Monday 9 March 2009

The Obama Song Project

Weebly Site: "Her principal had given her two periods free from teaching to complete the project. She brought her iMac to work and set up a makeshift studio in her English office. By makeshift, she means she put her computer on her desk and plugged it in. There were no external microphones, mixing boards or audio interfaces. There weren't even earphones with a long enough cord to stand away from the computer (a student would lend her earphones later in the day -- the black ones seen in the video).

An announcement was made in the morning for singers to stop by the office throughout the day. Slowly but surely, students popped their heads in and started to sing. Weston is a school with 1300 students, so the odds of not knowing a student are higher than the odds of knowing. Some, Ms.Price knew by name; others, she was meeting for the first time.

Somehow, between the ringing of bells, making of announcements and daily interruptions, the song became whole."

Every year at Weston [Collegiate Institute in Toronto] , the African Canadian Leadership Committee, or ACLC (led by Chris Reid) organizes an assembly to celebrate Black History Month.

Every year Ms.Price-Farago, an English teacher at Weston, creates a video to open this assembly. This year's video broke the mold with the help of seventeen talented students who loaned their voices to heighten Obama's words.