Wall of Song Project: Feeling Good (2019-2022)

Wall of Song Project is a series of durational ensemble choral + video performances dedicated, in recent years, to amplifying voices in women’s sport in their search for equity and joy. The first Wall of Song’s inaugural Hallelujah Project was co-founded with artist Michael Namkung.

Wall of Song’s second Feeling Good Project (2019-2022) was a multi-year project organized in collaboration with Dr. Carter-Francique, The Institute for the Study of Sports Society & Social Change (ISSSSC) and 22+ affinity partners. Feeling Good, invited hundreds to sing Feeling Good—the song made famous by Nina Simone—as an expanding video + choral ensemble and call to action for women’s sport and a more equitable, racially just community.

View the “It’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Day” **curatorial publication** celebrating and advocating for the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, including calls-to-action and an essay by performance scholar Peggy Phelan.

Our project launched as a half-time performance for National Girls & Women in Sports Day a few weeks before the COVID shutdown as part of an SJSU Women’s Basketball game, in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society & Social Change, The Spartan Marching Band, SJSU Choirs, affinity partners, and hundreds of remote/live participants. (Provident Credit Union Event Center, San José, CA)

An expanded virtual multi-channel video installation was developed the following year for an online, multi-disciplinary 2021 National Girls and Women in Sports Day performance and social practice event with scholars, Bay Area student athlete activists, and affinity partners. Co-hosted with ISSSSC, San José Museum of Art, and San José Jazz and moderated by Dr. Carter-Francique, this virtual performance was broadcast simultaneously on CreaTV and as an outdoor building projection in downtown San José.

Feeling Good continued to grow with the voices of hundreds of fans, athletes, and community supporters as part of a durational and evolving series of video installations, performances, public events, and calls-to-action. A culminating exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Title IX was held at Natalie & James Thompson Gallery in Fall 2022 with 22+ campus, community, and cultural affinity partners.

Feeling Good acknowledges, celebrates, and builds upon the deep legacy of athlete activism at SJSU, the birthplace for the ‘68 Olympic Project for Human Rights, a movement led by Dr. Harry Edwards and Ken Noel that culminated in the iconic protest of 1968 Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos and the formation of the ISSSSC.

Thanks to all the participants who added their voices and to our collaborative partners for their generous support throughout this multi-year project. Special thanks to Dr. Craig McKenzie, SJSU Director of Athletic Bands for writing our call and response arrangement of Feeling Good. For more info, please visit wallofsongproject.com.

ABOUT
Since 2019, San Jose State University’s renowned Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change and The Wall of Song Project have been inviting athletes, fans, students, and community supporters to sing FEELING GOOD—the song made famous by Nina Simone—as an anthem of solidarity and a call to action for women’s sport and a more equitable, racially just community. At heart a collaborative project, hundreds have already added their voices to our growing, inclusive video chorus.

This ongoing collaborative art, film, performance, and sports stadia singing project of FEELING GOOD acknowledges, celebrates, and builds upon the deep legacy of Black athlete activism at SJSU. Through it, we explore the ways in which art and collective singing rituals can, despite our social realities, embolden our voices to support women’s athletics and work towards a more inclusive community—particularly for Black and Indigenous women, girls, and non-binary athletes of color, who live at the intersection of racial injustice and gender inequity.

WHY SHARE OUR VOICES FOR WOMEN’S SPORT?

While there has been some progress since the enactment of Title IX, we continue to see disparities in access, pay equity, working conditions, leadership and coaching opportunities, sports coverage (and the largely invisible work of athlete activists in women’s sports). We also have noticed the well-documented ways in which collective singing can help to cultivate joint perspectives, charge our courage, and touch each other at a distance (as we have especially seen during this time of physical distancing.)

WHY SING ‘FEELING GOOD’ RIGHT NOW?

Nina Simone sang about “a bold world, a new world” in 1965. The invitation is to be emboldened by Simone’s courageous and radical example in the midst of our need for a more equitable and racially just kind of future.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Wall of Song project is participatory and interactive. The first step invites athletes, fans, students, and community allies to sing “Feeling Good” online at https://wallofsongproject.com/sing-2/. It only takes a few minutes and you don’t need to be able to sing–it’s not a solo!

CONNECTION TO ATHLETE ACTIVISM

San José State University, is a unique and special place in which to launch and grow FEELING GOOD due to its legacy in athlete activism as the birthplace of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, a movement led by Dr. Harry Edwards and Ken Noel that culminated in the iconic protest of 1968 Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

SONG AS A BRIDGE TO EMBODIED ACTION

This collaborative art, athlete activism, and civic singing platform is designed to build an inclusive community over time by drawing upon the ways in which song can help cultivate well-being and embolden our voices to work towards positive social change. We are developing an action toolkit and a series of calls-to-action with our collaborators and affinity groups.

In song and solidarity,

Dr. Akilah R. Carter-Francique, PhD, Co-organizer
Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change (ISSSSC)
Associate Professor, Department of African American Studies, San José State University, CA
Former collegiate athlete in track and field at the University of Houston

Mel Day, Co-organizer
Artist, filmmaker, co-founder of The Wall of Song Project
Interdisciplinary Art Lecturer, Department of Art & Art History, San José State University, CA
Former collegiate water polo goalie at Queen’s University, Canada

Wall of Song participated in a number of ‘Sports Conversations for Change’, hosted by collaborator, Dr. Akilah Carter-Francique, ISSSSC

CREDITS: For an updated list of our affinity partners, sponsors, and special thanks, please visit wallofsongproject.com

SPONSORS
Artistic Excellence Project Grant from SJSU’s College of Humanities & the Arts
California State University Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award
PRIDE Center & Gender Equity Center
Mosaic Cross-Cultural Center
Department of Art & Art History

FEELING GOOD is a registered National Girls & Women in Sports Day Event, powered by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Share your voice and join our cause at www.wallofsongproject.com

Video still courtesy: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Ron Kroon / Nederlands: Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo / 14 December 1965Custom arrangement license: #353609 “Feeling Good” [from ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd’]; Songwriters: Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley. ‘Feeling Good’ was made famous by Nina Simone and can be found in the album “I Put A Spell On You” [1965] produced by Hal Mooney.

Musical arrangement: Dr. Craig McKenzie; Custom arrangement license: #353609 “Feeling Good”
[from ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd’]
Songwriters: Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley
‘Feeling Good’ was made famous by Nina Simone and can be found in the album “I Put A Spell On You” [1965] produced by Hall Mooney

Tresóna Individual Performance Synchronization License – Streaming (3 Years) License Copyright Information for License Number: 367161

SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY – FEELING GOOD BAND AND CHORUS
Published by THE RICHMOND ORGANIZATION OBO MUSICAL COMEDY PRODUCTIONS
© 1964 (Renewed)

Wall of Song Project: Feeling Good (2019-2022)

Remote Preparation: Curatorial Essay + Video Screening, V-Tape, Toronto

Mel Day