goes on.

On top of this, privatization and cuts to public education mean fewer and fewer working class students are offered orchestra or come into contact with opera in any serious way. Many will go a lifetime without seeing a performance, something that may not occur to those headed to the Beethoven live stream.

Is the Met using live stream to reach out to workers? I got my answer quickly as an ad for Rolex, proud sponsors of the Met, crossed the screen. A quick Google search revealed that the lowest-priced Rolex watch will cost a worker over $6000 and that they can pay up to $70,000 for a pricier model.

The ad followed by a speech by Met General Manager Peter Gleb. Gleb made an impassioned plea to continue to support the Ukraine, clearly meaning military funding and NATO expansion. He likened the expression of freedom in the Beethoven opera that we were about to see to the funding of a proxy war in Europe.

There were calls to come to a live performance in New York as well as calls to donate to the Met. There was no mention of Gleb’s $1.3 million annual salary.

But enough of all that. Gleb was correct about one thing; the opera the audience was about to see was about freedom and had a lot to offer any audience. Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera. He was a prolific composer of symphonies, concertos, string quartets, ballet and much more, totaling 722 works. He is correctly seen as one of the masters bridging classical and romantic periods in music.

Why only one opera? Clearly, he struggled with it, taking almost ten years to bring it to its final version as he was losing his ability to hear. From the first to the final version, Beethoven cut much of the repetition as well as eliminating entire songs. He also restructured the opera, changing keys to make to make the repression as well as the actual struggle for freedom more prominent. Interestingly, Fidelio is one of the early operas that have some dialogue without music. Despite Beethoven’s struggles with his sole opera, it turned out to be a masterpiece.

In another change to the final version, Beethoven cut the size of the orchestra, which the Met put under the baton of conductor Susanna Mälkki. Mälkki is one of the few women to conduct such a prestigious orchestra.

Lise Davidsen plays the lead of Leonore, who disguises herself as a young man (Fidelio) to help free her husband Florestan from prison. Florestan is wrongfully convicted because he told the truth to the people in the face of tyranny. This opera is a story about true love as well as the struggle for freedom.

Working with Davidsen, the entire opera company, union members of the American Guild of Musical Artists, are all world class performers. Their acting and singing performances bring the emotion that opera is famous for providing audiences. For Davidsen, this is all the more spectacular as this was her last performance before taking family leave. She is pregnant with twins.

Even the Intermission is a treat. Besides live interviews, the Met shows the backstage working of the stagehands, who are union members of IATSE Local 1. The large number of workers quickly moving equipment and scenery before the start of ACT II is a ballet in itself.

Finally, a word about Beethoven and his politics. According to Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Marx called Beethoven one of the masters, and narrowly avoided a London pub brawl in the process. Apparently, an English drinker thought the British were superior in music.

As for Beethoven, we must realize that he was a composer and not a politician. Still, despite having to depend on aristocrats for work, he was a strong supporter of the relatively recent French Revolution and its struggle against feudal tyranny.

Richard Berg is the past president of Teamsters Local 743. He currently sits on the board of the Uri-Eichen Gallery and is the host of the Fight Back! Radio podcast.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Culture #Music #ClassicalMusic #Opera #Beethoven

Grand Rapids, MI – On December 7, 30 people gathered at Scorpion Hearts Club, a coffee shop near downtown Grand Rapids, to listen and sing along to folk and bluegrass performed by Carsten Forester and the Grand Industrial String Band.

Hosted by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and the Grand Rapids chapter of the Industrial Workers of The World (IWW), the event honored music from the labor movement.

The five-piece band which includes Carsten Forester on mandolin, Ben Kolk on guitar, Keala Venema on fiddle, Kyle Pitcher on upright bass, and Hannah Meixner on banjo played songs such as Dirty Old Town by Ewan MacColl, Union Man by Blue Highway, and the traditional fiddle tune Squirrel Hunters.

