English 483    Spring 2010  T/TH  12:30 - 1:45    TLC 144

African American Literature: political liberation through a musical lens

  Until the lion tells his tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.       African Proverb                             
 

Th/January 14
Introduction to the Course and to each other

--the oral tradition includes music, stories, oratory, religious expression

--literature is an extension of the oral tradition

--this course sees African American music and literature developing together with the (partial) goal of political liberation

--music and literature created enormous resiliency, integrity and subversiveness that enabled spiritual and physical
     survival for blacks

--oral expression also created effective resistance to total annihilation or complete assimilation of blacks

--service learning and African American literature and music

--The African American Read-In

**********************************************************************************************************************************

What did African slaves bring with them?

African Retentions/Survivals: Story and Music

spirituality      is integrated in everyday life; "God" and multiple spirits; morality

community     emphasis on family and community relationships, kinship networks; the griot: historian/storyteller

music              an integral, necessary part of community life:
                         "the fundamental concept that governs music performance in African and
                         African-derived cultures is that music-making is a participatory group activity
                         that serves to unite black people into a cohesive group for a common purpose" 
                         (Jones Blues People 15).
 

Rhythm and poly-rhythms

In West Africa, societies such as the Yoruba, the Eve, the Akan and the Ibo possess a music rich in rhythmic vitality. It is a music of multiple layers of rhythms. While European classical music has developed complex harmonies of tones, African music has developed a complex interweaving of contrasting rhythmic patterns. The African musician strives for the occurrence of at least two different rhythms at once, and it is precisely this juxtaposition of opposing rhythms that creates the vital spark of African music.

Drum
Body Movement and body as instrument
Group Singing
Call and Response, Improvisation, expression of emotion

Themes of Pain and Triumph/Transcendence: (Spirituals/ Blues)
"by confronting one's pain directly, one gains access to deeper, uncontaminated human reserves, gaining in the process renewed strength, renewed hope and renewed humanity " (Jones 16).

Video clips from :
Martin Scorses' The Blues
The Story of Gospel Music, Too Close to Heaven (on Reserve at Library)
Soul to Soul (on Reserve at library)
at a West African slave castle, The Staples Singers perform "When Will We Be Paid?"
 

"The Blues is the roots. Everything else is the branches."  Willie Dixon
 

T/January 19

brief presentation on Service Learning and the UI Jazz Festival and Jazz in the Schools by Jessica Sampson and Dwina Howey
 

Part 1:        "You Gotta Right, I Got a Right" :  Spirituals              16th Century to Emancipation


Read: Call & Response (C&R): pp 1-51

lecture notes:
 I. African American History and Culture (1619-1808)
"Call for Deliverance: Origins of the Oral Tradition"

Because African slaves were denied the right to literacy, "they drew essentially from their African oral heritage, in which music and poetry were inexorably linked. Using these roots as the basis for their unique folk forms and incorporating Euro-American folk elements as well as their own interpretations of biblical myth and typology, they created work songs, spirituals, and folktales" (3).

"The fact that whites were generally deaf to the subtle complexity of black oral expression permitted African American culture to maintain a resilience, integrity and subversive thrust that played an important role in the spiritual survival of slaves" (10).

"Since its beginnings, the black oral tradition has been constantly evolving and functioning as a mode of black resistance to total cultural assimilation or even annihilation" (10).


"African Survivals in Slave Folk Culture"
 
The Folk Cry, The Shout, Work Songs & other Secular Music,

Spirituals / Epic Narratives (From Sunjata):
epic African hero who w/ magical powers overcomes obstacles and triumphs for the sake of his people; Epic narratives were told by Griots: preserve, record and transmit history of their people; skilled in oral performance: more literature than history due to emphasis on improvisation (not memorization)
Sunjata defeats evil sorcerer king with magic; parallels biblical warrior-hero Moses and magical feats Moses used to free Israelites
"Go Down Moses" reflects African worldview of balancing forces of nature (36)

Praise Poems: short poems to glorify kings, warriors, gods
Sermons and Prayers
Lyrical Poetry: in spirituals, repetition of intense emotions builds up to powerful emotional crescendo such as in "Were You There?" and "Motherless Child"

Th/January 21


Read:  C & R: pp 51-57  and PDF article below

lecture notes:

"Improvisations: Theme and Variation, Call and Response, Performance Styles, Rhythms and Melodic Structures"
--Improvise: to make up spontaneously
--theme and variation: songs become altered versions of other songs (51)
--call and response: leader calls out, group responds

Slaves' singing style:
voice as highly tuned instrument stressing percussive tonalities and placing emphasis on timbre and pitch
high musical intensity & use of special effects: shouts, groans, rhythmic body movements such as hand clapping, foot stomping, body swaying
--especially kept beat and meter when drums were outlawed (52)

Rhythm as most striking feature of slave and Af-Am music
human pulse, syncopation (shift strong/weak accents), polyrhythms and meters

"The African tradition aims at circumlocution rather than direct statement. The direct statement is considered crude and unimaginative; the veiling of all content in ever-changing paraphrase is considered the criteria of intelligence and personality" (Jones in Blues People)
 

****PDF Article:  "Upon This Rock: The Foundational Influence  of the Spirituals," Arthur C. Jones,
from The Triumph of the Soul: Cultural and Psychological Aspects of African American Music, 2001.

