Raffi’s New Song: Black Lives Matter To Me
A message from Raffi: “We have a historic opportunity to heal the wounds of racism and injustice. In support of the Black Lives Matter movement, I wrote this as a song that people everywhere might sing, citing Martin Luther King’s stirring words, “let freedom ring.” My music repertoire has included many songs of universal love and my foundation’s Child Honouring philosophy has Diversity as a key principle. Still, not all people face the ongoing discrimination that black people continue to endure. As a long long-time MLK admirer, I’m honored to pay tribute to his legacy in song. May his words ring far and wide and inspire children like he inspired me.”
About Raffi
Singer, songwriter, ecology advocate, entrepreneur, author, and above all else, children’s champion. Raffi, the man who brought music to millions of children and now delights their own children.
His string of gold and platinum-selling recordings in North America — including his beloved “Baby Beluga” song — speak for themselves. But at the root of the Raffi story is a pioneering commitment to respect his young fans, a commitment that blossomed into an overarching belief that children who are respected and loved grow into loving, caring adults who, in turn, can help create a more caring world.
Respect for the child as a whole person was always at the heart of Raffi’s music career. After decades of inquiry into what children need to thrive, his work evolved into a vision of a world that would respect its young. In 1997, Raffi was inspired to develop a holistic philosophy called Child Honouring. The heart of this vision was expressed two years later in A Covenant for Honouring Children, (Raffi’s poetic declaration of our duty to the young), along with its nine principles. The Covenant and Principles are now circulated widely in public health and education circles.
The philosophy is set out in the book Child Honouring: How To Turn This World Around which was edited by Raffi & Prof. Sharna Olfman, an internationally renowned child psychologist. With a foreword by the Dalai Lama, this anthology is a ground-breaking work which provides an exciting, positive vision of how, in the words of Nelson Mandela, to “turn this world around, for the children.”