“My goal with The Grand Industrial String Band is to bring together various types of working-class music in a way that moves people towards a greater sense of solidarity,” Carsten Forester replied when asked what his goals are for the group moving forward. “I would say my biggest inspiration in that regard is Hazel Dickens, who is well regarded both as a bluegrass trailblazer and a working-class feminist icon.”

Earlier in the day, the anti-war group Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids protested outside the entrance of General Dynamics Land Systems, a war profiteer directly complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Afterwards, folks from Palestine Solidary Grand Rapids, FRSO, IWW, the Grand Rapids Tenants Union, and the Grand Rapids Alliance Against Racist Political Repression all converged at the show to unwind. Trade unionists from IATSE Local 26, the Grand Rapids Educators Association, and American Federation of Musicians Local 56 were also in attendance.

Rather than having a standard merch table, FRSO sold copies of the Communist Manifesto, as well J. Sykes’ The Revolutionary Science of Marxism Leninism, alongside the Political Program of FRSO to interested showgoers.

Tom Burke, the president of IATSE 26, sees a lot of shows at his job, and he and ranked the performance among the top three he’d seen that year, listing it alongside Hozier and Billy Strings. “What’s not to like about a room full of movement builders and revolutionaries singing along to an American string band?” adding it was “a real hootenanny!”

The quintet played for just under two hours. Towards the end of the performance, the crowd stood up and sang along to Solidarity Forever, originally written by Ralph Chaplin. Afterwards, the band played They’ll Never Keep Us Down by Hazel Dickens. “We always finish our sets with [that] anthem of working class resistance,” Carsten Forester stated. “I have always found that song to be particularly powerful when you have just been singing about how bad the conditions people have faced and continue to face. We are committed to making music that brings joy, hope and solidarity, while also fearlessly facing the reality that we live in and the history we have inherited.”

In January, Carsten Forester begins his elected term to the executive board of American Federation of Musicians Local 56; a big win for working musicians in West Michigan.

#GrandRapidsMI #MI #Culture #Music #Labor #AFM #IATSE

Los Angeles, CA – On March 31, 1995, 23-year-old Chicana icon Selena Quintanilla was murdered by her employee Yolanda Saldivar. 25 years later, on December 4, 2020, Selena: The Series premiered on Netflix. Selena is indisputably one of the most important and influential Chicanas in the past 100 years. Executive producer for the series was eldest Quintanilla daughter Suzette; it was co-produced by Chicana Christian Serratos, who stars as Selena in the series.

A father’s dream

Selena’s parents Marcella and Abraham Quintanilla met around 1961 in Yakima, Washington and, after giving birth to their first child AB Quintanilla, moved to Lake Jackson, Texas. The series portrays the heavy-handed role of Abraham Quintanilla and his own aspirations of leading a life dedicated to music. Beginning with teaching son AB how to play guitar, and after hearing Selena sing (at the age of eight), Quintanilla would also teach his daughter Suzette how to play drums. They would start a band named Southern Pearl and would play inside of the Quintanilla restaurant PapaGayo’s.

After the U.S. economic depression of 1983, the Quintanilla’s lost their restaurant. Forced to move, they took refuge at one of Quintanilla’s brother’s homes in Corpus Christi, Texas. The series delves deeper into Abraham Quintanilla’s own struggle between joining the working class or pursuing his love of music. In the series, Henry Quintanilla (Abraham’s brother) tells him about an available truck-driving position. Abraham’s response is, “I’ll drive a truck, as long as it doesn’t interfere with band practice.”

Countless examples throughout the series shine a light on the fact that Abraham Quintanilla loves music and was going to pursue a career in music at all cost. Unable to find success with his own band Los Dinos, he turned his attention to his own children and in particular AB Quintanilla, who he groomed to be the Selena y Los Dinos songwriter, and to daughter Selena who led the band.

