African American music has been called "( ) the musical Lingua Franca of the world [because] everyone listens to African American music and relates to it."... Around 1650 unified songs began to develop in the slave communities (mainly due to their learning of the English language). ... The next era of African American music was called, "Classical African American Music (1860s -1950s)." ... This music did a great deal for the African American community. ... Lastly, African American music leads to the establishment of various schools, for African Americans, that offered degrees in the arts and t...

• Word Count: 4223
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Walker and Marshall write about an identity that they have found with African-American women of the past. ... In her essay, Marshall identifies with her mother and the African-American tradition that her mother expressed. Marshall describes the kitchen setting she was exposed to as a child: They were women in whom the need for self-expression was strong, and since language was the only vehicle readily available to them they made of it an art form that- in keeping with the African tradition in which art and life are one - was an integral p...

• Word Count: 3271
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

He also worked on a merchant ship that visited Africa. ... The Harlem Renaissance was an era of extraordinary excellence in African-American art and literature. This time period is also a time of blossoming creativity of among young African-American artists, musicians and writers. ... It was a journal that was devoted to the African Culture. ... He also incorporated slanged language to reflect the essence of Black American culture. ...

• Word Count: 774
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

An African American movement was on its way. ... The African Americans were being recognized in the American society. ... They gave expression and meaning to the African American experience. ... It also attracted society towards African American literature. ... Morison explains that the main viewpoint is "cultural distinction" and the difference in language and the way it is portrayed. ...

• Word Count: 2368
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the stories "Raymond's Run" and "Gorilla My Love," Toni Cade Bambara, writes about unusual heroines - both called Hazel. However the character in "Raymond's Run," is known as and is referred to as Squeaky, mainly because of her voice, and because of the way that she is presented. To the reader, i...

• Word Count: 2209
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

The term Harlem Renaissance refers to an artistic, cultural, and social growing of writing about race and the African American's place in American life during the early 1920s and 1930s. ... The literature appealed to the African American middle class and to the white book-buying public. ... Hughes writes about African-American people all over the world. ... Both stories are also written using the same language. ... The language in this poem paints a morbid picture of a racist south. ...

• Word Count: 1518
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

To trace gospel music you would have to go back to the African roots of song. ... John Lovell lists the purposes of the spiritual in this way: To give the community a true, valid, and useful song To keep the community invigorated To inspire the uninspired individual To enable the group to face its problems To comment on the slave situation To stir each member to personal solutions and to a sense of belonging in the midst of a confusing and terrifying world To provide a code language for emergency use (John Lovell, Black Song: The Forge and the Flame) Thomas Andrew D...

• Word Count: 1353
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

English was the language to be learned by thousands of new immigrants such as the Germans, Mediterraneans, Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans (although for hundreds of years, Africans were not really counted as citizens). ... In 1885, he founded the United Transatlantic Society to expedite blacks to Africa. ... Its purpose was to promote self-help programs for blacks, African independence struggles, back-to-Africa plans, and racial pride. ... It is a conduit for African-American culture to a greater extent even than jazz. ... It rendered itself the most conductive source of the African-Am...

• Word Count: 4261
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

When Rhythm and Blues music first began, essentially all of the artists were African American, as was the audience receiving the music. ... Originating as a musical style performed by African Americans for African American audiences, Rhythm and Blues music, throughout the 1950's and 1970's, was seized by the white-dominated music industry, stripped of its original values and sound, and distributed to popular mainstream artists of the times. ... African Americans working on plantation fields used music as a way of communicating with each other and as a forcible form of expression. ...

• Word Count: 2641
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School