The Triangle’s Raging Grannies are Protesting Injustice Through Music

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers.

Long before she joined the Triangle Raging Grannies, Vicki Ryder was the daughter of activist parents in New York.

“When I was born in ‘42, my parents named me Vicki for a quick victory over fascism,” Ryder says. “From the day I was born, it was my job to fight fascism. And that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Ryder’s father, a member of the New York City teachers’ union, was blacklisted during the McCarthy period for his union organizing efforts. It was a formative time for Ryder, who was only 10 years old. She recalls FBI agents following her and her brother around the city, throwing them up against cars, questioning them about their parents.

Thanks to her father’s labor organizing connections, Ryder grew up around musician-activists like Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. She paid her way through college by giving guitar lessons, and spent her Sunday afternoons singing folk songs in Washington Square. 

Decades later, she would channel her folk music background into writing lyrics for the Raging Grannies. She’s written hundreds of songs over the past 20 years, including the versatile and catchy “Now You’ve Pissed off Grandma”:

“We were angry when you raised all those taxes on the poor / We were outraged when you authorized those pipelines / Our infrastructure’s gone to pot, and our grandkids are getting shot / So we’re raging, cause now you’ve pissed off Grandma!”

The Triangle Raging Grannies have been a fixture at local protests for years. I sat down with two of them to learn how they’re countering injustice with humor, wit, and song. Read the story below, and have a good Tuesday.

 —Chloe

---

---

Durham

Thinking about what to eat for lunch today? INDY has a new series, Lunch Money, just for you. Every other week Lena Geller tries to dine out for under $15. Check out the first installment at Durham’s new Que Dogs.

Recently, INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur was the only journalist in the room when the Durham Public Schools board of education took a surprise vote to adopt a meet and confer policy. Chase breaks down what’s in the policy and what it means for the Durham Association of Educators.

Wake

“A city skate park is more for, like, a two-hour visit. But a place like that, you spend your life there.” ICYMI, INDY’s Jane Porter got to know the welcoming and determined community around a DIY skatepark in Raleigh, which was torn down recently due to development, as they search for a new location.

Orange

Citing stress, UNC students are pushing the university to let them reschedule tightly packed midterm exams, as they are able to do with final exams, The Daily Tar Heel reports.

North Carolina

In 2021, former governor Roy Cooper created the Juvenile Sentencing Review Board to review clemency petitions from people who were given very long prison sentences as children. Bolts talks to juvenile lifers released in North Carolina, and explores where clemency stands under the Stein administration. 

---

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]

---

---