For my project, I am focusing on black identity and what blacks felt society expected out of blacks. I am presenting this by explaining various ideals of black identity/experiences from prose written by political/social leaders that parallels to the poetry that expresses similar ideals. Specifically, the roles of blacks during the late 1800’s to the 1920’s is explored. These roles have evolved from blacks playing the role of the suppressed in the 1800’s to blacks becoming empowered by their roots and their stride for change starting in the 1920’s. The various black poets that we’ve discussed in class all had the trial of finding their self worth and where they fit within society. An example is Paul Laurence Dunbar who strove to go against society’s perception of the capabilities that a black writer is more than just an entertainment act, but more of a serious intellect. Langston Hughes on the other hand actually explores his heritage in his poetry as a source of uplift for blacks to acknowledge and be proud of their roots. On the contrary, Claude McKay scopes into the lives of blacks as depressing and suppressed due to white oppression. As a result, he views black identity as something that has been distorted by the negative wrongdoings to them such as slavery, lynchings, and harassment.
To do this efficiently, I would like to align these poets with revolutionary black political/social leaders. I am comparing conservative Booker T. Washington who was active the same time that Paul Laurence Dunbar who both expressed that blacks are not equally free and should “tolerate” the way things were. I incorporated W.E.B. DuBois alongside Claude Mckay because they strove for black civil equality and freedom. Lastly, I paired Alain Locke with Langston Hughes because to them, it was critical to know their African/Caribbean roots which spurred further civil rights leaders and activists to change the negative interpretation of blacks into a positive light.
I am using a Powerpoint presentation to incorporate ideals of how blacks were treated in America and what blacks thought of their own identities. This would coincide to how the Modernist poets that I have mentioned and others that I am looking to research of their personal feelings of their identities. Moreover, I want to note how crucial it is to know the good, bad, and ugly ways being black has shaped the incentive of these poets to educate readers of their lives instead of negative bias and propaganda.
Bibliography
Dunbar, Paul L. “We Wear the Mask.” Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry. By Richard A. Long and Eugenia W. Collier. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1985. 223. Print.
Du Bois, W.E.B. “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.” The Souls of Black Folk. Ed. Jim Manis. Hazleton: PSU, 2006. 14. Penn State University. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. By Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. 687-88. Print.
Locke, Alain. “Apropos of Africa.” Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry. By Richard A. Long and Eugenia W. Collier. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1985. 304. Print.
Long, Richard A., and Eugenia W. Collier. Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1985. Print.
McKay, Claude. “Enslaved.” Poemhunter.com. Poemhunter, 3 Jan. 2003. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Washington, Booker T. “Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech.” Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech. HistoryMatters, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
I think a timeline for this project would work very well. Because you note a great variety of what we might call “black modernisms”–from Dunbar’s early dialect poems, which have been criticized for giving their white readers what they wanted to hear, to the more radical experiments of Hughes and others–it would be interesting to trace different facets of the historical experience of African Americans during any given time. It might be interesting to place a figure like Booker T. Washington alongside Dunbar, or Hughes alongside W.E.B. DuBois, for example. I guess what I’m saying is that you might draw a connection between a given poet’s aesthetics and a given movements aims and goals (some being more conservative, some being more radical).
The place to begin, of course, is with some research. For Friday, please offer a list of primary and secondary works that you’ve consulted and that you might explore more fully as the project unfolds.
Good luck getting this started!
Thanks for offering this revision of your final project post. I think the idea of pairing certain poets with certain African American political and social activists is a great idea, especially if you work to examine the aesthetics that certain political ideas seem to entail (as you seem to suggest in your pairing of Washington and Dunbar). I would advise against moving too far beyond the Harlem Renaissance; the scope of the project would simply be too big then. I’d rather you explore the ideas from Washington to, say, the 30s or 40s, deepening your engagement with that era rather than moving on too quickly.
If the central idea her is to pair poets, I would reconsider whether a timeline is the best option as you’re not tracing a straightforward evolution of any particular idea or theme. I think a Prezi, which would allow for the visual presentation of two figures side-by-side with explanatory text–might work more effectively. Perhaps others in the class have other ideas? We’ll talk more about this during our conference.
As for your sources, you should check out Houston Baker’s “Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance.”