Discussion questions:
1.  Explain "soul" and "soulfulness" of African American singing from spirituals forward.
2.  How do spirituals reverse the power hierarchy of slavery?
3.  Explain the tradition of black people calling each other "brother" and "sister". How is this related to religious beliefs?
4.  What is the utility of coupling pain and triumph?

lecture notes:

SPIRIT   African heroic tradition AND Africanized Christianity; spirituals provide alternative definition of the self; subtle metaphor creates psychological reversal of the publicly defined hierarchy of oppression: this is a signature feature of black American culture (9) . Spirituals facilitated strengthening of the  inner will to protest and collective call to outward resistance (10).

COMMUNITY  ethic o f community connectedness; sustained African-originated kinship networks; songs created community, even for families torn apart, those without parents; all members of community (of slaves, blacks) are "brothers"; Jesus is "brother"--creates highly personal and intimate relationship with religious figures.

MUSIC   not for diversion: integral, necessary part of community life; music-making is a participatory group activity serving to unite black people into a cohesive group for a common purpose (15).  By confronting ones pain directly, one gains access to deeper, uncontaminated human reserves, renewed strength, renewed hope, and renew humanity (16). Paradoxical pairing of pain and triumph.

rhythm (drum, body as instrument),
repetition( provides access to everybody because they can learn song)
participatory group singing provides psychological transformation; see Reagon's quote p. 18.
singing is deeply emotional and spiritual ("soul" which was transferred to secular forms of black music)

Listen:
 "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" (C&R 50)
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (C & R  51)
(version by soul/blues singer O.V Wright from the album  The Soul of O.V. Wright)


T/January 26

African drumming demonstration by class member Tom Kuhns

Listen: African Drumming (from No Man Can Hinder Me: the journey from slavery to emancipation through song)
"Kum Ba Ya," (from No Man Can Hinder Me)

Spirituals
 "Go Down Moses" (C&R 42)

Folktales, Conjure Tales, Voodoo and Ghost Tales
C & R pp 59-68
Folktales (animals and "Flying Africans")
Conjure Tales, Voodoo, Ghost and Haunt Tales
Quick Write:  choose one of these tales and discuss what you see going on. You might think about whether  these tales adjust power relations, boost self esteem, or build group solidarity. Provide a detail/scene from the tale.

SLAVE POETS & Social Protest
Voices of Slave Poets: Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), C & R 92--101

Listen:
"Earl of Dartmouth," read by Dorothy F. Washington, Folkways Records

Voices of Social Protest in Prose: Richard Allen (1760-1831), C & R 204-208
What is Allen's argument and what argument is he responding to?

African dance and music in the American church: The Story of Gospel Music 
Work Songs with call and response from Disc 2: The Blues:  Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese, Dir.)
 

Th/January 28
Tell Ole Pharaoh, Let My People Go:
African American History and Culture, 1808-1865,  C & R 211-234
How/in whom does the African tradition of the griot continue?
How do African American folk forms create psychological space between slaves and their masters? Why is this important? Examples?
How does a Black art aesthetic evolve in this era? What is it?

T/February 2   (Februrary is Black History Month)

C & R pp 235-243: Folk Poetry, Slave Songs of Rebellion, the Underground Railroad, and Spirituals
C & R 243-244:  Folk Tales, the trickster becomes a human, the slave named John: John and Old Marster tales: the "badman" figure appears


Coded Slave Songs

Major Abolitionist Voices

The Slave Narrative:

C & R  pp 272-319
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written By Himself

Short free write: What is your favorite moment in Douglass' narrative?
Be prepared to discuss the following questions:

Th/February 4 
C & R pp 432-464

The Fugitive and Female Slave Narrative:
Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written By Herself (1861)                                              

Discussion Questions:

T/February 9
Exam One: in class short answer, short essay
 

Part  2:                 "I, Too, Sing America"/"What Did I Do To Be So  Black and Blue"
                                                               Emancipation (1865) - 1965        Blues and Jazz

Th/February 11   

C & R  pp 532-557:                       "No More Shall They In  Bondage Toil" 1865-1915
 

Reconstruction/Historical Context After Emancipation
Reconstruction (reordering) provided opportunities for freed slaves (housing, jobs, education)
Black Codes/KKK (Tennessee 1865); growth of white supremacy movements due to fear of black power: presumed attraction of black men for white women common in popular media; period of horrific violence against blacks
1865   Freedmen's Bureau, schools, aid to freed slaves
1866   Civil Rights Bill (enraging white Southerners)
1867  Sojourner Truth splits from Douglass/Harper over their support for 15th Amendment
1868  14th Amendment: granted blacks citizenship
1870  15th Amendment: right to vote (for men), but didn't  guarantee it (white Southerners found loopholes)
1870s Jim Crow (separation/segregation) laws instituted (geographical AND psychological space)
Black Church movement grows; provides leadership opportunities
1877:  federal troops leave the South
1883:  Civil Rights Act rescinded
1885:  schools in South segregated by law
1895: BT Washington's Atlanta Exposition speech: political setback for blacks
1896: Supreme Court passes Plessy v. Ferguson upholding school segregation
1880/90s:  Black women organize to fight racism and sexism and sexual abuse of women
1892:  Francis Harper publishes Iola LeRoy, a novel exploring the devastating effects of negative black female stereotypes on black women
1892  Anna Julia Cooper, in A Voice from the South, establishes the black feminist aesthetic; calls for education and moral and social advancement
1899  Sutton Griggs publishes novel of black nationalism and miltancy
1900:  James Weldon Johnson writes "Lift Every Voice and Sing"--the Negro National Anthem
1903:  W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk: "the color line has stripped
             people of African descent in America of their basic human dignity, pride and
             self-respect"
1909:  Blacks and whites join to create the NAACP
1912:  DuBois "black art aesthetic": black art should be responsive to needs of black people
1912  James Weldon Johnson publishes novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

