A Soundtrack for Success: How Music Fueled the American Civil Rights Movement
“We sing the freedom songs today for the same reason the slaves sang them, because we too are in bondage and the songs add hope to our determination that ‘We shall overcome, Black and white together, We shall overcome someday’... These songs bind us together, give us courage together, help us to march together.” - Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.
October 25, 2025The Struggle for Accessibility: Disability Rights at UW-Madison
UW-Madison's path to equal opportunity has been shaped by resilience, from the early struggles of students in the 1940s to grassroots efforts to establish accessible resources for students. While significant strides have been made, the history of disability rights at UW-Madison portrays that the fight for inclusion and accessibility is not over.
October 13, 2025“Soapbox” in Review
From September 2023 to December 2024, Axell Boomer hosted a radio show titled "Soapbox" on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student radio station, WSUM 91.7FM Madison. Using songs as primary sources or thematic markers, he developed the show to explore protest movements throughout history and the music genres that communicated their goals.
June 3, 2025Syncopating Survival
In music, syncopation can be understood as a site of invention, an off-beat from the given beat of an arrangement. For example, if a piece of music were in a 2/4 time signature, a syncopated beat would be an experimental site of play that precedes, follows, or interrupts the given two beats of the measure. In a conversation with the scholar and musician Dr. Kwami Coleman, the idea of syncopation was expanded to “something new.”
December 20, 2024The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Roots of the American Indian Movement (1969-1971)
Prior to European colonization, over 10,000 indigenous people called the coastal area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay home. Alcatraz Island was part of this land, known primarily for its infamous prison and notorious criminals. However, the history of Native Americans in connection to this penitentiary is less known. Starting with the first prisoners of Alcatraz, many of whom were Indigenous Californians imprisoned for resisting the invasion of settlers and miners during the Gold Rush.
December 6, 2024- More United States Protests posts
- More Wisconsin Protests posts