Many opinions have been cast against the series and its focus on Abraham and AB Quintanilla. The truth is much of part one of Selena: The Series follows the young life of Selena, between ages eight and 20. Selena was just a child, under the direction of her parents, her older brother AB, and older sister Suzette. Killed at age 23, Selena would never be given the opportunity to gain control over her own career.

The Chicano Question

Despite the word “Chicano” never being used in the series, it was the context of her life. Selena’s career was galvanized when the Quintanilla’s discovered the best market for them was a Chicano, Mexican, Central American, and Spanish-speaking audience. First was with Tejano music – exclusively Chicano, this genre was invented in Texas – then by taking their music to Matamoros, México, when Selena was only 16 years old.

Having only really sung in Spanish but realizing she would have to speak the language conversationally, Selena embarked on a mission to become more fluent. As most Chicanos are also faced with a similar question in their lives, the series attempts to draw this connection. Chicanos do not just originate from Mexican Americans; they can also be of various other roots, like Central American.

A brief nod to Chicana Linda Ronstadt’s mariachi album is made when they are all in a car and from the speakers Ronstadt is heard singing Tú, Sólo Tú. Selena would cover the song in 1995 and it would be the first Spanish song release after her death.

The first-ever Chicana musician signed onto the EMI record label, the brand was challenged with trying to market a Tejano musician like Selena. They slashed her band’s name and portrayed her as a “worldly” musician, of an ambiguous nature. Racism and tokenism ensued and a scene in the series shone a light on this during the record label’s listening party. Capitalism always has a difficult time monetizing off Chicanos, but at the bare minimum they recognize Chicanismo sells.

Chicanas Christian Serratos and Madison Taylor Baez

One of the most cringeworthy critiques observed from people regarding Selena: The Series is that Serratos looks nothing like Selena. In an interview, Suzette Quintanilla said, “I felt really bad for Christian because not only would she have to portray Selena, but she would also have to portray J-Lo as Selena.” Abraham Quintanilla in the same interview said that people protested at their Corpus Christi office when Jennifer Lopez was cast to play as Selena, only two years after Selena was murdered. “They were upset that we cast a Puerto Rican to play Selena,” said Quintanilla.

Madison Taylor Baez is a Chicana from Los Angeles and in interviews, she admits she did not know who Selena was. Baez said her parents found the casting call for the film and jumped on it. As soon as they found out Baez had gotten the part, they immersed her in Selena history. “I identify a lot with Selena because I too am Latina, and I too had to learn Spanish, and I too would love to be a singer,” said Baez in an interview.

But no one is publicly bashing Baez for her portrayal as young Selena. The brunt of the criticisms has been on Serratos. Serratos is half Italian and half Chicana, a Pasadena, California native, and uses her mother’s Chicano last name as opposed to her father’s Italian one.

Important for Aztlan, important to the world

It's true, no one will ever look or be just like Selena. No one will ever sound like Selena. And no one will ever be able to come close to the significance Selena had for little Chicanitas like myself who grew up wanting to sing, dance, and look just like her. Selena continues to be one of the biggest role models for Latinas and people around the world.

Honoring her Chicana roots, but also always giving a shout-out to the Black Belt South, no one else has been able to effortlessly do as Selena did. An example of this is portrayed in the series when Selena kept wanting to do covers of Jody Watley’s songs. Selena’s last concert was in San Antonio and she opened her show with a disco medley. The songs were I Will Survive, Funkytown, Last Dance, The Hustle and On the Radio- songs originally performed by Black musicians. During her final concert, Selena would also be accompanied by Black, male backup singers.

I also have shared in singing to Selena songs with Black people who were from Texas. If you are from Texas, no matter who you are, you have heard of Selena at least once.

