When Pete Seeger was blacklisted in the 1950s, he was no longer allowed to perform in the kind of venues in which he and the Weavers had been appearing. He discovered a new network of places flying under the radar and brought his music to those schools, summer camps, church basements, synagogues, and more. In the process, he inadvertently created a new career path—that of the itinerant folk musician and children’s performer—paving a direction for many of us in CMN. A strategy that was intended to silence the political left in this country had the unintended consequence of bringing folk music to a whole new generation across the land, planting the seeds which would give rise to the next folk boom and social activism movements in the 1960s.
Folk music and—to an important if lesser degree—children’s music have always been closely tied to social justice and progressive political movements. While folk music has the ability to be overtly partisan and topical, social justice children’s music appropriately steers clear of specifics about politics. However, this does not lessen the value and impact of children’s music related to a wide range of subjects, including the environment, racism, fairness, and social responsibility. CMN members inspire critical thinking and action in kids of a variety of ages (and adults) through our performing, songwriting, recordings, teaching, residencies, and workshops.
I have heard people make assumptions that children aren’t ready to think about big issues. In our thirty-plus years of experience making music for and with kids as the performance duo Two of a Kind, my wife, Jenny, and I have found this is not the case at all. In addition to performing, we both teach kids on a regular basis, and as teaching artists we lead songwriting workshops. This gives us a lot of opportunities to listen to kids and to get a good sense of what they’re thinking and feeling. We have discovered that kids devote a lot of time and energy to grappling with moral, ethical, and social justice issues. One early development in children is a sense of fairness—which is really another word for justice. I noticed in my work with children, and as a parent myself, that fairness can be a difficult concept. I wrote a song called “That’s Not Fair!” to encourage kids to make distinctions between situations that seem unfair (such as not always getting your way) and instances of true injustice.
Some people tend to relegate social justice/political/topical music to the 1960s, or at least to the late ’50s to early ’70s, but people have always made music related to the issues of the day, and this continues to the present. The specific circumstances and issues change over time, while the need to explore these concepts and express our feelings about them remains a constant. I would like to focus on some of the social justice music that has been created in recent years, with an emphasis on particular contemporary issues.
Gender Fluidity
With 1972’s landmark Free To Be. . . You And Me as an example from a former era, many children’s musicians have created vital, relevant music to explore current ideas of gender identity and support a nonbinary worldview. Alastair Moock’s album All Kinds of You and Me (2015) specifically recalls and updates Free To Be with songs like “It Takes All Kinds,” “You Might Be a Girl,” and “Everything’s Upside-Down but Me.” Chana Rothman’s concept album Rainbow Train (also 2015) features songs like “Gender Blender,” “Boy in a Dress,” “My Body Is Mine,” and “Everybody Gets to Choose Their Own Name.” Ants on a Log contributed the whimsical and clever “Some Girls Have Short Hair.” The Okee Dokee Brothers’ song, “Snowpeople” (2018) includes the lyrics:
And why do we roll up circles
Just to put them inside a square
Maybe “boys” and “girls”
Are words we don’t have to wear
In this very issue of PIO! you can find a new song by my wife and musical partner, Jenny Heitler-Klevans, called “Be Who You Are,” celebrating pride in all identities.
Anti-Racism and Immigration
Children’s music has always included a lot of material promoting diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion. There seems to be a relatively recent increase in songs for kids that respond more directly to racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. The Alphabet Rockers, who have presented multiple workshops for CMN in the last year, are at the forefront of this with their two most recent hip-hop albums Rise Shine #Woke (2017) and the Grammy-nominated The Love (2019). The 2018 album Hold Tight, Shine Bright, responding to the heartbreaking situation of immigrant and refugee children in detention centers at the border, features contributions from many wonderful artists, including Lucy Kalantari, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Alphabet Rockers, Brady Rymer, Frances England, Lucky Diaz, Laura Doherty, Suger Free Allstars, Joanie Leeds, Elizabeth Mitchell, Suni Paz, and Aaron Nigel Smith. Jimmy Hammer and Dave Kinnoin’s beautiful song “Wake Up in America” (2016) provides a reminder of the ideals to which we aspire. My own song “Hatred Has No Place” can be found in this issue of PIO!
