Corner Prophets

Songs that provoke and persuade - a new collection in
Hebrew, Arabic, and English, released on CD by SHATIL, the NIF Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel.

To mark its 25th anniversary, Shatil is releasing a unique, multi-language CD collection of social protest/social change songs in featuring top-ranked Israeli artists.

Each song takes on a different aspect of Israeli’s current social situation and rouses listeners out of apathy. They protest the link between politics and big money; ambivalent attitudes toward new immigrants, migrant workers, and other “strangers;” indifference about environmental destruction; the rise of the consumer culture; the effects of occupation and war; women’s inequality, and more.

All the featured artists contributed their songs gratis to this collection. All proceeds from sales of the CD will go directly to the New Israel Fund for its support of Israel’s social change organizations.

Tracklist:

• Dan Toren Yahasit Beseder  (Relatively Okay)
• Mook E. Medabrim al Shalom (Talking about Peace)
• Devek Beshem HaDemocratia (In the Name of Democracy)
• Vulkan (feat. Chuck and Black Russian) The Aliyah
• BrinkX: Messer (Message)
• Albert Amar: Shakuf (Transparent)
• Chava Alberstein: Vera MeBucharest (Vera from Bucharest)
• Yankele Rotblit: Arba’im Shana (Forty Years)
• Sagol 59: Nikui Rosh (Mankush Remix) (Head Cleaning)
• Teapacks: Hora Nadlanim (Real Estate Hora)
• Ze’ev Tene: Hey, Buba (Hey, Babe)
• DAM: Kan Noldati (Born Here)
• Hadag Nachash: L’hithalek Ba’ir (Share the City)
• Adamai Ensemble: Absurd
• Amal Murkus: La Ahada Yalam (No One Knows)
• Aviv Geffen: Holech Kadima (Keep Walking)
• David Broza: Al Titnu Lahem Rovim (Don’t Give them Guns)
• Peter, Paul and Mary: If I Had a Hammer
• Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune

The album can be purchased here

In his curriculum for Israel educators, Israel From Bumper to Bumper, Gabe Salgado writes:

The beauty and poetry of Israel’s music and the bombastic, shrill nature of its bumper stickers, slogans and graffiti are two phenomena that play important roles in Israeli society. Both speak volumes about Israel’s politics, values, culture and passions — and both are invaluable educational tools that should be party of every Israel curriculum for young people.

By listening to Israeli music and absorbing the lyrics simultaneously, young students of Israel can connect on an emotional level to Israeli reality. By studying bumper stickers and their backstories, students stand to gain a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight into contemporary Israel.

Shirat Hasticker (”The Sticker Song”), written by veteran Israeli author and intellectual David Grossman and performed by the youth-oriented hip-hop band Hadag Nachash, is basically a hip-hop recitation of a long series of Israeli bumberstickers, perfectly oriented so that their meanings and sounds mesh and flow seamlessly. Shirat Hasticker presents Israel educators with an extraordinary opportunity to tap into the best of two worlds, the impact of the Israeli bumper sticker, and the power of the Israeli song.

Download Salgado’s full curriculum here (PDF).

To listen to the song, click the play button below.

For streaming video click here (WMV).