https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/e316df3df9a1855a717bf7c8c6542c5c.pdf 7ed964d6f5c281b4f33a3da59f30542f PDF Text Text \ II COURSE ANATOMY AND DEVELOPJ.'IE:FT: -PRIHAHY TF.XTS There are numerou s approaches to teachin13 or. studying Black Poetry. At the outset, the teacher or student must determine specific and general objectives. We have already listed several reasons why students enroll in a Black Poetry course. Additionally, there are countless reasons why churches, community organizations, poetry clubs, interdisciplinary studies programs, and students persuing t na ependent study, would want survey or unit-study approaches. In developing a prescribed course of stud:r, consideration has to be given to book costs and the classrcom environ~e nt--that is, student preparation, classification in school, racial br eakdown (all-Black and all-white cl~rn,3er.; w:i.11 be c3iffersnt), and whether or not many are English or Ethn1c Studie3 il'.ttj ors. Ideally, the survey course is the best overall approac~ --with appropriate modifications in time fratnes and historical landmarks. Most teachers of Black America n Literature, for example, usually disregard the 1865 break (in American Literature courses) and brine the first of the two-part sequence of courses up to the Harle m Renaissance of the 1920 1 s. Many begin a course in mocJer n Black writing with the Harlem period. Still others begin a general study with the first 20th century author s . Assuming that a course of study is to consider the historical range of Black Poetry, I will SURGest, first, an 25 �ideal pattern to follow. Six units ma keu p t he ide8.l c our se. However, units contain several combinations and intr a-patt erns for either specialized or generalized study. The six units are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Roots of Black Expre s sion and the Folk Tradibion Early Black American Poets (1746-1G65) Dialect Poets; Development of the Authentic Voice (1865-1910) New Trends & Defiance: Harlem Renaissance (1910-1930) The Modern Black Poets (1 930-1954) Contemporary Black Poets: Ci v:i.l Ri ghts to Black Power, Protest to Black Arts (1954 to Present) Planned economically, a book list to accompany the foregoing course could inplude, but is not limited to, the followin g : Lerone Bennett, Jr., Before The Mayflower (optional) William H. Robj_nson, ed ., Ear1yBTacTt7i:riierican Poets James Weldon Johnson, ed., The Book ofAme rican Negro Poetry Abraham Chapman, ed., Bla.ck""""Voice_s_ -· Margaret Walker, For Myl'eople ( op t ional) June Jordan, ed., Soulscript Etheridge Knight, Poems F1r o·m Prison (optional) The brief course outline and the boo k J. i.s t. a.re arbitrary. ~ So before we move to a unit-by-unit d-i-s-e-e-t-~~n of the course, some discussion of problems and implications is in order. Unit titles of courses in the Black Experience invariably politically loaded. Though not alwa.y:J de sir able, such a situation is difficult to avoid. Much Black writing (of whatever genre) occurs out of the stresses, pressur es and anxieties Blacks have felt since the days of slavery. Initial tribal decimation; ensuing physical, psychological nnd sexual exploitation; the creolization of the race; the creation of DuBois' "twoness" against the comp lex of American puritanical duality; the corruption of Black reli ~ion; the destruction of 26 �the "mother" African languages--these and countless other indignities fuel and re-fuel Black writing . One can say with some authority, then, that Black American Poetry reflects and chronicles the odyssey of Black Americans. Throughout the history of this people, its poets have recorded the pressures and conflicts from various levels of artistic intensity and sensitivity and forms, via various points of view and tones. Obviously, too, there has con- tinued to be !!quality!! distinctions in the poetry. A glance at almost any unit, syllabus or even lecture title for a Black Poetry course will indicate the political nature of the Black Experience. W'hen the poems themselves have not been political, the commentaries on them have been. ·when the poets have not consciously taken "political" stands, their work bas often been judged as being outside the nstrugglel!--a political comment in itself. Hben the poets have not intended to write or speak obsessively about politics or ideoloGies, their keen sensitivities, their humanism, and their race pride (Cullen, Hayden) have made their works formidable opponents to bigotry, social alienation and racism. Lastly, and banging like a pall 07er all of this, is the problem of gettin8 published. Publishers view Black writing against the crests, slumps and peaks of profits--and do not, for the most part, seek to develop the culturally-thirsty Black or white potential readin 0 audie nce. Course outlines and book lists often reflect the foregoing conflicts and contradictions. Adding kindling to the fire will be the newl::r a ttu r; ,:: d s tu dF.)nts and r•ea.ders who are 28 �often within the thralls of new or re v i ved i deolo gi e s- - sometimes the ideolo gy of a particular poet. Realizing all the pro blems, and the web of pain and joy out which they de veloped, the teacher will certainly want to conf ron t the political overtones headon, but will re mind student s that t he y are studying the poetry. A good example of how teachers and antholoe ists of Black Literature set up a potential course outline is found in the table of contents to Cavalcad e . The gene ral headings are as follows: Pioneer Writers: 1760-1830 Freedom Fi ghters: l GJ0-1 8 65 . Accomodation and Pro te st: 1365 -1 91 0 The New Ne gro Rena i ssanc e and Bey ond: Inte gration Versus Black Na.t i onal i s rn : The Present 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1910-1954 1954 To In his Instructor's Guide to Accompany 'Cavalcade', Charles H. Nichols, author of Many Thousand Go ne, e;i ves suggested course outlines for several component courses of t he Black Experience. Broad headings for his course in poetry are: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. The Folk Tradition : wor k sone;s, spirituals, blues and jazz Early Versifiers: A Discussion of the Relation of Ne gro Poets to t h e Engli s h Literar y Tradition The Emergence of the Orir:; ina l Black Poet The Harlem Henaiss e nce Contemporary Poet s The New Black Poe t in search of an Identity It is clear that there is less preo c cupatio n with politics in Nichols' outline for poetry than in Cavalcadets tahle of contents. Yet, re-reading Nich ols' out line, one is struck by the absence of the word "Black" until Section III. lJichols ref'ers to his outline as a suggested "Course In Ne gro American Poetry." . Many teachers and cr itics appear to use the word "Black" in reference to a certain kind or e r a of poetry. 29 �Others use all references to pe rsons of African extraction interchangeably: Black, 1fo e::ro, Afro-American, Colored, African-American, etc. Needless to say, the teacher will be pressed for answers to this seemine;ly innocuous but very perplexing aspect of classroom interaction. In the Black community, however, all terms are still e mployed--depending on age and locale. In November of 1967, Ebony conducted a poll to ascertain which of the names readers most preferred. Reporting on the poll, Lerone Bennett, .Jr., said in part: This question is at the root of a bitter national controversy over the proper desi gnation for identifiable Americans of African descent • ••• A large and vocal group is pressing an aggressive campaign for the use of the word '~fro-American" as the only historically accurate and humanly significant desi gnation of this large and pivotal portion of the Ame rican population. The group charges that the word nNe gro 11 is an inaccurate epithet which perpetuates the master-slave mentality in the minds .of both Black and white Americans. An equally lar ge, but not so vocal, group says the word "Ne gro" is as accurate and as euphonious as the words "black" and "Afro-American. 11 • • • to make things even more complicated, a !:;bird group, composed primarily of Black Power a dvocates, has adopted a new vocabulary in which the word "black II is reserved for "black br•others and sisters who are emancipating themselves. 11 Poet Dudley Randall, whose wit and irony are often on par with Tolson and Frank Marshall Davis, wr•ote "An Answer to Lerone Bennett's Questionaire On A Name for Black Americans". In the poem, Randall traces the historical uses and derivatives of' the words "black" and "Ne gro" amone; the Spanish, Anglo-Saxon and Arabian "slave-traders." Neither wor•d, Randall notes will ••• put a single bean in your belly or an inch of' steel in your spine. 30 �I Giving a new name to something will not chan ge the essential character or meaning of the renamed, says Randall, and If the white man took the name Negro and you took the name caucasian, he'd still kick your ass, as long as you let him. In the course outlines and the table of contents listed above one can detect the vastly flexible format available to the teacher or student of Black Poetry. However, since everyone will have neither time nor desire to plun~e into an historical investigation of the poetry, other types of units and outlines can be organized. (On many campuses the popu- larity of Black Poetry courses, coupled with relative teacher shortages, makes it impossible to conduct a survey course over a two-semester or three-quarter period. Hence the teacher ends up having to repeat "quickie" courses each semester or quarter in order to handle the flow of students. This is not desirable since the teacher and students need the pace accorded other courses.) There are, of course, dozens of ideas and themes around which courses or units can be developed. Teachers and students with special interests ma:y desire a.spec ts of Black Poetry as integral parts of other on- going studies programs or f'or thesis projects. Teachers working with basic skills clinics may want to e ~plore Black Poetry as a vehicle for classes in reading, writing and speech. Carefully devel- oped units can fit into courses in American Literature, American Poetry, Interdisciplinary Studies, Ethnic Studies, Humanities, Music Studies, Theatre Arts, Communication Studies and Linguistic Skills. Courses can be or ganized around 31 �individ ual uriters for upper level or s raduate work ; around significant social or poli t ical e ve ~ts; ar ound wars or social turbulence; around Black fa mily issues a nd studi.es of n a.le and female psyches, a n d ar ound Black women. Per haps it would be helpful to list some other alterna ti ves and possi b ilities in developing aspects of Black Poetry for s tudy . The following list, certainly not all-inclusive, prese nts a rich sampling of options a nd ideas: l. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. O. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18 . 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Black Spirituals as Poetry Blues: Black Folk Poetry Black Man's Folk Poetr y The Sermon a s Poe try The Black Vers e Sermon Langston Hu 6hes and the Jazz Id i or.~ in Black Poetry Gwendolyn Brooks: Femj_ ni ne Sensib ility in Black Poetry Melvin Tolson and the Epic Poem Melvin Tolson: From ' Pindaric Ode'to' Blues' Black Poetry S inc e Wor l d TTar I Black Poetr y Si nce World TTar JI Black Poetry Fr om Pr i so ns Black Poetry as Prot es t The Blac k Poet's View of Love The Black Poet's View of Life The Black Poet's View of Death The Black Poet's View of Tii·.;.e Black Folk Poets: Langston Hughes, Sterling, Brown, Owen Dodson Contemporary Black Folk Poetry Imamu Ba.rake Amiri, Jay Wr ight and Henry Duman Contemporary Blac k Poets Contrasted: Henry Dumas and Conrad Kent Rivers Black Poet as Politician James Weldon Johnson: Poet, Lawyer, Diplomat, Social Historian "vJbi teness II as Theme e.nd I ma gery in Black Poetry "Blackness II as Theme and I ma 1~ery in Black Poetry Black Poe try and Black Music: Jay ne Cortez, David Henderson, Micha.el Ha r per Black Poet as Pan-Africanist: I mamu Amiri Baraka, William Keorapetse Kgositsile, Don L. Lee Black Poet as Visionary and Oracle: Norman Jordan, James Kil g ore, Lance Jeff ers Black Poet as Cultural Conerstone: Lance Jeffers, Robert Hayden, Owen Dodson 32 �30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. Black Poe t and the Cultural Folk Hero : Margaret Walker, Eugene Redmond, Gwe nd olyn Brooks The Hero in Black Poetry Black Poetry as Passion Political Conflic t in Black Poetry Black Poetry as Anger: Claude McKay , Austin Black, Nikki Giovanni Black Poet as Troubndor and Lover: Ted Joans, Arthur• Pfister, Lanc ston Hugh e s Black Poet as Preacher: J ames Weldo n Johnson, Folk Sermons Black Poet and the Third World: Quincy Troupe, Robert Hayden, Victor Herna ndez Cruz Black Poet as Experimentalis t : J ean Toomer, Ishmael Reed, Melv i n Tolson, Julia Fields, Russell Atkins, Robert Ka u.fn a.n Black Poet and Black La.ngua ,r.e: Lang ston Hughes, Mari Evans, Jay ne Cor t ez, Carolyn Ro gers, Rhonda Davis, Sarah Web ster Fab io Black Poet and the Ballad: Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendoly n Brooks, Dudley Randall Black Poetry and the Sonnet: Claude HcKay, Countee Cullen, Gwendoly n Brooks, Margaret Walker Black Poet and Urban America: Imamu Ami r i Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Michael Harper, Quincy Troupe, Eben, David He nderson, Maya Angelou Black Acade mic Poe t s: Count ee Cullen, Melvin Tolson, Robert Hayde n Black Epic Poets: Alberry Whitman, Owen Dodson, Melvin Tolson A more detailed discussio n of in-class and out-of-class approaches to working with rela t ed t h e mes and topics will be attempted in Section III of this pamphlet. Obviously, there are several sub-titles su~gested by each item on the a½ove list. Certainly the teacher or student concerned with "areas" or "trends" in Black Poetry will want to examine available critical, historical and b i bliogre.phical sources. Again, while the aim of this pamphlet is to explore t he complete range of poetry for study possibilities, no atte mpt will be made to assess that range critically or to present a history . In using the course outline and b ookli.st such as the ones mentioned earlier, one must keep in mi nd i mmediate and long 33 �,I range goals. i .. The teacher who desi~ns a eourse in 19th Century Black Poetry will want to encourage the students to continue active interest in the later works. Likewise, the student who takes a course in modern or contemporary poetry should be directed back to the pri mary sources to the folk materials. In either case, the teacher should keep in mind the need to "introduce" the course in a manner that establishes the long tradition, beginning in Africa and with ties to Europe. My outline, then, envisions a course in one, two or three parts (or more). Six units were selected so that the course could be separated into halves or thirds. In a semester or quarter cram course, the siGnificance of individual units is called into question. A course in 1Iodern Black Poetry could conceivable begin with number four: New Trends & Defi- ance: Harlem Renaissance (1910-1930); or possi bly with number five: The Modern Black Poets (1 930-1954), in which case the introductory lectures could draw upon the 1910-30 period for background. Ideally, a two-part course, stretchinc over semesters or quarters, could neatly s eparate the six units into two groups of three units each. A year-long course in a three-quarter oriented program could separate the six units into three groups or two units each. The new inclusive anthol- ogies of American Literature are be ginning to use this idea as they '~inally" add Black writers and thinkers. For those pri- marily interested in contemporary poetry, unit number six is appropriate. However, teachers and students alike will appre- ciate the need to reach back before the poetry of the mid-Sixties. 