What Was Jim Crow?

The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University

Literary themes of the era: freedom/access to American democracy; assimilation/adaptation; movement; women's rights; the responsibility of educated blacks to help the community; temperance and suffrage; spiritual/moral development; literacy and freedom; separation/social access; devastating effects of  negative stereotypes of black females on African American women; black feminist aesthetic; incorporating folk forms and figures--tricksters and badmen-- into literature such as the novel and poetry; by the 1920s, folk culture becomes major inspirational source for literary creations; blues and ragtime popular and also inform literary works; DuBois's theory of black art.

The Blues

The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.  

The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created  by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly reminds us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go.

Let us close with one final word about the blues: Their attraction lies in this, that they at once express both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through sheer toughness of spirit."  Ralph Ellison (Shadow and Act)

Blues serve to transcend the pain of life by turning pain into art; the solo blues singer's chronicle is a struggle to understand the self  ("Ellison's Existential Blues" in Approaches to Teaching Ellison's Invisible Man)
 

lecture from:
Leroi  Jones's Blues People, Chap. 6: Primitive Blues and Primitive Jazz
and "The Poetry of the Blues: Understanding the Blues in its Cultural Context" by Peter Aschoff

Where did the blues come  from?
How is it different from earlier African American musical forms?
Why did the blues genre develop around Emancipation?
What is the blues' philosophy and nature?
What does it teach about roles for men and women?
What is significant about the solo nature of the blues player/singer?
Though blues can be seen as the "parent" of jazz, how are jazz and blues different?
Where did early jazz come from?
What is the significance of brass instruments to jazz?
 

Robert Johnson's "Crossroads Blues"



Life and traditions after Emancipation
Reconstruction
Folk forms transmit values crucial to Blacks' survival

Spirituals 536
How did spirituals receive worldwide exposure after Emancipation? 
Rural Blues: "laughing to keep from crying" 537
Ragtime - piano music, precursor of jazz
Preacher tales, et al: JC Chandler's framing tales: Uncle Remus; Charles Chesnutt's Conjure tales;
Preacher tales: comic tales to relieve tragic lives, about black preacher when not in pulpit and told by him; tales were exaggerations, or "lies", and were meant to entertain

Badmen, Conjuring and Prison Songs   540
Folk heroic tradition: man who defies white authorities
some heroes had extra-natural powers
Bras Coupe, Louisiana 1830, Railroad Bill 1893, 20th C: Stagolee and John Henry
prison or  death: logical end for badmen
many Af Am men imprisoned, whether justifiably or not, and created songs:  separation from loved ones, fears of infidelity,
hardship of prison life, desire to return home, how they were treated.

Folk Sermon  541
evolved from griot and religion of black slave; preacher one of the most powerful people in the black community, eloquent orators known for electrifying, forceful speech, with use of vernacular with colorful metaphors and graphic imagery, black sayings and rhythmic and repetitious phrases, biblical allusions and moral platitudes
"De Sun Do Move (1882) and "Dry Bones" 1890s



T/February 16

Guest Speaker Music Prof. Barry Bilderback: Africa Calling: Study Abroad in Ghana!

Folk Poetry/Spirituals
Free at Las'  558
Work, Badman, and Prison Songs  562

Rural Blues 569-71 --prototype for rural blues is story of Joe Turner
"Joe Turner Blues" 571
How is the story of the inspiration for "Joe Turner Blues" emblematic of life for blacks at this time?

Ragtime: polyrhythmic, syncopated piano music: 
Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"

Badmen folk hero/Conjuring/Prison Songs
Who is the "badman" folk hero? What are his attributes? How and why did this tradition evolve?
What is conjuring? What role does it play in folk narratives?
Why would a large body of prison songs develop?

