In the second half of the 20th century, Assyrians were attracted to intellectual and political movements that allowed them to emerge from the peripheries of their society, temporarily discarding their minority status to engage with other Iraqis of their socio-economic background. Within these secular and often leftist political spaces, Assyrians found room to maneuver and form strategic alliances mainly with the opposition, both as individuals and as a community. As a result, the Baʿthist state attempt to attract Assyrian political and religious leaders with favorable policies, such as the cultural rights issued in 1972. Assyrian intellectuals not only negotiated but also resisted government policies they disagreed with using the medium of popular culture and song. Music and singing became major means of resisting the status quo, curating social memory by disseminating a community’s own understanding of its history. In the summer of 1973, Shlemon Bet-Shmoel captured the Assyrian community’s account of the Simele massacre, perpetuated by the Iraqi army against the Assyrians in 1933, by performing a song entitled Simele. With the flow of music across borders, its influence extended beyond the zone of its creation. In addition to the use of written publications and modern Assyrian music, artistic images influenced symbolism on the covers of magazines such as Mordinna Atouraya, and double meanings could be discerned in certain poems and articles; this was especially prevalent during high periods of government censorship. This presentation will highlight the ways in which urbanite Assyrian intellectuals took advantage of new cultural policies and negotiated with the state using press and popular culture. My sources include discography of Assyrian music, complemented with cassette tapes and CD’s purchased in community centers and online digital collections along with oral interviews with folk singers. Oral history and folk songs provide insight into the roles and representations of women in Assyrian communities that are of significance to similar gender discourses in Iraqi society. The research is also based on original sources uncovered at the Iraqi National Library and Archives in Baghdad, and in libraries and private collections in Erbil, Duhok, and Mosul in languages ranging from Arabic, Classical Syriac and modern Aramaic. My research incorporates popular culture in the form of music, poetry, and oral history to take into account the cultural and artistic representations of various segments of the population.