2020 was a significant year for Chicanos. From the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, the 25th year after Selena’s death, to the release of this series. A whole new generation of Selena fans will come of this, and many of whom will be Baez’s age. I recently gave birth to my own Chicanita who will grow up in the Chicano nation of Aztlan. She too, will grow up listening to Selena and dancing to her songs. Maybe the 50th year after Selena’s passing will mean another Selena movie or series. Another project will pull at all of the heartstrings and make all of our hearts once again go Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #Movies #Music #Selena

Here are some of the great songs of 2020. Some give voice to a specific struggle, while others tackle more general themes.While it may not have seemed like it at the time, looking back it becomes clear how much powerful content was created in the heat of the struggles of 2020.

You can also play these songs as a playlist on YouTube or Spotify.

(Content warning: some of these songs contain profane language and disturbing themes)

Janelle Monáe – Turntables

Jeezy (featuring Tamika Mallory) – Oh Lord

David Rovics – As I Watch Minneapolis Burn

Bob Mould – American Crisis

María Isa – Como Duele

Noname – Song 33

Anderson .Paak – Lockdown

Bambu featuring Ricky G, Kiwi & Ruby Ibarra – Dittybop

Lil Baby – The Bigger Picture

Kabaka Pyramid – Babylon Fallin

Soulside – This Ship

Rebel Diaz & Tef Poe – Fiyah to the Fascists

Alice Bag – No Gifts for Nazis

The Muslims – Punch a Nazi

MDC – No Trump No KKK No Fascist USA

Ana Tijoux – Antifa Dance

Resistance Revival Chorus with Rhiannon Giddens – All You Fascists Are Bound to Lose

Black Thought – Thought vs Everybody

Lonnie Oceans & Xtina Beni – Warfare

Coriky – Last Thing

Billy Bragg – Can't Be There Today

Tré Burt with Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell & Sunny War – Under the Devil's Knee

Des Demonas – The South Will Never Rise Again

Vic Mensa – Bethlehem / SC Freestyle

Black Thought – State Prisoner

Beyonce – Black Parade

Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion – WAP

Run The Jewels with Zach De La Rocha and Pharrell Williams – JU$T

Public Enemy – State of the Union

Jasiri X – Rob Jeff Bezo$

A Tribe Called Red ft. Boogey the Beat and Northern Voice – Land Back

Downtown Boys – L’Internacionale

Brick – Fake Names

Anti-Flag – A Dying Plea, Vol. 2

GMAC Cash – Tired

Lil B – I Am George Floyd

Vivir Quintana – Canción Sin Miedo

Las Cafeteras – Long Time Coming

Chicano Batman – Manuel’s Story

Ana Tijoux – Rebelión de Octubre

Dax – Black Lives Matter

Demi Lovato – Commander in Chief

H.E.R. – I Can’t Breathe

Alicia Keys – Perfect Way to Die

Bambu – Signing Off

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #Music #YearInReview #protestMusic

Here are my favorite political songs of 2019. Some give voice to a specific struggle, while others tackle more general themes.

I’m sure I missed out on some good ones – add more in the comments.

(Content warning: some of these songs contain profane language and disturbing themes)

93 PUNX, Vic Mensa – Camp America

David Rovics – So This is What It’s Like

Ana Tijoux – #Cacerolazo

Un Violador en Tu Camino – Mujeres en Chile

GmacCash – On Strike

Rebel Diaz – Fight for Chicago (Chicago Teacher Pt. 2)

Klassy – Power Trip (featuring Ruby Ibarra)

Residente, iLe & Bad Bunny – Afilando los Cuchillos

Orgullo Indio ¡Evo Morales NO renuncia! – Daniel Devita

Agent of Change – Stand With Bolivia

Algiers – Dispossession

Brother Ali – Father Figures

Lizzo – Juice

Ruby Ibarra & The Balikbayans – Someday

Bambu – Off the Wall

Blessed the MC – MeriKKKa

NoName – Song 32

The 1865 – Buckshot

The 1865 – John Brown’s Gat

The Muslims – Fuck the Cistem

Olmeca – Define

Inti-Illimani, El Pueblo Unido (Plaza Ñuñoa, jueves 24 de octubre de 2019)

Punto Negro – Ricky Renuncia

The Coathangers – Hey Buddy

Queen Zee – Sissy Fists

Ani Cordero – Pa' Poder Vivir (featuring Macha Colón y Renee Goust)

Emicida featuring Ibeyi – Libre

Instituto Mexicano de Sonido featuring Joe Crepúsculo – Cruzando el río

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #Music #protestMusic

Here are my top 20 or so songs (in no particular order) that emerged in the context of the first year of Trump-era injustices. Add your favorite political songs from 2017 in the comments here.