Listen:
The Black "Badman" folk hero tradition: "Stagolee"  C & R 566

Lloyd Price, "Staggerlee"

Taj Mahal's "Staggerlee"
 

For additional reading on the badman and Stagolee:
Stagolee: The Story, The Songs
Rap Music and the Stagolee Mythoform
Stagger Lee: Godfather of Gangsta

C& R 
Voices of the Folk Tradition
Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar  C & R  pp 600-604
"Sympathy," 614
"We Wear the Mask" 615

*What is the "Plantation Tradition" and the myth of the "happy darky" and when were they popular (and are they still resonant in American culture)?
* Provide a brief biography of Dunbar, including dates of birth and death--place him historical context.
* What are "dialect" poems? Why do you think Dunbar's dialect poetry was more popular than his standard English poetry in his time, and what kind of problems did this cause for him?
* Do a close reading of the poem and explicate (unfold the meaning of ) it carefully.
* In what ways can we connect the singing bird in "Sympathy" to the history of African Americans? How might the poem reflect Dunbar's own professional situation?
*  What might singing represent?
* In "We Wear the Mask" it appears the speaker believes the world is not aware of the masks African Americans wear, and in fact he doesn't seem to care that the world is aware. Why might this be? Or this a misreading?
* What do these poems suggest about black life at this time?
 

Voices of Activism:
Ida Wells Barnett, anti-lynching activist, 724-732

* Provide a brief biography of Ida Wells Barnett including dates of birth and death.
* According to Wells Barnett, what are the ostensible and probable motivations for the lynching of black men during this period?
* Describe lynching as characterized by Wells-Barnett. 
*  What 3 or 4 methods does Wells-Barnett advocate for ending lynch law and was her campaign successfull?

Lynching: Without Sanctuary  an annotated collections of photographs and postcards of lynchings

Picnics and Lynchings: from the Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University



Th/February 18

Voices of Reform: Booker T. and W.E.B. DuBois

Booker T. Washington, from Up From Slavery, C & R  658-684 (through Atlanta Exposition Address)

* Give a brief biography of Washington, including place and date of birth and death.
* How does Washington see slaves and whites both benefiting and harmed similarly by slavery?
* What is most impressive and/or significant to you about Washington's narrative?
* Describe the nature of Washington's school at Tuskegee. 
* What aims does Booker T. Washington have in his speech at the Atlanta Exposition? 
* Who is his audience in this speech?   

WEB DuBois, C & R  pp732-765 "Of  Our Spiritual Strivings" from The Souls of Black Folks

* Give a brief biography of DuBois, including dates of birth and death
 * Explain DeBois's concept of double consciousness. What do you think is most significant about African American double consciousness?
* What does Du Bois claim about African American music?
* What are W.E.B. Du Bois' arguments against Booker T. Washington's approach to race relations? 
* Why does Du Bois see separation of the races as dangerous?
* What is the "Black Aesthetic" that was formulated at this time and what are some of the tensions in it? 

celebrate black history month at the fabulous

Shades of Black Show
www.myspace.com/shadesofblackshow
February 20, 2010
5:00 pm     SUB Ballroom 

T/February 23       

C & R:  pp 766-795

Bound No'Th Blues: African American history and culture 1915-1945

The Great Migration
Tensions in the North
Why did thousands of African Americans move from the South to the North at this time?
What are some of the conditions they found there?
Describe the significance of Harlem in the teens, twenties and thirties for Black people.
What was the significance of Harlem and Black art for white people during this period?
What is Pan-Africanism?
How did DuBois and the Harlem scene influence Black people (and black intellectuals) world-wide?
What were the major debates over the purpose of art at this time? (A. Locke and DuBois)
Who is the "New Negro" and who was the "Old Negro"?
How and why was African American folk culture of great importance to the artistic outpouring of this era?
 

The Harlem Renaissance                                                                                           

Voices of the Folk Tradition
Poets:


Claude McKay  878-885
Photos:
http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/assets/bl/may02hughes.jpg
http://home.messiah.edu/~ppowers/mckay1.jpg
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mckay_a.jpg
"If We Must Die"
"Tiger"
"America" 
"The White House"

Claude McKay wrote "If We Must Die" (pg. 883) in response to the race
riots of 1919.  What does he call on black people to do when faced with
violence from whites?  Why does he consider resistance necessary even
when it will eventually be suppressed? 

"Tiger" "America" and "The White House" (pg. 884-5)
How does McKay characterize the white man and the black man in these
poems?  What is America like from his perspective?  What does the future
hold? 

Langston Hughes: 886-897
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
"The Weary Blues"
"Life is Fine"
"Daybreak in Alabama"
"Mother to Son"
"Ballad of the Landlord"
"Harlem" 
"I, Too"

Classic Women Blues Singers of the 1920 and 30s
Bessie Smith, "Empress of the Blues"                   

Bessie singing "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (p. 799)

March 24th - 27th UI Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

 

Th/February 25                                     Jazz
 
"Jazz and the Resilience of African Americans" (The Challenge Attitude), Ferdinand Jones (PDF)

Find a quote in the article to supply and support your responses to these questions:
What is the challenge attitude, or challenge-improvisational attitude?
Where does it come from?
What is its purpose?
How does it work? How does it create psychological resilience and creativity?
How does it relate to jazz; to everyday life?
What is the collectivistic-individualistic synthesis of a jazz band?
What is the (resolution of) the dual identity process?
How is jazz performance a "ritualistic representation of those psychological phenomena that have sustained African Americans"? (145)
How is the jazz ensemble a "microcosm of the African American community"?

