Harlem Renaissance Group Project
In keeping with our focus on Identity, Culture and Speech,
your next assignment allows you to explore all three at
once, and with the company of some of your classmates.
Your task is to create a multimedia presentation that teaches
us of a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Just as the
Renaissance involved all manner of artistic output, your
project will include art, music, technology, poetry and
analysis. The vehicle for this project will be a Keynote
presentation.
The end product will be a 15-minute presentation on a
given poet and the administering of a short quiz on the
material. Your Keynote presentation should bring the poet
and the times alive via image, sound and words. As you
know from our study of speech and from having seen quite
a few by your peers, the better ones were the speeches
which had lively content and stories, were organized and
easy to follow, and were presented with energy, enthusiasm and pride. The premium
here should be put on all those aspects too.
Along the way you must convey the following:
 Convey meaningful and interesting biographical information
 Tell of the poet’s origins, education, and influences
 Tell of the poet’s challenges and triumphs as a poet
 Tell of his/her influence on others and pertinent info about their later life
 Share two or three of his/her poems
 These should be displayed creatively and legibly
 These should be read aloud to the class
 These should be followed by an analysis of their shared themes, style,
purpose and tone
 Illustrate the presentation with images from the Harlem Renaissance
 These should be both photographs and other visual art from the period.
 These should definitely include pictures of the poet
 These should be deliberately chosen to amplify/echo elements from the
poet’s life and the thematic content of their poetry.
 Accompany the presentation with at least one piece of music from the era.
 If you choose something with lyrics you might consider playing this while
moving us through a number of the images
 If you choose something instrumental you could play this under images or
while you read the poems
 Finish the presentation with an original poem
 This could either be written imitatively, in the style of a poem by the
author you’re teaching
 This poem could take it’s own form but should remain thematically
consistent with the work of the poet
 This poem will also be read aloud to the class
 Administer the quiz
 This should be a five point quiz on content from your presentation
 You must grade these and return them to me by the next class session
Whew, that’s a lot to do, but if you break up the tasks it really isn’t too much. The
key here will be clear communication. I recommend you proceed somewhat along these
lines:
1. Start by exchanging email addresses and cell phone numbers
2. Though you might elect one member to write the bio, one to select the poems,
etc… it is important that you all know the poet and some basics about his/her career.
Start with the attainment of this info via the general sources below. For our next class,
each of you will bring in, typed and on paper, at least one poem by the author, a
couple paragraphs nformally addressing the meaning and tone of the poem, and
information of at least two sources, expressed in MLA format, as starter material.
These sources may not be wikipedia.
3. After sharing this info, you should divide the tasks and get to work, or you might
like to work through it all collectively. Make sure everybody is keeping track of their
source information as this will all be included in MLA at the end of your Keynote
presentation. We’ll present on Wednesday, 5/6 so have at it.
Important Note: Be sure to have this project ready before the final due date so that
you can rehearse your delivery and allow for any unexpected surprises. Even if a
team member drops the ball, the expectations for the final project remain the same.
Should this happen I’d very much like to hear about it.
Beyond simply gathering the information, you’ll need to figure out who (could be all
of you) will present the material and who will wrangle it all into Keynote (also could be
all of you). For now, start on those first two points above and figure how you’ll complete
this assignment.
What a great Opportunity to study important American
Artists, perhaps learn a new application on your
computers, and to work together with your friends.
While certainly not an exhaustive list, on the next page
you’ll find some links to get you started. You’ll
definitely have to dig deeper, especially to find info on
your specific poet. Make your presentations exciting,
informative, and entertaining. Good Luck!
HR General Sites
From ARTSEDGE, the educational wing of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/artsedge.html
From the Library of Congress, this site has lots and lots of info, pics, etc...:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/harlem/harlem.html
This is from that site we used for the earlier webquest activity:
http://www.fatherryan.org/harlemrenaissance/
MSN Encarta’s entry on the HR:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566483/Harlem_Renaissance.html
Art of the HR
From the Institute of International Visual Arts: http://www.iniva.org/harlem/home.html
From ARTLEX, an online art dictionary/encyclopedia:
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/harlemrenaissance.html
Music of the HR
Some suggested music. Order now at KCLS or pillage you parent’s collections. Mr.
Murray can make some of the music available too.
1. Louis Armstrong “Satchmo”, (A Musical Autobiography of Louis Armstrong); Decca
DXM Records 1963.
2. Cab Calloway “Chu”, Epic Records 1968.
3. Duke Ellington ”Flaming Youth”, The historic sound of the early and vital Harlem
band in 16 exciting 1927-1929 recordings; RCA Victor Records 1969.
4. Ella Fitzgerald “Rhythm is my Business”, Verve Records 1962.
5. Dizzy Gillespie “Bird and Diz”, The Genius of Charlie Parker; Verve Records 1960.
6. Benny Goodman “The King of Swing”, Columbia Records 1959.
7. The Fletcher Henderson Story “A study in Frustration” Thesaurus of Classic Jazz;
Columbia Records.
8. Thelonius Monk “Bean and the Boys”, Prestige Records 1971.
9. Charlie Parker “Jazz Perennial”, Verve Records 1960.
10. Jazz Folkways Records “Various Jazz and Blues Artist Performing” No.2-Volume 7
New York 1922-1934.
11. )Outstanding Jazz Compositions of the 20th Century, Columbia Records 1968.
Your best source for all of the above is to visit our library or a KCLS branch.