34 �Experience shows that classrooms which emba rk o~ a study of Black Poetry before gaining proper backGr ound are pla ~ued and paralyzed by continual interruptions of a political and ideological nature. Such crises are not diminished by the presence of younger Black poe ts on campuse s. Some of' these poets, hired as the result of student-pressure on administrations, are not themselves serious students of Black Poetry or Black Culture. Thus the st udent who turns up in a consci- entious teacher's classroom quotjng the youn~ poet as an "authority" on Black life is likely to ruffle and detour the class. The sat,10 pro~~lem occu1•::-1 1-,hen a st1 :de nt quotes an ideolog ue or repeats some th ing heard on a te le v ision or live panel discus s ion. The contemporary scene in Black Poetry, however, is the most exc iting one bec a use it is here that changes take place literally ~efore the eyes. Also, students are often fa miliar with ha~its, features and life styles of nany of the poets a nd thus are ~ ot i vated to read and get in volved in the poets' i de a s. Nichols , like Hayden, has said many of the new Black writers a re "minor" voices. Miss Brooks, on t'he other hand, takes what some call a "positive'' approach in that she ha s rarely criticized the younger poets in public. Usually over-lookinc glaring technical difficulti e s and contradictions , Hiss Brooks chooses to exalt them--hoping , a pp arently , that they will keep working to become better writers. Hoy t Fuller, managing editor of the influential Black World, has taken a similar stand. · More recently, however, Miss Brooks seems to have 35 �slightly modified h8r position. In her intro,:3uction to The Poetry of Black America, she said of the new poetry: There is a growing inquisitiveness about ~echanics, about writing tools and wri tins n:ethods: a maturinr.; concern for words and their black potential. Many blacks, those who want to create one poem only, and those who want to create poetry the rest of tbetr-lives, are asking for help. Their questions are poignant. How do I make words work for ~e? Are there ways,Ts" there any way, to make English words speak blackly? Are there forms already that, with a little tampering, will encase blackness properly, or must we blacks create forms of our own? If we create fo1•ms of our own, bow shall we go about this work? Is length helpful--should blacks write epics. Or will blacks find that they need to for~e poems "bullet"-size (with bullet-precision). Many of the younger poets, feeling sure in the craft, would take offense to anyone asking if "blacks" (categorically, that is) "should II write in any f orrn. So the teacher has to know the pitfalls and risks in teaching, say a course in Contemporary Black Petery. If the course moves from the bases of World War II, Korea, and the development of urban Blues and Soul music, then all should go well. On the other hand, to leap into a study of the most recent Black poetry without rigorous examination of background could mean academic or cultural suicide. This is one reason why the booklist is headed by a history text. For a similar reason, I have included an inclusive anthology: Black Voices. It will be noted., though, that the word "optional,, appears behind at least three of the books. Such an "option" ls available to those planning the course and developing a booklist. Experi- ence shows that a history text is indespensable since study of history goes hand in Glove with poetry. 36 Also invaluable �is an i.nexpensive inclusive anthology . Hi t h out s uch, many of the students would never read general Blac k criticis m, history or biography. As stated earlier, the teacher has the option to select the history text or historian b est suited to his needs. a cursory text. Before Tl1e Mayflower is excellent as Other possib ilities are The Ne gro in the Making of America (Quarles), From Slavery to_ Fre~~-om (Franklin ) and The :Making of Black America, vols. I t: II (Meier and Rudwick), to list just a few. The for mat of a course ln Black Poetry should allow students to sarnp le t he , road range while getting some feel fo r the <lep l;h and concentra.tlon of individual poets. The indi v i.dual c oll e c t i ons , th en, our:;bt to parallel appropriate time periods. The 11 appropriate 11 places will be determined by the struc t ure a nd e mphasis of the course. Some teachers, for example, s i mply read a group of individual collections and assi g n student s out -of-class work in antholog ies, b iographies and criticis~ . Other teachers read strickly from antholog ies, holding students responsi ble for specializing in particular writers. Th er e can be much over-lapping between the antholog ies and ind i,:i<lual collections. Such a problem can be minimized, however, by a teacher who picks carefully. At the same time, when the same poets appear in two antholog ies or as a result of pairing indi vidual collections and antholog ies, cross-referencing and comparison of biographical-critical notes make for mor e class room involvement. The history of Black Poetry sup:£,;ests t hat appropriate-places to bring in individ ual collections are 37 . �during the modern and contemporary periods. Subsequently, For Hy People (1 942) appears for the peri od be tween 1930-54 and Poems From Prison (196 3 ) for the 195~ to present period. There are dozens of excellent replA.cernents for the latter book and several other good choices for the n odern period. A sample of fine collections for the modern period include: Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen (Pulitzer Prize) , A Street in Bronzeville , Selected Poeins Sterling Brown, Southern Road Countee Cullen, On These I Stand Frank Harsha.11 Davis, 47th SE-~et Owen Dodson, Powerful tone Ladde1· Robert Hayden~ Heart-Shape i r17;n"e Dust Frank Horne, Haverstraw (pvLTisnea·-rn··1 963 hut represe nts pre - '~O' s work) Langston Hughes, Mont a ge of A Dream Deferred Claude McKay , Selected Poems Melvin B. Tolson, Rendezvous Hith Ane rica There a.re others, many of them (like some above) no lonr;er in print. Powerful Long Ladder and For I'Ty People, for exa:-nple, have recently been reprinted. Aga in, selection of the texts is the perogative of teacher or student. Balance is best achieved, however, when the cours e er.~ ploys the antholo ~-y individual collection pattern. For the pos t 1954 period (which witnessed not onlv a repri nting of earlier volu:nes and a renewed interest in Black writi □ s, but the advent of the independent Black publishing co:npani e s) there exists countless choices. A quick cross-section of them includes: Austin Black, Tornado in My i\Iouth Gwendolyn BrooKs, n1ot Faird ly P:i ct uren Lucille Clifton, GoodT1.mes , Good News ·Ab out The Earth Jayne Cortez, Pisss t a1.nect Stairs and the T'Ionkey Man's Wares , ~ n d Funerals �Stanley Crouch, Ain't No Ambulances For No Na.p;gubs ronr~nr;___ _ _ -----··- Victor Hernandez Cruz, Snaps Henry Dumas, Poetry For7 ~ryl5eople Mari Evans, I7tnl~1ack Homan Julia Fields, Poems Michael Harper-.;-7Tfstory is Your Own Heartbeat Robert Hayden, Se1ectea7'5oems , Woras-1.n the 1-fournin [; Ti·~ e Lance Jeffers, Ny Blackness in th e Beauty of this Land Ted Joans, Afrodisia LeRoi Jones-;-Nack Magic Sterling Plumpp, 7Ialf ETa.ck, Half Blacker Dudley Randall, CTITes BurninG Conrad Kent Ri v e ~ n --voice of Harlem Ed Roberson, When Thy King is A Boy Stephany, Moving Deep Melvin Tolson, Harlem Gallery Askia Huhammad Tour~, Songa1! Alice Walker, Revolutionary Petunias Al Young , The Song Turninr,: Back Unto Itself 1 The bibliography in Section IV will of course contain more extensive listings in all areas; but it is i nportant, in the context of the present discussion, to visualize the scope and many-threaded thematic fabric of recent Black Poetry. Just a quick glance at the titles of t his list will cause countless other associations. That glance will also e ive one keys to unlocking the the~atic differences hetween, say, the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and modern period and the poets of Black Consciousness. From Jones' ~a~~ Magic to Stephany's I"Iovinc De~p, the stated and i mplied mood of the New Black Poetry is there. We observed earlier that each topic or sub-topic has spin-outs. The lengthy sampling of ideas and options already listed can be doubled or trippled when one considers the prospect of' regional or local studies. Hence the student of' Black Poetry ought to appreciate re gional diff'erences, 39 I I I �colloquialisms, id oms, social problerri.s, styles a nd attitudes. One bas only to spend a few hours in northern and southern Black communities to understand some of the disti nctions between the two. It has become popular in soMe rhetorical quarters to disclaim the differences with the rationale that "Black folks are the same everywhere and their common problem is oppression." The sensitive and ot servins teacher, however, will reco8nize such over simplif ication of the Black Experience and precede accordingly. The next phases of this section will explore the course anatomy. The format will b e a un5t-h:r-un it breakdown of an historical course in Black American Poetry . Each unit will be examined from the standpoint of i -L s Literary /Social Background and Related Sub-Top i cs. I n Sectio n III the da.y -to- da:7 classroom sessions will ~J e disc ussed alone; with smr:.e excitinG exp er i ments for dra~atiz in: , ex plicati np and researching tbe poetr:-i~. TJ1TIT f,I. 1: ROOTS OF BLACK RXPRES2.:ron A~IT) TETI FOLK TRADITION Li terar:r/Socj_al Background : Tb e 3lo.ck Experienc e in tbe United States continues via t he African Continuum: a complex of' mythical, linc;u.istic, c estural, psycho1.osi cnl, sexual, physical and reli g ious fo rms. Tbis coc,1 plex i s e·~idenc od in the day-to-day attitudes of Blac ks, their sa cre d and secular expressions, their physical appearances, their dross patterns and their family life. Not only in the United States, hut in the Caribbean, 'the Hest Indies, -tn Latin Ar.i.erica, in a.11 areas of the dia~pora--people of African extraction exhibit �characteristics peculiar to the nature of indi ~enous Africans. General Black Expression is a product of Plack Culture; and the artistic expression--tre.di tional Black communities did not separate the life and art of the people--is a More sophisticated form honed from the c_~eneral ''storehouse. 11 No one has yet put their hands on exactl7 what n o:11ent 1.n time and where the first African sounds or movements were incorporated into "white II or Hes tern fran:es of references or vice vers~; but we do know that it did happen. Unfortunately, inept reporting on the Black Experience has muddied the waters so much that one is repulsed and horrified by some of the observations and conclusions o.f so1;1e Black and 1-rhi.. te "researchers. In an uni'linchinc;ly brilliant ano.lysis of Black Africar, Oral Literature, presented at the First World Festival of Negro Arts (1966) in Dakar, Sene gal, Basil e -Juleat Fouda, noting that ''oral literature is as old as creation, "Archival Literature of Gesture.'' revelations, Fouda said: 11 coined the phrase Concluci.ng his i ·nportant ''Thus i n the Black Africa of tra- dition, literary art is an anonymot.:s art beca use it is a social art; it is a social art b ecause it is a functional a.re; and it is functional because it is humanist." is not bounded by color. Research Black sociolo~ist E. Franklin Frazier (Black Bourgeosis) held that there were no si f nificant carryovers from Africa to the United States. (Slavery, Frazier said, "stripped" the African of his culture and "destroyed" his personality.) White anthropoloc ist :Melville Herskovits ( The Myth of the Ne roro Past) pro·red wi thont a doubt that 11 �there were African "survival isms'' operating daily in Black Americans culture. Rudimentary Black Expression, then, and the mmerous folk forms it produced (field hollers, vendors shouts, chants, worksongs, Spirituals, Blues, Gospels, Jazz, Rhytbm 'n Blues, Soul :i:vTusic) form the bases for Black Poetry . Tl1e various early artistic fro ms were a.lmost always accompanied b y what we have come to call "drama t le ideoc;ra :1s "--or 1 three basic artistic modes w0re and still are: and Drum. aances. The Sor::is , Dance As the first means of communication over dist.a.nces, the drum played an j_mportant role in the lives of tra.di tione.l African peoples. The career drummer, like the Black musician today, went through years of ,crueling practice and preparation-learning not only drumming techniques but the lecends, the myths, the meanings and symbols of which the drum was derivative. Dance always accompanied song--Fouda refers to the "acoustical phonetic alphabet 11 --so that the complex web of oral nuances was illustrated. Obviously, when teaching or entertaining , the artist/teacher had to present his material in interesting and exciting ways so as not to bore the audience. Thus re- petition became a backbone of Black Expression--a repetition that was desi e;ned to reinforce. To gether tbe three modes--drum, song and dance--heic;htened the experience, which was ecstatic, spiritual, visceral and revelatory. Added to the intricate modal pattern already described were the various costumes, make-up, props and important subject matter. The effect was not vicarious but one of the act and symbol takin8 place at 42 �the same time. 1-Jbile such a prospect 1)or~:r:les the mind, a serious study of these for n, s and che r·: enerol tracH tion will be eye-opening for many a disbeliever. Early Black American oral and ~estural art forms in- In lancu n~e, in herited the a b ove mentioned qualities. dance, and, more i mportantly, in points of v iew toward _!;_:"i~, life and de~~l?,, the cosmolog:,r o.f Afr-ica "continued" in tbe Black Culture in the Western Hemisphere. Specifically, in- formation was conveyed by way of aphorisms, riddles, parables, tales, enigmatic dances and sounds, oblique utterances, puzzles, jokes and poetry. The pattern remains in tact today. In I"Iuntu: An Outline of the Hev1 A.f.!I~an Culture, 2"alrnhoi.nz .Jahn docu- ments many exa.mpleo of the African "carryovers" and "survivalisms" operating in the Uestern He misphere. Oi~ e can find tbe tradition in Black poets, ministers and fam5.l : r; a t l,e:r i n: ·s. 1 T11e scin- tillating Black poet Tolson operates frame when in ''An Ex-Jud r~ e at tbe Bar 11 :;e sa~JS: Bartender, ~ake it s t rai 01t a nd ma k e i t t wo One for the y ou. in me and one fo r the :·:c i..n ::-ou Tolson ends the poem wi t1: an eq uall:· e~·;i ,:;•;m tic ·· ;)c k : Ba.rtenrlor·, make it s Lrs.i1,.ht and make it tb :re e One for the ITe gr o ••• one for y ou a nd ~e In the Spirituals (the first su1Jstant~_:Jl · O!~ :':~ of Black Poetry) one finds similar deLts to the Af~ica n tradition of song, dance and drum. So too in the shouts and hollers Hbere actual African words and phrases were initially used. Hence we can say that the traditional African phonolocy and ritual, modified ~n the anvil of slavery, were operati n~ and continue �to be ma1:,ifest in various f o't'r,.s of Ela c!: American Express5.on. The African slave, forced t o acq11ire f. unct-.:!.onf!.l use of Enc lisb and to re_ject surface aspects of bis r· eli c :i. 0:1, went "underc round n so to speak and 1)ecar;1e ~-;i-lL1u:ual and b i-ps-:,rchienl. Hence, while much of the thematic material of the Black Folk tra.di tion is taken from the harsh difficulties the slRve encountered in America, the forms, spiri t and phonolo cy were essentially African. The use of poly-rl1:;th-ns and syncopation, tbe reliance on various rhythmic instrnments, the ac1~erence t o a non-European tonal scale and the emplo::,~,"1ent of th e blue tone, the development of a distinct body of folklore and a ricb langua ge to convey the lore--all represent the African's resourcefulness. Cross-cultural aspects of Black Expresston are also evident, however, in--for example--the 2,piri tuals which, :i. n many cases, were influenced by the Enp;li.sh hymn. Other consioerations include the use of European ins t ruments (Baraka points out in Black Music that the piano was the last instr um ent to be mastered by the Black musician. The reason ou7ht to be obvious.), the Black adaptation of sonr s henrd i n the house, 11 ""' i (1' ,.J - · (_.• the continual re-stylin g of Amer:ica n fads and the employri1ent of Biblical ima.e,er:::,- and lan;~uA. c;e in son[:;s and sermons. Langston Hughes noted the.t the Bl ues usual 1:- dea.l t with the theme of the rejected lover and personal depression. Hughes first volume of poems, in fact, was entitled The Weary Blues. One will observe, however, that the Blues, like the spirituals before them do not simply preach resi g nation or s~Jmissiveness. �Rather, as Jahn and Howard Thurman (Tbe 1fo1,ro Spiri tu.al Sp~aks of Life and Deatb) note, underneath the co:·r1plaint is a "plaint 11 : tbinps must get better or chang ~! For as the slave said: Freedom, oh Freedom, how I love thee! Freedom, oh Freedom, how I lov e thee! And before I'll be a slave I'll be buried in 1,1y ;_;ra"i.