Assignment/Activity Title — Malcolm X Soundtrack

Year — Junior

Portfolio Competency — Media and Communications

Skill(s) — Media, Creativity, Musical/Lyrical literacy

This assignment was the conclusion of a month long unit studying Malcolm X. During this unit we read The
Autobiography of Malcolm X and engaged in many conversations and activities further analyzing his life and teachings.
By the end of the unit I was still interested in exploring Malcolm X, but not in the same discussion based analysis we had
learned through for the past month. This final project for the Malcolm X unit involved working with a partner to compile
a soundtrack of at least six songs relating to one phase of Malcolm X’s life, create an album cover for our playlist, and
exhibit the relationship between the songs we chose and our phase of Malcolm X’s life. This project immediately excited
me, I have always loved listening to music but never got an opportunity to use it in school. My partner, Kanayo, and I
were assigned to the first years of X’s life when he was growing up in East Lansing. For the rest of the week, every song I
listened to I tried to connect to X’s childhood in some way. After Kanayo and I had a finished soundtrack, we got to work
on the album cover. We thought over many designs, and finally decided on a simple farm house on a pasture. I decided to
create the album cover with construction paper to make it seem like a kids project, referring to his childhood. For the
musical and lyrical analysis we split up the songs so we could individually focus on only a few songs which proved
extremely effective and efficient for us.
I used skills in media, creativity, and musical literacy to complete this project. To compile a soundtrack that
accurately reflects X’s childhood I was required to call on skills in media. My media skills helped me quickly identify
which songs fully capture one or more aspect of X’s childhood, and which songs only barely mention an idea from X’s
autobiography. To complete the album cover I called on my creativity skills in order to brainstorm designs and to create
the finished product from construction paper. When looking back on each individual song and connecting it back to X’s
childhood I used my skills in musical and lyrical literacy to understand the sounds and words used by the artists. Through
these elements of the music I was able to find a deeper connection to X’s childhood than just a verse or two.
Including this project under the media and communications competency was the obvious choice for me. Although
the project required some critical thinking, the bulk of the work was analyzing media in the form of music, and creating an
effective album cover that communicates the central ideas found in the soundtrack.
My choice to transfer the album cover from a digital design to a physical art project, dramatically changed the
effect of the project. In creating an album cover out of construction paper, I hope I was able to create a sense of nostalgia
for a time when the listener used to cut out colored paper and glue it together for fun. Reminding the listener of their own
childhood could help them further understand the trails X went through as a child.

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