Jennifer Montemayor
Claudine Demesa
Jenel de Leon
Hazel Tapit
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Renewal and flourishing of African American literary and musical
culture.
After World War II.
Great Migration to Harlem in New York City.
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Collective African-American identity.
Based on Heritage.
Culture related.
Themes:
◦ Life & hardships.
◦ Skin colors and race.
◦ Conflicts between blacks.
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Escaped from enslavement from Kentucky.
Parents Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar were freed slaves from Kentucky.
Dunbar would draw on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing career.
Racial discrimination forced Dunbar to accept a job as an elevator operator in a
Dayton hotel.
Became well known as the "elevator boy poet“
1893 Dunbar published his first volume of poetry, Oak and Ivy, on the press of the
Church of the Brethren.
That same year he also attended the World's Columbian Exposition, where he sold
copies of his book and gained the patronage of Frederick Douglass and other
influential African Americans. That same year he also attended the World's
Columbian Exposition, where he sold copies of his book and gained the patronage
of Frederick Douglass and other influential African Americans.
Married Alice in secret and over the objections of her friends and family
First to rise to a height from which he could take a perspective view of his own race.
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We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties,
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
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Title: The poem may be about what people display outside instead of what
our feelings are inside.
Paraphrase:
We put on a façade in public and hide our
True feelings with lies and smiles
The world shouldn’t pity our feelings.
When we were supposed to cry, we smiled instead.
Speaker: The speaker in this poem can be the author speaking for people
who don’t wear their heart on their sleeve but keep it battled inside.
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Figurative Language:
Alliteration: hides our cheeks and shades our
mouth with myriad.
Assonance: lies, hides, eyes= long i
Beneath, feet= long e
Rhyme: lies, hides, eyes
guile, smile
wise, sighs
cries, arise
vile, mile
Repetition: We wear the mask
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Attitude:
- Subject: hiding our true emotions.
- Tone: The author expresses an optimistic feeling
from being revealed.
Shifts: The 1st shift starts at the 2nd stanza that switches from how we
disguise our face to denying access to the world seeing what we’re
distressed about. The 2nd shift occurs at the 3rd that switches from
letting the world see your negative vibes to our disguised actions.
Title: The title conveys the mask as our action of hiding everything from
anyone,
Theme:
Subject: hiding our true emotions
Theme: We hide our true emotions because we don’t want to be bothered
or burden anyone with our problems.
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Full name is Festus Claudius McKay
became apprenticed to a carriage and cabinetmaker after
his trade school was destroyed by an earthquake
socialist
writes sonnet type of poetry like "Baptism," "The White
House," and "The Lynching,“
racial issues and his choice of the working class, rather
than the middle class, as his focus.
Jamaican
His poems are usually based on racial pride and the
Harlem Renaissance
Uses almost all figurative language in his poems
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If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
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Line one: simile: comparing people dying like hogs, referring to people
hunting hogs and killing them with hogs having no advantage. The first
line says that if anyone, specifically African Americans, were to die then
don’t be killed so easily like hogs.
Line two: hogs are being hunted and are trapped and penned in a corner.
African Americans are being compared as hogs being hunted and
trapped.
Line 3: metaphor: bark and hungry dogs, White people are being
compared as dogs who are barking at the African Americans
Line 4: says that the white people are mocking and making fun of “their
curse and bad luck”
Line 5: Shifts, repeats first line but adds a heroic tone to the 2nd half of
the line.
Line 6: says that we shouldn’t have a meaningless death; also brings in a
biblical reference (“ precious blood”) that refers to Christianity and how
Jesus Sacrificed himself
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Line 7: says that even if they’ve become monsters we must
rebel against them and fight
Line 8: even if they die they will be honored by the monsters
for fighting so nobly
Line 9: he says that they should all gather up and realize who
the common enemy is
Line 10: even if they’re outnumbered show them your
confidence and bravery
Line 11: they have a lot of ways to get attack us but we don’t
have much we can do, but one shot can have a great impact
Line 12: we are expected to die eventually
Line 13: be a man: tough; and defeat the cowards
Line 14: even if dying pressed up against the wall, you’re still
fighting back
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February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967.
Began writing poetry in Illinois.
Claimed Lawrence Dunbar Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman were his
influences.
Died of prostate cancer.
Known for engaging with the world of jazz.
Known for his insight on African American life from the twenties –
sixties.
Jazz has a major influence on his writing especially in the “Montage of
Dream Deferred”.
Wrote novels, short stories, and plays along with poetry.
Notable works: Let American Be American Again, Life is Fine, Mother to
son, The Negro Mother.
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I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
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Title: Speaking of America coming from an African American who was
living during that time.
Paraphrase: This poem is talking about how African Americans were
treated unfairly during the Harlem Renaissance.
Shifts: Starts off serious and informative then becomes hopeful that one
day things will change.
Figurative Language: Metaphor; sing, darker brother, I am America, “be at
the table”.
Attitude: He has hope one day that America will change their perception
on African Americans.
Structure: Framing and contrast. Contrast of how African Americans
think and white people think.
Title/Theme: That the perception of African Americans were despicable
but eventually will turn around.
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Born in Roxie Mississippi on September 4, 1908.
Son of Nathan Wright an illiterate sharecropper.
Ella Wilson Wright, a school teacher.
Grandson of slaves.
1937 went to New York City to become Harlem editor of
communist paper.
Notable Works: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, How Bigger was Born,
Twelve Million Black Voices, The Negro & Parkway
Community House, Native Son.
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I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.
It took five seconds
For the barefoot boy's wet track
To dry on the porch.
From a tenement,
The blue jazz of a trumpet
Weaving autumn mists.
In a barbershop
The stench of soap and hair,—
A hot summer day! Don't they make you sad,
Those wild geese winging southward,
O lonely scarecrow?
Not even the cat
Could escape the sudden rain
From the July sky.
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Title: Meaning loneliness can make a person have another
world in which he lives in.
Paraphrase: Basically the poem is talking about weather, how
it changes, and its effects.
Shift: From happy to sad; the mood of the person shifts,
attitude changes.
Figurative Language: Diction; Richard Wright’s style of
writing.
Attitude: The author does not like the shifts and it’s constant
changed in the weather.
Title/Theme: Weather can affect a man’s mood.
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Describe another racial issue that you've experienced or
learned about in the past and compare it to Claude McKay's
poems?
Compare any obstacle that you've overcome by with
confidence like Claude McKay's poems?
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Take 5-10 minutes and write a poem of how you
would express your feelings if you were to be living
during the Harlem Renaissance movement. (Keep in
mind all the hardships and struggles you would be
facing)
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1. What's the Harlem Renaissance movement?
A)People in Harlem migrating to Kentucky
B)A movement in 1910
C)Renewal of Harlem literature and culture
D)Riot in New York
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2.When was the Harlem Renaissance?
A)1820-30's
B)1840-50's
C)1910-15
D)1920-1930's
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3.Which theme isn't usually conveyed in Harlem
Renaissance?
A)Life and Hardships
B)Murder
C)Skin Colors and Race
D)Conflicts between blacks
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4.Which social and political events didn't inspire the
Harlem Renaissance?
A)Haymarket Riot
B)Jim Crow Laws
C)Lynching
D)Segregation
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5.Which genre of music did the Harlem Renaissance
mostly impact?
A)Jazz/Blues
B)Country
C)Rap
D)Folk
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http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/harlem/
harlem.html
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/harlem.htm
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMI
D/5657