This lecture series explores the past and present of North America through a set of iconic songs. Music is deeply connected with the struggles and conflicts that have made, shaped, and transformed North America from past to present. Using songs as a window on these tensions, the multidisciplinary lecture series will ask how cultural productions address crucial themes and conflicts in North American politics, society, culture, economics, literature, and history. What do we see if we look at North America through the prism of a song? How do works of art reflect the struggles and tensions of North America? What are the connections between cultural texts, their performative practices, and the broader trajectories of social, political, economic, or cultural change in North America? Discussing questions like these, the multidisciplinary lecture series intends to open new insights about North America and will introduce students and listeners to ongoing research taking place at the John F. Kennedy-Institute for American Studies and beyond.