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WATCH: Former Home Educator Creates 'I Have a Dream' Music Video
Hip-hop video and MP3 single to be used as a teaching tool for teachers and parents during Black History Month and throughout the year.
Deanna Cauthen, a veteran home educator of 27 years, was dismayed to discover that some children she had talked with recently knew very little about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and had never heard of his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech.
"I was actually really upset because it's an incredibly important document that must never be forgotten."
Cauthen, who also worked as a professional storyteller for 15 years, and is the author of Fabulous Funky Fairytales, a story song album that received outstanding reviews from the School Library Journal and Booklist in 1996, decided to resurrect her story-song skills, and create this single.
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"I wanted to bring a fresh approach to this very important piece of work. As I read through the speech, I was amazed at how so much of what Dr. King wrote back then is still relevant for us today."
Cauthen shared that it's not just the children who need to hear Dr. King's speech.
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"To be perfectly honest, I think that there are a lot of adults who have never read Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety, or at least, who haven't read it in a very long time."
Mrs. Cauthen said that doing this project was a labor of love. "Dr. King was such a great orator and writer, so it was easy for me to reconfigured his words into rhyme and verse."
Although her song doesn't recreate the speech word for word, Mrs. Cauthen believes that this will be a great resource for parents and teachers.
"The words of the song have been directly pulled from the speech. It contains enough of the content that listeners, whether they be children or adults, will come away with a better understanding of it.
Cauthen said that the 'I Have a Dream, Today' MP3 single will be available to purchase on iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music in approximately a week.
She also shared these final words.
"The work of eradicating racism and achieving racial justice is far from over. Like the lyrics of the African-American national anthem said, "We must march on 'til victory is won".
To view the 'I Have a Dream, Today' video, click the link, below.