Recess! Media

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You’re hearing Danny Glover reading from the Langston Hughes poem, “The Kids In School With Me.” You can listen to the rest of this moving verse on the CD, “This Land is Your Land,” from Music for Little People. And then you and the children in your household can go on to a splendid Fourth of July music festival with the likes of Taj Mahal, the Neville Brothers, John McCutcheon, Raffi, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. These and other artists are all singing on this recording about the things we hold most dear as Americans: our individual and group identities, our personal and collective liberties, and our need to be united in respecting one another and in preserving these precious freedoms. It’s a “dream of harmony” that is beautifully realized in the many languages that flow together on the final song of the CD by Freyda Epstein. And it’s a dream that’s affirmed in the CD’s opening song by one of our democracy’s greatest bards, Woody Guthrie. The Fourth is a great time to teach it to our youngsters, and for us adults to sing along and keep in practice:

Brief sound clip