Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Artistic License

Some people in Colorado are freaking out over this:

A jazz singer shocked some Denver residents after replacing the words to the national anthem with those of the "Black National Anthem" during the annual State of the City address this week.

Rene Marie was asked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper delivered the annual address on Tuesday. Instead, she sang the lyrics of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" — a hymn commonly referred to as the "Black National Anthem" — to the tune of the national anthem,

Marie has already apologized, Mayor Hickenlooper said he was "disappointed" but another council member is still pretty upset. You can view the lyrics (and apparently listen) to "The Black National Anthem" here.

What do you think? Isn't art supposed to be provocative? Is this even provocative? Is it even art? We'll get into a discussion of this during our last hour today.