We’ve long passed the point where someone saying they’re convinced that Donald Trump (or Ann Coulter or basically anyone on the Fox News payroll) is a performance artist might elicit a wry smile. Shit’s too grim. The current primary campaigns for the Republican and Democratic parties have made it painfully clear that whoever is elected or selected for president is irrelevant in one very crucial sense: the hellhounds of racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and general ill-informed, misdirected rage won’t be brought to heel for years and years to come. God bless.
A frequently heard lament right now is that the music of our time, unlike that of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s (the decade that birthed Public Enemy and countless hip-hop acts they inspired and influenced before the culture was gentrified) is notably absent the protest songs and activist music artists of yesteryear. That’s not completely true (Jasiri X and Immortal Technique immediately come to mind) but if you’re looking to the pop charts, radio, or American Idol for your political fix, you’re looking in the wrong places.
It would also help if we counter the ahistorical culture in which we live and turn our ears to protest music from the past. The work of Miriam Makeba, Woody Guthrie, Gil Scott-Heron, Nina Simone and many others is still tragically relevant today. And so is that of radical folkie Pete Seeger, who risked life and career repeatedly to call out the powers-that-be and dare this country to walk the talk of its so-called ideals. His best known songs include “If I Had a Hammer,” “Turn Turn Turn” (a massive hit for the Byrds when they covered it in 1965) and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” – all of which he wrote – and his cover of “We Shall Overcome.”
“He saw himself as a citizen artist, an activist,” says Bruce Springsteen in the 2007 documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, describing one of his musical heroes (and a clear role model for him). The film itself serves several functions in the context of now. It puts the current moment in contexts both political and cultural, reminding the viewer that social struggle is simply a necessary component of American life. The ideals of freedom, justice and the unencumbered pursuit of happiness that are constantly espoused by mainstream politicians were never meant to apply to women, black people, people of color, immigrants or poor whites.
Seeger’s music is rooted in the impulse toward justice, and – as the trailer below makes clear – he was at the forefront of the social struggles of the mid-20th century. A lightbulb moment when he was a young man illumined the fact that the music of ordinary, poor Americans was as layered and worthy as highbrow classical fare, and that shifted the way he perceived the people. His run-ins with the FBI and the toll it took on his career and life are woven between testimonials from Bob Dylan, Natalie Merchant (whose infamous backlash after her withering comments about then-president George Bush was a most powerful, frightening barometer of just how far right and loony much of the country had swung), and other friends, family members and admirers. Watching the film is to be both hugely inspired and, perhaps oddly, a little soothed in the knowledge that “the fight” is nothing new, and it is possible to survive it as a thinking, empathetic human being.
Photo Courtesy Reuters
Previously on Art Doc of the Week:
Art Doc of the Week
-
Art Doc of the Week | Los Punks: We Are All We Have
The award-winning doc looks at Los Angeles’ 40-year-old punk scene.
Photo: Angela Boatwright
-
Art Doc of the Week | McQueen and I
The late fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s life was as unconventional as his iconic shows.
Photo: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
-
Art Doc of the Week | Who Is Poly Styrene?
The late British-Somali punk icon was vulnerable in her feminist art.
Image Courtesy the Artist Estate
-
Art Doc of the Week | Eva Hesse
The new documentary on the on the late visual artist is both informative and soulful.
Image Courtesy the Filmmaker
-
Art Doc of the Week | Packed in a Trunk
Edith Lake Wilkinson’s great niece investigates why the painter was institutionalized for seemingly no reason.
Photo: Wolfe Video
-
Art Doc of the Week | The Kate Bush Story
The 2014 BBC documentary on the reclusive pop star lets her high-profile fans swoon all over her.
Photo: Peter Mazel / Sunshine
-
Art Doc of the Week | Nikki Giovanni and Muhammad Ali in Conversation
The ionic poet interviews and is charmed by the sports legend for Soul talk show.
Photo: Getty Images
-
Art Doc of the Week | They Will Have to Kill Us First
Malian musicians use their music to stand up to Islamic fundamentalists.
