Happy International Woman's Day

This year is the 100th anniversary of International Woman's Day, and a kick-off of Women's History Month. I'll be doing a bunch of boring "Get To Know Me's" about it, never fear, both hear and in my classes. (My students presentations this month will be on important women in history and society. When I said this to my students, none of them could think of any. *sigh*) To kick things off, though, I thought I'd start with some musicians instead.

Hip hop and rap has become more and more popular internationally as its revolutionary potential to be a voice for the oppressed is recognized. The first good example of this is Sayeh Sky, and Iranian lesbian hip hop artist. She is very bold and brave in standing up both for women's rights and queer rights in one of the most repressive societies around. An interview with her is here and here's her most popular song:



The next artist is Keny Arkana, an anti-globalization, anti-statist, anti-corporate activist and musician. Her music is powerful and really shows the collective strength in hip hop. Here's her most popular song, La Rage, with English subtitles:



Next, let's look at Shadia Mansour, the "first lady of Arabic hip hop". She is a Palestinian living in London, though she often goes back to Palestine to conduct hip hop workshops to help the youth there have a voice. Here's a so-so article about her by the very conservative BBC, and more importantly her most famous song which tells people that the kofeyye is not just a fashion statement for white people. (listen to the whole thing; it ends with a translation by an English speaking rapper):



Finally, I'm going to put up a song by Teresita Ayala, aka Lah Tere, who sings with the hip hop trio Rebel Diaz. There music is very political, and they also do a lot of activism and outreach to youth in the Bronx. There best song, in my opinion, is this one harkening back to Pete Seeger:



So enjoy! Don't worry, this blog will return to its normal over-intellectualized boring stuff soon.