Students at Northern Michigan University in Marquette (USA) are studying One World Beat to learn about communication using the arts. Putting theory into practice, they are participating in OWB.

Professor Louise Bourgault's course for juniors and seniors looks into the casualties of globalization, labor exploitation, environmental destruction, poverty/underdevelopment and pandemic HIV/AIDS problems. The course looks at communication strategies people all over the planet have used to devise self-help projects—largely grassroots strategies that strive to alleviate problems as they empower the people undertaking them. It addresses the enormous disparity in treatment access between those in developing and developed countries, something which the Keep A Child Alive initiative—the official beneficiary of One World Beat funding for 2004—seeks to rectify.

Their March 20 concert will include local indie rock group Munbut and Ignorant Mob (reggae-ska) as well as a west African kora player named Mady Kouyate. Mady will perform in classes, lecture and appear on local media before the OWB concert. The concert will be videotaped by the student group, the Media Alliance for Communication Students (MACS). The video will air several times after the concert on local and university cable stations. Students are making promotional video spots for the concert to be aired on Charter Communication Cable systems that cablecast to the Michigan upper peninsula. Students' own cable interview show, Down in Front, will produce a show to air March 17 promoting the concert. A university colleague who teaches audio production will do a radio broadcast on local public radio station, WNMU, featuring Mady and exploring Malian folk music and AIDS issues. Mady will create a special AIDS song that for the radio show and the concert. Any other AIDS songs created will be recorded.

A journalist student is approaching print media. Another is working on a web page. International studies majors are fundraising, selling tickets and approaching businesses and individuals for donations to Keep A Child Alive. They are making T-shirts, banners and other forms of advertising.

Resources for the class:

• Playing for Life: Performance in Africa in the Age of AIDS written by Louise Bourgault (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina as well as Amazon.com) with a CD showcasing music featured in the book. Email.
• AIDS and the Arts in Africa, a film produced by Louise Bourgault showcases painting, drama, dance, poetry and music addressing AIDS. The film is distributed by Media for Development International in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Email.
• Richard Robbins' book, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Boston: Allyn and Bacon 2002)
• Alfonso Dagron's Making Waves: Strategies of Participatory Communication for Social Change (text produced by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2001).
• Everett Rogers and Arvind Singhal's Communication Strategies for HIV/AIDS Awareness published this year by Sage

Louise is a member of the ActALIVE arts coalition (a One World Beat partner), composed of members who use the arts to address these issues and other human-development challenges. She teaches another course, Communication and Performance in Africa. Her U of M Marquette students look forward to contributing to music making a difference and "playing for life" so all can live.