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poetreeIntroduction
In 1920's Harlem, a revolution had begun. Hoping to escape the institutionalized racism of the Jim Crow South, African Americans were migrating North and West seeking opportunity in parts of America where greater freedom permitted an unprecedented level of personal and financial growth. For the first time, a growing middle class of black Americans dared to be proud of who and what they were, holding their heads high in the face of race riots, lynchings, and segregation. In New York City, Harlem became a hub for a new movement among African Americans in response to the virulent racism and oppression of their past and present: celebration of black culture and identity by exploring its beauty through music, art, and literature.
More Than Entertainment
At the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, African American creatives began taking agency over their culture by rejecting racist caricatures like minstrel shows and developing entertainment by blacks, for blacks. In 1917, Three Plays For the Negro Theatre debuted as one of the first examples of black actors in serious roles on stage. The Voice, a newspaper written by and geared towards black readers, featured not only news, but poetry and short stories. Jazz music brought blacks from all walks of life together and also attracted the interest of white audiences, eventually launching African American artists into the mainstream.
With ideologies ranging from conservatism to communism, a common thread was the preservation of black dignity, not only through the arts, but through active participation in political discussion. The endeavors of the Renaissance were often inextricably interwoven with the rocky social climate of 1920's America. Music, art, and the written word provided a platform not only for pride, but protest. Poets like Claude McKay used poetry to rally black solidarity in the face of violent adversity like lynchings and race riots. Jean Toomer, novelist and poet, published Cane, a collection of sort stories and poems, that brought the experience of black life in the South to a broader audience, calling attention to the injustice of Jim Crow. Publications by African American authors served to garner support for equal rights not only from blacks, but from all Americans.
Jazz Poetry & Langston Hughes
Jazz poetry, a type of writing and delivery intended to mimic the rhythm, style, and improvisation of jazz music, became popular during the Harlem Renaissance. Unlike traditional poetic styles, jazz poetry was characterized free verse schemes, repetition, and "off beat" delivery and pacing. It was intended to reflect black pride by creating a form of poetry unique to African American culture, in which jazz music was an important feature of the time.
Langston Hughes has become a name ubiquitous with jazz poetry. A novelist, poet, and playwright, Hughes was a prolific writer who played a prominent role in the politics of the Harlem Renaissance. Well known for his two poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers and A Dream Deferred, Hughes was influential not only in the celebration of black pride - a theme present throughout his poetry - but also in politics. His creative works both drew attention to and condemned segregationist laws in America, implied a strong but peaceful (as opposed to militant) approach to winning the fight for racial equality, and promoted leftist political ideals that, during the McCarthy era, brought him under government scrutiny.
Below are excerpts and links to some of Hughes's political poems:
From "Will V-Day Be Me-Day, Too?," a poem about segregation in the military & the home front.
Here in my own, my native land,
Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?
Will Dixie lynch me still
When I return?
From "Democracy," a poem against passivity in the civil rights movement:
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
From "Freedom's Plow," a pro-equal rights poem.
For all America, for all the world.
May its branches spread and shelter grow
Until all races and all peoples know its shade.
KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!
Many more poems by Langston Hughes can be found here.
Reader Participation
After reading this post, here are a few possible topics of discussion:
- Do you have a favorite poem by Langston Hughes or another Harlem Renaissance artist? Share below (I shared mine in the comments, too).
- Jazz poetry is often seen as the predecessor to modern poetry slam. Do you have a favorite slam poet whose work you would like to share in the comments?
- Can you think of any other historical or modern examples of creative movements conflating with political ones? Discuss below.
Optional Challenge:
Write a poem in the style of jazz poetry or record a poetry slam and share in the comments!
In 1920's Harlem, a revolution had begun. Hoping to escape the institutionalized racism of the Jim Crow South, African Americans were migrating North and West seeking opportunity in parts of America where greater freedom permitted an unprecedented level of personal and financial growth. For the first time, a growing middle class of black Americans dared to be proud of who and what they were, holding their heads high in the face of race riots, lynchings, and segregation. In New York City, Harlem became a hub for a new movement among African Americans in response to the virulent racism and oppression of their past and present: celebration of black culture and identity by exploring its beauty through music, art, and literature.
More Than Entertainment
At the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, African American creatives began taking agency over their culture by rejecting racist caricatures like minstrel shows and developing entertainment by blacks, for blacks. In 1917, Three Plays For the Negro Theatre debuted as one of the first examples of black actors in serious roles on stage. The Voice, a newspaper written by and geared towards black readers, featured not only news, but poetry and short stories. Jazz music brought blacks from all walks of life together and also attracted the interest of white audiences, eventually launching African American artists into the mainstream.
With ideologies ranging from conservatism to communism, a common thread was the preservation of black dignity, not only through the arts, but through active participation in political discussion. The endeavors of the Renaissance were often inextricably interwoven with the rocky social climate of 1920's America. Music, art, and the written word provided a platform not only for pride, but protest. Poets like Claude McKay used poetry to rally black solidarity in the face of violent adversity like lynchings and race riots. Jean Toomer, novelist and poet, published Cane, a collection of sort stories and poems, that brought the experience of black life in the South to a broader audience, calling attention to the injustice of Jim Crow. Publications by African American authors served to garner support for equal rights not only from blacks, but from all Americans.
