Ella Jenkins-songs for kids

Subject: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: GUEST,Wa BanZhou
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 02:29 AM

Shortly before I left the U.S. to teach in China, I found three vinyl abums by Ella Jenkins in the local Goodwill. I used her songs to teach English to my fourth and fifth graders. I had tapes of her and I also played and sang her songs.(no record player or turntables in China). My Chinese kids really loved those songs. I like her stuff because, even though it's for kids, it doesn't suck at all. Does anyone know another musician as perfect for this task as she is? Is she still active? I think these records were made in the 1970's, Wa BanZhou

Subject: RE: BS: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 08:15 AM

Check out Ella Jenkins Discography (Smithsonian Folkways). I myself have only a few of them.

~Masato

Subject: RE: BS: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: Dani
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 09:45 AM

She's still going strong!

www.ellajenkins.com

Truly a national treasure. Her work with kids and music reminds me very much of Pete Seeger's, in showing common experiences and sharing cultures.

I've probably told this story before, but I saw her a few years ago at the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival (another treasure, not to be missed if you can ever make one) and she had a whole tent CRAMMED full of children and adults enchanted. Being in D.C., it was a rather diverse crowd, and I remember her asking children to demonstrate counting in their languages, and there were very many. Then she taught Miss Mary Mack Mack, which we all had to do with someone nearby. I remember doing it with (teaching it to) a couple pre-teen girls in burqas (I could only see their eyes) and they were just delighted. No language, no context, no explanations, just the universality of music and play.

Check out the other thread today about "Children's taunting tunes"

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 10:43 AM

Ella is a wonderful person. Lives in Chicago. I'd give you her phone number if you were a member and able to get "personal messages". No matter, though, I am certain that she is in the phone book. If you communicate with her, please, tell her that Art Thieme sends his love.

(Art)

Subject: RE: BS: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: GUEST,Wa Ban Zhou
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 01:10 PM

I keep signing up to be member, but every time I change computers or locations, I'm listed as a guest!

Thanks Wa BanZhou

---

Hi, Wa - Yes, you are a registered Mudcatter. Send me an e-mail and I can help you reset your mudcat membership.
-Joe Offer (click to e-mail)

Subject: RE: BS: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: Gareth
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 05:39 PM

oooops ! I misread the title - Thought it was Eli Jenkins, of Llareggub fame.

Gareth

Subject: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids 100th birthday 6 Aug
From: Felipa
Date: 05 Aug 24 - 06:47 PM

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings posted on Facebook:
·
Angel Bat Dawid, the Chicago-based composer, jazz musician, DJ, and educator, curated a playlist of one hundred songs, chants, and music lessons from across Ella Jenkins’ discography in honor of her 100th birthday on August 6th. Reflecting on Ella’s revered legacy, Dawid recalls how she first discovered Ella’s Folkways recordings while working at a record store on the historically Black South Side of Chicago, where Ella grew up and developed her musical talent.
“Ms. Ella Jenkins' music is a masterclass in storytelling, defying conventional Western music education that presents music in a rigid and disturbingly unapproachable manner that often deters many people from learning, performing, and participating in musical endeavors,” Dawid writes. “Her approach is refreshingly patient and accessible, stripping away the mystique and making music feel like the joyful, life-affirming gift from God to humanity that it is. By doing so, she embodies the transformative power of music to educate, uplift, and unite people, particularly children.”
Read more and listen to the “Ella Jenkins at 100” playlist on your preferred platform here: s.si.edu/4c9vv2w

Subject: RE: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: Felipa
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 11:20 AM

National Association for Music Education FB post

New blog: “Ella Jenkins’ Fugitive Civil Rights Pedagogy: Celebrating the First Lady of Children’s Music at 100” by Gayle F. Wald: https://nafme.org/blog/ella-jenkins-fugitive-civil-rights-pedagogy/

Ella Jenkins, the First Lady of Children’s Music, turns 100 on August 6. To celebrate, we feature an excerpt from scholar Gayle F. Wald’s forthcoming biography ‘This Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music, and the Long Civil Right Movement’. Based on seven years of research and scores of interviews, it sets Jenkins’ life and work within a larger story of civil rights activism, showing how she used music to model a social world in which children—and adults—are comfortable with, and open to listening to, each other’s distinct rhythms.

much more info at:
https://nafme.org/blog/ella-jenkins-fugitive-civil-rights-pedagogy/

Subject: RE: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 08 Aug 24 - 07:58 AM

The New York Times had a commemorative article about Ella Jenkins this week.
I can't link to it, perhaps someone else can.

Subject: RE: Ella Jenkins-songs for kids
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Aug 24 - 03:23 PM

Let me try to make a blue clicky today.

New York Times:How 100-Year-Old Ella Jenkins Revolutionized Children's Music