ABOUT
Golden State of Song is an educational initiative of the Freight & Salvage, a music venue and non-profit organization based in Berkeley, CA.
Golden State of Song enhances and enriches the study of California history via live performances of the state’s robust musical traditions in school classrooms and auditoriums.
Through dynamic presentations consisting of musical repertoire and historical information, Freight & Salvage teaching artists help students viscerally connect with their Social Studies lessons in a new and multidimensional way.
The program is designed and delivered as a series of modules with varying themes, centered around the musical contributions of California’s various native, immigrant, and migrant communities.
We have just been awarded another grant from the Califorinia State Library to continue and expand our work — we will be in more schools than ever in 2024-2025!
Interested in learning more about the education initiatives at Freight & Salvage?
HOW WE STARTED
It started with a song.
In the early 2000s I released a song called “California”, featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jackson Browne and East Bay gospel-soul powerhouse Carmen Jones singing the chorus: “I’m in love with Calfornia/Every mountain, every lake/Every redwood, every valley/How I love the golden state”. My performing group at the time played a lot of all-ages shows at Borders bookstores, and I noticed that young people always responded enthusiastically to that song. I was only a few years away from my former life as a schoolteacher then, and I found myself thinking of ways the song could be used educationally.
Remembering how much I enjoyed studying California history in 4th grade, it became clear that the deep love of the Golden State embodied in the song could best be expressed pedagogically with a framework that focused on the breadth and depth of California history, with music as its primary engine. Once that was clear, the endeavor became less about my own song and more about creating a program which could celebrate the song traditions of the native, immigrant, and migrant communities across our state: Golden State of Song.
When I landed at the Freight & Salvage as the organization’s first Director of Education and Community Engagement, I started to mention the Golden State of Song idea to key colleagues. Music educators Pete Gidlund, Jay Whittington, and Leah Wollenberg were all early advocates for the program and were instrumental in our pilot days.
Now, thanks in great part to the California State Library Civil Liberties Grant, Golden State of Song is a fully-realized project with the potential to reach thousands of students a year in various California schools and districts. I am happy this program now has the Freight & Salvage as its institutional home.
We look forward to reaching more students with each new year, while celebrating the robust musical offerings of a vast array of communities and cultures up and down our beautiful Golden State.
—PC Muñoz
Program Creator
Director of Education & Community Engagement, Freight & Salvage
MEET OUR TEAM
Jen Moser
PC Muñoz
In addition to Freight & Salvage Education staff PC Muñoz and Jen Moser, a growing team of creatives, educators, and entities contribute in different ways to the development of the various Golden State of Song modules.
Our Partners:
Golden State of Song is supported in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