Jazz Poetry & Langston Hughes
Jazz poetry, a type of writing and delivery intended to mimic the rhythm, style, and improvisation of jazz music, became popular during the Harlem Renaissance. Unlike traditional poetic styles, jazz poetry was characterized free verse schemes, repetition, and "off beat" delivery and pacing. It was intended to reflect black pride by creating a form of poetry unique to African American culture, in which jazz music was an important feature of the time.
Langston Hughes has become a name ubiquitous with jazz poetry. A novelist, poet, and playwright, Hughes was a prolific writer who played a prominent role in the politics of the Harlem Renaissance. Well known for his two poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers and A Dream Deferred, Hughes was influential not only in the celebration of black pride - a theme present throughout his poetry - but also in politics. His creative works both drew attention to and condemned segregationist laws in America, implied a strong but peaceful (as opposed to militant) approach to winning the fight for racial equality, and promoted leftist political ideals that, during the McCarthy era, brought him under government scrutiny.
Below are excerpts and links to some of Hughes's political poems:
From "Will V-Day Be Me-Day, Too?," a poem about segregation in the military & the home front.
Here in my own, my native land,
Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?
Will Dixie lynch me still
When I return?
From "Democracy," a poem against passivity in the civil rights movement:
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
From "Freedom's Plow," a pro-equal rights poem.
For all America, for all the world.
May its branches spread and shelter grow
Until all races and all peoples know its shade.
KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!
Many more poems by Langston Hughes can be found here.
Reader Participation
After reading this post, here are a few possible topics of discussion:
- Do you have a favorite poem by Langston Hughes or another Harlem Renaissance artist? Share below (I shared mine in the comments, too).
- Jazz poetry is often seen as the predecessor to modern poetry slam. Do you have a favorite slam poet whose work you would like to share in the comments?
- Can you think of any other historical or modern examples of creative movements conflating with political ones? Discuss below.
Optional Challenge:
Write a poem in the style of jazz poetry or record a poetry slam and share in the comments!
no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 01:53 pm (UTC)Favorite Hughes Poems...
Date: 2014-02-21 02:08 pm (UTC)One thing that always struck me about Hughes as an author was that he wrote poetry that was accessible to everyone; there was some measure of classism between middle class and poor blacks during the Harlem Renaissance, but Hughes always promoted celebrating African Americans from all walks of life. Because of this, he wrote some poems that were simple in their phrasing but powerful in conveying the experience of being poor and black in 1920's America.
Probably my favorite Hughes poem is Cross, about the experience of being biracial in a day and age where not only skin color, but chasms of socialeconomical difference separated races. You can read it here; it is short and simple and, imho, positively breathtaking.
Since moving to Alabama and finding reminders of Jim Crow, segregation, and the civil rights movement inescapable, I also have come to really appreciate his poem Daybreak in Alabama. He captures the beauty of the state perfectly by relating it to the beauty of his people; you get such a magnificent sense of pride from the poem. You can read it here.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-21 04:17 pm (UTC)Along with A Dream Deferred, the poem of Langston Hughes that's made home in me the deepest from way back when is Theme for English B, which is one of those poems that starts out so plainspoken and conversational that by the time it goes for the jugular you read even hot-button truths as unvarnished what they are & undeniable - there are no defenses that can be raised to soften them. (It also happens to be the poem that first & most deeply taught me that lesson I mentioned in my 'Mockingbird Poetics' post last week, i.e. there's nothing like attempting to imitate another poet's style to teach myself appreciation for their subtleties. This is a poem that rewards revisiting and sitting with.) These lines start the section that heart grabs my breathe away, every time
As far as slam poets go, I'm still most fond of the ones
no subject
Date: 2014-02-23 12:53 pm (UTC)And: yeah, I find it SO curious that The Great Migration and its implications are something we tend to forget about in discussions of America's past. There was a brief mention in high school of the Harlem Renaissance but nothing about the dramatic changes in American and specifically African American life that lead up to it.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-22 09:16 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if Louise Bennett qualifies as a Harlem Renaissance poet considering she is Jamaican, but her poetry is very much about Jamaican pride and culture. She wrote in Jamaican Patois and fought hard for the language to be recognized as a language rather than a dialect. Much of her work can be found here.
One modern slam poet that I love is Andrea Gibson. She has many amazing poems and it is hard to pick a favorite.
I was also inspired by your challenge and sat down to write a poem inspired by jazz poetry and slam poets. Since my life has been primarily focused on the bar exam, that's what it ended up being about. It can be found here.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-23 01:01 pm (UTC)And thank you for the link Bennett's work!
no subject
Date: 2014-02-23 06:33 am (UTC)Those were great examples you chose. I can really hear the music in them (and it reminded me of why poetry should be read aloud).
no subject
Date: 2014-02-23 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:26 am (UTC)It was cool to see an intro - I just barely am able to read poetry (long story), and knowing *how* to read it made it easier.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 11:47 am (UTC)