-e And go home to m:.r M:aker and be Free! And the Blues sins er intoned: I'd rather drink muddy water, Sleep in a hollow log , Than to stay in this town til I'm dead! Or in the words of Bluesist Jj_mmy Reed: Next time you see me things won't be the same; Next time you see me thinLis won't be the same; And if it ain't you my dahlinc you'll only have Yourself to blame. For as B.B. King asserts: When I first GOt the blues, t11ey broue;ht me over on a. ship Men was standing over me and lo t Llore with the whip And everybody wanna know why I sinp; tbe blues Well I've been around a lons time, uum, reall y paid my dues. And finally Sam Cooke: Every time I fall I know It won't last too long And sornehow ri c;bt now I feel I'm able to carry on I't been a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come. Complex, contradictory someti mes, often inexplicable, but hardly unutterable--the Black Folk tradition deri ved from the ritualistic rudiments of African Expression. From the animal tales and cycles to the wandering Blues troubador to the charisma of the Black preacher, the tradition unfolds. Related Sub-Topics For Unit ,} l 1. The Incredients of Folk Poetry 45 �2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. UNIT# 2: Black Oral ~pies The Oral Tradition in Black Poetry Tbe Anntomy of Ritualistic Expresslon Poetical Devices in Spirit.u9.ls Poetica.l Devices in Blues Audience Responses to Folk Poetry Writin~ t~e Oral Poem Philosophy of the Blues Explicating the SpirituAl Therapeutic Purposes of Folk Literature Coroparing /Cont ra s tin~ the Spiritual and Enelish Hymn EARLY BLACK AHETIICAN POETS (l 746-H'l 75) Literary/Social Backe;rounc1: Blacks ha-.::e been in the Western Hemisphere almost as l on e as whites. After 1501, most of the Spanish expeditions to the ITew World included Black explorers. By the ti me ~he 20 slaves-to-be were brought on a Dutch vessel to Jamestown 5-n 1619, the presence of Blacks had been felt fo r at least 10 0 years. Crucial to an understand,nc of early Black Poetry are the circumstances surroundinc slnvery a ~a the political and reli gious moods of Enc land and America. Britis h America did not follow the Greco-Roman tradition of tbe well informed slave. It was quite unlikely, tben, that a ":re',-o lutionary" Black poet would emer~e fron1 n soc iol and literer~ landscape so charged with self-ri Ghteousness n nd NeoclRssicism (or from the Romanticism of the l GOCJ 's). Luc:· Terry 's "Bars Fisht" (written in 1746 and published in 1393) could hardly be called "protest"; neither could the work of Phillis Wheatley, considered the finest Black talent of the colonial era, caught between contrivances of the A,r5,e of T,.;nJ. i 1::: ht en:-r;ent and the approaching r;rip of the Romantics. Born in Senegal, Africa, and brour;ht t o the !'Tew World when she was five or �six yea.rs old, Phillis 1::hea t ley was culti~rated or. the classics and the Biblical tre.dj_tio n . In comparing r)er 11 Tr'lFl.~'. i.nat:1.on" to white Anne Bradstreet's "Conte:nplatio n ," Je.mes Weldon Johnson said '~e do not think the bla ck woma n suffers ~y comparison with the white." Tl:e }foocla:J sjcal tro.c1it.j_on that reached its hei ght in the poetrJ of Alexe nd er nope, had already beg un to die out w5th the death of Pope himself in 1744. All over Colonial America, however, while poets were imitatins the stiff-collared conve~tionality of t~at period . The moral issues considered~~ nos t of the poets (Bl ack and white)--universal brotherhood of n a n, quest for reason and order , the Jeffersonian ideals of freedo m, li b er~y and represents.ti ve s overrnnent- ~wer·e removed from t 11e ever2rday brutality of slaver~ . 8ome of the no s t liberal men of the period (Jefferson, Washington, Hu~e) implicitl7 5ustified slaver y by suggesting that ~lacks were in some ways inferior. Despite Jefferson's pontificatio ns on ~umanitaria ni s rn , he was unable to reconcile the diaparit~ ~ etwe0n ½is puhlic stands and his fa.ilure to manumit his own sle:,; es. On the ge neral American scene, the ~ev olu tion ~ehind, a national literature had bes un to e .ner1_'.e. Fn.scinated with Ameri c an employment of new technolo.:.r (Fra nkll n ' s 1 i s htnine; experiments, printin~ presses, etc.) and the prospects of unexplored re g ions of the New World , writers started recording travels and observing the mixture of races and reli gi ons . Although religious fervor was s t ill hich (Cal v inis m, Weslya n ism and deiim bad run their courses), political problems dominated. �Between 1790 e.nd 1 832 tbc new American go -v·ernment was be ing consolidated and the writincs of men like Willinm Bradford, John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, Thomas 8hep 11a.rd, Ro c er 11!illia.ms, Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards were s ucce eded by the embryonic nationalistic wor ks of Franklin, Jefferson, William Byrd, William Cullen Bryant, Charles Brockfen Brown, Washington Irvine; , Willia.l'» Gilmore Simms and James Feni.n ore Cooper. Irving , Cooper and Bryant were to be come the early writers most taught to American scboc,l children. Often called the "New England Renaissance,n th e early decades of the l ')th Century saw increasing tensi on between Hew Br.:.i::;land p111 i tanism 1 and Southern aristocracy over the questio n of slavery . Debates over slavery were to cont inue up to the beginninc of the Civil War. The early pa.rt of the c entury al~o s aw tbe birth of many of America's greatest writers a.long with Romanticism and rugged individualism. l~st ified by t he noble savac e (Indians and sometimes Blacks) and cbal lenged b:' tbe "new frontier, 11 Americans began to romanticize t~eir situation and especially that of explorers who became the first original folk heroes. Writers who dominated the period from H~26-l'.i61 included Edgar Allan Poe (poet and short story writer, credited witb creating the first detective in American fiction), Nath aniel Hawthorne (considered the first gre at Ame rican novelist--The_ Scarlet Letter), John Greenleaf Whittier, Her1 ry 1-vndsworth Longfellow, James Russel Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holme s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (one of the first white American novelists to feature a Black protasoni.st in fiction--Uncle Tom's Cabin), Ralph 1-laldo Emerson, Henry Da::id Thoreau, 1 1+8 �Herman Melville (consid ered to bav e written one of the handful of "great" American no·,rnls--~-Toby Dick), Walt Whitman ( termed tbe "erea.test" AmericA.n poet--Le_a.vcs of Grass). Some of the non-literary writers, pr imaril~ political ~ctivists ,'{s,lt..t n,-7 or a.boli t ionists, were John G. Ca.lhouq, Davi.d '.fa.l ke~~' 'Hi 11 iam H H✓,K., Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Dour-:,lass·,. , and AhrRham Lincoln. Using their own and Black material, a numoer of white composers immortalized the ere. in sone;s--man::r of thei"l nationalistic. It was durin 6 this period that Francis Scott Ifo:r wrote "The ;;, iJ-~ i'_ ,fl Star Spangled Banner. 1 ' Stepben Foster has ,'J een accused of merely putting to music the songs that were s un;~, 'o ·:r sla·✓-es. There was little encouragement, however, for Blacks to learn to read; and many slave owners indul ged their chattel in writing exercise as personal pasttimes and hob~ies. So many of the early Black Poets, then, r:;rew up in r els.tive security. To be totally free, David Walker observed in his Appeal (1829) was to be economically insecure, socially ostracized and psychologically oppressed. Consequently, those slaves priviledged to read and write invariably took European literary models. writing. Poets, of course, were not t he only ones In addition to essa~ists, like Walker and DouGla.ss, this period of slavery and Black literary activity was highlis;hted by exciting slave narrati·,es: accounts of escaped or freed slaves. autohioe;raphical The most pupular of these narratives, and the first recorded, was 1.!?~_Interestine:; Narrative of the Life of Olaudab Equia.no, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). Arna Bontemps includes it in his Great 49 �Slave Narratives (1969). As in ot~er cultures, Black creative literature developed fro m early diarles and journals. Hence it was the slave narrative that ~ave rise to the first Black novel, Clotelle:_~ Tale of So~tEe!E States (1853) by Hi lliam Wells Brown ( publ isheu i..n England). B~own also published the first Black play, Escape: Leap to Freedom (1857). Or A His concern for the pl! ~ht of the mulatto would occupy much of the Black fie U on up throui;h the early decades of the 20th Century. Tn addition to writing fiction an<l dra ma, Brown collec t ed Black folk and antislavery sonc;s. Nany white scholars and l.;ra 7elers throuih the south also co J1piled collection s of these s on e;s--wbich would later become important ingredi e nts in the writings of Black and white writers. Even for writers of tho narratives, ho-:-rever, there was external censorship. '.'lbi te abollti..oni sts, concerned that the over-use of Africanis ms in narr ati ves would offend potential supporters cautioned minimize such usa r~e. author □ an{ speakers to The ra~r of hope r, enerated by the first Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal (1~27 7 John '2 us~woI'm), died out witb the newspaper ir. 1829. Douc:lass, who .fonnded Frederick Douglass' Monthly (1 844) ancl. The ) Torth Star (lr147), was told: You supply the facts and we'll take cRre of the rest. Robinson (Early Black A me1 ican _Poets) neparates the 1 early Black Poetry tnto .four cate c ori e s : -I. Orator Poets Lucy Te r r:r, :'"u~j_ter Fat:1.mon, ,Jat11es t"I. 1:·Tl~itfield,etc. A. �IL For·:rin., i. st Poe ts n... ,_ l Ph1• 1.,. l i· s 1::r,Aa1, c:· , A. III. r! '",eo ·t·c,C "" .. • 0.1'1cn ,,G L~JP 1 an, . ._ ei.,c. -• Romanti ~ Poets John Boyd, Th e Cr e ole Poets, Joseph 3eame.n Cott er , etc. A. IV. Dialect Poetry A. ,Tames Ec111in Can; p 1~ell, De. ~1 iel 1t!e::ste1•, .J. r:ord Allen, etc. One would, of course, be remiss in sayinc that none of the early poets rejected slavery or ident1fied the contradictions inherent in what whites pr eache<! versus bow they of the poets, :3-..:~~~-9-. Eost in face of i r:1p-:l:ied threat s , cle al t wi th "safe" theme s and conventions or with the sent i me~tali t~ a nd local color. ::--revertheless s tirri nf:3 of pr ote s t and indi c:1ation are evident in much of the work of the per i od . abolitionists activities, the ru~)ling s a,a Slave re volts, comi~; of the Civil War, contradictions of Ch YL sti ani ty--al l la ic1 the foundations for a more co ns cientous poetry. Robinson is quick to point ou t, however, that the charitable work of literate Blacks (during th is period and the followinG one) often consumed their e ne.r'r~ i.es and thei.r passions. write. Many went about helping others learn to read and Others administered to t~e ill an~ attempted to record their experi e nces (via diaries, notes, h io praphies, texts) for coming generations. In many northern conmunities there were Black Literary Societies--usua]ly named after classical personalities or thin~s. I mportant with regar~s to many of the early poets, ~ob i nson notes, was their inwense popularity and gre at abilities to deliver their poems orally. Douglass' orator y , cer t ainly, is well �known--as is that of the early Black preachers. The ea.r•ly poets, like the preachers, apparentl: knew their audiences 7 well (often elicited audience responses) and appealed to what Johnson bas called a 11 hiD'hl v- develooed '--' . sense of sound." Roginson tells us that "Hrs. F'.E.W. He.rper's Poerns on Mis(18;i.1.) cellaneous Subjects, ••. reached lts twentieth edition as early as 1374, but this was not due to the conventional notion of poetic excellence/ Hrs. Harper was fully aware of her limitations in that kind of poetry, it was due more to the sentimental, emotion-frei ~hted popularit y that she had given the lines with her disarmin~l~ drBmatic voice and e;estures and sir:hs and tears." T11is pa.ritcular aspect of Black Poetry has yet to be examined fully. Most of the early Black poets g ive si c nificant clues, in their writings, to the reaction of the African mind coming in contact with written tradition for the first time. ti-,,"' In the work of the most skilled of these poets, ~~nslaver's ; conscience is prodded while the mastery of Enr~lish literary verse heralds a major step in the <'levelopinent of the Black American literary tradition. From the stilted poetic con- ventions and self-righteousness of Neoclassice.l and Romantic models to the rich Americanized English-Irish ballads, the early poets armed themselves with the best techniques available. Some contemporary poets and crit:i..cs, unfa.miliar with the mood and state of affairs of the times, often speak contemptuously of the e~rly writers--censurine them for being 11 o'l,lts ide II the "struggle. 52 11 Much of the cr•i t j_c ism, �however, is due to i e; nora.nce and a lack of readinp; . One popular feelin g for example, is that one should procede 3-.,,r;n~, . . Hr,,,.,me.a from Phillis ·wheatlei and George Moses Horton strai r;ht on to Dunbar. Such a surface approach to the material, however, ignores the dozens of interesting fi s ures in b etween the two periods. Related Sub-Topics For Unit # 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. UNIT If 3: "Black" Themes in tbe Early Poetry Black Poetry as Oratory Formalism in Early Poetry Black Romantic Poetr~ 11 Freedom 11 as a Them.e~in Early Poetry Idealism in Early Black Poetry Slavery as Viewed by Early Poets Diction, Classical and Biblical Allusions in Early Black Poetry View of Africa in Early Poetry First Generation African Writers of English nelationship of Early Poetry to Slave Narratives Occassional Verse and Sophistication in Early Black Poetry '~·Jhi terr :,1odels Used by Early Black Poets Early Black Poetry and the Enc lish Literary Tradition Protest in Early Black Poetr~ Plantation Life in Earl"': Plack Poetr:r "Africanis ms " in Early Poetr:.Religious Themes in Early Black Poetry Differences Between 1 3 th and 19th Century Black Poetry Early Black Poet as Fugitive Romanticism in Early 19th Ce ntury Black Poetry DIALECT POETS; BEGINrTII'TG OF Tlill AUTiffiNTIC VOICE (1865-1910) Literary/Social Backr,round: The period fro m l t356 to 1910 was one of contradictions, great expec t a t ions, continued literary experimentation and important beGinni ngs. On the white literary scene, Whitman, Hilliar:i Dean Howells, Henry James, Joel Chandler Harris and Irwin Russel g enerally 53 �presided over the writins. Harris had s aine d popularity for himself and Black Folklore when he pi: hlished the Uncle Remus tales in 1379. Important Black names for the period are Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douelass; Paul Lawrence Dnn';)ar, W.E.B . DuBois, Charles Chestnutt, James 1:-Teldon Johnson, Fenton Johnson, James D. Carrothers, William Still, Alexander Crun:rwell , Alberry Whitman, Benjaman Brawley, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Alain Locke. Of the men listed al)ove, Dunbar, Hhi trnan, Fenton Johnson, Carrothers and Braithwaite, ar8 the poets of interests during this reriod. J D~o~s.', socioloe;ist and editor, is chief'ly Sor19 o fth'-" :.-rvH,!'f.l etnd known as a poet for hisf..''Lita.ny nt Atlanta, the 1906 riot in Atlanta. Black writer of f'iction. by 11 wr5.tten after Chest nutt wast.he :first important Both he and Dun11ar were endorsed Howells, who presided over A'rt erican literary criticism during the last quarter of the 1 ?th Cer:t1,r:~. Howells is known for his support in launchinIT the careers of Henry James (deemed America's r.:;reatost novelist} nnd Walt Hhitman. Generally, with the exception of B.r•ai thwai.te, Fenton Johnson and Alberry t·rnitman, Black poe-ts follow ed t.1-::e dialect trRdition of the day. Robinson ~otes: The vogue was establis'Jed amon g white southern writers (who failed to appreciate their own amusing dialects) with Irwin Russell (1353-79) whose popular pieces were c ollected and published posthu::nously as !\.)ems 1::- In-:i n Russell (J.230) wit;h a lovin 0 pr·' =lface 1)y ~-;i Chandler Harris, also pupular for his Uncle Re~1s and Bror Rabbit prose tales in Ne c ro dialect. �Other dialect poets inclnr.. e o Daniel Henderson and J. Mord Allen. Uf3 )Ster, Elliot B. In the dialect mode, Dunbar surpassed all writers--Black and white, includins Russell after whom he pe.tterned bis efforts. Dunb ar also wrote poetry in literary English--the work for w~ich he wished to be remembered. Ironically, however, it was his dialect poetry, which he ca.lle<l "a j ine;le in a ·b roken tongue," that gained him notoriety. Recog nized as a skillful phone- ticist and a brilliant reader of his poe t r y , Iunh ar died in 1906 at the age of 3~. T:ost of his li tera.ry poetry deals with over-wor·ked themes of imn101°tv.lity , nature, dreams and ideal love--although he did make "social" statements in some of them (e . 1~:., ''Ere Sleep Come s Down to Soothe the ·weary Eyes" and "Ships tbat Pass in the Ni s ht"). His dialect poetry was almost always humorous and dealt with harmless, non-controversial themes such as parties, plantation love, I harvest time, the contemplation of something c ood to eat and generally what h e seenicd to se0 as a co ntented sla ve. Yet, in a poem like "Symphony," which is not in dialect, one can feel the Black poet worki n~ sensiti7el y on all levels--and using double entendre to make his point, as in this stanza: I know why the caged b ird beats bis win g Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For be must fly back to his perch and cline ·when he fain would be on the b ough n-swing ; And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse a g ain with a keener stin~-I know why he beats his wine ! Fenton Johnson and Braithwaite are closely identified with 55 I I �the "revival'' of poetry in America. EraithwRite, antholo- gist and critic, was one of the pioneering forc e s. be bad published two collections of b-ls own poel~r~edited three antholog ies of American poe t ry. By 1~n9 anr) ,Tohnson pub- lished poetry in major Airierican rrngazines anc1 ,2 ournals. James Weldon Johnson said he "sounded a note of fatalistic despair 11 that was "so forei g n to any philosophy of life the Negro in America bad ever practiced or preacbed. 