(Note: some of these songs contain profane language)

Marcel Cartier – Resist Trump

Marcel Cartier – Red Flag Revival

Las Cafeteras – If I Was President

Hooray for the Riff Raff – Rican Beach

A Tribe Called Red (feat. Leonard Sumner, Shad, Northern Voice) – How I Feel

The Hamilton Mixtape – Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)

David Rovics – Today in Charlottesville

David Rovics – Text Message of the Apocalypse

Dessa – Fire Drills

(song inspired by the #metoo movement)

Downtown Boys – A Wall

Logic – America (featuring Black Thought, Chuck D, Big Lenbo, No I.D.)

Prophets of Rage – Unfuck the World

Run the Jewels – 2100 (featuring BOOTS)

Joey Bada$$ – Land of the Free

Alice Bag – White Justice

(Song about racist government repression against the 1970 Chicano Moratorium)

Brother Ali – Before They Called You White

Vic Mensa – We Could Be Free

Lin Manuel Miranda – Almost Like Praying (featuring Artists for Puerto Rico)

(written in the aftermath of the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria)

Rebel Diaz – Viva Fidel

LessThree – Love Me I’m a Liberal (updated for Trump)

(cover of Phil Ochs song from 1966)

Talib Kweli – All of Us (featuring Yummy Bingham & Jay Electronica)

#SaintPaulMN #Music #protestMusic

Armstrong and his bandmates, drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt, also used the event as a moment to condemn political corruption. Armstrong, an outspoken critic of the corrupt American political system since the 1990s, took aim at Donald Trump and his militarism. “Fuck Donald Trump and his threats of war!” Armstrong screamed as the band started the opening chords of American Idiot a song originally targeted at George W. Bush.

Their newest album was inspired by the Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality movement. According to Armstrong, he began writing the album after joining a New York City Black Lives Matter protest after the events of Ferguson unfolded. In reference to President Trump’s despicable response to the violence in Charlottesville and the rise of racist violence, Armstrong said, “If the president won’t say anything about it, then I will. Fuck racism and all those Nazis! They can crawl back into their holes and stay there!”

Green Day pleased the crowd with a set-list that included songs ranging from their earliest album (Kerplunk!) to their newest (Revolution Radio). As per tradition, they made sure to include the audience at every moment of the concert, including calling for volunteers at different points in the show to go on stage to rock with the band. One of those was a fan who came from the Dominican Republic that got called on stage to sing Longview, with the band and then stagedive into the crowd.

The band puts all their energy into each of their performances, and this one in South Florida was no exception. It truly was a beautiful (if not hot) night, not just because of the amazing pyrotechnics and light shows, but because it was clear that Green Day is happiest when they are running around on stage performing and engaging with their fans. The band (and the crowd) did not stop rocking and rolling until the show was over.

As the band played their protest song Holiday, Armstrong shouted: “Repeat after me: No to racism! No to sexism! No to homophobia! And no fucking Nazis!” To which he got 20,000 booming responses.

#WestPalmBeachFlorida #Music #Antifascism #DonaldTrump #GreenDay #Holiday #AmericanIdiot

Like many hated right wing politicians before him,Trump's presidential campaign inspired a lot of music expressing outrage against his reactionary politics and actions. Here are some songs that took on Trump during his campaign.

(Note: some of these songs contain profane language)

YG – FDT(F#ck Donald Trump) Part 2

Monoloco with Sauce – Chinga Tu Madre Presidente Donald Trump

Ryan Harvey with Ani DiFranco & Tom Morello – Old Man Trump

This is a remake of an old Woodie Guthrie song about Donald Trump’s father!