Signification: Signifying means indirect talk rather than frontal pronouncement; it emphasizes verbal facility and innuendo" (Jones). Manipulation of meaning through metaphor, allusions, and imagery. Signifyin' (g) is an African American vernacular tradition with the following specific characteristics: indirection, circumlocution, metaphorical-imagistic (but with with images rooted in the everyday, real world), humorous, ironic, rhythmic fluency and sound; teachy but not preachy, directed at a person or persons usually present in the situational context; punning, play on words, and introduction of the semantically or logically unexpected (from Triumph of the Soul, 165-165)
 

"The challenge attitude guides individuals to disbelieve the destructive white supremacy assumption and to hold on to the positive attributions received from those who are most important in their lives. The challenge  instructions are no less than life-preserving in their psychological necessity" (138).



T/March 2   
finish Hughes poems and discussion of "Jazz as Resilience"

Gospel, C & R 777-78, 803
Jazz, 776-77, 806-810
Classic City Blues 797-800
Listen: "What Did I Do to be So Black and Blue?" Lyrics: 807-08 Louis Armstrong
Swing/Big Band Jazz 808-809
Listen:  "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing" 809 Big Band Swing,Duke Ellington

The origins of   "Strange Fruit" photo below is credited with inspiring the song in 1930
Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit                    by  Abel Meeropol

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Listen: Rene Marie: Dixie/Strange Fruit

Urban Folk Narratives

Toasts: C & R  pp 778-79
 "Shine and the Sinking of the Titanic," "The Signifying Monkey," 813-15
The Signifying Monkey
"A Ghetto Version of Shine and the Sinking of the Titanic"

 
Leadbelly (folksinger) performing "Titanic" 

"Badman" and boxing champ, Jack Johnson           
 

Th/March 4   

Fiction

From Hurston's Glossary of Harlem Slang

C & R,  942   Zora Neale Hurston, "Sweat"

Hurston is writing about an all-Black town outside of Winter Park, Florida (1920s-30s), where many blacks went to work for white people.
1. Discuss the image of the black female and male/female gender relations in "Sweat."
2.  Discuss the Christian symbolism and the music in "Sweat."
3.  Discuss the irony in "Sweat" and the numerous ramifications of the title.
4.  Discuss the ending of the story: will Delia now have peace? Has she jeopardized her hope of reaching "Jordan"?

Social Realism of the 30s and 40s: Fiction          

Ann Petry, "Like a Winding Sheet" 1028
  
1.  Discuss the story as a work of Naturalism. How does the environment control the lives of the characters?
2.  Consider the role of sound and noise in this story.
3.  Examine the role of women, both black and white, in this story.
4.  Discuss the possible meanings of the title of the story.
5.  Examine male/female relationships in the story; what role do poverty, racism and sexism play in the story?
6.  Like Petry's story, Wright's "Long Black Song" depicts domestic physical assault of a woman by a black man. Compare and contrast these two stories to assess how each author's gender identity affects the structure, plot and tropes of the stories. To what extend does each author suggest that the violence originates in social forces outside the attacker? To what extent do these texts hold the assailants responsible for the violence they perpetrate?   

T/March 9

Start thinking about your final project.
See "Requirements" button for description of Final Project and Proposal for Final Project. 
Proposal due April 6th


Music and Drama

R & B and  Rock and Roll Music

Gospel into  Rock and Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Rock and Roll: "Rocket 88" (Ike Turner, 1949),
Little Richard:  "Long, Tall Sally" (1956)
"Good Golly Miss Molly" (Little Richard 1958) (No Video)
 

Drama
C & R
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, (1957) 1217 (read headnote on Hansberry 1213-16 and the play)

Note: In Hansberry v. Lee, Hansberry's family sued for the right to live in an all-white neighborhood.

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930, and died of cancer at the age of 34. A Raisin in the Sun, her first play, was also the first Broadway production written by an African-American woman and the first by an African-American to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (1959). The play opened on Broadway in 1959 and was an overnight smash success.

For Discussion:

Act one
scene one
Where is the play set?
What are the two main obstacles facing the Younger family?
What is the source of the $10,000 in discussion?
Explain Walter's dream and frustration (watch clip).
Explain Ruth's attitude toward Walter; what is the source of their conflict?
What is Beneatha's attitude toward the money in comparison to Walter's?
Discuss Mama, Walter, Ruth and Beneatha's dreams and how they are compromised.
What does Lena want to do with the money? In what ways were BIg Walter and Lena's dream deferred?
How do Beneatha's ideas about career, marriage and religion create conflict for the family?

scene two
How is the issue of colonialism and its connection to religion addressed early in this scene?
Explain Beneatha and Asagai's  discussion of hair, assimilationism and gender roles (1232).
How does Walter see his life if Lena doesn't give him money?
How is Lena's sense of family expressed in this scene?
Do you think Lena is emasculating Walter? Does Walter act more like a son, husband or father?
 

Act two
scene one
How are the assimilationist/Afrocentric themes worked out through music, dance and hair style?
How do you understand Walter's dance with Beneatha? (watch clip)
Explain George Murchison and Walter's reaction to him.
Explain the significance of George's white shoes (at least to Walter)
How does Mama spend her inherited money?
What is Walter's reaction?
What does Mama value over money?
Why does Mama choose a white neighborhood? (p. 1244)

scene two
How does Lena feel that she has let her son Walter down?
What do we learn about Walter's dreams and values after Lena gives him part of the money? 1249

scene three (moving day)
How is Mr. Linder a well-meaning white liberal?
What happens to Walter's investment?