11 While Johnson dealt with Black the mes and n aterial, bowever, Brai tbwai te shunned such and was read :,:r 1i-1 0 ny wbo cHd not know bis racial identity. The bi ggest contradiction of the era was tbat "necons true tion" occurred in ng_me onl:r. The grow th of white hate and intimidation groups (2,500 Blacks we re lynched between 1885 and 1900), the development of a nee-slavery, the paradoxical plight of the "freedrr:arj" ( see 1'.Jash"lnc ton' s Up From Slavery), the cenera l disappoi. nt:nents in social "paper" programs and the disillusionMent on the parts of Blacks who fought in the Civil Har--all influenced and helped direct the Black mood of the period. While dialect poetry emerged as the most popular form in poetry and prose, James Weldon Johnson observed that it would not encase the n anifold nature of the Black Experience; white writers had initiated it. Caught up for a while in the potentials of the Emancipation Proclamation and ":Reconstruction", many Black poets also couched their lines in patriotis m and sentimentality. Others souGht to capture the rich pace of �Black idiom, the spice of re g ional color, the folklore and the solidness of Black everyday wbere~ithal. During the period, the first of a series of Black manual arts colleges was established. Hampton Institute, Fisk Uni- versity, Howard University, Morehouse Colle ge and Johnson C. Smith College were among the early ones. Tn 1871, the year of James Weldon Johnson's birth, the Fisk ~1bilee Singers made their first concert tour 11ith Spirituals. The tour was epoch- making for it marked the fj_rst time a Black indigenous American art form had been g iven such worldwide exposure. The period was cr ucial, too, for all Black folk art because the b urGeonin~ new Blac k Intelligentsia, anxious to remove the bj_tter taste of slave~ were anxious to disrobe themselves of all relics of their ante-bellum past. The Spi r ituals, the rich cadences of folk speech and freedom in dance, amon c other aspects, were g iven back seat in an atte mpt to Hesternize or "ci v ilize" newly emancipated Blacks. The Civll ·war, :Smancipation Proclamati.on A. nd the stationing of occupation troops in the south, had also left a bitter taste 0~1 the ton gues of so n tbern whites. The attempt to ncolonize" the south, as some saw :i.t, was dramatized by the arrival of ncarpei:;t,a c;gers "--white northerners preaching Black freedom or exploiting southern industry. The results were ela 1; orate and ruthleGs rise of wl-:ii te secret societies and ridicule of Blacks in the newspapers and magazines. Hany Black poets unwittingly -r:-artici. pated ln this �ridicule in their Wan t -1vO 01-J::-} dialect and sent:i 1ental ·,;erne. th.e ex t re m-"" to oro'·e ' -ir l • th- •·-- 11 . ,!'..£ 000° Others neo<~-,e, 11 a ncl nGoJ. li.ness", In the shadows of all t11ese thus becoming hypepbollcal . paradoxes, Black minstrels ar:d m1 s1.cinns g ain0d p1'0 .-r.i.ne n.-• 3, "Tiag tirne" hl9ralde<.1 anC: era ulti matel y to :ie cRlled Lhe ,Jazz i-Ieanw11.ile more serious debate over the fate of Blacks was tak:i.nc; place a mon,3 men such as Do:1c lass, 1,TD8hington o.ncl In 1 395 , at the Inter na ti onal .Atla:1ta Pixposi.tioD, DuBois . Washington delivered his f8mous "C omprcn ·.s e II speec:'17 which encourag ed Blacks and whtte to work ns close as th e finsers of the hand in n atters needing rnucua.l c onc ern ; 1) .rl; that in all social respects, the fin Rers of the ~and woule he separate . :Jashing ton , who founded Tuskegee Tnst5.tute j_n l::'<".l , played 1 dow n c 1.vi 1 conce1:·ns and t ~.te:?,Pat :!. on, ar6 urced Bl aci~s t o seek practical skills. DuBois encouraged Blacks to seek knowled g e of the arts and sciences and predictetl that a "Talented Tenth" wo uld en1err ;0- to lead the Bl nc k population . 1 In The Souls of Black Folks, Du'Ro:ts er 5. t lqued Washtn ?:t on ' s position . The contro•:ers y hehree~ :-he t i-10 nen is :1ow fa mo us as is Dudley Randall's poem "Booker T. and 1:.r . :s .B" in which the ideolo c ies of both men a r e p lecec'l 0. g ai nst the ,·1ood of the ti mes . In rich use of dialo~e in ia~bi c t etrame ter, Randal l opens with: "It seems to me," said Booker T., "It shows an n,i 1::,h ty lot of che ek To study ch em is~ry a nd Greek When Hister Charlie needs a hand To hoe tbe cotton on his land, r'O :,J U �And when Hiss Ann looks for a r;.Dok, 1.'Jby stick :.-our nose inside a ':_iook? " DuBois replies: "I don't a L;,0 ·ree• , II c,,·, id 1,r •b• '<' B. • 1 "If I should have the drive to seek Knowledge of chemi st ry or Greek, I'll do it. Charles and Miss can look Another place for band or cook. Some men re j oice in skill of hand, And some in cultivating land, But there are others who mainLain The ri gh t to cultivate the brain .,: W O.- •• Obviously , an l rna ginary conversation, the poem ends thusly: "It seems to me, "I don't a gree, Said W.E.B. 11 ;;aicl. Booker T. -·· 11 The DuBois-Was'hington controversy c r•eateu re·,erberations that are still being heard around the Black wor] c1. DuBois was to rise as the towering and defiant fi , ;ure of the per•iod while Washington was reduced to a di g nityless symbol. Despite the vigorous debates and prose writin~s, however, the social coming-of-age in t he poetry (technically and thematically) was not to see its apex until the second decade of the 20th Century. Related Sub-Topics For• Unit 10 3 1. 2. 3. 4- 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Local and Re gional Color in Black Poetry Dialect as a Vehicle for Poetry Differences Between Black and white Dialect Poetr•y Differences Between 11 Gullah 11 and other Black Dialect Poetry Africanis ms in Dialect Poetry Linli tat ions of Dialect Poetr:r Epic Poetry and the Black Literary Tradition Biblical Allusion in Late 19th Cent ury Black Poetry Be g inninc s of the Authentic or Ori c inel Black Poet 59 �10. 11. 12. 13. lli.. 15. 16. 17. l B. 19. 20. UNIT fl 4: :Music in Dialect and O·ral ?oetr:r Dance Possibilities in Dialect Poetry Tbe Blnc k Poe t and P-econstruction The Blac k Poet After the Ci. Tll ·t:rar Influence of Folklore on Black Poetr~r Influence of Minstrelsy on Black Poetry Social Le g islation end Blac k Poetr~ Plantation Lif e i~ Bl ack Poetr~ Nineteenth Century Social Life in Black Poetry Stylistic Differ ences in Late 19th Century Black Poetr~· Refi neme nt in Poetic For ms NEW TRENDS AND DE:?IA NCE; HART.EI 1 RENAISSANCE (1910 - 1930) Literary/Social Backgronnd: In 1 91 0 the population of Black America was 9, 827,763; Lan[~S ton Hur.:;hes was e. boy of ten and the NAACP ·was one :,-om" old. :s:~ 1930 , however, the Black population would have increased to ll, 8~1,143 (or 9.7 %); a major miBration of Blacks to northern industrial centers would have taken place; racial riots wo uld have scorched more than half a dozen American c ities; the country wo uld have engaged in and ended its first national war, and l y nch i ng s would continue to be amens the 8 ost fearful prospects for Black 1;:cen. Booker T. Wa3hington had chro nic led the hardships and bitter disappointme nts of Blacks in hi s Up Fro'~ Slavery. The new "freedom'' was short lived and illusi•:e, Washington observed, because the e.x -s lave bad no skill, no land and no place to g o. 11 Emancipated " Blacks were not farin g much better than their fore-parents. DuBois had b e gun to raise some of the broader, gloh al issues of Black oppression and to place the Black Experience in its proper perspective in The Souls of Black Folks. Dur ing the second and third 60 �decades of the 20th Century, Black scholars, activists nnd writers continued to record the Black Experience with telling accuracy and drar:1a. The founding of the NAACP, tbe Urban League, the Association for the Study of !'Tetro Life and History (Carter G. Woodson, 1926), The Crisis and Opportunity t~1a.gazines, the li terar:r journal Fir~; tbe flourish inc and prominence of ragtime and early jazz, the development of Black operete.s and rnusicalR--all helped estal )lish the mood and the Black trends of the times. The three publications-- Fire was sbort-l'i.ved--published so,ne of the most important Black Literature of the Awakening 8t1d offered awards e.s in- centives to writers. On the seneral American scene, science and industry were developinc rapidly. Indications of this were the radio, wireless, technolocical warfare and t he autori o~)i.le. The "new Psychology" was taking ~old and the real i s t11 of tbe previous literature was bowing out to natur~lj.s>1 . T'his new mode is seen in the works of such wr4ters as Theodore Drieser, Evelyn Scott and WilliaM Faulkner. Tnterest in local color and dialect, w1.1 ich had dor~inated the later portion of the 19th Century~ was also dyinc and the Black American was "re-discovered" b:~ whi t.e writers as a literary fiBure for realistic fiction, drama and poetry. in,ite writers sbo publ ts11ed popular accounts of Black life j_ncluded DeBose Hay11-1ard, Sherwood Anderson and Carl Van Vechten. Revolts in interests and manners characterize~ Anerican society; Black cri. tie ,TameR A. E:mr..uel po:i.r.ts ot~t (Neg~,!'°. 61 �new Freudian awareness by e scaping tnto exotic ~lack cabaret life." Hughes records this exotj_c :i.rn'l_ ul .:;011ce 1 n his auto- bioe;ra.phy, The Bic__ §~~ (1940). recorded these white ~-Tume1~cus other Black writers 1 'd i versions n: I~cKay in A Lone; Way from Home and Johnson j_n Alone; This Ha~ ( a. 11 tobiog 1,aphies). Johnson also fictionalizes this roma.nticizins of Blacks in his novel The Autogiography of An Ex-Colo ured :Ia n (publisbed under a pseudony-m in 1912 a.r:d unc"icr his own na;·. :e in 1925). In the book, Johnson also discusses .r a e;tii::ie in r;rent. deta.5.1. The drama of the period was do n inated o7er 'b :r Euce ne O' n eill--who -;-.ron Pulitzer and Hobel prizes. Two of O'neill's plays (The Emrer·or Jones an<l Tbe Hairy Ape) rd ntecJ e.t tbe psycholoe;ical involv,~menc of Blacks and wh:i. tes nnd ::,u _r.·:r•;ested, 1,1 any critics feel, tr.e mixt. ure of fear, ha tree~ n r:.rJ ::,c" 1- irat ion man:r w11i tes 1 have for Blacks. The Emp e-r•or Jone ::; Ol"id All God's Chillun Got Win::;s featured major Blac:k cr i:n-·D,::. Lcr1~; . convinced t,he ·t-101, ld, before a first-rate dra.: ,a.tist. 0 1 nc:'il.J., Anie ricEi. bar! not Lb:i.t it could pro<Jnce IronicoJ 1:·, 1:1--,·)1 :c;h, one of tbe vehicle s for O'neill's talents was a Black actor, Charles Gilpin, who starred in The En1 peror Jones. The l'Tew York Times said Gilpin was able to "invoke the pity and th e terror and the indescr:ibable fore g odinr.; wbich are part of t he secret of The Emperor Jones. The Glo'be reviewer o}, serve<1 that: Gilpin's is a sustained and splendid piece of actin g . The moment when be raises his naked boa~, ~g ai nst the Moonlit sky, beyond the ed g e of the j uns le, and preys, is such a dark lyric of Lb e flesh, such a cry of the 62 �primitive being, as I have never seen in th e theater. In the comment, of course, :i.s some sugr;estion o.f America's preoccupation, during this era, with the exotic savac e--a trend that had continued from Jack London (The Call of ~he_ Wild, The Sea-Wo].f) and tbe white write r s of local color: Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris, George Washington Cable and others. However, many of the writers of the period, like O'neill and Dreiser, had oegur, to shake off the r;1ystique of the American Dream and deal insteac1 with "illusion.'' Such was Dries er' s the rnc in his no,,eJ., An ~ 21e rica n Tra gedr (1925). The f oundinc:, of Poetry: A ?{a ge.zine of '1 e r se, b:r Harriet Monroe (1912) si c naled the b irth of the New Poetry movement in America. Most of the new work, including that of the Imagist poets, was showcased in Poe try. In 191.5, the antholoc y, Some Imag ist Poets, appeared to rival dissident factions which wanted to dispense with t raditional forms. Imagism owed much to Ezra Pound's theor i es and to Frencb Symbolism as well as Oriental and ancient Greek poetry. Chief spokesman for the Imas ist poets was Amy Lowell who was joined by John Gould Fletcher and Hilda Doolittle, among others. During the next t wo decades the c roup waged a successful battle aeainst the dissidents; b ut they also re-worked traditional forns and cornered a new readin g market for poetry in America and England. One of the poets of the period was Va.chael Lindsay, advocate of rhyth.11 and the reading aloud of poetry, who is credited with having 63 �ndiscovered 11 Langston Hughes. in this 11 Blac k poets who participated revi val 11 of Ame rican poetry were Penton Johnson and '1.Jilliam Stanley Braithwaite. The most si e;nificant develop1,1ent of the period, however, was the Bla.ck cultural flowe rins , principally in Harlem, which has become known as the Harlem Renaissance, the 1':e c;r o Awakening and the Negro rcenaissance. Central to tbe Renaissa.nce 11 11 (critics differ over whether it should be called such) was the migration of southern Blacks to northern urb an centers. Uith the working -class Blacks also ca::-;1 e the Black intelligentsia, artists and activists. Current Black creativity or scholarship cannot be understood unless the Harlem Renaissance is placed in proper perspective hecause the Harlem period is the most important bridee existing between slavery and the modern and/or contempor 8ry eras. During the first and second decades of thi s century, nomantic idealis m and prospects of the "Tieconstrnction 11 were beginning to loose hold on Blac k Americans just ns the American Dream was diminishin 6 among ma n:.t w'b.i tes. The declininc; influence of Dunbar (amonc poets), Booker T. Washington and submissiveness-type of Black leadership, allowed room for experiment ation and new voices. Most Black poets discarded plantation dialects and sentimental themes. Harcus Garvey, a West Indian who came to America in 1916 and who founded the Universal !Ter::;ro Improvement Association, had reached the hei~ht of hi s influence by 1922. Considered the most influential 20th Century Dlack �leader until Martin Luther Kin~, Jr., Garve7 was :ailed on a mail fraud conviction in 1925. ?,bufC1.~..-.A.l.9_n ,;, R musical by Noble S issle and Eubie Blake, played on Broadwa:- and opened the door for other rroduct5.ons 0f its kind. Jai1~es Weldon Johnson edited tbe fipst Ar.1eri.can a. n t1:olo r;y of Bl a.ck Poetry, T~e Book of American He:~r_<2__"Poetry ( 1922). Johnson's work was followed in quick s~ccesston h7 five other poetry a ,-itholor;ies--all in the 2 0 's. Tl:rn :r were: Negro Poe ts 2n~--Th€)_~.'..._ Poems_ (Eo::ert Thomas ICerl in, 1923) An Antholo[;:,- of American :Te g ro ',- erse 0 Jew-"an Ive:r White ----a. nc1-v1a1·Fere'11 ;)ton tfac'Eson, ·1"9~4) Negro Song s: An Antholo;-i;:,- ( Cle J1.e r. t ~·Jood, l ':'.2h) Caroling Dusk "'(Count.e0- Cu'fle n. , 1°2?) 'r:, :.'._OUr 11 .1. Jegro - --15-· , ( .1-1."1__ :.n•n L oc~rn, · _ 05:..::,,E ~ 1 ,.,..., ' ;. , c:.. 1 1 Of notw also was F.F. Cal7e i t o~'s An Antholop7 of American lTegro Literature ( 1929) which conta.inecl 61 pa£~es ot poetry. Cullen and Locke we re t6o of the c aj or fi ~ures of t~e HarleM Renaissance. along wi tb Claur1e :;cKay, -Tohns on, Hu r:_-bes, and Jean Toomer. Locke edit e d the antholor· y which heralded and chronicled the new Elack 1,100d a~1d acl;ievc1:1ent ri: The l:ew ~:egro: An Interpretation (1925), whicl: rer,1e.1.ns a classic today. He also wrote th e equally important A Decade of Negro Self Expression (1922 ). nhodes Scholar fro m Penn- sylvania, Locke recei.ved a :Ph.D. in 191~ fro :r_ Harvard and is still considered as the foremost interpreter of Black creativity of the Renaissance. Cullen publishec3 Color, his first book of poetry, when he was 22 and was insta~tly recognized as one of the best ~oun p poets in America. adopted _son of a I~ethod ist-r.1inister, Cullen while married to DuBols' _d e.ue;hter, Yolanda. 65 was for a TI1e short Fe also wrote �novels and drama, tra-v-eled (like inF.J. n:- or the wr iters) and wrote abroad (The Blac\c ClJrist, 102':\ Fra n 0E, ). Like :-:cKay, Cullen wrote in the more ~ormal tradition of Enslish poetry. Ct1l len' s r.1odel., in fact, was Jo1.1n Keats {see "To John Kea.ts, Poet., at Springtime''). Still cons:Ldered t }1e h est "formal" writer of the Renaissance period, Cullen was meticulous and careful in his poetic worl~1anship. He wrote in Spenzerian stanzas and, a.ccordins to e. former teach 0r, ,nFt:; he.Ye been the first poet to write "rime ro:rnls L1 Anerica. 