One major style that has been effectively used in this manner is poetry. The style of poetry was a greatly made use of during the Harlem Renaissance, which was when the African-American arts were at its peak. ... Despite the racism that prevailed in the 1920s, Langston Hughes used his poetry to encourage himself and his fellow African-Americans to be proud of their race regardless of their problems. ...
Langston Hughes was not political, but sought to get his views across through poetry. His poetry was based on racism and how it affected him personally. He states in his poetry he attempts to grasp and hold some of the meanings and rhythms of jazz. ...
After the rape trauma, Maya went silent, but Mrs.Flowers helped her open up again through literature and poetry. Maya soon discovered her love for Shakespeare and poetry and she used that love as an adaptation technique to escape her troubles. ... Mayas love for poetry and dance were her savior from her troubled childhood and teenage struggles....
Hughes started writing poetry in the eighth grade at Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. ... Continuing to write poetry, his first published poem was also one of his most famous, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." ... Hughes wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen of television and radio scripts, and magazine articles. ...
His poetry, spanning five decades from 1926 to 1967, reflected the changing black experience in America, from the Harlem Renaissance to the confused sixties. ... The tone and subject matter of Hughes' poetry can be linked to certain points in history, and his life. ... Although scholars and critics throughout his career dismissed his poetry as too "simple and unlearned,"" his primary audience, the black masses, and even Hughes himself viewed his work as "folk poetry- which was beneath criticism (Rampersad 4-5). ...
In 1967 he wrote a book of Black Nationalist poetry, titled "Black Magic." ... He also wrote a lot anti-semitic poetry at the same time. His poetry from that period contains such phrases as, "I got the extermination blues, jewboys."(Amiri Baraka Reader, pg. xxiv) Amiri is all about using poetry as a machine-gun, he once made a comment "we want poems that kill" (Amiri Baraka Reader, pg. xxv). ...
Although this poem is easy to read, as Hughes intended it to be along with most of his other poems, it is necessary to look at elements of poetry such as diction, setting and situation, speaker, rhythm, and tone in order to understand the themes presented in the poem. ... Langston Hughes has shown his skills in using elements of poetry as tools to provide complex meanings to the story, and at the same time using those same elements to make the poem easy to read and comprehend. ...
Baldwin wrote novels, poetry, essays and a screenplay in the later years of his life. ... Walter Meserve writes in The Black American Writer: Poetry and Drama, Vol. 2, Baldwin tries to use theatre as a pulpit for his ideas. ...
Langston Hughes's poetry could almost be the love song version of Du Bois's collection of essays. ... He believes America can change some day, just like Washington held so much hope in, but he also doesn't believe in sitting back and holding his tongue and just doing field work, but writing poetry, like Du Bois. ...
Through Hughes" works that included: poetry, short stories, novels, and political essays, Hughes brought his words to life and educated many people. ... Through these next few pages, the history of Hughes" younger years will be explained, and how they influenced his poetry. ...
In the middle of the 1930's and close to the end of World War I, an artistic explosion of talent and social growth had begun. This period of time was called" The Harlem Renaissance". Harlem became the cornerstone for attracting colored artists, musicians, writers, photographers, poets, and specialis...
The Works of James Baldwin We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only forces that can change it. James Baldwin was born in Harlem on August 2, 1924. Shortly after his birth his mother married David Baldwin, a factory worker and Pentecostal minister. Baldwin was the eldest of nine children. Because of his troubled relationship with his strict stepfather, Baldwin turned to reading as a way to escape. ...
The Octoroon, only considered second amongst antebellum melodramas, is a play written by Irish author Dion Boucicaut. The play focuses on the Plantation Terrebonne, the Peyton estate and its residents, namely it's slaves. During the time of its premiere, The Octoroon, inspired conversations about th...
"Well, OK, it seems to always fall on me to tell the truth and, hey, I don't mind. It's not nearly as bad a job as some people think- (Giovanni, Sacred Cows and Other Edibles). Nikki Yolande Giovanni is one of America's most recent poets who gained fame as a writer during the 1060s. Nikki Giovanni, ...
Ernest James Gaines is one of the most important African American authors of this century. (Benet's 365) He succeeds as a writer as well as a college English Professor at University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1983. Gaines was born on January 15, 1933 in Oscar Louisiana. He had a hard childhood whi...
The Definition of America as seen in the Poetry of Langston Hughes and Claude McKay America is a place that many people associate with equality, opportunity and the promise of a good life. This idea has existed for centuries and continues to be prevalent even today. When many people think...
It was not something useless, it was at least an attempt to change something without violence, with the help of something everyone can understand - poetry. ... Claude McKay` s poetry of 1917 presents some of the most important pieces of the Harlem Renaissance as well. ...
Walker, Marshall, and Hurston; Women writing other Women Alice Walker, through her essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens", and Paule Marshall, in "Poets In The Kitchen", both write about the African-American women of the past and how these women have had an impact on their writing. Walker and Marshall write about an identity they have found with these women because of their exposure to the African culture. These women were searching for independence and freedom. Walker expresses independence as found in the creative spirit, and Marshall finds it through the spoken word. Walker...
Sherman Alexies poems are based around his life as it was and is rather than what he wishes it was or could have been. His poems release the truth of his feelings and life, on an Indian reservation, rather than hiding it under a blanket of shame. Identity crisis, poverty, hunger, alcoholism, sexual frustration; all of these are issues which plague Alexie in his childhood and early adulthood. Issues which are reflected in his novel Reservation Blues. ""I wonder what it's like to be a half-breed kid? ...
