At the end of last half term, KS2 took part in a music quiz. They listened to a range of inspiring black musicians from the past and had to match them to their photos. Many of the songs played made it difficult to sit still and it wasn’t long before Teddy in Y3 broke the seal and started dancing, quickly followed by several others! (Whitney Houston – I wanna dance with somebody!) It really was an upbeat celebration of musical excellence.
We then talked about the famous 1969 festival Woodstock and saw photos of the vast audience, nearly all of whom were white. We then learned about a festival that took place about the same time, called the Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured some of the artists from our quiz, including Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone.
We reflected on why this festival was not so well-known and how prejudice and discrimination against black people at that time was widespread and TV companies simply weren’t interested in airing it. I recommend you watch Summer of Soul on Netflix if you want to learn more about it!
