These videos feature CRANKIES – films on paper – created and sung by students from the Global Village Project, Decatur GA.
Special thanks to Sam Bartlett for Cranky consultation, Pine Street Market for the butcher paper, James Tolmach for the beautifully crafted wooden Cranky, Mick Kinney for original cranky designs and innovations, and Susan Lightcap for artistic guidance!!
The Shoe Song
by Brian Folkins Amador © Greñudo Music BMI
www.SolyCanto.com
THE SHOE SONG was written by Brian Amador from the Pan-Latin band Sol y Canto. It is on the beautiful album “Doble de Amigos / Twice As Many Friends,” which is a fully bi-lingual collection of singable songs for children of all ages. At the Global Village Project, we took Brian’s song, and added the word for “shoes” in all the languages of our students – Karen, Arabic, French, Amharic, Burmese, Rohinga, Malay, Kunama, Swahili, and Somali. Then we illustrated the song with a homemade Cranky, which makes it extra fun to sing along.
Big Pot in the Little One
by Tommy Goldsmith
© Saxapahaw Music BMI
Have you ever been sitting around the dinner table with your family, getting ready to eat, when a knock comes at the door? It’s your cousins – all 10 of them – come for a surprise visit! How to be hospitable and have enough food to go around? Tommy’s mother used to say, “We’ll just PUT THE BIG POT IN THE LITTLE ONE and everyone will have enough to eat.” Note the nice garden in the first verse. And I especially like the second verse, which takes the Big Pot notion to a global vision of generosity. Thank you Tommy Goldsmith for this wonderful song!
This Land Is Your Land
by Woody Guthrie
This was the first Cranky we ever made, and Woody Guthrie’s powerful song is perfect for our community of teenage refugees. We are always sure to sing the verses that often get left out:
(Slowly and thoughtfully)
“One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office, I saw my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering
If this land was made for you and me”
(Acapella, full and strong)
“Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that Freedom Highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
‘Cause this land was made for you and me”
Home
© Martin Lee Gore
This song was made famous by Karla Bonoff, and has always been a favorite of mine. It rings especially true for our refugee population – the memories and the longing for home: a physical place, a heart space, and those who we remember there.
I Can Make A Home
by Elliot Ray and the students of the Global Village Project
Elliot Ray, one of our music teachers, came in to class one day with a chorus and the beginning of a verse. He explained his idea to the students and they went to town with it, creating images of a home that can be physical or metaphorical. This is one of our all time favorite songs!
Peace of the Mountain
by Jon Fromer ©
www.JonFromer.com
Jon Fromer was an amazing and powerful singer, songwriter, and activist from the Bay Area of California. He and I sang together as part of the Musicians’ Collective of the School of the Americas Watch. Jon described himself as a “red diaper baby.” His father was one of the artists who created the astounding collection of murals in San Francisco during the WPA, and his mother taught in the school at Alcatraz for the American Indian Movement. Jon’s spirit lives on through his beautiful songs, and “Peace of the Mountain” is one of our favorites. We sing this song with Sign Language, thanks to Rachel Schlafer Parton.