Th/March 11 
Raisin in the Sun continued

Reader's Theater

Act three
How do the other adults react to Walter's plan to "sell out"? 1263
What does "poor" mean to Lena and what is her message about love?
Respond to Walter's speech to Mr. Linder
What themes in the play suggest its bridge into the Civil Rights Movement?
Does the play resolve the tensions over assimilation and separation, and black nationalism?
How does the essence of the play relate to Langston Hughes' poem? How does the play answer Hughes' poem?
How does their financial situation affect the characters' relationships with each other?
How does each member of the family change as they face their problems?
 

What importance does Lorraine Hansberry place on family in this play?
What role does music play in this work?
How are many of the major tensions/themes in the play illustrative of the Northern experience?
Analyze each of the main characters and the transformations he or she undergoes. Discuss how interpretations of the play shifts depending on which character one sees as the protagonist.
What does Hansberry's play argue about familial roles and responsibilities? Do the character seem to regard responsibility to self as less important than to the family unit? What economic responsibility does each character seem to espouse for the clan?
What are some ironies the play engages?
 

Symbols
Themes
clips from the 1961 Hollywood film version with Sidney Poitier, the American Playhouse (Danny Glover) version, and the ABC TV 2008 Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs as Walter:

Distribute Exam 2 (take home essay)
 

Spring Break March 15-19

T/March 23

African-American history/culture 1945-1960

(Pages 1065-1090 in C & R,  BUT I WILL PROVIDE THE OVERVIEW OF THIS TIME PERIOD)

Fiction:
C & R, 1274  Ralph Ellison, for headnote

from the novel Invisible Man, "Battle Royal,"  (first chapter following the Prologue)

Themes:
music: jazz improvisation; blues: pain and transcendence
Racial identity formation; racial disillusionment; racism; negrophobia; African American history and its cyclical nature; the American Dream/Nightmare; tragicomedy of African American daily life

Characteristics:
* irony, subversion, humor, signifying
* use of rich and significant symbols: color, music, sermons, (in)sight and blindness,  underground spaces, light, names and titles
* Extensive use of African American vernacular traditions, both verbal and musical
 

For Discussion
1.  According to the story, why is identity contingent on invisibility?
2.  Discuss your understanding of the grandfather's dying words.
3.  Why does the narrator feel guilty about his success?
4.  Discuss the narrator's beliefs in regard to the message of the speech he delivers.
5.  What clues does Ellison use to alert us to the dishonorable motives of the white citizens? What do the white men get from this night?
6.  What reasons does the narrator give for not wanting to fight in the battle royal? Do they surprise you?
7.  Describe the youths' reactions to the blond dancer. Notice Ellison's description of her.
8.  How does the dancer respond when the white men toss her around? In what sense does her expression echo the grandfather's advice?
9.  Why are the boxers blindfolded? How do the town's "leading white citizens" behave during the match and the wired money game?
10.  In what sense do the narrator's thoughts during the battle royal demonstrate his naivete?
11.  The youths have to scramble for the electrified money before they get paid. What's the hidden message here?
12.  Describe the audience for the narrator's speech. If not the speech itself, what IS the audience interested in?
13.  Why does the narrator deny that he used the phrase "social equality" when he's called on it?
14.  Given the circumstances, point out the specific ironies of the narrator's speech.
15.  Consider the narrator's dream in terms of the battle royal he has just fought. How do you understand the admonition "Keep This Nigger-Boy Running."

Invisibility offers the narrator a means of survival and personal power in this story, but it also indicates one of the tragic results of racial oppression. Discuss this paradox in terms of the narrator's experience.

Th/March 25 

Exam 2 Due

C & R,  1295
James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues"
1.  How does "Sonny's Blues" reflect the emphasis on improvisation as a means of self-definition?
2.  What are Sonny's "blues"? How does growing up in Harlem influence his blues?
3.  How is Ralph Ellison's definition of the blues reflected in Baldwin's story? What is Sonny able to achieve for himself (and perhaps others) through his music?


Listen:  "Across 110th Street" (Bobby Womack)

Part 3            "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised": soul, funk, rap & hip hop

T/March 30

"Cross Road Blues" African American History and Culture 1960-present

C & R:  pp. 1342-1385 (I'll lecture on this material)

1968 Olympics; sprinters Smith and Carlos give the Black Power salute to
bring attention to continued oppression of blacks in the U.S.

Read and Listen:
R & B becomes Soul music in the 1960s/70s"Respect" (1388) Otis Redding (the original),  Aretha vocal, "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1389) James Brown in performance, 

Gospel Music underpins the Civil Rights Movement: "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round" (1390) Freedom Singers at the White House

Check out Nina Simone singing "Mississippi Goddam"

The Black Aesthetic and Afrocentrism
C&R: 1449   Larry Neal, "The Black Arts Movement"

Discussion questions:
1. Based on what you've learned up to this point in American and African American history (1960), how do you explain the crossroads of integration versus separation? Why has the tension inherent in this crossroads been such fertile soil for literary and artistic production?
2. What major historical and social events influenced the literary production of the 1960s and 70s?
3. What do both Black Art and Black Power want? How are these 2 movements related?
4. For Black Aesthetic intellectuals, what is "protest" literature and what is the problem with it?
5. How is the Black Arts Movement an ethical movement?
6. What are the main tenets of the Black Arts Movement?

