Worth Read, a Look or a Listen: One week’s list of musical selections, movies and books worth checking out.

Read These

Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times by Eyal Press (2012, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) Press, a journalist for The Nation magazine, examines through four personal stories – a Swiss immigration official during WW II, a Serbian soldier who rescued Croations, an Israeli soldier who refused to serve on the West Bank and a financial advisor who blew the whistle on her corrupt firm - what sets apart those who choose to go against the grain and do the right thing, rather than follow orders and do wrong.

Which Side Are You On? By George Ella Lyon, Illustrated by Christopher Cardinale (2012 Cinco Punto Press) This children’s book tells the story of the famous song written by Florence Reece in 1931 during a violent Kentucky coal miners strike. The story is told from the viewpoint of a miner’s six-year-old daughter who is hiding under a bed as her home is attacked by company thugs.

Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater Than the People in Power by Wael Ghonim (2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Ghonim is the Google marketing executive who helped spark the revolution in Egypt through the use of Facebook. He tells his story in this book and explains the power of social media. Ghonim emphasizes though that social media must have the driving force of the will of the people to be effective.

Watch These

Slavery By Another Name. This documentary, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Douglas Blackmon, exposes the practice of slavery in the U.S. well after the Emancipation Proclamation. Thousands of free, black Americans were, in fact, kept in bondage until well into the 20th Century. Under legal statutes in rural Alabama, for example, arrest was permissible for minor infractions or anything remotely resembling one and men and women were kept chained, in inhuman conditions and physically abused and in servitude for “crimes” like unpaid debts and gambling. The film aired on PBS and was directed by noted filmmaker Sam Pollard, whose credits include the milestone documentaries Eyes On The Prize and When the Levees Broke.

They Will Say We Are Not Here. The title of this documentary is taken from a quote by its subject: slain Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato. Kato, who was devoted to ending the culture of discrimination and violence towards the LGBT community in Uganda and throughout Africa, was brutally murdered in 2011. He dreamed of establishing a gay village in Uganda and told the filmmakers “If we keep on hiding, they will say we were not here.” Inside Job. The 2010 Academy Award winning documentary by Charles Ferguson which exposed (and explained for some of us) the systematic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that corruption is now available to watch free on line at www.TheOtherSchoolOfEconomics.

LISTEN TO THESE

Immortal Technique. The Martyr. A compilation of previously unreleased material from this Afro-Peruvian activist rapper. A lot of his lyrics focus on poverty, class struggle, and racism.

San Patricio: The Chieftans featuring Ry Cooder. This album tells the story of a brigade of Irish soldiers during the Mexican-American war who followed their consciences and refused to fight against Mexico. They fought for Mexico instead and after the war the American command had them executed.