11 Cullen, Arna Bontemps (Introduction, American ·Tee;ro Poetry) has observed, was among those Black writers of the 20's wbo went to "The Dark Tower II to ~,rood over i) e in~ called "He r;ro ff poets. Deflect in('.: today, some cr:i tics seek to dimin5-sI1 Cullen's achievement by sayine; he wan not 11 of 11 the Black :Sxperience-- but stood to the side and reported on it. Characteristic, however., of his dramatic power and flawless craft is the famous poem "Heri ta. ge 11 : What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star o:..." junp;le track, Stronc bronze men or res al black Homen from whose loins I sprani·: When the birds of Eden sa.nc? Long and relentless in its use of poetic devices, nomantic homage to Africa and tropical imagery, the poe';1 probes hidden fears and questions of Black men., who if they think at all, Baldwin says, are "constantly on the verge of insanity." Cullen, however, is probably best known for his sonnet, "Yet Do I :Marvel," which has been both praised and castir;ated. Critics do not see~ to be ahJ.e to a cree as to whether Cullen 66 �is saluting, pj_t:,r in;; or r.1erel:; toleratin r; t,1-,e existence of the Black poet. Perhaps the pro'.J lem lies in t11e a ln;J:l g ni t y of the adjective "curious 11 : Yet do I marvel at this curious thins : To make a poet Black a.nd hio. bim sin:;! In addition to Cullen, other key poets of the Harle:n-Awakeninf, also published important volumes and added to the critical I I flutter. -1 I Johnson published Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) and God's Tro:nbones (1927). i.-Jith his ~:,rother, J. Rosarnond, he edited The Book of American Jre t~ro S pirituals (192.5) and The Second Book of Am.erican Hegro Spirituals (1926). ·while in London, Iv'IcI".:ay published Sprinc; in Hew I-Iampshi_~~ (1920) and in 1922 he publisbed Harle:~1 Sba_~ow~_ i_n the U.S. He also wrote three novels and a stutl-:r of Blnc:<: "!'Tew York. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Johnson said 11cKa:r bclons ed ''to the post-wnr .r_:roup and was its most powe1~ful ·voice. rebellion. 11 Po was pre-e minentl:r the poet of Probably 1)est known for his po-werft:11, angry sonnet, "If He I'.iust Die," llcKay was also a sensitive poet of nature. Initially, h e wrote poetr~ i n his nati7e Jamaican dialect (he came to the U.S. in 1912) whicl1 earned him the title of Tiobert Burns of the island. HcKa:r clonked ':iolence in many of his poems, as in these lines from h:i.s sonnet, "The White House": Your door is shut against rny ti ;",htened face, And I am sharp as steel with discontent; But I possess the courage and the grace To bear my ang er proudly and unbent. VicKay traveled to Russia in 1922 where an atte:1pt ·was made to use him as an anti-America propa~anda in connection with the �1919 riots and Ar,1erica' s racial r r•ol·,l orn . JO' s NcKay hobnob'be c.~. w-t th s ucl~ H!"'i T· 1 1~he 2n' s and ters 8. nd ne 1.'s onal i Li. es as George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, 8incla5r Lewis, Isadora Duncan, and Max Eastman, who wr•ote a movi t 1p, his posthumous Se lee 'cec, ~ nl~oo.uction to Poer: ,s. Hughes and Cullen won nati.o,1al r e co_s nitlo:1 (ar.d poetry awards) at abou~ the sa me ti ne. parison ends. There, howe~ e r, the com- Hughes was 0~10 of the Hi.c'l. e st tra v ,::. le cl of all the nenaissanco wri t ers. and 01.ultj_-talented, He ~as also t~e ~ost pro~i c iovs 11:d. t:!n;:, success.f ully tn all ,:::: enreE_. Hughes, who Hhen he died ir:. 1 ")67 wa. 2. t·h c~ H~cfost translatefl. American author, later 1,·3 C8. .i w l:nown as the :l n t;err:a ti onal poet laureate of P.18.ck peorl e . his famous poe m 11 Bis C8.reer :) e c e. n in 1919 with Tl7e Ee e;r o Sp e aks of 'Ri ve,,,s," :t.n ·which he spiritually united t~e Blac k world. He was to ~eco me the most quoted and read Black ro e t--amon G everyday Blacks. Known for his musical quality and experi nIBntal ~lank verse in the Hbi tman-Lindsa~ -Sanc~~) U::'.'J st y le, Hus hes or-i c inated tbe 0 practice of reading poetry to jazz and was one of the foremost promoters of music-poetry lo ve affair. Black poet-critic Jay Wright (Introduction, Henr y Dumas' Poetr:,;__E.?E T-"i y People, 1970) noted that not untll th e appearance of Du ,,,as was Hup;hes' knowledge of Spiri.tuals ana Gospels was ri-v·nled, Hughes, like Du111as was to c1o later, haunted Black r01l g ious and secular concerts. DurinG the 20's, there we r e scores of concerts and Black musicians to see and bear. of experimentation and growth. 68 Black Kusic, it was a period ~as ti ~G had b een succeeded by �first Classical and then Neoclassical Jazz. The plantation minstrel tradition was dying and big bands were beginning to form. In 1927 Louis Armstrong, having organized his own band, began playing at the Sunset in Chica g o. at the Cotton in Harle m the same year. Duke Elling ton opened In a way, Hughes was more obvious successor to Dunbar in that he carried on the dialect tradition, but dissolved it of Dunhar's sentimentality and rural flavor. Hughes honed his ear on the rich, sponta- neous cadences and syncopated rhythm of the new urban Blacks, sometimes surrealistically combining them with the natural sights and sounds of the cities, as in "Jazzonia": Oh, silver tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul! In a Harlem cabaret Six long-headed jazzers play. A dancing girl whose eyes are bold Lifts high a dress of silken g old. Oh, singinG tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul! In 1926, Hughes published his prize-winning volume, The Weary Blues, and in 1927, Fine Clothes to the Jew. He was one of the greatest students and handlers of the Black Folk tradition-which he imbibed realistically, genuinely, alle g orically and mythically in his work. Johnson, too, was a prodigious and wide rang ing talent. Some have called him the true "renaissance" man. As a scholar, Johnson is known for his anthologies and his se minal interpretations of Black culture--music and the Spirituals in particular. Of great importance is his antholo e y, The Book of American Negro Poetry where in an illuminating Preface, he 69 �cites the four major Black artistic contrib utions to America. 1. 2. J. 4. The Uncle Remus stories, collected by Joel Chandler Harris The Spirituals ("to which the Fisk Jub ilee Singers made the public and the musicians of b oth the United States and Europe listen") The Cakewalk (which Paris called the "poetry of motion") · The Ra gtime ("American music" for which the U.S. is known all over the world) Johnson is also noted for his work with t h e U.S. diplomatic corps, his pioneering work with the NAACP and his brilliant employment of Black idioms and ps y cholo g:r in his poetry and discussions. His "Lift Every Voice and Sing , Black national anthem, was written in 1900. 11 called the Johnson's brother, J. Rosamond, composed the music for the poem. Another of Johnson's famous works is 11 0 Black and Unknown Bards," in which he i mmortalized the makers and sin gers of the early Spirituals: 0 black and unknown bards of long a go, How ca.me your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and the beauty of the minstrel's lyre? .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Heart of what slave poured out such melody As "Steal away to Jesus"? On its strians His spirit must have ni ghtl y floated free, Though still a.bout his hands he felt his cha.ins. Who heard great "Jordan Roll"? Whose starward e y e Saw chariot "swing low 11 ? And who was he That breathed that comforting, melodic si gh, "Nobody knows de trouble I see 11 ? One of the most unique voices of the Harlem Renaissance, however, was Jean Toomer, who along with Huehes, Cullen and McKay make up Locke's Four Negro Poets. A complex of person- alities, talents and racial mixtures, Toomer was a constant 70 �eni gma to critics and fellow writers. Althou gh he ad mitted that he was of seven racial strands, he acknowled g ed that 11 my growing need for artistic expression has pulled me deeper and deeper into the Ne e;ro group. 11 In 1924, Toomer•s Cane was published to g enerally unenthusiastic reviews. However, a number of writers of the new school--Waldo Frank, Sherwood Anderson, etc.--lauded i t . Cane, normally lumped in the cate- g ory of the novel; is an unusual and complex set of short stories interlaced with poems and at least one play . Set primarily in the deep south--in Geor g ia--it also deals with the urban impact on mi grating Blacks. Love, racial conflict~ sex, violence, reli g ion, nature and a grarian the mes are all explored directly and alle g orically. Today Cane is re g arded as a classic and is extolled b y Black intellectuals, writers and teachers as the greatest single wor k of tee Renaissance. Robert Bone, in The Nee;ro Novel in America, sa:i.d that Toomer was the "only Ne gro writer of the 1 920's who participated on equal terms in the creation of the modern idiom." Bone was, of course, comparing Toomer to "Stein and Hemingway in prose, Pound and Eliot in poetry." Most of the stories in Cane are introduced b y a single stanza prolo gue as in "Karintb a": Her skin is like dus k on the eastern horizon, 0 can't y ou see it, o can't y ou see it, Her skin is like dusk on the east e rn horizon • • • When the sun g oes down. Obsessed, it seems, with beauty and na t ure-cou pled with a passionate intellig ence and lin g uistic v irtuosit y --Toomer was just as comfortable with sonnets. "Nov emb er Cotton Flower" closes with the followin g co u plet: 71 �Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear, Beauty so sudden for that time of y ear. Racial pride, the lower side of Clack life and a ro mantic engagement with Africa, however, were the main ingredients of the Renaissance literature; and most of the writers employed these themes directly or indirectly. musicians, scholars and activists. So too did the painters, Garvey had set up a re gal court reminiscent of ancient African Kingdoms and had infused his followers with visions of returnin c; to the "homeland". His "court" was resplendent with hierarchical titles and lavish regalia for parades. his fleet of ships. Black Star Line was the name of The prevailing spirit of the day was one of Black indul gence and many whites sought for, and got their share of, it. The Black Awakenin g was not the exclusive pro- perty of Harlem. For as Kerlin pojnts out (Preface, Ne c;ro Poets and Their Poems), the mood of change spread to other sections of the country. Some of the re gional or community anthologies published were: The Quill in Boston, Black Opals in Philadelphia and The Stylus in Washing ton, D.C. too, were the collections and studies of folk songs. Important, Kerlin's "noteworthy" collections for the period included: Negro Folk Rhymes (Thomas W. Talley, 1922) The Ne gro and His Son~s (Howard W. Odum, 1925) Ne gro Workaday SongsHoward W. Odum, 1926) Rainbow Round My-snoulder (Howard W. Odum, 1928 ) Wings on My Feet {Howard W. Odum, 1929) American Ne gro Folk Songs (Newman Ivey White, 1929) Other brilliant and exciting poets and writers shared the Renaissance scene--thougb they are normally over-shadowed by Hughes, Toomer, McKay, Johnson a.nd Cullen. 72 Some of' these �writers--most of whom did not publish volumes until the later period--were: Arna Bontemps, Waring Cuney, Robert Hayden, Sterling Brown, Owen Dodson and Melvin Tolson. Prose writers of the period included Eric Walrond and Rudolph Fisher as well as Hughes and Toomer. Bontemps, antholo ~ist, critic, poet and novelist, published in leadinG ma c azines of the period and won numerous awards for poetry. His first collection of poetry, Personals, was not published until 1963. Cuney is known for his brevity and preciseness as in his poem "No Images" wherein he laments the pli pht of a Black girl whose proud past has become muddied in the concrete and asphalt jungle of the city because: • • • there are no palm trees On the street, And dish water g ives back no ir,1a r~es. Sterlin[; Brown, like Bontemps, pursued the folk tradition while cultivatins an ear and technique that rivaled some of the best modern poetry. His debt to folk idioms and characters is ob- vious in such poems as "Odyssey of Bi c; Boy, 11 "Southern Road~ " ''Memphis Blues," and "Lon[_:, Gone "--all appeari nc; in .Johnson's anthology. Brown, who contributed to periodicals of tbe period and wrote a regular column for Opportunity, also published important critical studies. Dodson wrote verse plays and collaborated with Cullen on at least one writing project. He too won numerous awards for his plays and poetry . llayden and Tolson, both si~nificant modern poets, were to be beard from in succeeding decades as critics and outstanding teacbers. 73 �Related Suh-Topics for Unit 9 1. 2. 3. 4- 5. 6. 4 "The Harlem Renaissance" Through Poetry The Ja.zz Idiom in the New Poet-r:r Plantation Life in the New Poetr~ Changes in Dialect Usa ge in Poets Between 1910-1930 Universality and the Black Poet Ela.ck Life Seen Throuch Blnck Poetry, 1920-1930 7. The Impact of Blues and Jazz on tbe Poetry Religious Influence on Black Poetr:r, 9. Africa as Seen hy the Harlem Rennaissance Poets Divercent styles in Early 20th Centur~ Black Poets Comparison/Contrast of Blnclc and 'Hhi te Poets of the Period Major Themes i n Black Poetry , 1910-1930 8. 1910-1930 10. 11. 12. UNIT If 5: THE :MODETIH BLACK POETS (1930 - 1954) Li tera1"'y/Social Background: .-f'n en the stock market crashed 1 in 1929, white patronization of Black artists ended. Blac k creativity and scholarship, however, had grown up durin ~ the first three decades of the century, and i~portant writing and musical development continued. Mi p,ration of Blacks to northern urban centers was stepped up hefore and after World War II--with many Blacks being attracted by shipbuildin ~ and other war manufacturing industries. Afro-Americans have participated in every U.S. military conflict since Colonial days. Durinc World War II and Korea, however, they were used al~ost exclusively as fi ghting troops (between 1943-45 Jim Crow was abolished in the Armed Forces). Nevertheless, Black soldiers, returnin g home from European and Pacific war theaters, still faced unemployment and lynching; and in so me southern cities were forbidden to appear on the streets in military uniforms. 74 Baldwin is one �of many perceptive American writers to note that Black men, seeking the fruits and the realization of the A meri ca □ Dream, tried through out history to adjust and "fit" into American society. So, in face of official Ameri can contempt for his humanity and his welfare, the Blac k soldier march ed with an "equality" of death into tbe Korean "\Jar. James Weldon Johnson had opened the dismal period of the Depression with Black Manhattan, a social history of Harlem. Black Manhattan was one of t l1e dozens of studies on urban Black communities which had he0n be~un by works such as DuBois' Philadelphia Negro: A Social Stu~~! (l f'.<)9 ). Like Johnson, many of the poets and artists turned their writinc skills toward the recording of Black social problems and artistic achievements (e.g., Johnson's Black Americans, Hho.t lJow? and Charles S. Johnson's The Shadow of the Plantation, ~ oth in 193~). Some of the writers were subsidized b:r HPA c;rants while others mana g ed to obtain jobs as teachers and iournalists. like the common folk, walked the soup lines. Others, It was durin 13 the period of 1930-.54 that white schools of higher learninc started accepting more Blacks, as students and teachers. Generally, America witnessed rapid advancements in science and industry. Radio drama became a cultural mainstay and the motion picture ind us tr~ provided a new and exciting diversion for America. Baseball continued as the "national pasttime" (for Blacks, it was the era of Jackie Robinson). ,Tack Johnson had already bec;un to dazzle America with his pugilistic skills. It was the prize fighter Joe Louis 75 �(the "Brown Bomber"), however, who captur ed sports-minded America with one of the greatest records in t h e hoxin g hi story . Louis's defeat of German Max Xchmelin g (193 8 ) came at a crucial time in U.S. history--when America's rising '~'l i ght amon [; tbe world of nations was being challenged on tbe battlefield by Hitler. Two years earlier, a racist Hitler h a d refused to acknowledge the feats of Olympic tract star Jessee Owens. In prose and drama, white American writers continued to straddle a thematic path between realism and the American Dream. A distinctly 11 post-wa.r 11 group of writers e merged. Dominating the period were Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Willa Cather, Thomas Wolfe, O'neill, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Dos Pe.ssos, Katherine Anne Porter, Erskine Caldwell and Carson McCullers. Usinc; symbolism and alle gory to attack war, decade nce a nd the atomic bomb, American writers often took ns models s uch Russian writers as Chekov, Dostoevski and Tolstoi. T~ny employed the stream of consciousness technique--a st yle inf luenced by the "new psychologyrr and Irish writer James Joy ce--wh ich allowed for uninterrupted explorations 11 streamed 11 their references. 