Taking a Closer Look at 1920s Popular Culture

HOT ROC- Poetry Analysis

What is the message of each poem?What is the message of each poem?

How do the poems address the ideals?How do the poems address the ideals?

I Hear America Singing   by Walt Whitman, 1867

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows, robust,

friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

I, Too, Sing America   by Langston Hughes, 1925

• I, too, sing America.• I am the darker brother.

• They send me to eat in the kitchen• When company comes,

• But I laugh, • And eat well,

• And grow strong. • Tomorrow,

• I'll be at the table • When company comes.

• Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," • Then.

• Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am • And be ashamed– • I, too, am America.

Harlem Renaissance

An era of written and artistic creativity among African-Americans that occurred after World War I and lasted until the

middle of the 1930s Depression.

Harlem Renaissance• The Great Migration

– A major factor leading to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the migration of African-Americans to the northern cities. During and after WWI

• This was first known as the 'New Negro Movement.' Later termed the Harlem Renaissance– The movement brought unprecedented creative

activity in writing, art, and music and redefined expressions of African-Americans and their heritage.

– Art was also used to assert rights for African-Americans and fight back against racism and lynching just as the NAACP fought back against it in the courtrooms.

Document Based Question• We will use primary source documents to respond to

a prompt today in a step by step manner.

• Form groups of

• Important vocab terms to remember for today:

– Race

– Segregation

– Civil Liberty

– Popular Culture

– The Founding Ideals: Democracy, Equality, Liberty, Opportunity, Rights

– Migration

Document Based Question

• Background: It has been argued that the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, is the defining moment in African American literature because of an unprecedented outburst of creative activity among Black writers. The importance of this movement to African American literary art lies in the efforts of its writers to exalt the heritage of African Americans and to use their unique culture as a means toward re-defining African American literary expression.

• Prompt: Analyze the themes discussed during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

Document Based Question

Question (Prompt): Analyze the themes discussed during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

Step 1: Deconstruct the Prompt– Identify the directive word(s)– Identify people, places, and time period in the

prompt– Re-write the prompt in your own words

•Step 2: Write out background information and prior knowledge.

Document Based Question• Question (Prompt): Analyze the themes discussed

during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

• Step 3: Go through and analyze all of the documents by using the following process:– C- Context (author, time period, where is the

document from? What is happening around the time period?)

– C- Content (What does the document actually say?)– P- Point of View (What is the author’s

POV/bias/motivation for creating the document?)

HOT ROC- Poetry Analysis

What is the message of the poem?What is the message of the poem?

How does it compare to others we have How does it compare to others we have read in class?read in class?

• If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

If We Must DieClaude McKay, 1919

Document #1• Lament for the Dark Peoples

• I was a red man one time, • But the white men came. • I was a black man, too,

• But the white man came. • They drove me out of the forest.

• They took me away from the jungles. • I lost my trees.

• I lost my silver moons. • Now they've caged me

• In the circus of civilization. • Now I herd with the many--

• Caged in the circus of civilization. • SOURCE: Langston Hughes, 1924.

Document #2• Incident

• Once riding in old Baltimore, • Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

• I saw a Baltimorean • Keep looking straight at me.

• Now I was eight and very small, • And he was no whit bigger,

• And so I smiled, but he poked out • His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

• I saw the whole of Baltimore • From May until December;

• Of all the things that happened there • That's all that I remember.

• SOURCE: Countee Cullen , 1924.

Document #3THE LYNCHING by: Claude McKay

Printed in Harlem Shadows 1922

His spirit is smoke ascended to high heaven.

His father, by the cruelest way of pain,

Had bidden him to his bosom once again;

The awful sin remained still unforgiven.

All night a bright and solitary star

(Perchance the one that ever guided him,

Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)

Hugh pitifully o'er the swinging char.

Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view

The ghastly body swaying in the sun:

The women thronged to look, but never a one

Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;

And little lads, lynchers that were to be,

Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

Document #4Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol (1936)

Sung by Billie Holliday: (1939) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,

And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Document #5

• Source: Aaron Douglas, Song of the Towers, 1934

Document #6

• Source: William Johnson, Chain Gang, 1939

Document #7• Source:Archibald John Motley, Jr , Blues

1929

Document #8• Calling Dreams

• The right to make my dreams come true • I ask, nay, I demand of life,

• Nor shall fate's deadly contraband • Impede my steps, nor countermand.

• Too long my heart against the ground • Has beat the dusty years around, • And now, at length, I rise, I wake! • And stride into the morning break!

• Source: Georgia Douglas Johnson, 1922

Document Based QuestionQuestion (Prompt): Analyze the themes discussed during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

•Step 4: Decide how each document may or may not respond to the prompt

•Step 5: Create Organizational categories that can respond to the prompt.

Document Based QuestionQuestion (Prompt): Analyze the themes discussed during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

Theme that reflects

success and/or

challenge

Theme that reflects

success and/or

challenge

Theme that reflects

success and/or

challenge

Lynching is a common theme in Harlem Renaissance poetry. It reflects on the violent and deadly challenge posed by racism and hatred that prevents African Americans from achieving peace and prosperity.

Document Based Question

Question (Prompt): Analyze the themes discussed during the Harlem Renaissance and how these themes reflect both the successes and challenges of black Americans.

•Step 6: Place the documents in organizational categories

•Step 7: Arrive at the thesis- Can you, in a small format, substantiate your point?

Homework

• Do research on your 1920s project.

• Outline Final Draft Due Tuesday

• Finish Harlem Renaissance Thesis Statement