In collaboration with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, The Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, and the University of Chicago Presents, composer Dana Hall, writer Cheryl Lynn Bruce, and visual artist Kerry James Marshall developed and staged “Hypocrisy of Justice: Sights and Sounds from the Black Metropolis” to explore inequities within systems and institutions, along with lived experience of confinement, redemption, hope, and home. Though it is not always top of mind when discussing social change, music, the primary vehicle for this piece, plays a significant role in shaping those forces, systems, and institutions.

A quote attributed to Plato goes: “Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”

The Playlist

The Prompt

1.  Think of a song that has changed the way you think about confinement, redemption, or the carceral state. Write 2-3 sentences about why you chose this song and how it had an impact on you. Browse the playlist above, or in the Spotify app, for inspiration.
2. Using the form below, share your song choice and 2-3 sentence reflection with us. Your submission will be added to the playlist and published below along with others who have created this music collection together.
3. Check out the full “Music for Change” playlist on Spotify to hear the songs that have made an impact on others, and scroll below the submission form to read their reflections.

We hope this playlist serves as a resource to honor sound and music as a powerful medium for change and encapsulate the energy of Hypocrisy of Justice and the novel that inspired it, Richard Wright’s Native Son. This playlist developed from the collaborative efforts of the musicians, SAIC’s Arts Administration and Policy department Management Studio I Team, audiences at the October 8, 2022 Hypocrisy of Justice Symposium, and you.

Questions about how to complete this prompt and submit your response? Get in touch at EJustice@ILHumanities.org.