11 on part of characters who A similar mood prevailed in the poetry--much of which dealt wi th social decadence, war e.nd the mechanization of man. E.E. Cumrn.ings, known for his t y po graphi- cal trickery and general linguistic and syntactical experiments, was one of the most relentless critics o~ bureaucracy and war. Such themes had also concerned T.S. Eliot, considered one of the greatest modern poets, in such poems as 11 The Love Sonr; �of J'. Alfred Profrock" and "The Wa.ste Land. 11 The Imag ist poets continued their development via sucb voices as "H.D., Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore. 11 Other modern poets were Conrad Aiken, William Corlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Archibald McLeish, Hart Crane, J'ohn Crowe Ransom, Allan Tate, Richard Eberhart, Randall Jarrell, Robert Frost and Carl Sandbur ~. Crane, Eliot, Pound, W.H. Auden and Stevens have been called the major voices of the modern American Poetry. Historically, Black Music had been marked by white imitation and exploitation. There always exists the need to create a "white" musical face that can be di gested bJ Americans at large. From the minstrelsy of plantation days to tbe sophisticated operettas and musicals of the 2O's, this pattern bas continued. During the modern period, Be Bop became the musical heir to Ragtime, early Jazz a.nd Tin Pan Alley. While the bi~ band .-· and Black composers--Basis, Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, W.C. Handy, Eubie Blake, Noble Sisle, ctc.--continued their important work, different kinds of experiments were f, Oing on among other musicians. From these new formations and probings came some of the giants of modern Black Music: Miles Davis, Charlie "Yard Bird" Parker, Lester "Prez" Young , Sonny Rollins, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey (who studied drums in Africa), Ghano Pozo (Afro-Cuban), Dizzy Gillespie and Babs Gonzales (Bop poet e.nd singer: I Paid My Dues, 1967). From the musicians and their supporters emerged a.n underground "hip'' lanGuac;e. This tradition, of talking in metaphors and encoded cultural neologisms, had begun during the Renaissance. 77 Often, too, Black �vocalists were featured with the musicians. Some of these song stylists were Ella Fitz : erald, Sarah Vau gbn, Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith--wbo died in 1937. The migration t o cities also saw tbe continued rise of urbirn or bi[ city Blues. By 1954, however, the Blues bad ~one tbrou Gh several i mportant periods of development. Some names associated with the modern period were Louis Armstrong , Fats Waller, Ca h Calloway, Pops Foster, Eddie 1 ~on" House, Robert Johnson, Johnny Temple, Ro osevelt Sykes, Elmo James, B.B. Kin g , Jimmy Reed, Josh White, Sonny Boy Williams, John Lee Hooker, L5. Ghtnin 1 Hopkins and Big Joe Turner. Several notable Black literary explosions occured durinc the period between 1930-.54. Important were: the publication of Native Son (Richard Wright, 19~.0 ); the pub lication of For My People (Margaret Walker, 1942); tbe nppearance of Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison, 1952) a.nd , winnin g of the Pulitzer Prize for poetr:T (Gwendolyn Brooks, 1950 for Annie Allen). Na tive Son, a novel, featured a Black prota G;onist named Bigc;er Thomas who symbolized, and in many ways conte.i ned, the anger, ra g e and pressures felt by ur b an Blacks. The book was the first by a Black author to me.ke the best seller list and was also a book of the month club choice. Durinc the same period Wright, who died an expatriate in France in 1960, published several other novels, short stories, books of essays and miscellaneous prose. appeared. In 1945 Black Boy, bis autobiography Wright is significant for many reasons, foremost among the~ being that be was the first Black writer to deal , �accurately and on par with tbe beet fic t ion of t~e day , with the philosophical and psychological complexit y of the Black urbanite. In doing this, he opened a new ran r e of possibilities and freed Bla.ck fiction in many ways. Second, Wri ght is generally considered to be the juncture where one sho uld start a serious study of the Black novel. durine this period: There were other r ood fiction writers Rudolph Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude :McKay, Huch es, Arna. Bontemps, Ann Petr:r, DuBois, Frank Yerby, Eric Walrond, Chester Himes and Sterlinr; Brown. \•Jri ght, however, was the first to forge and sustain a maj~~ Black art piece out of mythical and racial materials in a way that no other writer had. Baldwin, who would dominate the comin3 years, indicated his rigor and genius near the end of this period (Go Tell It On the Mountain, 1953). Miss Walker, a Mississippi housewife who teaches literature at Jackson State College, was 22 years old when she wrote "For My People "--one of the most famous poems in En f:lish. Her book by the same name won the Yale Series of Youn ger Poets award in 1942. Rieb in cultural folk references, Bleck phono- logy and social history, the slim book briliantly traces the hope, humor, pathos, ra c;e, stamina. and iron dl c nity of the race. For My People lacks the daintiness, bared an ger and romantic idealism of some Renaissance Black poetry. The poems are true-grit experiences informed by the oral cadences and the religiosity of Blacks. Yet, along with these folk themes and intonations, Miss Walker presents excellent sonnets and quiet free-verse reminiscences in luscious and prismatic �imagery ("Southern Song 11 ) : I want my body bathed a gain by southern suns, my soul reclaimed a gain from southern land. I want to rest a gain in southern fields, in grass and ha y and clover bloom; to lay my hand a gain upon the clay baked by a southern sun, to touch t he r ain-soaked earth and smell the s mell of soil. Ellison, who has not published a novel since Invisible Man, remains one of the most controversial fi gures in American Literature; much of the controversy arising from what he says outside of fiction (see Introduction). Communist-oriented papers generally condemned Invisible Man when it first appeared. They held t hat it was a "dirt throwing '' rit ual for Ellison--wbo combines naturalism and complex symbolism in the book. Black novelist John Oliver Killens also gave it a ne gative review. Generally, however, the work is considered, by Black and white critics, to be a great novel--perhaps the greatest American novel. It won the National Book Award in 1952 and in a sub- sequent poll of 200 journalists and critics, it was j ud ged the most distinguished single work of fiction since World War II. The winning of the Pulitzer Prize by Gwendol y n Brooks (and Ellison's accolades) told the world that Black writers had mastered the "ultimate" English literary crafts of poetry and fiction to a degree which no longer called their abilities into question. Many Black critics feel, however, that there were excellent volumes, before Annie Allen, which should have received the Pulitzer Prize. These critics say Black artists, like the Black Experience, come periodically into fashion 80 �(e.g., Harlem Renaissance)--to be tolerated at the whims of white literary b astions, despite their proven abilities. The citation of Miss Brooks was a citation of the Black Experience, howe ve r--despite the fact that the prize was not a major announce ment in the Black communit y . caught up in the p ost-war mood, Blacks, job-searching and a quest for social equalit y , were not readin g much poetry. Miss Brooks i s universally reco g nized for her sparseness and complete control of poetic de v ices. In one interview she said she loves th e "crush" of t he lan ~ua g e. A fine example of her effecti v enes s within spatial limitations is the parents: people like our marria g e MR.Xie and Andrew from "Notes From the Childhood and th e Girlhood ": Clogged and soft and sloppy eye s Hav e lost the li ght that b ites or terrifies. But one by one They g ot thing s done : Watch for p or ches as you pass And prim low f encin g pinch in g in th e g 1 ass. 1 Pleasant custards sit b ehind The white Venetian b lind . Enflamed b y the spirit and exa mple of the Harlem Renaissance, Black poets of the pre- and post-war y ears continued exciting experiments. Miss Brooks recalls that a brief encoura g ement from the " great" Ja mes Weldon Johnson when she was a child spurred her own her way. S o~e of the poets of the Renaissance, however, quit writing alto g ether or be g an writin g in another genre. Poet Bont e mps also wrote novels--the mo s t famous of 81 �them being Black Thunder (1939, an ada ptation of t he 1 8 31 Nat Turner-led slave revolt. He edited and wrote, and some- times collaborated with others on antholo g ies and b io graphies for young read e rs. Ne gro: 1764-1949, With Hughes, he edited The P oetry of The co nsidered a b reak through in modern Black literary activity . One of the handful of Ren a issance Black writers to surv ive i nto the S e v enties, Bontemps died in 1930-54 as the a ge of Some have called the period b etween Langston Hughes in Black l e tters. 1973. Indeed, Hughes remained prominent and productive throughout the three periods-Renaissance, 1930- 54, and the Contemporary era. Durin g the pre- and post-war periods, Hu ghes continued to turn out everything from new s paper fiction columns (Jesse B. Si mple) to juvenilia to play s. period included: Hu ghes volumes of p oetry during this Dear Lovely Death (1 9 31), The Dream-Keeper (1932), Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a play in Verse (1932), New Song (1 938), Shakespeare in Harlem (1942) and Monta g e of A Dream Deferred, among others. Black poets and writers continued to "pr otest" in their works, carry in g on a tradition, as Hay den notes, Ne gro writers." "traditionally associated with Perhaps the period currentl y discussed is amply capsuled in these lines from Huc hes' famous poem "Dream Deferred 11 : What happens to a dream deferred? . . . . . . . . . . . . Maybe it j ust sa g s Like a heavy load. Or does it e x plode? . . . .. �Hughes in poetry, like Wri ght, Ellison and Baldwin in prose, faithfully recorded the Black mood. Like the others, he also predicted the social violence of the 60•s. poets and volumes of the period include: Other important Sterling Brown, Southern Road (1932); Tolson, Rendezvous with America (1944) and Libretto for the Republic of Liberia (1953); Naomi Long Madgett., Sonr;s to a Phantom Nightin gale (19hl); Selected Poems of Claude McKay (posthumously, 1953); Hayden, Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940) and The Lion and the Archer (1940); Cullen, The Medea and Some Poems (1935) and On These I Stand (posthumously, 1947); and Dodson, Powerful Lon g Ladder (1946). Also writing and/or translating durin g this period were Dudley Randall, Samuel Allen (Paul Vesey), Mar c aret Danner and Wri ght {who also wrote poetry). Black and white poets exchanged ideas and socialized, as Black and white intellectuals had done throughout most of the history of America. Many of the Black poets of the period., consequently., were introduced to publishers and the reading public by well-known white poets or critics. Such a practice was to come under fire, durin g the late 60•s and 70's, by some Black poets and cri-tics who felt that whites could not judge on Black writing . Reviews of the period were generally favorable to the Black writers who showed great finish in their work. Hayden, Walker, Brooks, Tolson and Dodson were among the poets who received hi gh praise for their technical virtu- , osity. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote the forward to Miss Walker's For My People., Allen Tate to Tolson's Libretto For the Republic BB �of Liberia and Hayden won Hopwood Awards twice and accolades from Poetry: A Magazine of Verse--re ga.rded as the white American olympus of poetry. One of the most important antholo gies of the period was The Negro Caravan, (1941) edited by Brown, Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee. The first inclusive antholo gy of Black Literature, it re mains one of the outstandinc textbooks of Black writing. Brown also published two important works of criticism, The Negro in American Fiction and Ne gro Poetry and Drama, both in 1937. In 1954, as American soldiers prepared to return from Korea and television glared to consume the world, the Supreme Court decision of May 15 r,losed the book on one era of Black American History and opened up Pandora ts box on another. Wright's Black Power ( l 95Ld, a commentary on his experiences in Africa's Gold Coast, may have been more than just a hint at the what was to come. Related Sub-Topics for Unit# 1. 2. 5 Post Renaissance Black Women Poets Black Poets and World War II 3. Black Poets and Lynching 4. Universality in Black Poetry 5. The Coming of Age Technical of Black Poetry 6. Modern Technolo gy and Blac k Poetry ?. Music and the Black Poet 8. Blues in the Works of Modern Black Poets 9. The Influence of "Swing " on Black Poetry 10. The Influence of Be Bop on Black Poetry 11. The Inf.luence of White Modern Poetry on Black Modern Poetry 12. Distinctive Black Poetic Voices in the Modern Era 13. From Margaret Walker to Gwendolyn Brooks 14. The Folk Tradition Continued in Black Poetry 15. Black Poets VS White Literary Establishment 16. Black Poets and White Critics 17. - Langston Hughes and the Be Bop Tradition 18. Langston Hughes and the Blues Tradition �UNIT # 6: CONTEMPORARY BLACK POETS : CIVIL RIGHTS TO BLACK POWER; PROTEST TO BLAC K ARTS ( l q51t to Present) Literary/Social Background: Upheaval, violence, chan r,e, ideology, rhetoric ••• are us ed in describin g the contemporary period. world. Revolutions (of all k i nds) characterize the From Cuba to Vietnam, Harlem to Chile, Pakistan to Watts, Ni geria to Indonesia, Kenya to Berkeley, Jackson State to Kent State--the facts and s ymbols of change are dramatic and violent. By the mid-Fifties Be Bop w~s decli- ning and Jazz's greatest living interpreter, Charlie Parker, was dead. Musicians and vocalists be e;an prob ing new forms under the leadership of such forces as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Wes Mont p.;omery, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Ornette Col eman, Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughn, Ella "B'itz gerald and Billie Holiday, who died in 1959. Miss Holiday's name and fame a gain reached a worldwide audience when, in 1972, Diana Ross, formerly of the Supremes, starred in the controversial movie, Lady Sing~ the Blues. Saxophonist Coltrane, a ma j or i nfluence on the current generation of musicians and poets, died in 196A. An innovator, he sparked new interest in music with his ''sheets of sound" approach to playing . The Fifties also witnessed the maturation of Rhythm and Blues, Popularized primarily by Black disc jockeys who developed lar ge followin gs. The DJ's employed oral dynamism in conveying their messages over the airways. Interweavin~ the records with lively ~lack social news and commentaries, 85 �the DJs anticipated the popularity of the new Black oral poetry of the S i x ties. Spin-offs fro m t h ese essentially Black broadcasting st y les were pro grams li k e Bandstand (started in the late F i fties) whick were modeled after Black record hops. White y oung sters watc h ed Blac k s dance, listened to Little Richard and Chubby Checker, and tried to imitate it all on TV and in the i r homes. This period g ave birth to the f i rst white superstar Soul artist--Elvis Presley . TV's e x plo i tation of Rhythm and Blues (later called Rock and Roll) was one of the most si g nificant social developments on t h e contemporary scene. Black critics and social historians note that the new social music, and the dances accompany ing it, freed white American y ounr; sters from the prudish and self-ri ~hteous inhi bi tions of their foreparents. For the first time, wh i te Americans b e g e.n to use their pelvises when they danced! Generally, American science and industry de veloped more rapidly than in previous periods. Russia launched Sputnick, v.r\\A:t~ a feat~was followed by an American-Russian science and space-exploration race wh i ch cont i nues today. Telestar paved the way for televised coverage of g lobal activ i ties while biochem- ical warfare and atomic research became the ni ght mares people lived daily. The American literary scene was swamped with political novels, satire, wr i ting s on the war and experi mental journalistic prose. The "underground" newspaper continues to be a major vehicle for much of this new writin g . 