American Cultural Bites: (R)evolution in US Popular Music – At the Eugenio Trías Library

We continue the American Space Madrid project with the Public Library Network of the Madrid City Council: American Cultural Bites in its version for adults under the title of "(R)evolution in US Popular Music" on this occasion, focused on protest songs as an expression of civil rights movements.

In this series of meetings in English, we invite participants to listen to the sounds of the protest song of the XNUMXth and XNUMXst century in the United States. Each session will focus on a specific American social movement and the music inspired by it. Through moderator-led discussion and song analysis, we will explore how protest music has documented, stimulated, and anticipated social and political change in American culture.

This activity will be moderated by Karen Secret, art expert and teacher of the American Cultural Studies (ACS) courses of the International Institute.

It will be a cycle of 10 sessions with three municipal public libraries in the downtown area: the Mario Vargas Llosa Library, Buenavista and Eugenio Trías. There will be three alternating sessions in each library with a presentation session in the International Institute library.

An upper-intermediate or advanced level of English is recommended.

Tenth and final session on “'This is America': the revival of the protest song today”.

SONG 1 – A Tribe Called Quest, “We the People” (2016)

VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=83&v=vO2Su3erRIA

LYRICS - https://genius.com/A-tribe-called-quest-we-the-people-lyrics

SONG 2 – Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), “This is America” (2018)

VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=VYOjWnS4cMY

LYRICS - https://genius.com/14498535

Again, we have two examples of songs whose influence has a lot to do with their respective videos. In fact, the video for “This is America” went viral, and is considered a work of art in itself. Above all, the two songs are clear denunciations of racism and social inequality.

Contact the Eugenio Trias Public Library for registration (free participation until full capacity).