The New American Songbook

The New American Songbook is a series of five audio documentaries that explore the lives of today’s immigrants through music. (Photo by Heidi Shin with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook is a series of five audio documentaries that explore the lives of today’s immigrants through music. (Photo by Heidi Shin with Prisma filter)

In this season of the GroundTruth podcast, called “The New American Songbook,” we ask how immigration continues to define our musical culture, and crucially: how music can help us understand the lives of today’s immigrants. Essential funding for this project was provided by Mass Humanities and WGBH News. Additional funding was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. You can hear the podcast in the chapters of this project, or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, RadioPublic, SoundCloud and other podcasting apps.

Masterbrain is among the musicians who will perform on November 21, 2017 at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo via Facebook with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Extras: Events

‘The family, pony, and saddle horse,’ is a photograph from the City of Boston School Department’s Jamaica Plain High School collection. The photo was taken between 1900-1920. (Photo from City of Boston Archives with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Extras: History

Omar Naré runs through a song prior to his show, VIVO: A Chicano Performance, at the BitWise, a tech hub with a long, rectangular theater in downtown Fresno, California, on Saturday, November 11, 2017. (Photo by Brittany Greeson with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Nuevo Mariachi

(Photo by Heidi Shin with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Rhythms from Cyprus

Vladimir Mead, who performs under the name Masterbrain, poses with fans after a show in Brockton, Massachusetts. (Photo by Ian Coss with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Making it in the HMI

Amal Hussein and Hamdi Mohamed work on poems together (Photo by Ian Coss with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

For My Ayeeyo

Maddox practices his Cambodian dance moves in front of the TV. His grandmother Ly Chea prepares lunch — a spicy Cambodian stew. (Photo by Heidi Shin with Prisma filter)

The New American Songbook

Cambodia Reincarnate