The “Justice For Flint” concert benefit was exceptional counter-programming to the Academy Awards on Sunday night. From Janelle Monae to Vic Mensa to Ledisi to Robert Glasper, there were some incredible performances. It also featured young poets and local residents, who came up on stage to share their stories about

More than seven thousand children are killed or injured by gun violence every year in the United States, but the National Rifle Association, America’s foremost gun lobby group, believes in targeting kids when marketing guns. “Start them young,” as one foundation put it. And, in some cases, parents are very

“Will you survive in the heat and fire of actual change? I doubt it.” From Black poet Amiri Baraka’s 1972 album, “It’s Nation Time,” this song relies on a question-and-answer format to make a statement about who will survive a Black revolution. It opens with a bass line, and then

Drawing from the uprising after Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson, Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Jay-Marie Hill, and his band, The Holy Ghost, produced a protest album called, “The Revolution Has Come.” The album of soul and gospel music was released by Farfetched, an independent music and art

The Iowa caucuses are upon us, and the legendary black proto-punk band from Detroit, Death, produced a song a little over forty years ago, which is appropriate to mark the occasion. It is called “Politicians In My Eyes,” and it was written by Bobby Hackney, bassist and singer for Death.

Paul Kantner denied creating political songs, but still wrote classic protest music, from “Volunteers” to his SF concept album, “Blows Against the Empire”

A new band, The Whistleblowers, from Brooklyn recently released their first EP, which consists entirely of protest music. They describe themselves as a project “born out of a vacuum of socially conscious music.” The song from their album, “Imaginary Lines,” which is Shadowproof’s “Protest Song of the Week,” is a

“I’m not a political commentator, but I think there are times when I’m stretched to … implicate what’s happening politically,” David Bowie said in 2003.

The new year has started with white militants taking over a national wildlife refuge headquarters in Oregon to show they are “patriots.” The white militants have arms and claim they have been oppressed by the United States government, which has taken land that should remain under local control. Canadian punk

Singer-songwriter, musician, and activist Jefferson Pepper released a Christmas album in October 2005, which was directly inspired by a neighbor who was a U.S. Army medic deployed in the Iraq War. One of the songs on the album specifically makes the connection between companies that make toy guns to give