Explicate the following excerpt:

"Even though Western society has been traditionally violent in its relation with the Third World, it sanctimoniously deplores violence or self-assertion on the part of the enslaved. And the Western mind, with clever rationalizations, equates the violence of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor. So that when the native preaches self-determination, the Western white man cleverly misconstrues it to mean hate of all white men. When the black political radical warns his people not to trust white politicians of the Left and the Right, but instead to organize separately on the basis of power, the white man cries: "Racism in reverse." Or he will say, as many of them do today: "We deplore both white and lack racism." As if the two could be equated."
(1454)

7. Why is the Black Aesthetic/Black Arts Movement (BAM)  important at this time in history?
8. What contributes to the militancy in the voice of rhythm and blues of the period? Consider this voice across the musical genres; compare, for instance, "I'm Black and I'm Proud" with "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn  Me 'round."

Discuss exam 3, final projects and proposals.
 

Th/April 1

Rap--a hybrid of the African American oral tradition and advanced technology

From writer John Edgar Wideman:

"Today, rap, for all its excesses and commercializations, reasserts the African core of lack music: polyrhythmic dance beat, improvisational spontaneity, incantory use of the word to name, blame, shame and summon power, the obligation of ritual to instruct and enthuse" (C & R 1364)
 

Song Lyrics in C & R:
Gil Scott Heron, from "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" 1394 (performance)
The Sugar Hill Gang, "Rapper's Delight" 1395 (performance)
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, from "The Message" (performance)
Eric B. and Rakim, from "Paid in Full" 1398
Public Enemy, "Don't Believe the Hype" 1399 (performance)

Discussion Questions:
* Discuss the evolution of rap lyrics from those of Gil Scott-Heron to those of Public Enemy in terms of language, as well as political and social message.
* Discuss rap as a preserver of culture.
* In what ways does rap reflect the "blackness of blackness"?
* How does "Don't Believe the Hype" echo the words of earlier poets--for example, Claude McKay?

POETRY
C & R, 1498-1500
Amiri Baraka,  and "Black Art," "SOS," "Black People: This Is Our Destiny"

Video clip from Def Jam Poetry: "Why Is We Americans?"

Baraka, "Somebody Blew Up America"
Amiri Baraka reading "Somebody Blew Up America" (on youtube.com)

For discussion:
How does Baraka illustrate the aesthetics of the Black Arts Movement?
How does Baraka incorporate elements of African and African American oral traditions in his poetry and performance?

 

T/April 6

Project Proposal Due: check instructions carefully under Requirements button: provide your topic, primary texts you plan to explore and  A SUMMARY OF ONE SECONDARY SOURCE written about your primary source.

Soul Music
listen: Soul Man, Sam & Dave
watch: clips from Soul to Soul  (1971 soul concert in Ghana)
Funk
watch: clips from Make it Funky: The Music That Took Over the World
 

C & R:  1415-1420

Malcolm X 
Malcolm X's "Speech to African Summit Conference—Cairo, Egypt"

How does Malcolm X appeal to his African audience? 
What is his goal?

Listen to part two of "By Any Means" on http://myspace.com/malcolmxlives (scroll down to find it) IF LINK DOESN"T WORK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkTnUxLjO2E&feature=related
This is a set of excerpts from his address to the First Annual Dignity
Projection and Scholarship Award Ceremony in Detroit, MI on February 14,
1965

What is Malcolm X's response to nonviolent resistance? 
When does he consider violence justified? 

Angela Davis

C & R 1433-1448
Angela Davis, from "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the
Community of Slaves" 

What was Davis' difficulty when she tried to begin researching and
writing about black women during the time of slavery? 
What myth about black women does she reexamine? 
Why is this myth of such concern to Davis and others?
How does she deconstruct this myth and other myths about slavery? 
 

Th/April 8

Women's Voices of Self-Definition

Poets

Sonia reads "Middle Passage"

Sonia Sanchez 1489-1492 and "the final solution/" "right on: white america," "Blues"
1. Discuss Sanchez's definition of America and her concept of revolution.

Lucille Clifton, 1530-33 "miss rosie" "for deLawd,"  good times," "my momma moved among the days," "the lost baby poem," "homage to my hips"
1. Discuss the portrait of survival in Clifton's work.

June Jordan, 1632-34 "Poem About My Rights"
1.  How does this poem illustrate elements  of Larry Neal's "Black Arts Movement"?
--define the world in our own terms
--western aesthetic has run its course
--advocate cultural revolution in art and ideas
--aesthetics and ethics are one
--Black Arts is an ethical movement from the viewpoint of the oppresseed
--the real impulse of the Black Arts Movement is the will toward self-determination and nationhood

2.  How does the poem reveal the double oppression of black women and connect the oppression of black women to the larger world?