Kyle Craft – Before the Wall

Death Cab for Cutie – Million Dollar Loan

One of the most powerful struggles this year has been the struggle led by Indigenous peoples to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Here are some songs inspired by that struggle.

A Tribe Called Red – Black Snakes

Tall Paul – #BadDAPL

Listen on SoundCloud

Angie Citlali – Water is Life (Standing Rock)

Listen on SoundCloud

Several revolutionary musicians put out new records in 2016 that speak to today’s political struggles and to the need for a new society. Here are a few.

Bambu – The Party Worker (full album)

Run the Jewels 3 (full album)

Zach de la Rocha – Digging for Windows

Downtown Boys – Full Communism (full album)

Here are several other songs from this year with echoes of different political movements. Several are directly inspired by the ongoing movement against police crimes and the Black liberation movement. Others are inspired by other movements. Some are well known, others lesser known.

Taina Asili – Freedom (featuring Michael Reyes)

Rev. Sekou & the Holy Ghost – The Revolution Has Come

Beyonce – Formation

Rodrigo Stars and King Capa – Ella

A Tribe Called Quest – We The People

Common (with Stevie Wonder) – Black America Again

Swet Shop Boys – T5

G.L.O.S.S. – Trans Day of Revenge

Drive By Truckers – What it Means

This year Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro passed away. There are countless songs inspired by the Cuban revolution and Fidel. Here's a song that David Rovics put out right after Fidel passed away that captures much of Fidel’s legacy.

David Rovics – Commandante Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz

Prince – Baltimore

In 2016 several important cultural figures passed away. One who stood up for peace and against injustice was Prince. Though this song was written in 2015, not 2016, it is one of his most recent songs with an explicitly political message.

#UnitedStates #Music

“His songs were musical arguments to live free.” -Boots Riley

Minneapolis, MN – In a massive outpouring, thousands of people gathered at First Avenue nightclub April 21 after news spread that Prince was found dead at his home, Paisley Park, that morning. First Avenue was made famous by Prince as he rose to fame. A cathartic gathering on the street outside First Avenue was hastily pulled together, and the club changed their plans for the weekend to host three all-night Prince dance parties. Twin Cities radio stations played little but Prince. People gathered outside Prince’s home, the famed Paisley Park in Minneapolis suburb Chanhassen. Showings of his movie ‘Purple Rain’ are scheduled for everywhere from his old middle school building in South Minneapolis to the Mall of America to Target Field this week. These outpourings were mirrored around the country as people came together to remember the music and life of a person who had so deeply touched people since he burst out of Minneapolis obscurity into superstardom in the early 1980s.

Prince was made by Minneapolis and made Minneapolis. His raw and magnetic talent was legendary. It’s difficult to think of another artist who can match his combination of incredible musicianship, vocal power, performance abilities and showmanship, and deeply honest border-pushing personal, sexual and political content.

From his 1979 debut to the present, he literally put Minnesota on the musical map, defining a new genre-defiant ‘Minneapolis sound’ and pushing forward a range of other musicians and artists, particularly many women, along with him.

But Prince wasn’t just famous for his sound. His early music exudes sexuality and gender-bending from every pore. Prince arose as a kind of negation of the rising cultural conservatism and macho jingoism of Ronald Reagan’s 1980s.

For young people coming of age in the midst of Reagan’s cultural conservatism and the homophobia and sex-phobia that accompanied the rise of AIDS, Prince somehow broke into popular culture and helped lead a generation away from the cultural conservative backlash to a sex-positive, gender fluid, thoughtful, and funky place. Prince smashed through the macho expectations of what a man should be, instead flaunting sexuality and gender playfulness and ambiguity. Within corporate-controlled conformist mass culture he was one of the few artists that provided solace and space for a generation of young queer people to become comfortable with who they were.

