It's not often that a news story can bring me to tears - and certainly not tears of joy, but that happened when I read the news of Aung San Suu Kyi's electoral landslide victory in the elections in Burma yesterday. This does not mean the end of the military dictatorship or the end of struggle, but it is a sign of an awakening spirit of freedom and hope. Her two decades of imprisonment/house arrest once inspired Damien Rice to write a song in her honor called Unplayed Piano.
Her victory inspired me to scrap my playlist for tonight's 5 to 7 PM set and prepare a new one full of songs of liberation. The focus will be on music of the world from the Sami protesting Norwegian oppression of their ethnic group to South Africans singing for freedom from apartheid and from Chilean's combatting Pinochet through music to Iraqi's demanding an end to war and back to the United States where the struggle for justice continues. There's a rich tradition of music as protest throughout the world, music that is great on its own merit, but also serves to make a better world.
No comments:
Post a Comment