Raising Students’ Awareness of Social Justice Through Arts and Literacy

Our “Voice, Your Soul” arts-integrated residency program aims to empower young people by teaching them about the power of music as a voice for social justice. By integrating music, lyrics, and videos with traditional academic learning, we help students explore and analyze the meaning behind song lyrics. Our program encourages students to delve into different songs’ historical and cultural contexts, compare their messages, and identify key themes and figurative language. We focus on social justice movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights movement, and other protests for peace from the past to the present, to help students understand why music is such a powerful means of communication. Students create their own multimedia projects and creative writing—songs, poetry, rap, stories—and live performances to share their beliefs and hope for a better future in an engaging student showcase.

The residency typically runs three days a week for eight weeks but can be customized to fit partner’s needs.