Activism and Joy: Empowering Students through Affirmations

Abstract

Many music educators view activism through the gaze and experience of the U.S. civil rights movement and the protests of the 1960s. This article examines how two Brooklyn, New York–based music educators engage in activism in their school communities by centering student identity and cultivating joyful musical experiences. The authors share their individual identities, positionalities, and lived experiences that have inevitably shaped who they are as music educators. These two authors contextualize their school communities and the daily work that occurs in each of their music classrooms that seeks to empower students through culturally responsive and sustaining teaching. This article interrogates their current daily practice as music educators and offers suggestions for individuals who aim to take steps toward meaningful engagement in the necessary work that activism in the music classroom requires.