🎼 ♪♫😴♫ ♫🎹♪♫ 😴 ♫🎷♪🎻♪😴♫🎺 ♪♫🥁♪😴♫🎸♫
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In addition, upon hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963, Cooke was greatly moved that such a poignant song about racism in America could come from someone who was not black, and was also ashamed he had not yet written something like that himself. However, his image and fears of losing his largely white fan base prevented him from doing so Cooke loved the song so much it was immediately incorporated into his repertoire.
Cooke incorporated his own personal experiences as well into the song, such as encounters in Memphis, Shreveport and Birmingham, to reflect the lives and struggles of all African-Americans of the time. The lines "I don't know what's up there / Beyond the sky" could refer to Cooke's doubt for absolute true justice on earth.[10] The final verse, in which Cooke pleads for his "brother" to help him, is a metaphor for what Alexander described as "the establishment". The verse continues, 'But he winds up knocking me / back down on my knees."
"A Change Is Gonna Come" became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement, and is widely considered Cooke's best composition. Over the years, the song has garnered significant praise and, in 2005, was voted number 12 by representatives of the music industry and press in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and voted number 3 in the webzine Pitchfork Media's The 200 Greatest Songs of the 60s. The song is also among three hundred songs deemed the most important ever recorded by National Public Radio (NPR) and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of twenty-five selected recordings to the National Recording Registry as of March 2007. Acclaimed Music ranked it as the 46th greatest song of all time, as well as the third best song of 1964. NPR called the song "one of the most important songs of the civil rights era."
In 2007, the song was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress, with the National Recording Registry deeming the song "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."
In 2019, then-Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins apologized to Cooke's family for the Shreveport event (see above under Background), and posthumously awarded Cooke the key to the city.
The words “A change is gonna come” are on a wall of the Contemplative Court, a space for reflection in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture; the museum opened in 2016.
The human brain is a remarkable achievement in evolution.
Unfortunately, the brain activity that kept the human species alive for millions of years is the same brain activity that keeps us from achieving equality today.
Author, speaker and CEO, Valerie Alexander, explains how the human brain instinctively reacts when encountering the unexpected, like saber-toothed tigers or female tech execs, and proposes that if we have the courage to examine our own behavior when faced with the unfamiliar, we can take control of our expectations, and by doing so, change the world.
Valerie Alexander is the Founder and CEO of Goalkeeper Media, maker of communication bots to amplify happiness, including the Happy Couples Bot. Valerie has extensive experience in corporate and start-up arenas, but left Silicon Valley to find success as a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Valerie wrote, produced and directed more than 50 shorts, commercials and PSAs, including the award-winning, anti-bullying short film, “Ballpark Bullies”, and the groundbreaking commercial, “Say I Do”, in support of marriage equality. As author of the Amazon #1 seller, “Happiness as a Second Language”, and a nationally known speaker on happiness in the workplace and the advancement of women, Valerie is a recognized expert on the topics.
In addition to “Happiness as a Second Language”, Valerie’s books include “Success as a Second Language” and “How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having “Female Brains)”.
She holds an honors certificate in the Science of Happiness from the Greater Good Science This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
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By Cole Delbyck
New York City never looked more alive than during an all-star musical tribute on this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live.”
Returning as host for a fourth time in four seasons, John Mulaney expanded his NYC-themed theatrical universe to showcase a Times Square souvenir shop in all its gritty and unheralded glory, following in the footsteps of the now-iconic sketches “Diner Lobster,” “Bodega Bathroom” and “Airport Sushi.”
This time around, however, the eight-and-a-half-minute sketch titled “New York City Musical” packed an extra punch after President Donald Trump labeled the city as a “ghost town” during the final presidential debate in October.
While the costumed characters that populate the typically bustling tourist district have certainly fallen on some hard times during the COVID-19 pandemic, they proved resilient as ever in a song-and-dance number.
It all began when a customer played by Pete Davidson asked to try on a used pair of “I ❤️NY” underwear much to Mulaney’s shop clerk’s surprise, as the fitting room happened to be in “the back of the store where the people of Times Square habitate.”
Cue Kenan Thompson as a “Times Square Minion” launching into a rendition of the Broadway classic “Luck Be a Lady” called “Mascots Be Shady,” in which he’s joined by a downtrodden Elsa from “Frozen” and a singing Minnie Mouse.
Not deterred by the display, however, Davidson, nearly breaking character, said he still wanted to make the purchase, joking, “I love New York, and I want my modest bulge to show that.”
So out came a can-can line of characters to the tune of “One” from “A Chorus Line,” and then Kate McKinnon as Shrimp Louie, the Bubba Gump Shrimp mascot, who delivered a devastating “Send in the Clowns” parody, “Send in the Crowds.”
But the real show stopper was Maya Rudolph as a beleaguered Lady Liberty.
Maya Rudolph singing Sondheim's "I'm Still Here" but with changed lyrics that included a Bethenny Frankel reference, all while dressed as the Statue of Liberty.
After a brief appearance from Chloe Fineman as a woman from Westchester with “visible” COVID-19 signs, Mulaney explained that the underpants are ultimately a symbol for a divided America.
“Sure, these underpants are riddled with ugliness and disease, but they still stand for something: love,” he said, before launching into an election-themed final number. “That’s why I didn’t want to sell them; because they give me hope.”