86 Much of the �symbolism and psychology that had been employed in writings earlier in the century is still present. Ho1'ever, the influ- ence of the writers from the Depression and war years is diminishing. Black and Jewish writers occupy the literary stage where there is talk about Jewish writers succeeding the Anglo-Saxon writers and the Black writers succeeding the Jewish and so on-- in the same upward spiralinp.; process I" sociologists said has characterized the i rri_J.r;rant cycle in the cities. Contemporary Black and white prose writers of inf'luence include: John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Bernard Malamud, John Hersey, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Ernest Gaines, James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, Albert Murray, William Styron, William Demby, John Barth, William Melvin Kelley, and Irvin Wallace. Black writers are included in the general listing because during the conte mporary period many of them achieved recognition oh par with the best writers everywhere. Accordingly, some important contem- porary poets (Black and white) are: Stanley Kunitz, Robert Hayden, Eberhart, Robert Penn Warren, Gwendolyn Brooks, Theodore Raethke, Karl Shapiro, Melvin Tolson, John Berryman, Henry Dumas, Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Paul Vesey, James Dickey, Imamu Baraka, Sylvia Plath, William Bell and Ja~es Wright. Many of the Black prose writers and poets (some from the pre- and post-war schools) died during the contemporary period (Tolson, Bontemps, Hughes, Wri ght, Durem, Dumas, DuG.or~, Rivers, Toomer, Malcolm X, etc.). Indeed death, in one way or another, not only preoccupied writers (white and Black), 87 �but was romantically sought out in many cases. Kenneth Rexroth cried out: Beat poet '~Why have 30 American poets committed suicide since 1900?" Those poets not concerned with death were investi gating decadence or the deathness of man's errors and indul 8ences. The development of contemporary poetry cannot be viewed properly without understanding the 11 Bea.t" period. A hy-· product of the Be Bop era in Black music, Beat poets emulated the hip mannerisms and aped the 11 man alone" and the societal drop-out i ma ge that many associated wi t h t he musicians. Some musicians and critics a gree that Be Bop was the Blackman's way of rejecting the commercialization of h is art--and playing "Something , can't play . 11 11 in the words of Th elon i ous Mo!:1k, "they (They , mean i ng whites). I mp ortant Beat poets included Lawrence Ferhl i nghetti, Rexroth , Allan Gins b er g, Gre gory Corso, amon g the whites, and Bob Kaufman, LeRoi Jones and Ted Jones e.mone; tbe Blacks. Another Black poet writing at the time and loosely ali gned with t he Beat ima ge was Russell Atkins who founded Freelance in 1950. The Beat Movement, which nurtured occultis .n, re j ection of t h e Establishment and an existential view of life, was centered in New York's Greenwich Village and the San Francisco Bay area. The movement died in the early Sixties. Kaufman is viewed by many as the unsun g patriarch of the Beat era. Black critics say ma j or white poets of the movement enthusiastically took their cues from Kaufmants innovations, but were not so enthus i astic in their reco gnition of his avant garde work. - - -- - - - -- --- Kaufman's poetry is �recorded in anthologies and in his two voluMes: Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness (1965) and Golden Sardine (1967). As a kind of spiritual heir to Toomer, Kauf man is a complex, sometimes fragmented, but brilliantly ori ~inal poet. His work, like that of many of his contemporaries, influenced by Eastern religious thought and the occult. Stylistically, Kaufman has the "sweep" of Walt Whi t ma.n coupled with the best techniques of modern poetry. He passionately experi- ments with jazz rhythms in poetry and often invokes jazz themes, moods and musicians. Many Beat poets and enthusiasts later joined or were spawned by the Civil Ri ghts struggle which was intensified by Rev. Martin Luther King , Jr. 's Mont gomery b us boycott in 1955-56; sit-ins and other dramatizat i ons of se grepation and discrimination; the challenges of Jim Crow in travel in 1961 (CORE); the widenin~ activities of SNCC (1961-64) and the March on Washington (1963). Other si gnificant activities en.flamed and inspired the hearts and imagination of American youth especially. The Muslims (Nation of Islam) growth to 50,000 members by 1963 and the Congressional action on Civil Rights Legislation were two seemingly unrelated but strategically important events. The growing influence of the Muslims suggested that many Blacks no longer believed America was sincere in its pledges to implement changes once they became law. Abetting their distrust were the continued killings, night-ridings in the south and harra.ssment of Blacks in public places and their ~omes. 89 With the bitter taste of �Emmitt Till 1 s murder still on their tongues, Blacks reeled under the killing of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, King, the Kennedy brothers and the three Black Panthers killed by police in their sleep in a Chicago By 1966, however, Black apartment, among other activities. Power signs and slogans had be~un to replace the ''We shall overcome--Black and White To gether" exclamations. Young Black America adorned Afro ho.irdos o.nd African jewelry, attended cultural festivals, back-to-Africa rallies and poetry readings and began reading co~munity news published in revolutionary broadsides and tabloids. Rhetorical forays by H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael, young SNCC officers, set off a flurry of state and national laws arainst inciting to riot and the transportation of weapons a.cross state boundaries. Large and small cities i gnitep in flames that set the stage for gun battles between police and the often "imagined" snipers. These confrontations were repeated in scores of cities after Dr. King was assinated in 1968. Poet Quincy Troupe captured the shock and horror and chronicled the official reaction in his poe:n 11 Whi te Weekend": The deployed military troops surrounded the White House and on the steps of the Senate building a soldier behind a machine gun 32,000 in Washington & Chicago 1,900 in Baltimore Maryland 76 cities in flames on the landscape and the bearer of peace still lyine in Atlanta ••• And the last stanza, ~roupe notes with curdling irony: 90 �Lamentations! Lamentations! Lamentations! Worldwide! But in New York, on Wall Street the stock market went up 18 points ..• At this writing , fallout from the Black Revolution reverberates around the globe. Black journalist Thomas Johnston reports Irish revolutionaries sin~ '~e Shall Overcome." Posters and emblems commercialize everythin g from African hairstyles to the raised clenched fist--the initial contemporary symbol of Black unity and definnce. A wave of Black movies--called Blaxploitation--beginnin p witb experimental flicks like Putney Swope (1969)continues to capture a multi-million dollar theater patronage. Black movies retrieved the crippled movie industry from the brink of disaster. Meanwhile, the murder, incarceration and poli- tical harrassment of Black men and women made them heroes and heroines in Black communities--yet ironically s ymbolized the torment and what some Black journalists called the "genocidal schemes" of America. Criss-crossed by paradoxes, political contradictions, social revolts and religious ambivalences, the Black commu- nity nevertheless continues to be re generated b y its singers and performers. Co_~temporary Black po.~ular music has not OJ.A..bi-,1\,{.(" ~ .4 0nJ wi·~ .1,~('v(:~ ,ct] ~ only reached unprecedented~mohey-making capabilities. •n Blues, said to have died about 196.5, c;ave way to 11 Rhythm Soul 11 - - "I'm a Soul Man," as Sam and Dave announced in the late Sixties. The Impressions told lovers that you "gotta have soul" and Bobby Womack reminded listeners tha.t the "Woman's Gotta Have it "--presumably _ risoul. " 91 Black recording companies �are in a boon, the two largest ones heing Mo Town (Detroit) and Watte,5tax (Memphis). The current period has been characterized by the Black superstar--sometimes called "super Ni gger"--in everything from sports to movies. Curtis Mayfield's soundtract album Super.fly (1972) sold more than 22,000,000 copies and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971) set records for album sales. Literally dozens of singing groups--modeled on the quartets and ensembles of the Fifties-are releasing albums re gularly. These folk or "soul" poets have become more politically "conscious!! in recent years and many plant political messages and ex eltations of Blackness in their works. Much of this new wave came on the heels of severe criticism by Baraka who admonished Black popular singers for doting on unrequited love. Baraka said too many Black singers are preoccupied with "my baby's gone, gone" themes. Black consc i ousness activity--and creativity in general-has flourished inestimably. Related involvement has included: Development of Black acting ensembles; opening of free schoms and Black universities; establishment of Black Nationalist communes; increase in the number of Black bookstores, African boutiques; establishment of Black Studies programs on white and Black campuses and, in some cases, quota systems for enrolling Black students; the escalation of Black demand for "cream of' the crop" jobs such as TV announcing and hosting of TV variety shows; expansion and creation of new roles for Black newspapers, magazines and radio stations; 92 �formation of national and state Black Con gressional Caucuses and similar units in most professional associations and, finally and importantly, new enga gement with Africa and her problems and possibilities. Indeed, future trips to Africa-- to the "Mother country" or "Homeland"--are discussed at all age and social levels~ Much of this renewed interest is understandable in light of the emerr-,; ence during the contemI porary period of several African nation states and the I increased fraternization of Africans and Afro-Americans. Malcolm X, cannonized today by great numbers of young Blacks and Black intellectuals, did much to foster current interest in Africa. Gunned down at a rall y in Harlem in 1965, Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) bad already been expelled from the Nation of Islam. His newly formed splinter group was known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity. His Auto- biography of Malcolm X (with Alex Haley, 1965) which (as be predicted) he did not get to see in print, chronicles the odyssey of bis various phases as Malcolm Little, hustler "Detroit Red", Malcolm X and El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Malcolm was lionized by Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Ossie Davis, Baraka and various other scholars, activists and artists. Black Poets, especially, have found Malcolm a continuing source of inspiration. A partial indication of Malcolm's impact on poets can be seen in ~or Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X (1967), edited by Dudley Randall and Margaret G. Burroughs. Shabazztt Robert Hayden noted that: 93 In "El-Hajj Malik El I I �He X'd his name, became his people's anger, exhorted them to vengence f or t h eir past; rebuked, admonished them, Their scourger who would shame them, drive them from the lush ice gardens of their servitude. At the First World Festival of Ne gro Arts, held in Dakar, Sene gal, in 1966, Hayden was awarded the Grand Prize for Poetry. A major event, the festival was attended by experts, scholars, artists and enthusiasts o.f the Blac k Arts who gathered for 24 days to hear papers a.nd discussions, v iew art exhibits and cultural performances, and give preliminary direction to the Black Arts Move ment. Pr e s i din B over the ' festival was Leopold Sedar ' Sen~hor, ' Sene galese President, , ' Damas) and one of the architects (with Aime Cesa.ire' a nd Leon of Ne gritude. Ne gritude is a philosophy o.f Black humanism and corrals, according to its ori ginators, th e Black my stique or reli giosity . The term grew out of t he associations of Black African intellectuals, French writers and artists, and Black American expatriates. African-oriented publications such as Presence Africaine and Black Orpheus have renewed their interests i n Black Ameri- I I can writers. Likewise, Black American journals and popular magazines (Black World, Journal of Black Poetry, The Black Scholar, Essence, Encore, Ebony, J e t, etc.) he can to publish more materials by and a b out Africans. The revolution in the Black Arts was si gnaled by many events includint:s the First Conference of Ne r.;ro Writers in March of- 1959. Langston Hughes was an i mportant f igure at 94 I I I -I �the conference--as he was at the Dakar p;atherin 9; seven years later. The First American Festival of Ne gro Art was held in 1965 and the Second AFNA took place in Nove mber of 1969 in Buffalo, N.Y. Interlacing these and other con- ferences, symposia and conventions were exciting developments and experiments in New York, ChicaBo, Watts, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit and Washington, D.C. During these periods of social turmoil and artistic upsurge writers and poets often al ipned themselves with ideological positions and re gional mo ve ments. Consequently, communities Black Arts communes and re r.; iona.l brands of Black Consciousness Grew concurrently. Splits between older Civil Ri ghts workers and Black Nationalists were paralleled by splits between older writers and younger practioners of "Black Arts." The splits were not alway s clear-cut, however, for many older activists and poets j oined the new mood in spirit, thematic concern and personal life st yle, while some of the younger writers retained the influence of the earlier moods. Complicating things even more were the variants on the dominant themes of each camp. Gwendolyn Brooks, Dudley Randall, Margaret Danner, Mar garet Walker and John Oliver Killens are among the older group of writers who vi gorously took up the banner of the new mood. Younger writers whose works imbibe more "tradition 11 include Henry Dumas (Poetry For My People, 1970), Conrad Kent Rivers (The Still Voice of Hariem, 1968, etc.), Julia Fields (Poems, 1968 ) Al Young 95 �(Dancing, 1 9 69 , e tc.) and Ja:sr Wri r.:ht (The Homecoming Singer, 1972) to name j us t a few. The creative promise of this period was dealt a severe blow with the untimely deaths of Dumas and Ri ver s i n 1968. These poets are deeply inf'luenced by the moods and preoccupations of the period (Black self-love, racial in j ustic e , vi olence, war, Black Consciousness and History) but the y wor k along tested lines and experiment within careful and thought-out frames of references. Most of the write rs of t h e period (their styles and ideolo 8ies notwithstand i ng ) have f ound themselves enc;ulfed at one time or another i n h eated debates over questions related to the "Black Aesthetic 11 , the relationship of writer to rea.der, appearances befor e Black and ~1ite audiences, and the part that pol i tics should play in the life and works of writers. At this writing , t h es e discussions continue in most sections I of the Black World. The flurry of ideological and aesthetical debate among the poets (and other writers) has often been precipitated or attended by critical writings, historical studies, social essays and public political statements. , I I I Some of the indi- viduals associated with initiatin~ the plethora of rhetoric I on the question of a "Black" aesthetic (and related issues) I are Ron Karenge., Gwendolyn Brooks, Baraka, Addison Gayle, Jr., I Hoyt W. Fuller (Black World), Edward Spri ggs, J. Saunders Redding, Ralph Ellison, Larry Neal, Ernest Kaiser, Mel Watkins, Ron Welburn, Dudley Randall, Lerone Bennett, Jr., James Emanuel, Toni Cade, John Henrik Clarke, Don L. Lee, 96 I �Ed Bullins, a.nd Stanley Crouch. A numb er of important studies, literary and cultural, by Black and wb i te writers, aided in whetting or prolonging the critical thirsts. Some of the important and/or controversial writinr s of the Contemporary period include: The Militant Black Writer: in Africa and the United States (1969), Cook and Henderson; Black Expression (1969) and The Black Aesthetic (1971) Gayle Jr., ed.; Muntu: The New African Culture (1961) and Neo-African Li tera.ture: A History or Black Wr_i tin g (1968 ), Jahn; Langston Hughes: Black Genius (1971), 0 1 Daniel, ed.; Black Poets of the Unit ed States: Paul Lawrence Dunbar to Langston Hughes (1963, French edition; 19 73 English trans., Douglas), Wa gner; Before the Mayflower (1962), Sha.dow and Act (1966), Bennett, Jr.; Ellison; Understanding the New Black Poetry (1973), Henderson; Colloquium on Ne gro Art: First World Festival of Ne gro Arts, 1966 (1 968 ), Editions ' Presence Africaine; The Ne gro Novel in America (1965), Bone; Mother is Gold: A Study in West African Literature (1971), Roscoe; The Crisis of' the Ne gro Intellectual (1967), Cruse; Native Song : A Critical Study of Twentieth-Century Ne gro American Authors (1968 ), Mar golies; p y na.mite Voices: Black Poets of t he 1960's, vol. I (1971), Lee; Blues People (1963), Black Music (1967), Home: Soci~l Essays (1966), and Raise Race Ways Waze (1971), Baraka; and Give Birth to Brightness (1972), Williams. A number of Black critics, artists, and activists heatedly denounce whites who research or criticize Black literature, saying that only t h ose who bave lived the 97 �Black Experience can write about it. Another croup holds that whites can report on Black writing if they are sincere and sympathetic. The Black Arts Movement, as the contemporary period has been called, took place in the shadows of what many Black social critics have called the "second Reconstruction. 