About

Hello and welcome to Good Chants for a Lively Protest!
Good Chants is a ready resource for any protest. In these tough times, chants and songs are important tools that can deliver powerful messages. A few well-chosen “sound bites” can brighten and energize any event. Though each chant may not represent all points of view, find what is useful to your voice.  We can build a better world together.
Before you dive into this treasure trove of good chants and songs, please read this explanation of how best to use the goodchants.org website.

WHERE TO START:
There are two ways to access chants on this site each with its advantages. Copies of the physical booklet Good Chants for a Lively Protest are also available for purchase from Syracuseculturalworkers.com

1. ONLINE CHANTS / VIEW CHANTS- This version is dynamic and is updated with new chants, songs and content (don’t forget to use our SUBMISSION link to suggest yours.) It includes the newest content  (without the artwork, the musical notation) as well as the chants in the downloaded version (which is an exact copy of the entire 2018 booklet.) A RESIST! category was recently added which includes new chants as well as well-worn and popular chants.

2. DOWNLOAD– This version is the exact copy (cover to cover) of the contents of the pocket-sized booklet Good Chants for a Lively Protest. This third edition  was published in 2018 and is still current, but lacks the newly added chants.  The  DOWNLOAD version also contains musical notation. The inside cover and pages 1 and 2 provide some valuable information about goodchants, acknowledgements and helpful chant info (think drums, whistles, cowbells and a good bullhorn.)

3. GOT CHANTS? Some of the new chants come from your suggested chants, so please use our SUBMISSION option to send in your chant ideas.
Many great chants happen spontaneously, echoing the last words of a good speech! Write them down and send them in!

CHECK OUT ALL THE CATEGORIES:
Many of the chants span several categories as they easily adapt to different issues. In the interest of saving space, the chant may appear in just one category, often Multi-Purpose or Labor, and sometimes the same chant might be repeated in several categories.  So be sure to check out all of the categories and “customize” your chant!

GUIDE TO CALL AND RESPONSE:
Many chants are call and response (and usually need two chant leaders,) call and echo or zipper” chants. The leader’s CALL is written in BOLD CAPS and the RESPONSE or ECHO is indented and not bold. Some chants and songs are “zipper” chants where you can “zip out and zip in” words to any issue. These are shown with an underline and a blank space (_________) and alternative or additional words are sometimes suggested.

PLEASE SHARE!  CIRCULATE WIDELY,  COPY FREELY AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS HANDY RESOURCE!  THANK YOU!

To order copies of the actual pocket-sized booklet, Good Chants for a Lively Protest, check out the Syracuseculturalworkers.com website for more information and other
great merchandise.

Goodchants was collected and edited by Ruth Goldbaum -nurse, grandma, friend and activist
Artwork by Rini Templeton (1935-1986). Rini was a brilliant artist-activist working in the United States, Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Her art can be found at riniart.com