Before I dive into the assignment for Cane, I’d like to discuss why I get so excited about reading aloud. For those of you not in the class, I actually read the text aloud using voices to create a better understanding. I find that my engagement brings about a more developed discussion and we are able to insert discussions about dialogue, characterization and in many cases the duality that exists in the text that is overlooked, is discovered. We recently read Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston. Sweat is one of my favorite short stories and the use of dialect by Zora directly influences the interpretation of the text. In other words you have to read the story out loud to garner the rich and creative language Zora uses in Sweat. One of the primary things you realize is that alliteration and biblical allusions are all over Sweat and this contributes to the foreshadowing.

Unlike Sweat the excerpt from Cane, (a huge influence on my novel Archie’s Psalm) is not so easily accessible and open to discussion. By now, most of my students realize that I don’t attempt to bring footnotes or research into the reading of a text. I attempt to place my reading in the realm of where the original reader of text may have been. Considering this is quite impossible for multiple reasons (1 I’ve studied the stuff in college, 2 I was not alive in the early 1900s so I can’t really understand the moment in which the story was created), I do feel that approaching the text without reading multiple analysis allows me to interpret the text without being influenced by someone’s ideas.

Cane is a book that defies tradition and technique. It is both novel and drama, poetry and musings, and at the core anthropological. More than likely you haven’t read a book like this before so discussing this book will lead to a lot of questions. After reading this book over and over, I still do not follow some of the references (and unfortunately for you the artwork/symbols drawn in the text is not included in this version). This excerpt does however introduce the core elements of the complete text (I use complete with a bit of hesitance here). I feel that to better understand Cane I have to give you an assignment that will place you in the proper place to discuss the text.

The CANE Assignment due March 13th 100pts

Go outside, somewhere, and observe your neighborhood, park, a house and while you are watching write down everything you see. Focus in on one thing in particular, preferably a person, and recognize the colors around, on that person, the foliage, everything. Then

Write a Syllabic Poem: 7 syllables per line 10pts. 7 lines long 10pts, use a simile in the poem 10pts, utilize imagery (sight, sound, mental, taste, touch, smell) 10pts.

Go outside another day and write an analysis/observation of the area, people and connect it to the poem in some fashion. 10pts This is 1 paragraph, maybe 2 and can include what you think a conversation might be with this person. Then talk with someone and write down how the discourse felt. 10pts.

Write a quatrain 10pts. Use Iambic pentameter 10pts with a rhyme of ABBA 10pts, utilize imagery of course and connect it to the 1st poem. 10pts.

This assignment will then make you aware of what Jean Toomer might have done to create Cane. This will also take you away from the mechanical and researched based writing that you are familiar with. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Prof. B.

Due date: March 1st

Submission Guidelines: Please print and submit the test by the end of the class. I will not accept the test after the end of the class on March 1st.

Click this link to download AFRICAN AMERICAN Lit Test 1

Moving into the Harlem Renaissance it becomes evident that Alan Locke’s New Negro seems more at liberty to discuss frustrations (I think that may be the wrong word-liberty). The New Negro also is creating a new narrative that does not have to show the best of the people. What do I mean by this? Black writers were writing in a way that generated a conflict between these new young writers and people like W.E.B. DuBois. Consider these questions to gain a better understanding of the Harlem Renaissance:

Questions

Who was the first poet to be published by a major publishing house in 1925?

Who wrote the first work of fiction to be published by a New York publisher?

Harlem and New York became the headquarters of what two cultural and political organizations?

What graduate of Cornell took over the editor’s job of the Crisis and discovered and nurtured several young writers of the Renaissance?

Why is Ridgely Torrence important? Also why is this white playwright considered the lead in to the new movement by Black writers?

As I mentioned earlier, blacks began writing in a more direct manner about their frustrations. What Jamaican born poet introduced a more defiant tone in his poetry?

During the Reconstruction dialect poems dominated the literature of Blacks. Who condemned this type of poetry? What did he think should be done to remove the stigma associated with dialect poetry?

What was the name of the theater established by DuBois and what were the principles of this theater?

Why did the Harlem Renaissance decline?

Analyze “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay and answer these questions:

Show a simile and the two things being compared:

What is the rhyme scheme?