While some talk about Prince as being racially ambiguous, making analogy to his gender-bending, this isn’t accurate. He always embraced being Black, and explicitly embraced and supported the Black freedom struggle. Just one recent example is the song “Baltimore” he wrote after Baltimore police murdered Freddie Gray, calling out the police murders of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray that helped give impetus to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Throughout his career Prince wrote several songs with explicitly political themes, though political themes were often more background than foreground in his music. It’s become clearer in the days since Prince died that he was more involved behind the scenes supporting activist projects than most people realized. Alicia Garza of Black Lives Matter and Van Jones both spoke publicly for the first time of Prince’s behind-the-scenes involvement with supporting Black activist projects, quietly making sure movements like Black Lives Matter and other projects had the resources they needed. Prince fervently insisted on not receiving any credit for the support he gave to the movement, so most people are just now learning of this for the first time.

While Prince is known for anthems that never fail to fill the dance floor like “Let’s Go Crazy”, “1999” and “Kiss”, he was always more than a dance-hit maker. Even some of his biggest hits also dealt with darker and more philosophical themes than most pop music.

Prince’s years-long struggle with Warner Brothers over control of his music was infamous. Rather than give up control of his artistic creations to an exploitative multinational corporation or continue to churn out hits to make more money for them, Prince instead embarked on a years-long battle against them. He refused to record any more music under the name Prince, infamously renaming himself to an unpronounceable symbol, and waging a very public battle and even controversially making the analogy of artists’ exploitation by music corporations to slavery. Prince emerged victorious from this battle, regaining control over his art and never looking back.

His fight against Warner Brothers was fueled by his deep belief in artistic integrity, but was also informed by a strong belief in working people having control over the fruits of their labor that was also shown in his membership of over 40 years in two unions, the Twin Cities Musicians Local 30-73 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and SAG-AFTRA. In taking on the exploitative music industry giants, he paved the way for musicians and artists that don’t have his power and fame to win more rights and better treatment in the music industry.

Minneapolis and the world will continue to mourn Prince’s passing for some time to come. He has left behind an unparalleled legacy of musical integrity and innovation, along with path-breaking contributions to challenging patriarchal culture and the gender binary, standing up for artists’ rights and control against the corporate music industry, and standing with the Black freedom struggle.

#MinneapolisMN #Remembrances #Music #Prince

Pete Seeger was more than a folk musician. He dedicated his life to ending oppression and exploitation. When the going got tough, Seeger appeared to lift people’s spirits and strengthen their resolve.

Seeger joined the Young Communist League in 1936 at the age of 17. He advocated and sang for the U.S. to join the fight against Hitler once the Soviet Union was invaded. He joined the Communist Party in 1942, the same year he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he continued singing for the troops. The next year he recorded Songs of the Lincoln Battalion in honor of the American revolutionaries who fought fascism in Spain before World War II. After the army, Seeger helped create People’s Songs, an organization that promoted music and songs about workers and the people’s struggles.

In the face of McCarthyism and Cold War political repression, Seeger refused to back down. He was blacklisted from performing with the hugely popular Weavers on radio and television. With the Hollywood Ten already convicted and imprisoned for refusing to testify and being ruled in contempt of Congress, Seeger took a principled stand at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. He was eventually convicted of contempt in 1961 and sentenced to ten years, but the sentence was later overturned on appeal in 1962.

During the African-American Civil Rights movement, Seeger played an important role reaching white audiences, thus changing hearts and minds. He also appeared at countless rallies against the U.S. war in Vietnam and visited Vietnam with his family in 1972, before the final defeat of the U.S. and its puppets.

From If I Had a Hammer to Where Have All the Flowers Gone? to Turn! Turn! Turn! Pete Seeger is remembered today and for years to come.

In Seeger’s words, “A good song reminds us what we’re fighting for.”

#GrandRapidsMI #Culture #Remembrances #Music #PeteSeeger #folkMusic