11 Hence, much of the writine is a revolt a ~ainst political hypocrisy and social alienation. In the earliest Black Poetry of the period, many writers showered disdain and obscenities on the "system" and whites in r-;enerEi.l. that thew wouldn't take 11 Notin g inte gration 11 i f it were offered, younger poets derided American values and attitudes. 11 Unlike the Harlem group," Hayden noted, "they re j ected entry into the mainstream of American literature as a desirable goe.l." Of course, more than a few of the older poets were writing in the Sixties and are writing today. Many of them, however, were sometimes laid aside by yound readers who were unable to separate "poetry" from the fiery declamations of Carmichael, Brown and ennumerable local spokesmen and versifiers. Often the poets exchanged superficial indictments, indulced in name-calline and, as groups or individuals, be ~an rating each other on their "levels of Blackness'' even thou gh no criteria existed then and none exists today for such judging . Much of the dispute centered around the question of who "started" the Black Arts or New Black Poetry movements. in the Spring, 1971, issue of ConfrontatiEn: Third World Literature, I stated: 90 In an article A Journal of �While it is true that there o.r c leadinc li r hts of the Black Arts Movement, it is an emphatic lie to say one geographical re gion of the country is solely responsible for either the main (and Ma j or) writin c output or kicking off any tradition of Blacks writing about themsel ves. To take such a contemptuously arro gant stand would be to write off the Black musical past. Aggression has been the tone in much of the contemporary poetry. This is partially due to the presence of some who selected poetry as a medium of expression beca.use of its deceptive simplicity and briefness. Many of the "poets" obviously have no genuine interest in developin ~ their craftsmanship. On tbe other hand, the current period con- tinues to witness a c;rowin 0 and wide-rangin r_; concern for poetic craft and knowled f e. S ome of the t h emes t h at concern contemporary poets a re: Black History Self-love and Development Africa, including Words, Places and Customs Black Pride Community Development Hero-Worshi p : i.e., Malcolm X, Joh n Coltrane, Dr. Kine , Muhammad Ali, etc. Casti gation of White_s_ Violence Uncle Toms or submissive type Blacks War Social Injustice . Music including musicians, instruments, ori gins, , accompaniment to rea d"ings Black Langua ge, including street talk, intonation, inflection, rhythm, etc. Poverty Interracial Dating Black Middleclass Guerilla. Warfare Interracial marria ge Poetical satire Racism Black Children Eulo gies for slain activists or artists Reli gion, especially Islam Hypocris y Undisputed a s one of the giants of the New Black Poetry Mmrement.. irnd j tl'l re] ated_____nat.io__na.listic tdeolorries and appen- ·I I I �----- - - - - -- - da ges, is Imamu Amiri Baraka (I~Roi Jones). Baraka is a towering symbol and example for many of the new poets a.nd activists. He has also influenced older writers (Brooks, Randall, etc.) as well as musicians. As playwri ght, novelist, essayist, poet, and spiritual consultant, he mystified (some say terrified) America with visions and solicitations of her doom--implicitly at the hands of Black guerilla armies. Freedomways editor, Clarke, noted in a 1970 Atlanta conference, that Baraka is "one of the most talented individuals on the face of the earth." However, Clarke warned Baraka 1 is courting sultural disaster and misleading others in his "use of esoteric and remote Eastern symbolism" (a reference to Baraka's Muslim and Arabic influences. Like many Black 99 .... 't. �musicians before and durin ~ his time, Baraka took on his present Islamic name. He also divorced his white wife in I An enigmatic I man and writer, Baraka has been said to reveal a persis- I tent "death wish" in his writings. I the mid-Sixties and married a Black woman. In the prefe.ce to Black Magic (1969) be acknowledged this critical reaction to his work: The Dead Lecturer (1964) and Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961), volumes of poems, are Baraka's referents by his unusual life. I . I You notice the preoccupation with death, suicide, in the early works. Always my own, caught up in the deathurge of this twisted society. The work a cloud of abstraction and disjointedness, that was whiteness. European influence, etc., just as the concept of hopelessness and despair, from the dead minds the dying morality of Europe. There is a spirituality always try ing to get throu Gh, to triumph, to walk across these dead bodies like stuntin for disciples, walking the water of dead bodies Europeans call their minds. in the above passage. I Baraka's complex work is rivaled only In 1968, he received a j ail sentence on a charge of ille gally possessing a gun. P.E.N., an inter- national association of writers, voiced protest a Gainst the sentencing on grounds that Baraka 1 s ri ghts were violated. The organization and Baraka's disciples were appalled by the judge's courtroom use of the defendent's poem "Black Art 11 : • • • Fuck poems and they are useful, wd they shoot come at you, love what you are, breathe like wrestlers, or shudder strangely aft e r pissing . We want live words of the hip world live flesh & coursing blood. Hearts Brains 100 �Souls splinter i nr fire. We wan t poe ms like fists be ating ni ggers out of j oc ks or dagger poems i n t h e slimy belli es of t h e owner- j ews. Black poems t o smear on girdlemamma mulatto h itch es • • • We want "poems t hat kill." Assassin poems, Poems t h at s h oot guns. Poems that wrestle cops i nto alle y s After a short stint as director of the Black Art Repertory Theater and School in Harlem (wh ere h e was aided by Askia f Toure, William Patterson and others), Baraka moved b ack to his native Newark--which he renamed the Community for a Unified Newark. 11 New Ark"--or ganized Fro~ this position, he continues to launch numerous local and national programs including Jihad Productions (publications) and national Black political conventions. Just prior to t h e Harlem epi- sode, the near-dissolution of Umbr_E._ ma gaz i ne had occurred when the editors disa greed on the fate of n poem. Durem. by Ra.y A si gnificant development on the Conte mporary scene , ft)(J~ Umbra was founded in 1961 by ,_T om Dent, Ce.l vin Hernton a nd David Henderson. During the Sixties and into t he Se vent i es, literRlly hundreds of Black poets started writin r: and publis h in r: --in tabloids, magazines, broadsides, anthologies and indi vidual collections. Si gnificant clusters of poets occurred in geographical re gions. The atmosphere was enhanced by a number of African thinkers, artists, poets and novelists who arrived to America to teach, lecture, perform and travel. The importance of this interaction among Bla.cks from various parts of the globe cannot be overemphasized. In the Sixties Black writers and students be gan readin G African, 101 �West Indian and Afro-Latin writers. Langston Hu r:hes acquainted American audiences with African literature in his anthologies: An African Treasury : Essn. ys ,_ Stories,_ Poems By Black Africans (1960) and PC?~2Tl-~__f_!:'._o~--~1~-~-~c_ Af_!'_~ca (1963). In 1969, Trinidadian Wilfred Cortey edited Wh_tEpers from a Continent: Africa. the Literature of Co~tempora.!'XYlack Other scholars and writers also wrote critical studies or edited antholoe ies of African literature. Black writing received a si ~nificant boost when in 1971 SenGhor was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature--thus fulfillin g James Weldon Johnson's 1922 proph ec;',r t h a t the first Blac k writer to achieve substantial i nterna tional fame would not come from America. S ome non-American Black writers now publishing or l i vinc; in the U. S . ar e Ni r,erian novelist-poet Chinua Ache be, South African poet Keorepetse Kgositsile, Ni gerian poet-playwri e;ht Wole Soyinka, Ghanaian poet Kwesi Brew, South African critic Ezekiel Mphahlele, Nigerian poet-playwri ght Ifeany i Menkiti, Martinique poet- , playwright Aime Cesa.ire and Guianese poet-scholar Leon Damas. The writers fraternize, exchange i deas and compare styles. Mphahlele, for example, has written critical studies of Black American writin8 (Voices in the Whirlwin~, 1972) while Miss Brooks has praised African writin r.; ("Introduction", in Kgositsile's My Name is Afrika, 1971). Mazisi South African poet, Kunene, wrote the introduction for Cesaire's Return ' to My Native Land (1969 translation). Many of the Black American expatriate artists and writers returned to America during· the current period for either - - -- -- - - - - 102 I 1 �temporary or permanent residency. Added to this flurr y of activities and changes were the establishment of Black publishing houses (Broadside Press, Third World Press, etc.) and hundreds of student and community newspapers and literary journals. During the contemporary period a number of important anthologies have been published. Some of the more notable ones include Beyond The Blues, Pool, 1962; Sixes and Sevens, Breman, 1962; American Negro Poetry, Bontemps, 1963; Soon One Morning: New Writing by American Negroes, 1940 - 1962, Hill, 1963; New Negro Poets, Hughes, 1964; Kaleidoscope, Hayden, 1967; Black Voices, Abrahams, 1968 ; Black Fire, Jones and Neal, 1968 ; The New Black Poetry, Major, 1969; Soulscript, Jordan, 1970; 3000 Years of Black Poetry, Raoul and Lomax, 1970; New Black Vo~ces, Abrahams, 1972; The Poetry of Black America, Adoff, 1973. In addition to these and other nationally distributed antholog ies, dozens of collections of Black Literature were compiled and published in various re gions: Watts, Watts Poets and Writers (Troupe, 1966) (Schulberg , 1969); South, Fress Southern Theater by the Free Southern Theater (Dent, et al, 1969); Chicago, Jump Bad: A New Chica go Anthology (Brooks, 1971); East St. Louis- St. Louis, Sides of the River (Redmond, 1970); New York, Three Hundred and Sixty De grees of Blackness Comin g at You (Sanchez, 1971) and Harlem: Voices from the Soul of Black America (Clarke, 1970); Philadelphia, Black Poets Write On (Black History Museum Committee); Newark, Soul Session (1972); 103 �Detroit, Ten: 1968). Antholo gy of Detroit Poets (South and West, In many re g ions several components have merred to form cultural and performing arts conglomerates. It is often at these centers that white movie and theater moguls (" \) ... ~. -~~...,. ~ ·; find new talent for the~ wave of Black movies. At this writing, the Contemporary poetry scene is embroiled in vigorous debates and conf'erences dealin r: with "directions" for Black writers, consolidatinG publishing houses, and getting published materials into schools (especially into Black school~. Caught (sometimes unknowingly) in the midst of these issues and questions are the older Black poets--some whom have remained silent in face of rhetorical provocation. Others, however, hav e b een quite vocal as in the case of Gwendolyn Brooks and Dudley Randall. Miss Brooks continues actively to support the younger writers h y w~y of' financial and moral encouragement. She supervises writers workshops, establishes poetry prizes with her own money and travels to read before conferences and classes. Recently she withdrew her af'filiation with Harper and Row and began publishing through Broadside Press. Randall established Broadside Press in Detroit in 1966 and also has set up poetry awards with his own funds. Hayden, who often shuns public displays of his allegiances, admonishes the young writers to keep hi s h standards of artistic excellence. He is recoGnized as a brilliant teacher as well as poet, and is known to work quietly with young writers and scholars. Hayden played a major role in raining recognition for Lucille Clifton (Good Times /1969J and Good News About 104 �the Earth, ' 1972~, one of the most s pl end i d of the new poets of the era. Some new and old name s closely li nked to the current period are Pinkie Gordon Lane (Wind Thou ghts), Michael Harper (Dear John, Deer Coltrane, History is Your own Heartbeat), Waring Cuney (Puzzles), Quincy Troupe (Embryo), Sterling Plump (Half Black Half Blacker), Jayne Cortez (Pisstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares and Festivals and Funerals), Henry Dumas ( Poetry For My People), Conrad Kent Ri ve rs (The St i ll Vo i ce of Harlem, etc), Nikki Giovanni (Black Judgement, Black Feelinr , Blnck Thou8ht, Re :Creation), Ishmael Reed ( Catechism of A t,eoamerican "hl)Odoo ,t.hurch), David Henderson (De Mayor of Harlem, etc.), Arthur Pfister (Bullets, Beer Cans & Thini:i:s), Ima mu B~.raka (Black Ma p:ic, etc), John Echols (Home is l,ihere the Soul Is), Arna Bontemps (Personals), Robert Hayden (Selected Poems, Words in the Mourning Time, etc), Don L. Lee (Think Black, Black Pride, etc.), Sonia Sanchez (Homecoming, etc.), Dudley Randall (Cities Burning and More ~ , e r ) , Stanley Crouch (Ain•t No Ambulances for No Ni ggahs Tonight), Langston Hughes (The Panther and the Lash,etc.), Russell Atkins (Heretofore), May Miller (Into the Clearin g ), Austin Black (The Tornado in My Mouth), Mel v in Tolson (Harlem Gallery), Al Young (The SonG Turning Dac k Unto Itself), James A. Emanuel (Panther Man), Paul Vesey {Ivory Tusks), Mari Evans (I Am A Black Woman), Julia Fields ( Poem~), Stephany ( Moving Deep), Etheridge Knight ( Poems from Prison), Gwendolyn Brooks (Riot and Family Pictures, etc.), Roy Hill Ray Durem (Take No Prfso1;1.ers). 105 (g_~ Poems, etc.), This list is far from being �exhaustive but, rather, is represent~tive of the hreat poetic output dur i ng the Contemporary period. Many of these poets--Reed, Troupe, Youn g , Crouch, etc.--are also novelists and antholo~ists. Certainly the list grows and ch anges constantly, especially in view of the continual unf'oldine and the surprises of the present period. Suffice it to sa.y that the conte:npor8.ry mood of Black Poetry is multi-leveled and very complicated. There are obvious generalities; one is that man~ of the poets saturate their work with obvious Black references and cultural motifs. There is an anti-intellectual flavor in some of the poetry as some poets turn their backs on academic or Western forms. There is also a general disre ~ard for the esoteric, literary and sometimes secret allusions, employed in much of the current white poetry. There are exceptions, I 1-\ of course--nota.bly with the Muslim poets (Marvin X, Askia. ' Toure, Baraka, Sonia. Sanchez and others}. These exceptions can also be seen :Ln works of poets who explore African Ancestor Cults, Voodoo, mysticism and African lan cua ges. Evidence of this can be seen in the poetry of Ishmael Reed, , Askia Toure, Henry Dumas, Norman Jordan, Sun Ra, K. Curtis Lyle, Bob Kaufman and others. Generally, thourh, Black poets are framing their allusions, imaGes and symbols in the more concrete cultural motifs, as indicated in a line from my poem "Tune for a. Teenage Neice" where I view my neice as being "spiced as pot-liquor." 106 �Related Sub-Topics for Unit# 6 1. Black Poetry of Civil Rights Form in Contemporary Black Poetry 3. Black Poetry After the Korean War 4. Black Poet's Reaction to Vietnam 5. Black Poetry From Prisons 6. The Influence of Blues on Contemporary Black Poetry 7. Black Poetry as a Cultural Vehicle 8. Black Poetry Since 1965 9. Modifications in the Image of the Black Poet 10. Black Poet as Prophet 11. Black Poet as Revolutionary 12. Black Poet as Visionary 13. Black Poet in the Stru ggle 14. Black Poet as Preacher 15. Black Poet as Warrior 16. Africa Viewed in the New Black Poetry 17. Technolo gical Symbolism in Contemporary Black Poetry 18. The Black Woman Poet of the Sixties 19. Poetry and Black Arts 20. Music and Musicians in Black Poetry 21. Art as a Theme in Black Poetrv 22. The Black Poet and the Third World 23. Oral and Gestural Dynamics of Contemporary Black Poetry 24. New Black Poetry vs Traditional Black Poetry 25. New Black Poetry and the Western Literary Tradition 26. New Devices in Contemporary Black Poetry 27. Oral Reading of Contemporary Black Poetry. 28. Islam and the New Black Poetry 29. Langua ge in the New Black Poetry 30. , Christianity in the New Black Poetry 31. The Ima ge of America in the Hew Black Poetry 32. Major Voices of the New Black Poetry 33. Rhythm •n Blues in New Black ?oetry •n Roll in New Black Poetry 34. Rock 35. 11Soul II as Viewed by the 1,;ew Black Poets 36. Older Black Poets' themes in the Contemporary Era 37. Influence of Langston Hushes on New Black Poetry 38. Dance motifs in New Black Poetr3r 39. Influence of New Black Poetry on white writers and critics 40. Pan Africanism in New Black Poetry 41. Black Nationalism in New Black Poetry 42. Love in New Black Poetry 43. Black Poetry and Culturol Reclamation 2. 107 I I I j I I I I � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_07_09 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Course Anatomy & Development: Primary Texts, p. 25-107 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. Description An account of the resource Copy of Course Anatomy & Development: Primary Texts. 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