What is the line length?

What type of poem is this?

Why is this poem important?

Is this a Shakespearean form or Petrarchan?

That’s it for now. I will pass out the test (a culmination of all of the posts on the blog and additional questions from the lectures, handouts and notes. I am very interested in your thoughts about the conflicts within the Black community and how these conflicts still exist today. Light skin vs dark skin, educated vs workers, old vs young, are all things that stem directly from the formation of the ghetto in America. The Great Migration, the formation of unions, the limited access to unions, employment and the separation of family in the Black community due to the migration north of Blacks looking for work in industry shapes the literature of the Harlem Renaissance, but those same things also inspired hope and a distancing from White poets like T.S. Eliot. How does the duality of Blackness still affect Blacks?

Does the literature have to maintain a certain amount of dignity and responsibility to be accepted as vital and important? Where does the importance derive? Who creates the importance and does a work that fails to develop a discussion of and about Blacks in a positive manner fail?

So we are in the post civil war era and I have another question: *How do you think the post Civil War era shaped the Literature?

Consider the fact that we are now moving from abolitionists and slave narratives to writing that professes equality. Consider Francis Harper’s speech about equality and its continued refrain of America “cursing its own soul” be trampling on the weakest and feeblest of its members. What does this mean?

More importantly the advent of the KKK in 1866 and the removal of laws from the Reconstruction literally wiped out any progress and this was further exacerbated by White Women deciding that they could not find themselves as second class citizens to Black men who had been granted certain opportunities during the Reconstruction and you find the Black American in another compromising position after the end of slavery. Sharecropping is another story that also effects the culture and art.

Here is where I test to see who is reading. You are excused from the test if you submit a paper in two parts: Literary critique (5 paragraphs) and an analysis of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Criteria of Negro Art and Two Novels (2-3 Pages MLA format with a minimum of 5 quotes, with a works cited entry of course. Your paper should analyze this topic: Did and Does art have the ability to change the perception of Blacks in society? Is thisspeech still relevant and how?

That is all for right now.

Prof. B.

P.S. Those of you following along, I would be interested in hearing your response to this question: W.E.B. poses and interesting question in Two Novels. He makes a statement about “catering to that prurient demand… for the portrayal in Negroes of that utter licentiousness.” Are the current trend of novels that cater to the “utter absence of restraint” a problem in today’s literature?

While Smith has generally played roles that were important to films, he has never really stood front and center in any of the major film releases or shows I have seen. Although I feel that I have seen him in a number of television and film roles, and he always leaves an impression on me, this film, A Huey P Newton Story introduces me to a charismatic, manic, intimidating, darkly comedic and distant actor who appeared to capture the nuances and movements of the popular, yet misunderstood Huey P. Newton.

A Huey P. Newton Story is a one man play written and performed by Smith. The film was recorded at the Joseph Papp Public Theater which creates a confined, dark space full of shadows and mystery. Smith sits in a chair in the middle of the stage and channels the Minister of Defense in an 88 minute performance storm. As he Newton chain smokes and discusses his life, images are displayed around the theater of scenes from the Black Panther movement. These images are timed in perfect coordination with the quirky tone set by Smith who seems to be speaking in a disoriented manner which leads me to think that this is possibly a drug addicted Huey speaking at the end of his life.

While the play is deeply rooted in fact and history, Smith utilizes phrases from current events and Hip-Hop that Huey would not have possibly known. These allusions seem apt particularly the ending refrain of the play, “Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirstay.” A line from The Notorious B.I.G, who ironically enough was also gunned down.

This is a film that is definitely worth your time. While much of the history of the Panthers is shown this is truly a  performance that captures the conflict that is always prevalent when discussing the Panthers.

I peeped it on Netflix, you can read more here.

Written and Performed by Roger Guenveur Smith

Directed by Spike Lee

P.S. Oh, why is the character in Do The Right Thing important? His attempt at selling the picture of Malcolm & Martin can be considered an attempt at showing that these two men were not of a different state of being and mind. These two men using different approaches wanted the same thing. The film Do The Right Thing utilizes racial tension to state the same thing. The problem is that people are in a perpetual state of stuttering. We can never really say what we mean, when we are supposed to.