Photo: BBC Worldwide
-
Art Doc of the Week | Step Up and Be Vocal
The 2001 film looks at the role punk played and plays in shaping some queer and feminist identities.
Photo: PansyDivision.com
-
Art Doc of the Week | Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
The first ever documentary on Robert Mapplethorpe makes the case for his art and legacy while showing his warts and all.
Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust / LACMA / Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
-
Art Doc of the Week | Parliament Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove
Director Yvonne Smith traces funk from its doo-wop origins to its role as a building-block of hip-hop.
Photo: GeorgeClinton.com
-
Art Doc of the Week | Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
An OG political protest singer has much to teach us today.
Photo: Reuters
-
Art Doc of the Week | The Post Impressionists: Munch
Edvard Munch was a poster boy for the idea of the artist as brilliant, immeasurably tortured soul.
-
Art Doc of the Week | Detroit, Vogue
Director Mollie Mills’s short doc on Detroit’s current ball culture is high on visual impact, skimpy on substance.
Photo: Vogue, Detroit
-
Art Doc of the Week | Colored Frames
The paintings highlighted in Lerone D. Wilson’s film are pulled into deep conversation with the complex realities of black life.Photo: Colored Frames
-
Art Doc of the Week | Spirits of Rebellion
Filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis’ documentary on filmmakers of the LA Rebellion is timely and illuminating.
Photo: Spirits of Rebellion / Julie Dash
-
Art Doc of the Week | Five
The 1971 documentary gives an overview of five African American visual artists as the bloody ‘60s turn into the hopeful ‘70s.
Photo: 110 St Harlem Blues, by Romare Bearden, courtesy DC Moore Gallery
-
Art Doc of the Week | Masters of Photography: Diane Arbus
This 1972 documentary filmed one year after the photographer’s suicide is intimate and revealing.
Top Photo: Roz Kelly / Getty Images
-
Art Doc of the Week | Dorothea Lange: An American Odyssey
The iconic photographer’s images of 20th century Depression-era America speak to current battles around class, race, immigration, and poverty.
Photo: Dorothea Lange
-
Art Doc of the Week | Out and Bad: London’s LGBT Dancehall Scene
The struggles and joys of forging queer identity within dancehall culture.
Photo: Dazed/Bernard Miller
-
Art Doc of the Week | And When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead
Director Billy Woodberry’s poetic take on the life and work of beat poet Bob Kaufman.
Photo: Billy Woodberry
-
Art Doc of the Week | The Sound of Redemption
Director N.C. Heikin turns saxophonist Frank Morgan’s life into one of 2015’s best documentaries.
-
Art Doc of the Week | It Came from Kuchar
The Bronx-raised Kuchar twins helped pioneer American underground film.
Photo: Indie Pix
-
Art Doc of the Week | Tamara de Lempicka
The visionary artist, an OG Material Girl, is still struggling to get art world respect.
Photo: http://www.delempicka.org/
-
Art Doc of the Week | Jaco
A documentary on the life and music of Jaco Pastorius also probes link between mental illness and creativity.
Photo: JacoPastorius.com
-
Art Doc of the Week | Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue
A new documentary on the late rock icon digs beneath the lore to find a complex woman and artist.
Photo: Evening Standard/Getty Images
-
Art Doc of the Week | The Many Faces of Billie Holiday
Lady Day was much more than her blues, as this documentary makes clear.
Photo: The William P. Gottlieb Collection
-
Art Doc of the Week | Anita Sarko
The legendary DJ’s words on art, culture and creativity resonate powerfully in the wake of her recent death.
Photo: Svetlana Samoshina
-
Art Doc of the Week | Antonio Gaudi
Filmmaker Hiroshi Teshigahara lets out his inner fanboy as he pays tribute to his hero, iconic architect Antonio Gaudi.
Photo: The Criterion Collection
-
Art Doc of the Week | Poetry of Resilience
Katja Esson's documentary allows poets to reclaim the depth and possibilities of art.
Photo: Jeremy Sutton Hibbert
