Art & Music Archives

Labor Songs

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 7 pages.
Students explore the power of songs to build solidarity and increase understanding. This is the final activity from Bigelow and Diamond’s labor history book, The Power in Our Hands, and draws on the other lessons.

Teaching Activity by Norm Diamond

Lawrence, 1912: The Singing Strike

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond.
Role play on the 1912 Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Mass.

Teaching Activity by Norm Diamond

Lewis Hine’s Photographs

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 4 pages.
Using photographs to spark creative writing and critical thinking about child labor issues and social justice.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance

Picture book. By Doreen Rappaport. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. 2005. 64 pages.
Picture book for upper elementary/middle school on the many forms of resistance to slavery.

Nobody Gonna Turn Me ‘Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement

Picture book. By Doreen Rappaport. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. 2008. 64 pages.
Stories and songs for upper elementary from the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1965.

Colorful portrait of Mahmoud Darwish by Ahmad Kadi.

Remembering Mahmoud Darwish

Teaching Activity. By Naomi Shihab Nye and Linda Christensen. 4 pages.
An essay, poem, and teaching idea utilizing famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's work to help students "name the invisible forces that imprison them."

Teaching Activity by Linda Christensen

Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice

Teaching Guide. Edited by Linda Christensen and Dyan Watson. Rethinking Schools. 2015. 262 pages.
Lessons and poetry to help students develop writing skills, build community, and create a vision of a future with justice.

Rise Up Singing

Book — Non-fiction. By Peter Blood and Annie Patterson. 2004. 288 pages.
Social justice songs on various themes.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Digital collection. Center for the study and promotion of the histories and cultures of peoples of African descent.

Pete Seeger

Profile. Pete Seeger (1919-2014) was a folk singer, songwriter, and activist.

Sing Your Song: What Good is a Conscience If It Is Not Awakened

Film. Directed by Susanne Rostock. 2011. 104 minutes.
A biographical documentary that surveys the life and times of performer/activist Harry Belafonte.

Solidarity Forever

Song. By Ralph Chaplin. 1915.
One of the most popular labor songs.

Stenciling Dissent: A Student Project Draws on the Language of the Streets

Teaching Activity. By Andrew Reed. Rethinking Schools. 5 pages.
Teaching activity connects students to history of art as a means of protest and gives them opportunity and skills to create their own stencil with a powerful message.

Strangers In Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide on South Africa

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1985.
Lessons on apartheid in South Africa and the global anti-apartheid movement.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Sam Cooke: A Change is Gonna Come

Film clip. Voices of a People's History.
Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" (1964), is performed by Allison Moorer.

Study History

Poster. By Ricardo Levins Morales. 11" x 15".
Beautiful illustration on the connection between history and our future.

Sun City – A Teaching Guide

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 6 pages.
Lessons to accompany the 1985 video "Sun City" that promoted the cultural boycott of South Africa initiated by Little Steven van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E St. Band.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow