Plena, the People’s Newspaper:
Puerto Rican Music for the Classroom
Designed by: Paulette Thompson
Ida B. Wells School for Social Justice, Seattle Public Schools
University of Washington
Maps, music and video-recordings can be effectively used to discuss the present and historical incidence of the plena. In the way that rap music is referred to as ‘the people’s CNN’, plena, an Afro-Puerto Rican musical form that has much in common with other Caribbean musical expressions, is sometimes referred to as “the newspaper of the people” as it expresses what is going on in the lives of working class people.