*How is that Black literature came to exist within such an oppressive system of control and manipulation?

*The simple answer would be that literature was born of the oppression, but what could have been the guiding force behind the words of the poets, speakers and writers of this period? Freedom or Christianity?

Questions:

Who produced the first work of African-American prose?

Why was it important that early poets write using meter?

The ‘attack’ on Phyllis Wheatley’s poetry began early. In the 18th century what woman writer refuted Wheatley’s “On Being” and essentially adds to the future movement towards negritude and black empowerment?

What African American writer used an allusion to the constitution to create his “Appeal”?

How would you discuss the inherent conflict in the foundation of America? A country that was built on the desire for freedom and justice, but was also built on a foundation of mistreatment and inequality?

What Spanish missionary basically began the institution of slavery in the Americas?

Why was it critical to slavemasters to divest Africans of their heritage? How can this be used to analyze the current lack of interest in African history by young Blacks?

Virginia considered two options in response to Nat Turner. They understood that slavery was, in the words of Gil Scott Heron, “Not some happy.. party.” What were the two options and they did what in response to Nat Turner’s insurrection?

Who was the earliest known female slave to author her own narrative?

Why is Phyllis Wheatley the most important African American Writer of the Literature of Slavery era?

When analyzing “On Being Brought from Africa to America” what line length is the poem using? Why is the poem written using this meter? What is the poem about?

In George Moses Horton’s “Myself” he uses two different line lengths. Why and what is the poem possibly addressing?

I’m celebrating Black History Month February 2012 by honoring living legends who gleam from leaders of our past and continue in their footsteps of making their mark on the world. Robin Roberts. Did you know that Robin Roberts will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the hall’s class of 2012 for her contributions to and impact on the game of women’s basketball through her broadcasting work? The GMA co-anchor also survived 6 and a half weeks of radiation treatment after being diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer as she courageously and publicly fought her battle. (I remember the first day she revealed her cute short hair cute and removed her wig on-air. I was so inspired)

From the devastation of Hurrican Katrina in her hometown Pass Christian, Mississippi to cover the AIDS epidemic in Africa, Robin Roberts has been around the globe. No stranger to primetime, Robin did the exclusive interview with Janet Jackson, the first interview after the death of Michael Jackson and Robin was also the first to interview President Obama after he was sworn is. Read her entire bio HERE. Celebrate #BHM2012

Lisa B.

Follow @TheLisaBExperience

*The Black Power movement and the Black Arts Movement, according to Amiri Baraka, fell short in accomplishing a real goal which was to utilize the GNP of the African American community which is valued at over 405 billion dollars. This falls in line with what Dune said in the documentary. Dune stated that he left the group because he felt that the revolution through poetry was not really revolution.  What did both of these men mean here? Do you think they are correct? Now this question forces you to analyze the time that the Last Poets came into being.

Some facts that you may have missed: The Last Poets consisted of the original poets: Gylan Kain, Dahveed Nelson and Abiodun Oyewole. The group shifted and added Puerto Rican poet Felipe Luciano (who eventually left and organized the Young Lords-the political party not the gang). As the poets loyalties and philosophies changed a second version of the Last Poets included Jalaal Nuriddin, Umar Bin Hassan and Sulaiman El Hadi.

The group began unofficially on May 19th 1968 and their first official gig was at NYU.  The first suggestion for a name was the Blue Guerrillas, but they chose The Last Poets from the poem written by Dahveed Nelson.

*Die Nigger Die” is a poem that is immediately identified as one of the most important poems created by the TLP. Why do you think this poem is important? What is different about the use of the word Nigger in this poem in comparison to the songs and the use of the word today?

*Gil Scott Heron’s most popular poem was influenced by TLP’s “When The Revolution Comes”. What is the name of that poem?

*Actor and activist Ossie Davis stated that what The Last Poets inspired in rap has been lost and is now, “Milling about in the hallways and pissy staircases of society.” What did he mean by this?

I hope you all take a few minutes out of your day to learn more about The Last Poets. Go listen to a few poems and add any commentary to this section. On to the Literature and Slavery Era…

Prof. B