THOUGHT QUESTIONS Why is Art, Music, and Literature

important?

What role does music, reading, and art play in your life?

How does music, art, and literature reflect society? Give examples.

HARLEM RENAISSANCE1919-mid 1930’s

Background

Aaron DouglasInto Bondage

Aaron Doulgas?

Aaron DouglasIn An AfricanSetting

William H. JohnsonBlindSinger

William H. JohnsonBooker T.WashingtonLegend

William H. JohnsonTraining For War

Jacob LawrenceHarriet TubmanSeries

Jacob LawrenceStoryPainter

Jacob LawrenceIroning

Countee CullenIncident

Once riding in old Baltimore,Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;I saw a BaltimoreanKeep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,And he was no whit bigger,And so I smiled, but he poked outHis tongue, and called me, "Nigger.”

I saw the whole of BalimoreFrom May until December;Of all the things that happened thereThat's all that I remember.

Langston HughesDream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?

Audio

Langston HughesI, Too

I, too, sing America. Tomorrow, I am the darker brother. I'll be at the tableThey send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes.When company comes, Nobody'll dareBut I laugh, Say to me,And eat well, "Eat in the kitchen,” Then.And grow strong. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed- I, too, am America.

Claude McKayIf We Must Die If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursèd lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain; then even the monsters we defyShall 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 death-blow!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!

audio

Louis ArmstrongPotato Head Blues

Louis ArmstrongStompin’ At The Savoy

Duke EllingtonTake The “A” Train

Scott JoplinThe Entertainer

Bessie SmithNobody Knows You When You’re Down And

Out