19 Practice: The Sing-Down with Flobots (Jonny 5 & Brer Rabbit)
Published March 15, 2018
In this practice, you’ll learn how to facilitate a group game called the SINGDOWN. This exercise is designed by Jonny 5 & Brer Rabbit of Flobots to reconnect us with the power of collective song by immersing us in a lighthearted experience of collective singing. Follow along with the facilitator guide Jonny 5 wrote for us.
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Note: This episode was published under Irresistible’s previous name, Healing Justice Podcast.
About our guests
Jonny 5 (James Laurie) & Brer Rabbit (Stephen Brackett) are Denver-based MCs that make up the band Flobots, as well as educators and community leaders. Their recent album, NO ENEMIES, is influenced by stories shared by their longtime mentor and Southern Freedom Movement historian and professor the late Dr. Vincent Harding, and inspired by their grassroots work hosting workshops, classes and keynote speeches about using collective song to build social movements.
Resources
Listen to song recordings & peep Flobots' 'Songs for the Streets' songbook.
Check out Flobots’ latest album, NO EMEMIES.
Their podcast is called Jonny & Brer's Unnamed Friendcast
This exercise is often facilitated at Momentum movement building trainings as part of a module Stephen designed called "When Did We Stop Singing?" Sign up for their email list on their website.
Conversation: “Songs for the Streets”
Check out the corresponding conversation (episode 19) to learn more about how this can translate into powerful songs for direct action. We talk about the role of artists in leadership, the Flobots’ late mentor Dr. Vincent Harding, the role of music in embracing and holding the range of emotions in our movements, comic books and creativity, and crafting our social justice spaces to be places that people deeply want to return to.
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