Afro American Midterm

Free verse

Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter

Sonnet

A poem of Fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in english typically having ten syllables per line

Protest Literature

Literature in a mode and style of social analysis that engages social issues of the moment in order to reshape the audience consciousness (Richard Wright “The ethics of living Jim crow”)

Creative Nonfiction

The term is fluid, suggesting a hybrid that involves facts, research, and information while using the forms and strategies of fiction, poetry, film, drama, biography, autobiography, and even philosophy ( Between the World and Me- TA-Nehisi Coates)

The great Migration

The great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in united states history. Approximately six million black people moved from the American south to the northen, midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s

The Harlem Renaissance

Was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, and politics (1919-1940)

Black nationalism

Political and social movement prominent in the 1960s and early ‘70s in the united states. Sought to acquire economic power and to infuse among blacks a sense of community and group feeling. (Malcolm X autobiography)

Race as a social construct

A human invented classification system, invented to as a way to define physical difference between people. (Passing Nella Larsen 1929)

The Black Arts Movement

Rejecting any notion of the artist that separated him or her from the African-American community, The black arts movement engaged in cultural nation-building by sponsoring poetry readings, founding community theatres, creating literary magazines, and setting up small presses.(Audre Lorde) (Nikki Giovanni)

The Vernacular in the Modern and Contemporary Periods( Including the blues and Jazz)

Jazz: widely accepted concert music, studied and taught

New forms of jazz

Blues: worldwide music

Gospel music

Songs of social change

Rhythm and blues (much of it gospel-based)

Sermons and Prayers

Hip-Hop

Early 1970s in the Bronx, NY with links from kingston jamaica. A form of spoken word art driven by new technologies, by the will to sample, remix, and improvise rhythmical commentary over existing recorded materials of many kinds.

Black Feminism

Black feminism, also known as Afro-feminism chiefly outside the United States, is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism.

The War on Drugs (related: Mass incarceration)

The imprisonment of African Americans at a large rate with unfair drug laws that sought out people from underprivileged neighborhoods

The warmth of other suns

Published September 7th, 2010 by Isabel Wilkerson, it tells the story of the Great Migration the movement of black americans out of the southern United states to the midwest, northeast, and west from 1915 to 1970

If we must die

Published July 1919 by Claude McKay is a poem about how African-Americans should fight against oppression and violence even in the face of death, written in context to the “Red summer” were race riots broke out over the country.

The Harlem Dancer

Published 1917 by Claude McKay, a poem that gives a portrait of nightclub dancer describing the contrast between her distracted inner thoughts and her sensual presence in the club.

Passing

Published April 1929 by Nella Larsen, a novel about the experience of two biracial women whose identities are primarily performative as they navigate life with the privilege of “passing” as white. The novel tackles the idea of race as a social construct.

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Published 1926 by Langston Hughes about the division between black and white artist. The mountain symbolizes the racial divide, and it is the job of the black artist to climb this mountain and reach the pinnacle of his or her artistic potential. Langston Hughes is almost turning his back to this all black and only black art that the black art movement was trying to promote and saying that we can use each other art to find our peak.

“The Gilded Six-Bits”

Published in 1933 by Zora Neale Hurston, a story about love, betrayal, and forgiveness. A wealthy hustler intervenes in the life of a husband and wife, using a gold plated coin (money or outside forces) to come between their marriage. The themes of the story is greed and deceptiveness of appearances.

What White Publishers Won’t Print

Written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1950 talks about expressions of both concern and subtle anger are presented over the fact that White publishers will only print Black literature if it is based in the content of racial stereotypes, struggle, and tension of some kind.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

Written by Richard Wright in 1937 he describes his experiences of living with Jim Crow laws, it talks about how white people see themselves as superior no matter their status because it doesn’t matter how successful or “better” a black person is they should always been seen has less.

Notes of a Native Son

Written by James Baldwin in 1955 related to the Harlem Race Riots. The main point of the story is how the main character felt fear, hatred, and anger that racism has impressed upon Bigger Thomas ravages his individuality so severely that his only means of self-expression is violence. After killing Mary Dalton, Bigger must contend with the law, the hatred of society, and his own destructive inner feelings. Related to the Harlem race riots people felt the only way they could express themselves was through violence.

The autobiography of Malcolm X

Written in 1965 by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, Purpose to show the true Malcolm X and his history and why he had the views that he had and what shaped those views, focuses on how racism against black people dehumanizes them, and shows a shift in Malcolm X thinking near the end of the autobiography.

“The Black Arts Movement”

Written by Larry Neal in 1968 to emphasize self-determination for Black people, a separate cultural existence for Black people on their own terms, and the beauty and goodness of black literature and art and music.

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note

Written by Amiri Baraka in 1961 talks about depression, hopelessness, loneliness, and struggle. The main idea of the poem concerns the thoughts of a suicidal speaker. Who is looking for meaning in his life.

Black Art

Written by Amiri Baraka in 1969 talks about how black artists must stand for being black and not copy or imitate white poets. Baraka is calling for black artists to have meaning in their art and produce content that defends their blackness.

Revolutionary dreams

Written by Nikki Giovanni in 1975 related to the blacks art movement talks about revolutionary change is not forcing others to change to your view or ideology, true revolutionary change comes from within. It is the process of changing yourself and being an example.

Power

Written by Audre Lorde in 1976 about a real-life instance of a racist cop killing a young black boy and being exonerated by a mostly white jury. Audre Lorde expresses the pain she feels from racist police brutality throughout the poem.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Written in 1984 by August Wilson, it tackles conflicts on racism and discrimination. a view into the legacy of slavery that played out in the African-American community long after slavery officially ended.

Recitatif

Written by Toni Morrison in 1980 is a story about two roommates, two girls named Roberta and Twyla who are roommates at a shelter for children. One of the main themes that runs through "Recitatif" is the effects that other people's prejudices have on our thinking and behavior throughout our lives. (Relates to school integration and Busing)

In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens

Written by Alice Walker in 1974 the book talks about hope, healing and wholeness, and these mothers and grandmothers, despite the hardship and abuse they endured, found ways to pass on the creative spark that they couldn't quite see actualized themselves but that they knew had value to be passed down. We see a garden that means life worked on every night after a hard day of labor to show that the hope of beauty and growth is still possible even in a hard time.

Equal Opportunity

Written by Walter Mosley in 1995, in the Socrates Furtlow, an ex-convict, faces the dilemma of getting a job. Socrates served 27 years in prison after killing two of his friends while drunken. Furtlow was now living life as a bumb who went around selling old bottles and cans to make a living. The story highlights the struggle to find honorable work as a black man in society because of his background. He ended up lying on his application because he was afraid of what people might think.

Citizen

By Claudia Rankine written in 2014 tackles the very complicated manner in which race and racism affect identity construction. A major theme is identity.

Between the World and Me

Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2015, It was written by Coates as a letter to his then-teenage son about his perception of what the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States are.

“The venus Hottentot”

Written in 1990 by Elizabeth Alexander, talks about racial and sexual violence and the alienation and degradations of colonization, lost children, exile, the expropriation of female labor and the sexual and economic exploitation of black women by men, white and black.

My God, It’s Full of Stars

Written in 2011 by Tracy K. Smith highlights that Art, like science and religion, offers ways of understanding
the universe. Smith draws on all three to think through
philosophical questions and personal grief. (Gates 1511)