Rachel Hanan was only a little girl at the time, but she will never forget the day in 1938 when newspapers in her home country of Italy published an ugly caricature intended to represent a Jewish face. Along with the illustration came the announcement of new legislation that applied only to Jewish citizens. Rachel’s life would never be the same.

Musicologist Janie Cole will discuss how “freedom songs” provided an oppressed community with political expression, resistance, therapy, identity, memory and resilience to confront potential violence and death.