Make me a Mixtape: 5 songs for the queens of the neighborhood

Today, let's listen to some grassroots, third-wave feminist-y, DIY embracing, empowering, educative music that is about something.  Music that forces you to confront things in a world where people don't often want to think about things that matter, especially in their spare time. Because what grrrls have to say is important and relevant.  We are undeniable, capable, indescribable, revolutionary.  We are fucking beautiful.  

Listen While: Crafting a zine about how you show up in the world-  without apologies.

PUSH PLAY

Let's start things off with a voice-over, because every good mixed tape has a voice-over:

"Certain people are like 'Oh, here come the Feminazis!' You end up acting 10 times nicer than you even need to be, to be the opposite of the stereotype like 'You're the man haters!' We're always bending over backwards being extra nice. And I don't know if being nice is my legacy.

While everyone's experience of oppression is different and complicated and often overlapping, I really believe that if you have privilege, you need to learn as much as you can about the world beyond yourself.

I can't constantly be trying to write the unwritten song, the song that the 15-year-old girl needs. I need to write the song that I need." -Kathleen Hanna

SIDE A

1. Rebel Girl // Bikini Kill
"When she talks, I hear the revolution/In her hips, there's revolutions/When she walks, the revolution's coming/In her kiss, I taste the revolution."
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2. A Real Man // Sleater-Kinney
"All girls should have a real man/Should I buy It?/I don't wanna/I don't wanna join your club/I don't want your kind of love."
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3. Do You Like Me Like That? // Bratmobile
"I've got a story about D.C. to tell/And I don't think you are going to like it very well/It's about boys and girls and the rich and the poor/But what if no one can afford to live here anymore?"
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4.  Her Jazz // Huggy Bear
"You think you're going far, but you're going nowhere/You think you're taking me, but I'm going elsewhere."
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5.  D.A. Don't Care // Team Dresch
"They tell you you lie/It's your word against his so tell me who's right...I had on a polyester basketball uniform/and I can't forget this if I try."
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INTERACT: What's on the B Side of YOUR Queen of the Neighborhood Collection?

Make Me a Mixtape: 5 songs for working people

Labor Day is more than an opportunity to mark the end of summer; it is an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of working people and the American labor movement. Organized labor has a lot to teach the broader community about leadership and social change.  Listen to some tunes below and think about how solidarity can show up in your life more often and remember the lesson of the working people: each person has a responsibility to look out for the interest of all.  

PUSH PLAY

Let's start things off with a voice-over of my favorite Woody Guthrie musings:

"I hate a song that makes you think you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody.No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim. Too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I'm out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own songs and to sing the kind that knock you down farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow." -Woody Guthrie 

SIDE A:

1. Which Side Are You On? // Pete Seeger

"Don't scab for the bosses/Don't listen to their lies/Us poor folks haven't got a chance/Unless we organize."

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2. Solidarity Forever // Pete Seeger

"When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run/There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun/Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one/But the union makes us strong."

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3. Bread and Roses // Julie Collins

"As we go marching, marching/We battle too for men/For they are women’s children/And we mother them again/Our lives shall not be sweetened/From birth until life closes/Hearts starve as well as bodies/Give us bread, but give us roses"

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4. Ballad of Joe Hill // Joan Baez

"From San Diego up to Maine/In every mine and mill/Where working men defend their rights/it’s there you’ll find Joe Hill."

Listen Hill

5. Three Miles Down // Gil-Scott Heren

"Hard to imagine workin' in the mines/Coal dust in your lungs, on your skin and on your mind/I've listened to the speeches/but it occurs to me politicians just don't understand/the thoughts of isolation, ain't no sunshine underground/It's like workin' in a graveyard three miles down."

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INTERACT: What would you suggest for the B Side?

Don't Go Breaking My Heart...

Not much makes me happier than a good list. In the interest of making me happy and to provide you with something to read, I have compiled a list of some of my FAVORITE break up songs of all time. I had intended on dedicating each song to a past boyfriend or ex-friend, but fortunately there are more songs than failed relationships in my life so I went ahead a made a few playlists. So click on over to the videos and dedicate one to someone from your past today.

Top 5 Angry Break Up Songs
This one goes out to Matthew Johnson who broke up with me in an email Sophomore year and got engaged three months later.

5.These Boots were Made for Walking//Nancy Sinatra
"You keep lying when you ought to be truthin'/ you keep losing when you ought to not bet/ You keep samein' when you ought to be changin'/ Now what's right is right/ but you ain't been right yet"
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4.You Oughta Know//Alanis Morissette
"It was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced/ Are you thinking of me when your (with) her?"
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3.No Children //The Mountain Goats
"I hope that our few remaining friends/ Give up on trying to save us/ I hope we come out with a fail-safe plot/ To piss off the dumb few that forgave us"
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2.Song for the Dumped//Ben Folds Five
"Give me my money back, you b---ch/ I want my money back/ And don't forget to give me back my black T-shirt."
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1.Call Tyrone//Erykah Badu
"I think you'd better call Tyrone/ And tell him come on help you get your sh--/ You need to call Tyrone Hold on/ But you can't use my phone."
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5 Songs for When You Just Know It's Over
This one goes out to Andrew Duffle who I dumped between classes in the cafeteria b/c I heard he made out with this girl on a band trip. He later told me that was the worst day of his life.

5.It’s Not Right,But It’s Okay//Whitney Houston
"Pack your bags up and leave/ Don't you dare come running back to me/ It's not right but it's okay/ I'm gonna make it anyway/ Close the door behind you/ Leave your key/ I'd rather be alone than unhappy"
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4.It's Too Late//Carol King
"And it's too late, baby, now it's too late/ Though we really did try to make it/ Something inside has died/ And I can't hide and I just can't fake it"
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3.Don't Speak//No Doubt
"It's all ending/ I gotta stop pretending who we are.../You and me I can see us dying...are we?"
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2.I will Always Love You//Dolly Parton
"Good-bye, oh, please don't cry/ Cause we both know that Im not/ What you need"
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1.Don't Think Twice//Bob Dylan
"I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind/ You could have done better but I don't mind/ You just kinda wasted my precious time."
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5 Songs to Help You Navigate the Post Break-Up Emotional Roller Coaster
This one goes out to R.J. Atchley who I dated twice, loved never, but who had me convinced my life was over after we broke up for the last time over the high school pay phone before firt period.

5.Ex Factor//Lauryn Hill
"It could all be so simple/ but you'd rather make it hard/ loving you is like a battle/ and we both end up with scars/ tell me, who i have to be/ to get some reciprocity/ no one loves you more than me/ and no one ever will"
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4.Everybody Knows//John Legend
"I still can’t believe you found somebody new/ But I wish you the best, I guess./ ‘Cause everybody knows, that nobody really knows/ How to make it work, or how to ease the hurt"
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3.The Winner Takes It All//ABBA
"I don't wanna talk/ About the things we've gone through/ Though it's hurting me/ Now it's history/ I've played all my cards/ And that's what you've done too/ Nothing more to say/ No more ace to play"
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2.Not 'gon Cry//Mary J. Blige
"Eleven years out of my life/ Besides the kids I have nothing to show/ Wasted my years - a fool of a wife/ I should have left your ass long time ago."
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1.She’s Got You//Patsy Cline
"I've got your picture that you gave to me/ And it's signed "with love," just like it used to be/ The only thing different, the only thing new/ I've got your picture, she's got you"
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INTERACT: I could go all day, but I would LOVE to hear YOUR favorite break-up songs. Leave 'em in the comments!