MURFREESBORO — “Freedom Sings, the Songs
that Shaped America,” a documentary about free speech and music shot by
students at Middle Tennessee State University's College of Media and
Entertainment, is now being previewed exclusively on MTSU's YouTube channel.
DVDs of the
concert film, produced in partnership between MTSU and the Newseum Institute’s
First Amendment Center, will be released later this year and distributed to
schools free. It's available online now at http://tinyurl.com/freedomsingsmtsu.
The film was
recorded at Nashville's historic Bluebird Café and features some of the city’s
most talented artists, including Janis Ian, Lari White, Gretchen Peters, Amy
Speace, Fred Knobloch, Joseph Wooten, Bill Lloyd, Eric Brace, Garry Tallent,
Sara Beck, Danny Flowers, Jonell Mosser, Seth Timbs, Dave Coleman and Brian
Wright.
“The concert film
is a rich and entertaining viewing experience, but it also serves as a powerful
teaching tool for college and high school teachers,” said Ken Paulson, dean of
the College of Media and Entertainment and the film’s producer.
Freedom Sings,
which features prominent recording artists playing music that has been banned
or censored, or has sounded a call for social change, was launched in 1999 by
Paulson, who is also president of the First Amendment Center. It has toured the
United States under the direction of Paulson and Gene Policinski, the
institute’s chief operating officer and senior vice president of the center.
The film explores
American history through popular music. Songs from the civil rights, women's
rights and environmental movements are illustrated with songs like
"Society's Child," "Blowin' in the Wind," "What's
Goin' On," "I Am Woman," "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
" and "Big Yellow Taxi."
A teaching guide
is also available, Paulson said, to help students “explore free speech in
America through rock, pop, folk and soul music.” The guide is available at http://www.mtsu.edu/freedomsings under
the site’s “promotional materials” tab.
Many of the nation's
leading news and journalism education organizations are among supporting
partners in the project, including the Journalism Education Association,
Associated Press Media Editors, the American Society of News Editors, the 1 For
All First Amendment campaign and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
“It’s vital to
remember, embrace and share the journey of music through the First Amendment
lens,” said Laura Sellers-Earl, APME president and managing editor of The Daily
Astorian of Astoria, Oregon.
“The APME stands
in support of this Freedom Sings documentary and its important outreach to high
school students,” Sellers-Earl said.
Founded by
legendary journalist John Seigenthaler in 1991, the First Amendment Center is a
program of the Newseum Institute, the education and outreach partner of the
Newseum, an interactive museum of news and journalism located in Washington,
D.C. The center has offices in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville and at the Newseum.
Paulson was
appointed dean at MTSU July 2013. The College of Media and Entertainment is the
fifth largest communications college in the nation and is the only one that
features departments of recording industry, journalism and electronic media
communication.
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