3.  How does the speaker maintain a sense of self? Does she?
 

T/April 13

DISCUSSION OF CLASS SCHEDULE

We will discuss "1955" next Tuesday before Obama's speech

Fiction:  Women's Voices of Self-Definition
 

Read headnote  to Alice Walker in C&R, p 1715-

Alice Walker, "Nineteen Fifty-Five" (pdf)

Big Mama Thornton singing "Hound Dog"
Elvis Presley "Hound Dog"

1. Though based on blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton and Elvis Presley, who in 1956 covered and made millions on a song Thornton had recorded in 1952, the story is completely fictional. What are some of the oppositions Walker sets up in the story?
2. Gracie Mae Still is a "blues woman". How does she epitomize the blues philosophy?
3. Find a passage that illustrates Traynor and Gracie Mae's attitudes about life. What does each symbolize as characters?
3. What is some of the wisdom of the story? What do Traynor and Gracie Mae Still share, other than a song?
4. What does the last sentence of the story suggest?
5. Compare and contrast Big Mama Thornton and Elvis's performance of the song. "Hound Dog"
 

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, been snoopin' 'round my door
You ain't nothing' but a hound dog, been snoopin' 'round my door
You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more.
You told me you was high class, but I could see through that
Yes, you told me you were high class, but I could see through that
And Daddy I know, you ain't no real cool cat.
You made me feel so blue, you made me weep and moan
You made me feel so blue, you made me weep and moan
'Cause you ain't lookin' for a woman, all you're lookin' is for a home.
(Thorton)

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time
You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.
(Elvis)
 

for more Big Mama Thornton:
singing "Rock Me" in Oregon in 1971

For readings on white appropriation of black culture, see Eric Lott's Love and Theft and Greg Tate's Everything But the Burden.

Th/April 15               

The Neo-Slave Narrative
Octavia Butler
excerpts from Kindred

For Discussion:

For readings on Black women's exploration of the trauma of slavery through fiction, see Lisa Woolfork's Embodying American Slavery in Contemporary Culture, and Nancy Peterson's Against Amnesia: Contemporary Women Writers and the Crises of Historical Memory.

Review for Exam 3

T/April 20

Alice Walker's "1955"

Text of Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Speech

video and text of "A More Perfect Union" speech
* How does Obama's speech fit into the African American oral tradition, particularly the spiritual/political one?
* Why is Obama addressing racial issues now? Why must we look at race relations in America now?
* Explain your understanding of Obama calling his grandmother "a typical white person" whois afraid of black men she doesn't know. Many white people consider this comment and Barak Obama racist. What do you think? Explain the negative response to Obama's comment (s).
* Discuss your understanding about Obama's comments about anger in the black community made visible to the mainstream through Rev. Wright's comments.
*  How does the Black Church figure in here? Although many Americans might have learned about the significance of the Black Church through this speech, how does this section resonate with what you have learned in this course?
*  What has caused the lingering problems in the black community and what is Obama's prescription for solving them?
* Who/what does Obama identity as the "real culprits of the middle class squeeze" that is largely respondsible for white anger and frustration? What is is prescription for solving the problems of the country as a whole (poverty, unemployment, inadequate health care, etc.)? 
* For the white community, what is the "path to a more perfect union" (in regard to the black community/history)?
*  What is the speech's final message and theme and how does it reflect the title of the speech, "A More Perfect Union"? 
* As a result of this course, do you feel you're able to see more complexities in the discourse of race?
 

new music
"Famous and Dandy (like Amos and Andy)" by the
 Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
 

Th/April 22
Exam 3 (in class) Identifications and short answer on material since previous exam
Sample effective short answers

Final Paper  Presentations:
Guidelines for presentations: In 7-10 minutes, speaking as though at a professional conference, provide the title of your project and the primary sources you explored. Provide your title and thesis, and give one or 2 examples of points you make in your paper: an audio or video clip of about a minute in length, or by reading and explicating a short excerpt from a literary work. Finally, provide your audience with the idea you most want your readers/audience to understand and tell us why/how your project is significant in the realm of African American lit/studies? We'll have a few minutes for Q and A at the end of each set of presentations.

On a form I'll provide, I'll ask you to evaluate each presentation, and will take your opinion into account when determining the grades.

REMEMBER: Your final project is worth 30% of your grade in this course: do good work!
 

T/April 27
Presentations
1. Robert: Robert's black lit curriculum wiki
2. Steve
3. Jason
4. Linda
5. Joel
6.
 

Th/April 29
Presentations
1. Jonathan Karg
2.  Elizabeth
3.  Hannah
4.  Christine
5.  Melissa
6. Tom

T/May 4
All Listening/View Assignments,
Black Culture/History Event Reports,
and all Service Learning Reflection Essays Due

Presentations
1. Tim B.
2.  Karen
3.  Roxanne
4. Sarah H.
5. Joe
6. Shaun

Th/May 6
Final Project Due Today
Presentations
1. Emily
2. Rebecca B.
3. Erin
4.  Sarah B
5.  Adam
6. Catherine B.

Have a Great Summer!