Gun Violence
In the midst of the deluge of school shootings (and other mass shootings), many children’s artists have responded musically. Magic Penny recipient Bill Harley formed an organization called Artists for Safe Kids (ASK)—“children’s artists speaking for gun sanity”—which includes many CMNers among its members. ASK members The Okee Dokee Brothers have a clever song from 2016 called “Shootin’ Star” which follows up verses about famous shooters Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Calamity Jane with the chorus:
Put your 6-shooter down
Grab your six-string guitar
Start singin’ and wishin’
On a long shootin’ star
And wish that we might
And wish that we may
Hang up our guns
And put the bullets away
To me, the most inspiring responses to all the mass shootings have come from kids—the thoughtful and passionate young activists from Parkland and elsewhere. The activism of young people has included some very powerful songs, many of which can be found on the 2018 recording Raise Your Voice: The Sound of Student Protest. This very professional collection of eleven songs written and performed by teenagers from around the country is a moving antidote to the depressing events that inspired it.
Sheroes and Heroes: Role Models and Activism
We can inspire more kids to speak out, sing out, and get involved in issues by celebrating postive role models. Songs can tell the stories of sheroes and heroes, both the famous and the everyday. Bonnie Lockhart shared her new song, “Ballad of Greta Thunberg,” about the teenage climate activist at the 2019 CMN Conference in Arizona. Raffi has also recorded a song called “Young People Marching (for Greta Thunberg)”. Dave Kinnoin’s 2019 song, “Look to the Helpers,” was inspired by a quote from Fred Rogers. CMN member Jonathan Sprout has made four excellent CDs about various sheroes and heroes, including a song about Malala, called “Powerful.”
Alastair Moock's video for “Be a Pain”
Alastair Moock has been doing programs at schools about activism. He has a great new song called “Be a Pain,” which we heard him do at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) conference in November. The song ingeniously plays on many kids’ inclination to misbehave and ties that to the concept of speaking and acting out against injustice. The idea reminds me of the Laurel Thatcher Ulrich quote I’ve seen on bumper stickers: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” After an introductory verse that sets up the concept, the subsequent verses feature a diverse selection of well-known activists: Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk, Billy Jean King, and the Parkland kids. The third phrase of each chorus changes in response to the previous verse, giving just the right amount of variation within the singalong-able repetition.
Be a Pain
by Alastair Moock
©2020 Moockshake Music
If you see something that’s wrong, raise your hand and say that’s wrong
Point it out and name that thing by its name
Don’t stand by and stare; if it’s wrong, it’s your affair
Don’t be quiet, make a riot, be a pain
Chorus
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
Ignore the crowd and go against the grain
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
When Rosa Parks sat on that bus, she chose to make a fuss
She chose to break the rules and take the blame
Her choice to sit and fight helped to bring on Civil Rights
Because one strong woman chose to be a pain
Chorus
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
If they say, “You have to move,” say “I’ll remain”
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
Harvey Milk, he chose to run for the council board and won
Even though folks said, “You can’t because you’re gay”
One brave LGBTQ elected leader ran and knew
You can change things if you choose to be a pain
Chorus
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
Tell ’em, “I won’t let you make me feel ashamed”
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
A tennis star named Billy Jean told the world she had a dream
That men and women would be paid the same
She refused to hit the ball till there was equal pay for all
She was a King because she was a royal pain
Chorus
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
If they refuse to pay, refuse to play the game
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
Kids from Parkland led the fight for something they all knew was right
They said it’s time for us to finally make a change
If adults can’t compromise, then we must go march for our lives
They spoke out and led the charge, they all were pains
Chorus
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
When you’re faced with laws you know are just insane
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
Be a pain, be a pain, shout about it and complain
Ignore the crowd and go against the grain
Don’t be polite, raise your voice and do what’s right
Be a pain, be a pain, be a pain
So why is there so much social justice music for kids these days? I think there are two answers: 1) as I wrote earlier, there is always social justice music; 2) it is a response to these times, to the heightened conflict, division, and sense of crisis. I know many children’s musicians who never wrote songs responding to current events before are now inspired to create music about the issues of the day. As Bertolt Brecht once wrote:
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.
Looking for more songs? Find hundreds related to the environment, peace, and multiculturalism in CMN’s Song Library.