Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Your Second Blog Post: Essay #1 Pre-Writing

For Monday, finish reading the Reagon interview with the handout I gave you in class today. Also read Malcolm X's speech "What does Mississippi have to do with Harlem"?

To prepare for your first essay:

Choose one of the songs from the first part of your packet that deals with the Civil Rights Movement up to 1964 ("Strange Fruit," "Spiritual Trilogy Medley," "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus," "Only a Pawn in Their Game," or "Mississippi Goddam.")

Listen to the song with the links posted below. If you want to poke around youtube a bit, listen to some other freedom songs of the Civil Rights movement. If you find a different one you want to use for your essay, drop me a note in the comments.

Once you've selected your song, describe your initial reaction to the song, why you're selecting it, and what more you still want to know.

Then choose one of the "secondary texts" we've read ("The Case Stated," "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," the interview with Bernice Johnson Reagon, and the Malcolm X speech, "What Does Mississippi Have to Do with Harlem?" that you think will shed light on your song. Describe the relationship between the context/argument of this essay and the song. What light does each shed on the other?

12 comments:

  1. I listened to the song "Strange Fruit". When I first heard it I must say i was a little taken back by the performers voice. A very distinctive voice which now that I think about it is a perfect match to the morbid and descriptive lyrics the song has. Does the person who wrote this song always write in such a matter where he is very descriptive but yet tasteful in the sense of his metaphores?
    One of my classmates mentioned that the reason why the person who wrote the song "Strange Fruit" went by two names is because he also wrote for the whites. Thats came to be like a surprise because the lyrics to "Strange Fruit" were talking about the injustice and the curtely and the misconception the white man lives by, but then he writes for them? Can he not write for them under the same name? What would happen if he did? Would his songs not sell? Is a good song writter as good as his name or as the song he writes?
    "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" seeems to address and anaswer some of the questions i just asked. The piece of writting sheds light by an example of a promising black poet who said he doesn't want to be a Negro poet. Once thats said I think is that the same thing that happened with the person who wrote the song to "Strange Fruit"?

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  2. Good reflections - can you think more about what Hughes' argument is in relation to the poet he quotes at the start of his essay?

    Please cut and paste to your own blog - that way folks can respond without getting bogged down in a long comment thread.

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  3. Reading the Bernice Johnson Reagon interview definetly informed me much greater than I was before. First off for Bernice to have come from a family of singers is pleasent to hear. She definetly had a upbringing of positive singers, people who would sing no matter what they sound like as long as they got the words and the message. For me this opens up my horizon of learning skills because from what Bernice is saying you can learn alot by a song. from the lyrics to the medley. Im guessing this is why it stayed in the family for three generations. Singing helped express emotion and lift the spirits of those who was struggling.Bernice as a person had really strong leadership skills and posses alot of confidence. She could easily be well liked and very socail to her followeres. I think Bernice mastered the aspect of fear and learnrd how to turn a negative into a positive.

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  4. Good start, determined. Think about how you would apply that interview to the specifics of the movement and one of the songs that you'll choose. Remember to post your reflections on your own blog so they don't get lost.

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  5. "If you miss me at the back of the bus", Which i had analyzed with 2 of my fellow classmates, elicited a strong reaction in me. I like the direct and almost confrontational style of the song. People are always afraid of change. One need to look no further than the current debate on health care reform being done by the Obama administration. Nobody wants to be the first do anything controversial. This song is almost a call to arms for equal rights. I always prefer action as alluded to in this song as opposed to to WE Will Overcome type spiritual. This is not to devalue the many merits of a spiritual, but rather Illustrate that a small group of determined people can change the world. A person of any, race, gender or inclination can be inspires by this. One may always ask "What can i do? or How can one person change the world? " The one can soon become many and shake the established order!

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  6. Interesting, Jason - think more about the distinction between this kind of movement song and the spritiual, and think about the secondary text you want to use. But your thoughts on your own blog so it doesn't get lost among the comments.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. hi proffesor Tanenbaum my blog is www.NegLakay.blogspot.com

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  9. hi proffesor Tanenbaum my blog is www.NegLakay.blogspot.com
    i forgot to tell u my name in the previous one this is stanley felix

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  10. Hi Stanley - I'm not finding your blog - can you double check the address?

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  11. Hi-Francesca, I wanted to use the song "eyes on the prize" and was wondering if you might have a link or know who the original artist was? I was also wondering where i can get the lyrics?

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  12. I feel that I have a better understanding of what "Strange Fruit" was about, but I'm not too sure if I can see where Langston Hughes is coming from when he wrote "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain". I'll read it again just to be sure.

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